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The present work is an attempt at a bibliographic overview in the field of paleontology and specifically in the field of fossils regarding their value and connection with history and mythology, and how it has been used to teach theory of evolution through natural selection (TENS) in a university course. To make our case, we use as our paradigm two well-known historical locations of Greece, namely Thermopiles and Marathon. The area of Marathon includes the location of Pikermi, which is very well known for its fossils that historically have been one of the first locations rich in fossils that have been studied so extensively. Before we make a short tour of other similar locations of the Greek peninsula that are good cases for teaching evolution using paleontology, we present an example of how fossils can be formed via sedimentation. For that, we are using the case of Thermopile, while in antiquity was chosen as the field of the famous battle as it was a very narrow strip of land between the mountain and the sea, nowadays, due to sedimentary alluvial deposits, has become a rather large field. To make the reader familiar with the fossils found around Greece and their topology, we present a short tour and some history about the fossils found throughout its territory. And finally, we argue about how the fossils and the museum education could be used to prepare the pupils for first contact with TENS.

The primary objective of this research was to compare various groups of Greek university students for their level of knowledge of Evolution by means of Natural Selection (ENS). For the purpose of the study, we used a well known questionnaire the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS) and 352 biology majors and non-majors students from the University of Athens took part in it. A principal components analysis revealed problems with the items designed to assess the concepts of population stability, differential survival and variation inheritable, therefore these items need to be reconsidered. Nonetheless, the results of the CINS for each Greek sub-group showed that the higher the involvement in evolution education, the higher the students' performances on the CINS test. This linear correlation, together with other evidence, supports the CINS authors' claims about the usefulness of the CINS as an assessment of instruction. Unfortunately, Greek university students gave many teleological and proximate...

The work is part of a wider research project wherein we are trying to further explore the conceptual ecology of evolutionary theory of present and prospective teachers in Greece. Quantitative and qualitative research was applied. In the former a questionnaire was answered by 318 secondary school teachers who teach biology. We further interviewed eight of the teachers by means of semi structured interviews and analyzed the interviews using the QSR nVivo program. Acceptance of evolution levels was found moderate both in the total cohort and among science teachers; on the one hand, this was correlated with the prevalence of low level of knowledge and understanding due to lack of previous instruction; on the other hand, their type of religiosity was not a serious obstacle to accepting evolution, since it was correlated with a high degree of thinking dispositions. The results are in agreement with our previous findings that the type of religiosity is crucial for the acceptance or rejection of evolution, particularly when it does not prevent someone from being “open-minded”. At the same time, the fact that geologists who teach science showed the highest level of acceptance of evolution, indicates, when paired with other evidence, that the geological data are the most convincing evidence to help students and teachers to make a first step in their multistep route towards accepting and understanding the theory of evolution.

Background:Evolution Teaching (ET) among in-service teachers in Greece was examined in an attempt to evaluate their Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Evolution teaching is a problematic issue.Material and methods:For this purpose, we constructed a questionnaire that was distributed to the target population and to which 181 teachers responded. We used quantitative method to determine factors that may characterize the ET milieu and which of the factors of PCK apply or not to ET.Results:Our research finds that Biology teachers although strive to teach evolution, face specific difficulties due to lack of PCK.Conclusions:The research results may be useful when organizing and implementing professional development programs of teachers on ET.

In this study, we explored the factors related to acceptance of evolutionary theory among students/preservice preschool education teachers using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as a theoretical frame. We aimed to examine the acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory and also the relationship of acceptance and understanding of the nature of science, thinking dispositions and religiosity as independent variables. We also studied the influence of teaching on the conceptual ecology of evolution acceptance. A class of 320 future teachers was surveyed using two questionnaires. According to our findings, students’ understanding of evolutionary theory is positively correlated with a moderate acceptance of evolutionary theory. We found a weak positive correlation between the understanding of the nature of science and acceptance of evolution theory, and a positive correlation between open-minded thinking dispositions and evolution theory acceptance. The strength and the patterns of these corre...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of health‐related needs on a policy design and curriculum enactment basis in terms of the national school health education curriculum in Greek secondary education.Design/methodology/approachA single case study, using an ethnographic approach, was conducted in Greece, seeking to understand the continuum from policy design to curriculum enactment in respect of health‐related needs. Three sources of data were used to meet this goal: policy texts, observation, and interviews. Multilevel sampling was employed to select one secondary school as a site for “good practice”. Grounded theory coding, thematic analysis and critical discourse analysis identified themes associated with the idea of health‐related through the corpus of data.FindingsOn a policy plan level the concept of health‐related needs was coupled with and reduced to a predetermined list of health‐related subjects; and the list of health‐related topics had not been updated for long and was characterised by a rather biomedical orientation. On a school practice level the stage of needs assessment was not applied, the list of health‐related subjects advocated in the policy plan was used on a proactive, normative and top down basis, and the students' felt needs tended to be disregarded.Originality/valueThis study followed up the continuum from policy design to school practice regarding the concept and practice of health needs, highlighting the possibilities and the problems from both perspectives.

In this study, we make an effort to compare studies that explore the factors related to acceptance of evolutionary theory among Greek and Turkish students-future teachers, using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as the theoretical framework. We aimed to look into the acceptance and the understanding of evolutionary theory and also to look into the relationship of the acceptance with understanding of evolutionary theory, parents’ educational level, thinking dispositions and frequency of religious practising as independent variables by the use of studies conducted in both countries. Both studies found a correlation between students’ understanding of evolutionary theory with acceptance of evolutionary theory, the same was recorded for religious practising and acceptance of evolution. A difference was observed in the case of contribution of parents’ educational level and acceptance of evolution, where, we did not find any significant positive correlation between parents’ educational level and acceptance of evolution, while that was true for Turkish society. Our findings with the comparative study of this type indicate that studying a controversial issue such as the acceptance of evolutionary theory in a multivariate fashion, using conceptual ecology as a theoretical lens to interpret the findings, is informative. They also, indicate the differences that exist from society to society and how sociocultural factors such as the type of religion as part of the conceptual ecology influence acceptance of evolution and have strong influence on evolution education.

International audience; In this study, we explored some of the factors related to the acceptance of evolutionary theory among Greek university students training to be teachers in Early Childhood Education, using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as a theoretical framework. We examined the acceptance of evolutionary theory and we also looked into the relationship between the acceptance and parents' educational level, thinking dispositions and frequency of religious practice as independent variables. Students' moderate acceptance of evolutionary theory is positively correlated with the frequency of religious practising and thinking dispositions. Our findings indicate that studying a controversial issue such as the acceptance of evolutionary theory in a multivariate fashion, using conceptual ecology as a theoretical lens to interpret the findings, is informative. They also indicate the differences that exist between societies and how socio-cultural factors such as the nature of religion, as part of the conceptual ecology, influence acceptance of evolution and have an influence on evolution education.

The self-efficacy beliefs of in-service elementary school teachers in Greece were examined in an attempt to evaluate their biology teaching skills. For this purpose, we constructed a valid and reliable instrument consisting of a Likert-type questionnaire that was distributed to the target population and to which 202 teachers responded. Results revealed Greek primary education teachers have, in general, moderate to high biology teaching selfefficacy beliefs (BioTSEB), whereas those that had not attended any biology courses during their academic studies had lower self-estimates. Teachers’ BioTSEB are also affected by factors such as years of teaching experience, the number of science courses attended and the quality of their previous studies, together with the grade levels they were assigned to teach during their in-service years.

Seventy samples of airborne particulates were sampled from two sites in Thessaloniki, Greece, during the period of one year, starting in July 1987. Thessaloniki is located in the northeastern part of Greece and is the second most highly populated city of the country. The 24-h samples were taken by using high-volume samplers located in two monitoring sites — 1 and 2. Site 1 was located at the center of the city (main pollution sources were traffic and central heating), whereas site 2 was in the industrial zone of the city (main sources were industrial activities and traffic). The collected particulates were examined for their mutagenicity with the Ames test. The analysis of particulates to determine their content in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was done by the gas chromatographic method. The column used to separate the various PAHs was a wide-bore capillary column. Ten PAHs were identified and quantified in the atmosphere of Thessaloniki. No essential differences were found between the mean values of PAH concentrations measured at the two sites, whereas the mutagenicity values at site 1 (central area) were higher than those measured at site 2 (industrial site). The PAH concentrations were moderate if compared with those found in other polluted cities in the world, whereas the mutagenic activity of particulates was low. Higher values of PAH concentrations and mutagenicity were found during winter. During Sundays the PAH concentrations were lower than those measured on weekdays. No significant linear correlation was found between PAH concentrations and mutagenicity for both sites of measurements. The main sources of PAHs were estimated to be the stationary sources in winter and the traffic in summer for both measuring sites. Higher values of both PAH concentrations and mutagenicity were found during days with light winds.

The mutagenicity and benzo(α)pyrene (BαP) content of airborne particles (172 samples) from four locations in Athens was studied for 1 year starting February 1984. All the organic extracts of airborne particulate matter showed direct mutagenic activity. There was a good correlation between BαP concentration and mutagenicity in all samples. Higher values of mutagenic activity and BαP concentrations were found at the sites located in the center of the city than at the sites located in the industrial areas. The height of the sampling place has a negative effect on both measured pollution parameters. The higher percentage of biological and chemical parameters were associated with particles

Articular cartilage is known to have three distinct layers (superficial, middle, and deep) along its depth. Each layer has different biochemical, structural, and cellular characteristics. In the superficial layer, collagen fibrils are densely arranged along a tangential direction to the articular surface. Collagen fibrils are randomly oriented in the middle layer and vertically toward the subchondral bone in the deep layer. The superficial layer has a relatively low concentration of proteoglycans while the matrix in the middle and deep zones contains higher concentrations. The chondrocytes are flattened and most densely populated in the superficial layer, are rounded in the middle zone, and are larger, elongated, and arranged vertically between extracellular matrix in the deep layer [1, 2]. Based on the depth-related differences in the structural, biochemical, and cellular compositions, it is reasonable to assume that intrinsic mechanical properties of articular cartilage vary with depth. However, little information is available on the variation of the biomechanical properties in different layers of articular cartilage. The objectives of this study were 1) to test the applicability of the microindenter for testing cartilage at the microscopic level and 2) to obtain the intrinsic biomechanical properties of rabbit articular cartilage as a function of depth.

Cells interact with specific molecular components of the extracellular matrix via cell surface receptors [1]. The principal cell surface receptors that mediate cell-extracellular matrix interactions are termed integrins [2, 3]. Integrins are transmembrane receptors that interact with several intracellular proteins, including elements of the cytoskeleton by cytoplasmic domains. Therefore, integrins serve as a molecular linkage between the extracellular matrix and the cytoskeleton. Some investigators have suggested that many of these vital cellular activities are regulated, at least in part, by intercellular and intracellular forces that are generated by a continuous molecular connection that includes components of the extracellular matrix, integrins, and cytoskeletal elements (i.e., f-actin, microtubules). It is believed that individual cells “sense” and generate forces transmitted through the extracellular environment by these intricate linkages [4]. Furthermore, this linkage, referred to as the “extended cytoskeleton,” could provide a mechanical signaling mechanism that may underlie many vital cellular activities, including gene expression. It is apparent that the physical properties of a cell may also be affected by this mechanism. Thus, cells grown on different extracellular matrix substrates should be expected to vary their cytoskeletal architecture and have concomitant changes in their biomechanical properties. The objectives of this study were 1) to obtain the intrinsic material properties of the individual cell as a function of the type of substrate matrix and therefore, 2) to investigate fundamental aspects of the response mechanism of individual cells to alterations in their biophysical environment.