Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 9
2
Changing Curricula and Instruction
T
wo speakers at the convocation—Robert Pennock, professor at
Michigan State University, and Bruce Alberts, a member and former
President of the National Academy of Sciences, professor emeritus
at the University of California, San Francisco, and editor-in-chief of the
journal Science—discussed the broad issues involved in teaching evolu-
tion across the curriculum. Teachers’ acceptance and understanding of
evolution can have major impacts on its dissemination into the classroom.
In addition, educators often encounter resistance in teaching evolution,
and both speakers discussed ways of overcoming this resistance. (Con-
flicts in the teaching of evolution also are discussed in chapter 4.) Many
aspects of instruction and curricula will need to change to make evolution
a continual presence in biology education, Pennock and Alberts empha-
sized, yet these changes could strengthen both biology education and
students’ grasp of how evolution works and why it is important.
CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE
In 1996, a school superintendent in Kentucky ordered two pages of
a textbook glued together because they provided a scientific explana-
tion for the creation of the universe while not also presenting the Bible’s
explanation. Teaching evolution throughout the curriculum would make
it impossible to avoid the subject, said Pennock. The challenge for the
convocation, said Pennock, is: “How can we make sure that you couldn’t
do this unless you had to glue the whole textbook together?”
9
OCR for page 10
10 THINKING EVOLUTIONARILY
An Evolving Controversy
Most of the critics of evolution no longer directly challenge the idea of
teaching scientific concepts in science classrooms, Pennock noted. Instead,
they proclaim that teachers should “teach the controversy.” For example,
a bill introduced in Michigan a few years ago requires teachers to “(A) use
the scientific method to critically evaluate scientific theories including, but
not limited to, the theories of global warming and evolution,” and “(B)
use relevant scientific data to assess the validity of those theories and to
formulate arguments for and against those theories.”1 As Michigan Rep-
resentative John Moolenaar said, this language leaves it up to local school
boards whether to require the teaching of intelligent design (ID)—the idea
that living things are too complex not to have been created by a divine or
supernatural intelligence.
Pennock noted that this approach was soundly repudiated in the fed-
eral court case Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District. As the judge in
that case wrote, “ID’s backers have sought to avoid the scientific scrutiny
which we have now determined that it cannot withstand by advocating
that the controversy, but not ID itself, should be taught in science class.
This tactic is at best disingenuous, and at worst a canard.” Yet critics of
evolution continue to try to insert religious ideas into science classes
using this approach. When intelligent design creationists proposed to the
Texas Board of Education that students be required to analyze and evalu -
ate “strengths and weaknesses” in evolutionary theory, the board voted
against the proposal, after which creationists proposed that students
study “evidence supportive and not supportive of a theory.” The board
again voted against the proposal, but when creationists next proposed
that students study “the sufficiency or insufficiency of common ancestry
to explain the sudden appearance, stasis, and sequential nature of groups
in the fossil record”—which are all buzzwords for intelligent design cre-
ationism—the board accepted the proposal. “It’s never quite over,” said
Pennock. “You have to pay attention to the way that words are used, and
language makes a difference.”
Using Language Carefully
Especially in teaching evolution, teachers need to be very precise in
the language they use, said Pennock, because students and the public
are very attuned to the nuances of particular terms. “The way in which
we frame these issues can make a difference in terms of whether they’re
going to be accepted.”
1Almost identically worded bills have been proposed during the past several years in the
legislatures of several other states.
OCR for page 11
11
CHANGING CURRICULA AND INSTRUCTION
Particularly problematic is the use of the word theory. For exam-
ple, the disclaimer that the Cobb County, Georgia, Board of Education
approved to insert into the textbook Biology by Kenneth Miller and Joseph
Levine (2004) and other texts that include discussion of evolution read,
“This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not
a fact, regarding the evolution of living things.”2 But the colloquial mean-
ing of theory is very different from the scientific meaning. The general
public interprets the word theory as a guess or supposition—“you have
your theory and I have mine.” In science, a theory is a broad overarching
explanation that accounts for a wide variety of empirical observations.
To avoid this confusion, Pennock uses the term evolutionary science rather
than evolutionary theory. “This is a way of avoiding a word that we know
is going to trip people up,” he said.
Many other terms commonly used in evolutionary science have
ambiguous or multiple meanings, including adapt, selection, and even
evolution itself. These terms need to be defined and used carefully to avoid
confusing scientific and colloquial meanings.
Getting Learners Hooked
In countering attacks on evolution, the scientific community tends
to be reactive, said Pennock. A legislative proposal needs to be defeated.
The statements of a creationist politician need to be countered. From this
perspective, the discussion becomes a debate, with each side presenting
its best arguments.
The scientific community needs to think about becoming more proac -
tive, said Pennock. In this way, people could be reached before the discus-
sion becomes a debate.
This approach is complicated by the large percentage—approximately
40 percent—of people in the United States who believe that evolution is
false (Figure 2-1). Even 32 percent of students with a college education
answered “no” to the question, “Do you think that the modern theory of
evolution has a valid scientific foundation.” In fact, among high school
biology teachers, 40 percent think that “there are sufficient problems
with the theory of evolution to cast doubts on its validity” (Berkman and
Plutzer, 2011).
The best opportunity, suggested Pennock, lies in reaching the 20 per-
cent of Americans who are unsure about the accuracy of evolution. “That
has to be a primary target, not initially to reach those who are opposed
2 The full text of this sticker reads: “This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolu -
tion is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be
approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.”
OCR for page 12
12 THINKING EVOLUTIONARILY
FIGURE 2-1 A larger percentage of people reject evolution as false in the United
States than in almost all other developed countries.
OCR for page 13
13
CHANGING CURRICULA AND INSTRUCTION
ideologically, but to reach those in the middle who just don’t know.”
It also is particularly important to reach teachers and future teachers,
because they are the ones who will teach their students the subject.
Scientists often think that the best way to convince the undecided is
to marshal the data. But at the frontiers of knowledge, scientific discus -
sion most often takes the form of evidence-based persuasion, Pennock
said. “How do we get students to think about evidence-based reasoning?
Clearly, this is where we want to get them.”
To think in these terms, students and members of the public first
need to be hooked. The way to do that, said Pennock, is to start not
with data but with something that gets them interested. Evolutionary
science has many topics featuring practical applications, such as evolu -
tionary medicine, pest management, forensic tools, evolutionary compu -
tation, and evolutionary engineering design. Most scientists themselves
became interested in science because of a hook that got them emotionally
engaged, observed Pennock. Only after they were interested in science
did they learn about hypotheses, data, and predictions. “The initial thing
is how you reach their hearts. Their minds then come next. Data isn’t the
first thing. We think of data first, but actually data is last. The first thing
is how you hook them.”
The same observation applies in interacting with the media. Scientists
want to dwell on the data, whereas journalists are most interested in why
a topic matters. “When they write the story, that’s what they’ll write first.
The lead of the story is the upshot. What’s in it for us? Then, once they’ve
hooked you, they can present the data.”
As a specific example of how to make evolution relevant, Pennock
mentioned evolutionary medicine. Medical students are interested in
why people get sick, and if those reasons have evolutionary roots, these
students can become interested in evolution. Along the same lines, the
education committee of the Society for the Study of Evolution has been
holding an annual symposium on applied evolution for the past 10 years.
Although the society was initially skeptical, the symposium has become
one of the most popular it offers.
BEACON
Pennock described in greater detail a particular way to get students
interested in evolution. One complication with teaching evolution is that
it has been difficult to do evolutionary experiments in real time, but
Pennock and his colleagues have developed ways of doing just that. The
Bio/computational Evolution in Action Consortium (BEACON) is a new
science and technology center at Michigan State University that explores
OCR for page 14
14 THINKING EVOLUTIONARILY
BOX 2-1
Thinking Evolutionarily
The first of two sets of breakout groups during the convocation addressed the
general question: “What constitutes evolutionary thinking?” Individual breakout
groups were asked to address the following issues more specifically:
Group 1: What approaches are needed to educate faculty and departments
about the value of evolutionary thinking in their own courses and programs?
Group 2: What additional evidence is needed to convince biologists of the value
of evolutionary thinking? How can that evidence best be gathered through an
organized program of research? Who should undertake and sponsor such re-
search?
Group 3: How can evolutionary thinking become more firmly connected with
other emerging efforts to improve life sciences education? In what ways should
these efforts be influenced by different target audiences?
During the plenary reporting session that followed the breakout group meet-
ings, multiple breakout group participants made several main points.
First, evolutionary science is driven by evidence. As a result, there can be
uncertainty about specific questions. Evolutionary understanding continues to
progress as more questions are answered and as understanding is refined. If
students understand that the science continues to advance at the forefront of
knowledge, then they can take a big step toward understanding not only how
evolutionary biology but also how science in general works.
evolutionary processes in both biological and computational systems. 3
BEACON studies evolution in real time using real organisms in laborato-
ries and field sites and “digital organisms” that evolve in computers. On
the biological side, for example, Pennock pointed to Michigan State Uni -
versity’s Richard Lenski, who has been conducting a long-term evolution
experiment with E. coli for more than 20 years. By following evolution in
parallel lines of E. coli for more than 50,000 generations, he and his col-
leagues have observed evolutionary adaptations in all of the lines.
On the computational side, random variation, selection, and evo-
lution all can be modeled in computer systems. Using a system called
Avida, for example, students can explore basic evolutionary mechanisms
and test hypotheses (Box 2-1). In one set of experiments, students can use
a virtual Petri dish to observe a model for the evolution of colonies of
3 Additional information is available at http://beacon-center.org.
OCR for page 15
15
CHANGING CURRICULA AND INSTRUCTION
Evolutionary biology is also probabilistic. The genes that are passed from
one generation to the next cannot be predicted with certainty, which means that
the future evolutionary pathways cannot be predicted with certainty. Students
increasingly need to think about evolution in probabilistic terms as their level of
understanding advances.
Evolutionary biology is more dependent on variation than are other sciences.
This variation can be both observed and appreciated even by very young stu-
dents. Even second graders, for example, can observe the differences and simi-
larities among siblings.
Finally, evolutionary biology has a historical dimension. Life on earth evolved
over billions of years, which means that unique things have happened in the
course of that history. Every hydrogen atom behaves like every other hydrogen
atom. But every gene, individual organism, and species is the result of a histori-
cal process and cannot be fully understood without understanding that history.
Particular lineages have evolved, and these events can probably happen only
once because of the unique combination of genes, environments, and chance
that gave rise to that lineage. The history of life is contingent, so that if it were
rerun, the same things would not likely happen. Nevertheless, there is a tree
of life that can never be completely described but can be continually explored.
Students bring many misconceptions to their study of evolution. One is that
evolution is a progressive process in which humans are the pinnacle of a long
chain of advancement. Another is that everything in nature is optimized because
it has evolved to fit perfectly with the environment. A much more accurate concept
is that evolution involves tradeoffs between costs and benefits. A big brain has ad-
vantages for humans but makes birth more difficult than it is for other mammals.
Standing upright has advantages but creates a greater likelihood of back pain.
virtual organisms. As sub-colonies in this virtual system “evolve” new
characteristics through the appearance of random mutations, they can
take over their predecessors in the colony. Students can vary the mutation
rate or the resources available to the virtual organisms. “We finally have
a new lever to let students observe [models for mechanisms of evolution]
for themselves and do so through inquiry-based lessons.”
Intelligent design creationists have been alarmed by the BEACON
center, said Pennock, because it shows how complex systems can evolve
through the mechanisms of evolution. They have been “trying to attack
the whole project because we can see evolution doing what they’ve
claimed it can’t do. That’s the thing about observing evolution in action.
It’s compelling to students because they can see for themselves. It’s not
just that you’re telling them; they can see it.”
Avida has been used to do forefront research in evolutionary theory
(see, for example, Adami et al., 2000; Lenski et al., 2003; and Yedid et al.,
2008). In addition, once an evolution algorithm has been implemented
OCR for page 16
16 THINKING EVOLUTIONARILY
in a computer system, it can be used to solve engineering problems.
Pennock noted that evolutionary computation has yielded safer cars,
smarter robots, and steadier rockets. This is another way of demonstrating
how evolution makes a difference in our lives. “This is something that is
very pragmatic,” said Pennock. “Evolution works.”
These kinds of success stories can be disseminated to the public
through a variety of means. A recent USA Science and Engineering Festi-
val featured the practical applications of evolution through the Evolution
Thought Trail, a collaborative effort among some 15 disciplinary societ-
ies and the National Academy of Sciences.4 Presentations on influenza
viruses, robot controllers, and pest management all have drawn consider-
able attention. These kinds of outreach efforts “give people a way to start
thinking about the process.”
Evolution and the Nature of Science
Finally, Pennock observed that, far from being an uncertain science,
evolution is science done right. (Box 2-1 describes some of the dimensions
of thinking evolutionarily.) As such, it is one of the best examples available
to illustrate the nature of science. It illustrates the links between observa -
tions and explanations, indirect evidence and experimental results, and
causes and effects. “We need to be using evolution to teach about the
nature of science,” Pennock said.
EVOLUTION IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF THE CELL
Over the five editions of Molecular Biology of the Cell, cell biologists
have grown increasingly aware of the enormous complexity of the
chemistry in cells, said Alberts, one of the co-authors of the popular and
esteemed textbook. Nearly all cellular processes are driven by groups
of 10 to 20 proteins organized as protein machines and incorporating
ordered protein movements. Furthermore, these processes occur through
elegant mechanisms that themselves are too complex to predict.
Nevertheless, there is a way to shortcut this complexity. Because of
evolution, organisms living today have homologies where similar struc -
tures or functions were inherited from a common ancestor. For this rea-
son, the shortest path for working out a mechanism in human cells often
starts with molecular studies in simpler model organisms. For example,
a comparison of genomic sequences for various species of animals shows
that the gene that causes cystic fibrosis in humans when it is mutated is
very similar across organisms. Many other genomic regions are also care-
4 See http://www.ashg.org/education/evolutiontrail.shtml.
OCR for page 17
17
CHANGING CURRICULA AND INSTRUCTION
fully conserved over evolutionary time, yet biologists know very little
about why many of these regions are conserved or what they do. “When
you find these kinds of sequences, what it means is that this thing has
some important function, [but] we have no idea what that function is, so
it directs what biologists do,” said Alberts.
Beyond the Textbook
Textbooks emphasize what scientists have learned, but the most
important objective in science education is to teach people what science
is, said Alberts. The irrational thinking that is widespread in America “is
the strongest argument I can think of for refocusing our education system
at all levels on understanding the nature of science, training people how
to think rationally, solve problems, and use evidence. Most of them will
never be a scientist, but they need that to deal with the world around
them.”
As John A. Moore emphasized in his Science as a Way of Knowing
project, it is not enough to tell people about evolution, Alberts observed.
They need to understand the nature of science, but that is not happening
today. Alberts told an anecdote about a third grader returning from school
who told his scientist mother, “Now, I understand science. It’s the same
as spelling. You just have to memorize it because it does not make any
sense.” As Alberts said, “I wish every college professor would soak that
in because we teach this way even in college science.”
Many Americans also mistakenly believe that science is what sci-
entists believe, religion is what religious leaders believe, and both are
equivalent dogmatic belief systems. If that is true, according to this line
of reasoning people can choose either system. “If you think about how we
teach science, this is not such as a surprising conclusion.”
As editor of Science, Alberts has been working to redefine science edu-
cation, and the key to this redefinition is the introductory college science
class. These classes need to address all four strands of science proficiency
described in the publication Taking Science to School (National Research
Council, 2007):
Strand 1: Know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natu-
ral world.
Strand 2: Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations.
Strand 3: Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge.
Strand 4: Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse.
All of the strands are of equal importance in high-quality science edu-
cation, said Alberts. But only one involves knowing what scientists have
OCR for page 18
18 THINKING EVOLUTIONARILY
discovered about the world. The other three involve how scientists learn
about the world. A valuable activity for scientific societies would be to
work with other societies and institutions to reshape college introductory
biology courses to address all four of these strands, said Alberts.
Scientific Societies
Another valuable role for scientific societies would be to emphasize
the importance of high-quality, low-resource lab modules that stress stu -
dent inquiry to replace the standard, follow-the-instructions, “cookbook”
college laboratories. “I was in the laboratory for three years at Harvard,
for three afternoons a week,” said Alberts. “Basically, I was learning how
to cook. I didn’t know what science was.” In 2011, Science conducted a
contest for the best inquiry lab modules for introductory college science
courses. A module is defined as something that takes 8 to 50 hours of
student work, which makes the module small enough to transfer from
place to place. The 15 winners will be announced throughout 2012. Once
a month (with three months featuring two winners) Science will publish
a two-page printed article by the originators of the winning module(s),
accompanied by on-line supplementary material containing all of the
instructions needed to replicate the lab. The contest will be repeated in
2012, with winners being published in 2013.5
Finally, Alberts suggested that scientific societies could work with
each other and with other organizations to increase the importance and
prestige associated with being a great teacher of science. Focus groups
have revealed that a failure to understand the nature of science lies at
the heart of the evolution versus creationism debate (e.g., Labov and
Kline Pope, 2008). “Our teaching of science as the ‘revealed truth’ has not
worked,” said Alberts. “It also has not worked to create a population that
understands science well enough and can think rationally well enough
to confront politicians when they say things about climate change—as
they’re doing now—that are totally wrong.”
Alberts briefly described an introductory college-level biology class
at the University of Minnesota. The class takes place in a room with large
tables that can seat nine students and have two laptops connected to the
Internet. These tables can project what is on either of the screens on an
overhead screen, and the teacher can reproduce what is on one screen
5 For access to these modules and a more extensive description of the initiative, see http://
www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/data/prizes/inquiry/.
OCR for page 19
19
CHANGING CURRICULA AND INSTRUCTION
BOX 2-2
Hooking Students with Human Behavior
Marlene Zuk, professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside,
works on sexual selection and the evolution of mating behavior. “Sex is a great
motivation for people to learn about things, and I’m surprised that no one else has
suggested that as a motivation for students.”
The biological differences between men and women evolved; indeed, Darwin
wrote a whole book titled The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
(Darwin, 1871). “What makes males different from females is an extremely impor-
tant evolutionary question that we can answer using the exact same tools that we
use to address other scientific questions,” Zuk said.
Students inevitably ask questions about human behaviors. But a study of evo-
lution makes it possible to look at the evolution of reproductive behaviors in a
wide range of organisms, including humans. The same questions can be asked:
On what evidence is a conclusion based? Does a particular caricature of human
behavior—such as whether men are more promiscuous than women—have any
basis in evolutionary science? “It’s not necessarily sidestepping the controversies,”
said Zuk. “It’s giving students the tools to talk about them without assuming that,
‘If I go in for this evolution thing, it necessarily means I have to think a certain way
about human behavior.’”
on all the screens in the room.6 “As you might imagine, people who take
Biology I this way think completely differently about what science is than
do the students who take biology sitting in a big lecture hall, more or less
memorizing what the teacher has said.” (Box 2-2 describes another way
of interesting students in evolution.)
DISCUSSION
Changing Attitudes
In response to a question about whether the 40 percent of high school
biology teachers who doubt evolution were science majors or teaching
majors, Pennock pointed out that they were all undergraduates at one
time, whether they were biology majors or not. Scientists have a tendency
to push the blame for not understanding evolution to earlier and earlier
ages, whether college, high school, elementary school, or parents’ atti -
tudes. But in the end, he argued, “it’s our fault.” Biology teachers were not
6 Additional information about the physical facilities and the changes in pedagogy that
those facilities have encouraged that are different than what is possible in large lecture halls
is available at http://www.classroom.umn.edu/projects/alc.html.
OCR for page 20
20 THINKING EVOLUTIONARILY
shown effective ways to teach evolution when they were undergraduates,
so it is not surprising that they struggle as teachers. “If other people aren’t
doing it, it’s because we didn’t do a good job when they were our stu-
dents. So whether they’re majors or non-majors, part of what we need to
do is clean up our own house.” In that respect, the most important audi -
ence for how to teach evolution better is current faculty, said Pennock.
“If we can’t convince them to do this, how are we going to have a hope
of convincing anyone else?” Teaching evolution across the curriculum, as
well as modeling effective teaching approaches, is a way to break out of
this cycle, said Pennock. Effective teachers can show their colleagues how
to teach evolution well, and effectiveness will spread.
Elvis Nunez from the University of Florida and Caribbean Examina -
tion Council reported on the negative attitudes of high school teachers
with whom he has worked. The teachers said things such as “I will start
believing in evolution when it starts affecting my life,” “Nothing good
has come out of evolution,” “I can teach and live without knowledge of
evolution,” and “Even college students have trouble with the subject, so
why teach it in high school?”
Edward Egelman from the University of Virginia pointed out that
people may not be rejecting science so much as deciding that evolution
is somehow controversial within science, in the same way that they have
been convinced to think of climate change research as “bad science.”
Alberts responded that people do not know enough about science to deal
with bad information. “They may think that science is wonderful because
it brought them the iPhone. But it doesn’t mean that they understand
enough about it to be able to deal with the modern world of confusing
politicians, salesmen, and everybody else trying to get your money or
your vote.”
Randall Phillis from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
pointed out that some fundamentalist preachers tell people that if they
believe in evolution, they will be damned. This is why some students do
not show up when evolution is taught—they fear for their souls, and they
will not question their faith.
Biology teacher Paul Strode from Fairview High School in Boulder,
Colorado, expressed the view that when students have a belief, whether
religious or otherwise, that is in direct conflict with known scientific fact,
they should be challenged to reconsider that idea. “We’re not challenging
those beliefs well enough.”
John Staver from Purdue University pointed out that Jesus told his
disciples in the Bible to try to understand problems. “The whole notion
of religion as memorizing something and not thinking about something
and being extremely certain about everything is not what the Rabbi from
Nazareth did or advocated,” he said. If scientists and religious scholars
OCR for page 21
21
CHANGING CURRICULA AND INSTRUCTION
worked together, they could devise new ways to interact with people who
oppose teaching and learning about evolution.
Textbook author Joseph Levine gives a talk during his in-service
professional development sessions for teachers about the relationship
between religion and science from a personal perspective. He goes back
to the first verses of Genesis in Hebrew, translates them for teachers, and
works through their meaning. Non-condescending, inclusive messages
about how people reconcile faith and science may not change minds, he
said, but it can open them.
Maxine Singer reiterated her opening remarks that it is a mistake to
challenge a person’s faith. “People of great faith have existed since the
beginning of human time. Many people depend on that in different ways.
. . . Better to try to figure out how to teach biology to people in a way that
people will learn if not accept.”
Student Motivation
A major theme of several discussion sessions was getting students
motivated and emotionally invested in learning about evolution. Caitlin
Schrein, a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University, is trying to dem -
onstrate the relevance of evolution to current and personally relevant
topics—for example, by teaching about evolution in the context of
humans. She also pointed out that the students in an introductory biol-
ogy course in college have a huge range of backgrounds, from those who
have passed AP Biology to those who have never taken biology before.
What are the competencies that should be expected of incoming students?
Mark Schwartz from the New York University School of Medicine
also observed that it is important to identify real-world benefits of apply -
ing evolutionary science, such as understanding the phylogenetics of
infectious microorganisms or the metastatic spread of cancer. In addition,
Phillis listed invasive species, antibiotic resistance, and the risks of mono -
cultures in agriculture as examples of evolution in action. “Pretty much
every day of the semester, we’re going to get to the place where we talk
about something cool in evolutionary biology.”
Schwartz also noted that undergraduates are motivated if they know
that something is going to be on the test. “If our goal is to reach every -
body, which is one of the carrots that works. It’s not the only one, but that
is what drives much of undergraduate education. For those of us who
teach, the common refrain is, ‘Will it be on the test?’ And the answer is,
‘Yes, you have to understand the concept, not the memorization.’”
Celeste Carter from the National Science Foundation agreed that tests
are important to students, but so are teaching styles. Although lecturing
can be important for transmitting blocks of information, instructors also
OCR for page 22
22 THINKING EVOLUTIONARILY
can be facilitators of learning rather than directors of learning. “You don’t
always have to be the person with this font of knowledge that you’re
going to pour out.” For example, an approach that can interest students
more than lecturing is problem-based learning, she said. Undergraduate
research experiences of many different types also can convince students
to remain in science disciplines.
Regarding tests, a strategy Carter used when she taught is to have
students take an exam twice. The first time they do it closed book and
on their own. The second time they can bring anything they want into
the classroom and have an open discussion among themselves about the
answers. Many students told Carter that they learned more from discuss -
ing their viewpoints than they did from almost any other activity they
did in her classroom.
David Mindell from the California Academy of Sciences in San Fran-
cisco remarked on the value of getting students into the field to connect
evolutionary biology with nature. Students are increasingly from urban
populations and settings, he said. “They have no feeling for the organ-
ism, in my experience in teaching undergraduates, or they have relatively
little. It can make a huge difference to take them out on at least one and
ideally multiple trips to the field to let them see organisms in the wild.”
Such experiences can cement the concepts students learn in a classroom
and help them become scientifically literate adults.
According to Richard Potts, Director of the Human Origins Program
at the Smithsonian Institution, it is possible to use depictions of evolution
in popular culture to teach students, including both realistic ideas about
evolution and “terribly wrong” ideas. For example, a discussion of phylo-
genetic analysis on the CSI television show can motivate students to learn
more about the subject. Students “suddenly feel that now it’s relevant to
them because, well, if it’s on CSI, then it’s something they care about.”
Steve Klein from NSF emphasized the value of knowledge for its
own sake. People are very interested in basic sciences such as astronomy,
whether it benefits their lives or not. “We need to explain to people that
it’s a natural human function to try to understand the world we live in.”
Better Preparation for Students and Teachers
The summer between high school and college offers many opportuni-
ties to motivate and prepare students for college, said Schwartz during
his prepared remarks as a panelist. Bridge classes, math boot camps,
laboratory classes, mentoring opportunities, seminars on study habits,
and many other possibilities exist. The key, said Schwartz, “is to have a
repertoire of pedagogies to be able to address as many of those students
and as many of those groups as you can, . . . whether you are talking
OCR for page 23
23
CHANGING CURRICULA AND INSTRUCTION
about high school biology, undergraduate biology, community colleges,
or medical school.”
Carter pointed out during the ensuing discussion that students who
take courses at community colleges constitute roughly half of the under-
graduates in the United States. These students can range from 12 to 64
years of age and have widely divergent backgrounds. “You have to be
creative,” she said. “You have to think about and find out who is sitting
in that classroom in front of you and then think about strategies that are
going to motivate and keep each one of those people engaged.”
Improving the subject matter knowledge of teachers was one of the
motivations behind the development of UTeach at the University of Texas,
said Potts, where undergraduate science majors earn a teaching certifi -
cate in four years and are ready to teach high school science when they
graduate. Much of the responsibility for the UTeach initiative lies with the
university’s science faculty.7 “It’s not any surprise that a lot of high school
science teachers don’t really understand science because they’re not sci -
ence majors in large part, but that’s beginning to change,” Potts noted.
During the general discussion, Schrein briefly summarized a survey
on science education in elementary schools of 1,100 teachers, principals,
and district administrators at 300 California public schools (Dorph et al.,
2011). Only 10 percent of elementary students regularly experience hands-
on science practices, according to the survey. The obstacles reported by
teachers, principals, and administrators to teaching science include the
lack of funds for supplies, not enough time, and insufficient teachers’
training. According to the survey, 40 percent of elementary teachers spend
fewer than 60 minutes teaching science per week.
Jay Labov of the National Academy of Sciences and the National
Research Council, and study director for the NRC report that resulted in
the current restructuring of several Advanced Placement science courses,
said that the new AP Biology program has the potential to be a game
changer. (See Chapter 6 for a description of these changes.) People will
be less likely to attack the restructured course’s increased emphasis on
evolution as a ”big idea” and ”unifying theme” because AP Biology offers
too many benefits in terms of college admissions and credit. Students who
take the class may not come to accept evolution, but they will at least
learn about the subject. He also emphasized the influence of AP courses
on other parts of the high school curriculum as well as on middle schools
and postsecondary education.
Finally, Maxine Singer and several other people pointed to the impor-
7 Additional information about UTeach is available at http://uteach.utexas.edu. This model
has been promulgated through the National Mathematics and Science Initiative (http://
nationalmathandscience.org) and is now available at universities across the United States.
OCR for page 24
24 THINKING EVOLUTIONARILY
tance of reaching students who do not take AP Biology. These students
will constitute the large majority of the general public in the future, and
their understanding of evolution will dictate which attitudes are most
prevalent.
REFERENCES
Adami, C., Ofria, C., and Collier, T. C. 2000. Evolution of biological complexity. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences 97(9):4463-4468.
Berkman, M. B., and Plutzer, E. 2011. Defeating creationism in the courtroom, but not in the
classroom. Science 331(6016):404-405.
Darwin. C. 1871. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray.
Dorph, R., Shields, P., Tiffany-Morales, J., Hartry, A., and McCaffrey, T. 2011. High Hopes—
Few Opportunities: The Status of Elementary Science Education in California . Sacramento,
CA: The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd.
Labov, J. B., and Kline Pope, B. 2008. From the National Academies: Understanding our
audiences: The design and evolution of science, evolution, and creationism. CBE/Life
Sciences Education 7:20-24.
Lenski, R. E., Ofria, C., Pennock, R. T., and Adami, C. 2003. The evolutionary origin of com -
plex features. Nature 423:139-145.
Miller, K. R., and Levine, J. S. 2004. Biology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Miller, J. D., Scott, E. C., and Okamoto, S. 2006. Public acceptance of evolution. Science 313:
765-766.
National Research Council. 2007. Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in
Grades K-8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Yedid, G., Ofria, C. A., and Lenski, R. E. 2008. Historical and contingent factors affect re-
evolution of a complex feature lost during mass extinction in communities of digital
organisms. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 21(5):1335-1357.
