Seomara da Costa Primo
School teacher
School teacher
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In 1927 Costa Primo was elected as a member of the new Board of the Federation of Associations of Portuguese High Schools. At the Association's first congress she presented a paper entitled, "On the success of Biological Sciences in Secondary Education". In 1929 she was a delegate for the Portuguese Teachers' Association at the XI International Congress on Secondary Education, in [The Hague](/wiki/The_Hague "The Hague") and at the 3rd Biennial Congress of the Universal Federation of Teaching Associations, held in [Geneva](/wiki/Geneva "Geneva"). In the Portuguese newspaper *[O Século](/wiki/O_S%C3%A9culo "O Século")* she published an article on the use of cinema for teaching, reporting on a film she had made called "Chang". In 1931 she became a member of the Portuguese Society of Natural Sciences and in 1935 she joined the Portuguese Biology Society and the [Broterian Society](/wiki/Broterian_Society "Broterian Society"). In 1936 she joined the [Lyon](/wiki/Lyon "Lyon") branch of the [Linnean Society](/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus "Carl Linnaeus") and two years later published an article entitled "Carl Linnaeus: a summary of the life and work of the Swedish naturalist in language accessible to high\-school students". In 1941 she participated at the 1st Portuguese National Congress of Natural Sciences, where, apart from presenting technical papers, she also gave a presentation entitled "On the educational value of Natural Sciences". She was also an advocate for improving teaching methods and for encouraging the education of young females.

Costa Primo was the author of several textbooks for high\-school botany, biology and zoology education, which were extensively illustrated with her own [watercolour paintings](/wiki/Watercolour_painting "Watercolour painting") and [charcoal](/wiki/Charcoal_%28art%29 "Charcoal (art)") drawings. These textbooks were used by high\-school students in Portugal between the 1930s and 1970s. She produced around 200 watercolours of plants and animals.


Why was Costa Primo an advocate for improving teaching methods and encouraging the education of young females?