Research on predictors of achievement in science is often targeted on more traditional content-based assessments and single student characteristics. At the same time, the development of skills in the field of scientific inquiry constitutes a focal point of interest for science education. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to investigate to which extent multiple student characteristics contribute to skills of scientific inquiry. Based on a theoretical framework describing nine epistemological acts, we constructed and administered a multiple-choice test that assesses these skills in lower and upper secondary school level (n = 780). The test items contained problem-solving situations that occur during chemical investigations in school and had to be solved by choosing an appropriate inquiry procedure. We collected further data on 12 cognitive, motivational, and sociodemographic variables such as conceptual knowledge, enjoyment of chemistry, or language spoken at home. Plausible values were drawn to quantify students' inquiry skills. The results show that students' characteristics predict their inquiry skills to a large extent (55%), whereas 9 out of 12 variables contribute significantly on a multivariate level. The influence of sociodemographic traits such as gender or the social background becomes non-significant after controlling for cognitive and motivational variables. Furthermore, the performance advance of students from upper secondary school level can be explained by controlling for cognitive covariates. We discuss our findings with regard to curricular aspects and raise the question whether the inquiry skills can be considered as an autonomous trait in science education research.

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Purschke, G. and Nowak, K.H. 2013. Ultrastructure of pigmented eyes in Dorvilleidae (Annelida, Errantia, Eunicida) and their importance for understanding the evolution of eyes in polychaetes. -Acta Zoologica (Stockholm) 00: 000-000.Among polychaetes, the errant forms are the only group known so far possessing true multicellular eyes in adults which are preceded by bicellular larval eyes in many species. Most likely, two pairs of such eyes showing a specific structure belong to the ground pattern of Errantia = Aciculata. However, these eyes have primarily been investigated in only two subgroups of Errantia, but data on the third main taxon, Eunicida, are available for only two taxa. In the present investigation, the eyes in two additional species of Eunicida, the dorvilleids Protodorvillea kefersteini and Schistomeringos neglecta, were studied. In P. kefersteini, usually described as possessing one pair of small eyes, two pairs could be detected, whereas in S. neglecta only one pair was found. Each eye is made up of rhabdomeric photoreceptor cells, pigment cells and unpigmented supportive cells. Lenses or vitreous bodies are absent. From their structure most likely all eyes represent adult eyes and even the small anterior eyes in P. kefersteini structurally resemble miniaturized adult eyes. Neither persisting larval eyes nor unpigmented rhabdomeric ocelli were found in the two species. The observations in Dorvilleidae confirm the hypothesis of a common origin of adult eyes in Errantia.G€ unter Purschke, Zoologie, Universit€ at Osnabr€ uck, 49069 Osnabr€ uck,

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