Abstract Knowledge about nucleic acid, gene and genetic modification (GM) appears in senior high school chemistry and biology textbooks. However, questionnaires for this study showed that many high school students didn't have clear understanding of gene, genetic engineering and GM food. The underlying cause was that high school teaching put too much emphasis on test results. Teachers only paid attention to the College Entrance Examination, while neglecting interdisciplinary knowledge, cutting-edge science and hot topics. The aim of this paper was to stress that high school chemistry teachers should also put emphasis on knowledge about biological chemistry including nucleic acid, help students have better and more scientific understanding of genetic engineering, give students guidance on using acquired knowledge and scientific methods to analyze and assess the safety of GM food, and make more effort to build up students' scientific literacy.
LIN Shui-Xiao, LIN Da-Cen, LIN Mo-Jun. Discussion on Developing High School Students' Scientific Literacy Based on Study of Their Understanding of Genetic Modification[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Education, 2016, 37(23): 31-36.
