Methods of population study in a biology course at school

This paper discusses methods of population study in a Biology course at school based on characteristics of educational process organization at secondary and high school. The concept of «population», introduced in biology at the beginning of the XX century, was not immediately included in the school course, although at the moment it is used in the study of both private and general biological sciences. The connection of the concept content with genetics, ecology and synthetic theory of evolution is obvious. On the basis of this, there are different interpretations of the «population» concept, mutually complementing each other. The paper states that it is necessary to give correct examples of populations that should emphasize the state of isolation, duration of existence and the possibility of crossing between organisms within a population. The importance of using a schematic representation of populations and its examples is also noted. A schematic representation is a reflection of two basic variants of organism’s distribution in the population and discussion of the role of these variants in the maintenance of the population existence. However, the considered subordination in the population is also important in ensuring the evolutionary process. The development of the population concept is based on the Hardy-Weinberg’s law introduced in a Biology course at school, which until recently was only studied at the University course of Genetics. But full awareness of the population is possible only when considering this law, which characterizes the genetic structure of populations. The proposed approach is based on the ecological-evolutionary approach to the study of basic general biological concepts in school and University courses.