CHANGE OVER TIME: A WEB BASED TEACHING TOOL WHICH EXAMINES AND MANIPULATES REAL WORLD DATA SETS IN ORDER TO DEMONSTRATE EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE

A web module has been designed for high school teachers that makes avalible to them real world data that presents the evidence for evolution in a lineage of Miocene-Pliocene mollusks. The data set is derived from the published work of Kelley (1989) and contains not only a subset of her measurements on morphological change in two genera of bivalves, but also presents the geologic contest in which these fossils occur in the form of photographs and video media assembled in a virtual field trip around Calvert County, MD. Module content is directed towards 9^th – 12^th grade educators and focuses on how an integrated study of geology, biology, and statistics are used to examine evolutionary change over time. This web module is designed to help high school teachers discuss evolution by presenting them with examples of morphological change over time in fossil organisms that are readily identifiable to students (“seashells”) as well as demonstrating how such data is collected via a virtual field trip. Creation of the module was prompted by our realization that evolution is presented predominantly in secondary school biology classrooms, where few instructors have had exposure to the fossil record of evolution. This need is reinforced by studies in the education community, which have noted the development naïve or false conceptual understandings as a fundamental impediment to future learning. The efficacy of the web module in improving high school teacher understanding of evolution in the fossil record is still in the assessment stage. The web module can be viewed at: http://www.uvm.edu/perkins/education.htm