High School students' conceptions about the origin of species

The objective of this work was to analyze high school students' conceptions about the origin of species, in Macapá (Amapá , Brazil). Through questionnaires, the predominance of the creationist conceptions as described in the Bible, in its literal interpretation, were observed. The evolutionist conception tended to be more frequent when applied to non-human species. There were some contradictions between the students' ideas and the theory of evolution, which also appeared to be poorly understood by students. These observations indicate the need for educational interventions to minimize the reported problems, contributing to a dialogue between the students' conceptions and the teaching of evolutionary theory.

Evolution; Evolution Theory; Science teaching