Understanding of Biological Model and Biological Modeling of Upper Secondary School Students

Understanding of biological models and biological modeling were important for learning biology. As the ability to construct a model was considered as one of the most important competencies of learning biology. The purpose of this research were to ; 1) explore the understanding of the biological model, and 2) the ability to construct biological modeling of upper secondary school students. The data were collected using 1) a wellvalidated questionnaire, the participants were 184 students obtained by volunteer sampling, the researchers collected data using a questionnaire that contained both Likert scale (quantitative data) and open-ended (qualitative data) formats, the researchers analyzed the quantitative data by using means, standard deviation and percentage, and analyzed the qualitative data by content analysis and interpretation, and 2) biological modelling test, the participants were 28 students obtained by purposive sampling, the researchers analyzed the quantitative data by using means, standard deviation and percentage. The results were found ; 1) The results found in overall students held ‘not sure’ ( =3.49, S.D.=0.91) toward the understanding of the biological model, they indicated model as 3-dimensional structure (concrete model), 2) their biological modeling ability to moderate-level biological modeling ( =5.51, S.D.=3.17). The results indicated to the important of promoting the understanding the role of model and modeling process. Moreover, teaching and learning of biology should also help students be able to distinguish the different between biological modeling and biological drawing.