Sample Course Material for Biodiversity and Sustainable Education

This study was done in a period when there are attempts to develop a framework for the sustainable development
and sustainable education in order to emphasize the universal significance of biodiversity, sustainable
development, and sustainable education. The research reported here is a case study carried out in the spring
semester of 2012-2013 academic year. The participants of the study were student teachers enrolled in a general
biology course in a preservice science teacher education program at a major research university in central
Turkey. The study was designed as a qualitative study and the data of the study were collected through semistructured
interviews and observation forms. The aim of the study was to develop teaching materials about the
sustainable education and the sustainability of biodiversity. In parallel to this aim, an experiment of frog
breeding was designed and the experiment was carried out by the participants under the supervision of the
author. More specifically, the participants were involved in feeding the frogs and cleaning the aquarium. They
recorded their observations together with the author. The whole process was shared in the biology course. In
short, the participants observed how larvas come out from frog spawn that were put in the aquarium and how
larvas became adult frogs. Adult frogs were transferred to the nearest creek after the completion of the
observations. At the end of the process the attitudes of the participants towards living beings changed positively
as their reports indicated.