SELECTION, BUGS, & ROCKS THAT ROLL: TEACHING EVOLUTION THROUGH INQUIRY-BASED LESSONS OF UNCONTROVERSIAL SCIENCE

Antibiotic resistance, genetically modified produce, invasive species, avian flu, and extinction, are just a few scientific issues pulled from the headlines that affect society on a daily basis. Understanding these issues requires knowledge of evolutionary processes and evidence from the fossil record. The need to produce students equipped to understand current and future scientific issues of societal relevance is rarely disputed; however, public battles between science and religion provide hurdles to teaching evolution. Thus, we must use creative methods to improve scientific literacy and evolutionary understandings.

Building evolutionary understandings can be achieved through inquiry-based modules that build upon knowledge of relevant and uncontroversial geological, physical, and life sciences. A module is presented that engages students in grades 6-12 in determining the age of a fossil horse, how it is related to other living organisms, and observing natural selection through inquiry-based and collaborative learning. Through logical clues and collaborative reflection on scientific methods, the first lesson enables students to construct a stratigraphic sequence of fossils and volcanic ash from which they can determine the potential age of their fossil. The second lesson provides students with the opportunity to develop classification skills and gain an introduction to how organisms are related. Students first engage in guided discovery, while learning classification methods as a class. They then work together to classify organisms according to methods they just learned. During the third lesson, students serve as “birds” removing the most visible “insects.” Through several rounds of “insect” removal, different “environments” yield different types of “insects” enabling students to witness how natural selection operates. By first understanding the scientific methods used by paleontologists to document evolutionary processes, latter lessons specific to evolution are effective and well received. Produced as part of a National Science Foundation GK-12 program, the module is available on-line at www.flmnh.ufl.edu/education/resources.htm. The dissemination of this module and numerous others can assist in improving evolutionary understandings in K-12 classrooms.