the laboratories with up-to-date equipment do not any more resemble the traditional chemical laboratories. In the area of biology we are now fully using the tools of molecular taxonomy to find the definitive picture of the evolutionary relationships between the organisms. We are also acutely aware that there’s many species in the world that we don’t know of – and that, given the current rate of extinction, we might never know of. That is a shame, since each new species is a treasure trove that might bring us new knowledge and new tools in pharmacology and engineering. The engineers start to appreciate the designs of nature, honed to perfection by millions of years of trial and error. Development and level of pedagogy, psychology and subject-field didactics An international comparative study on science education carried out at the turn of the 20th and 21st century revealed a considerable loss of interest among young people in the study of science subjects. Education in science subjects enjoys a lower interest among pupils of primary schools and students of secondary schools in the majority of both European and non-European countries and the subject ‘chemistry’ ranks, even in long-time perspective, among the least favourite. One of the main causes of this decline of interest are rightly considered mostly the methods used to teach the science subjects in schools [Abd-El-Khalick, 2005]. To eliminate this situation, a more consistent use of current recommendations and conclusions of pedagogy, psychology and general didactics can be recommended. The aim is to induce a fundamental change in the interest of young people to study science subjects; this change would be transferable to and beneficial for educational systems of other countries [European Commission, 2007]. The object of interest becomes especially IBSE (Inquiry Based Science Education), which, according to the existing findings, has proved its effectiveness in both the primary and also secondary education through both the increased interest of pupils/students in these sciences and also through the improvement of the results achieved by pupils/students; at the same time the motivation of teachers has been encouraged [Mayer, 2004; Sherwood, 2007]. IBSE has been found out to be effective with all groups of pupils/students, i.e. starting with from the weakest to the most able ones. Moreover ISBE has also proved to be beneficial in promoting the interest of girls in science subjects. Another important fact is that IBSE and traditional pedagogic approaches are not mutually contradictory, and when teaching the science subject these approaches could and should be mutually combined with the aim to adapt the teaching process to different ways of thinking of pupils/students and also to the preferences of pupils/students in relation to their age [European Commission, 2007]. Inquiry Based Science Education – IBSE - represents a teaching method based on self- exploration, with a number of activating methods being applied. Simply, it is a process of diagnosing the problem, experimenting, identifying the alternatives, planning the research, setting and verifying the hypotheses, searching for information, developing the models, discussions with colleagues and argumentation. The aim is to foster the learning activities based on a larger involvement of pupils/students into the teaching process, to show them more options of cognition and the ways of how to achieve this. With this acquired knowledge, findings and skills, the pupil/student can better understand the problems of the relevant discipline, and formulate questions and problems, and solve them in an active manner. Such an active method is far more effective than a mere transfer of facts from the teacher to the pupil/student [Maršák, 2006]. Here the teacher’s task is mainly to play the role of coordinator of pupils/students’ activities; this helps them to achieve the required aim. It encourages the pupils/students to learn how to find the information, if possible, on their own, 19