Didactics of molecular ecology

Summ. Molecular biology conferred enormous progresses in biosciences during the past few years. This paradigm permutation in biological research certa inly challenges biological education. Nevertheless, this is no reason to fu ndamentally reorganise biological education at the universities. A most ent ire view of the matter should remain a central request which meets the capa city and imagination of students. Selected biological phenomena taken from the traditional treasury remain suitable in the future too to mediate basic biological ways ot thinking. Forthcoming syllabuses, however, will necessi tate the expansion of this concept. The scope of the present contribution i s to show, how the integration of molecular biology in the teaching of clas sical disciplines of biology may be reached. Choosing ecology and environme ntal biology as examples, molecular biology will not only strengthen explan ation models of cause-effect relationships in these disciplines, but also w ill facilitate the interconnections to interdisciplinary fields such as hea lth education, social, and political education. This may result in an entir e structural concept of classical and molecular biology.