What's in a cell? - young people's understanding of the genetic relationship between cells, within an individual

This paper presents further findings from a study of young people's underst anding of genetics towards the end of their compulsory science education. I t focuses on the ability of these students to distinguish between genes and genetic information and the extent to which they are aware of the continui ty of genetic information between cells within one individual. Many student s hold the misconception that cells of different types will contain differe nt genetic information because they have different functions and will there fore require different information. Confused, conflicting, and uncertain re asoning is also common. The implications of these findings in terms of unde rstanding cell division are considered.