Category: Activities

Categories
Activities Teaching Materials

Roleplaying Game – History of Teaching Evolution in U.S., 1999

https://reactingconsortium.org/games/kansas1999

Henderson, D. E. and Daughtrey, T. (n.d.). Evolution in Kansas, 1999: Evolution or Creationism. Reacting Consortium. https://reactingconsortium.org/games/kansas1999

Class Size: 12-30+ students, has been played in classes of up to 60

Class Time: 2 to 3 setup sessions and 5 to 6 game sessions are recommended.

Game is under development so instructor must join Reacting Consortium and request to access content.

Synopsis: “Christian Conservatives on the Kansas Board of Education have deleted macroevolution and Big Bang cosmology from the state science curriculum. The game centers on the election of a new Board of Education which must, for legal reasons, revisit the decision. Students will campaigns for office through press conferences, sponsored debates, and are encouraged to involve the larger campus community in the issues. Following the election, the Board meets to resolve the science curriculum issue.

This game raises many questions about the role of religion in American society, the power of religious fundamentalism in the modern world, and the nature of science. Faculty can tailor the course to focus more on issues of civil religion or on modern Cosmology and evolutionary theory.”

Categories
Activities Teaching Materials

Roleplaying Game Charles Darwin, the Copley Medal, and the Rise of Naturalism, 1861-1864

https://reactingconsortium.org/games/darwin1861

Marsha Driscoll, M., Dunn, E. E., Siems, D., and Swanson, B. K. (n.d.). Charles Darwin, the Copley Medal, and the Rise of Naturalism,
1861-1864. Reacting Consortium. https://reactingconsortium.org/games/darwin1861

Instructor must join Reacting Consortium to access content.

Class Size: 10-23 students recommended. there are 23 named roles and the game also includes generic “A-Man and X-Man roles.”

Class Time: 2 setup sessions, 8 game sessions, and 1 debrief session are recommended. For an abridged version, sessions 3-5 can be cut out. However, cutting these sessions will impact the presentation opportunities for some characters.

Synopsis: “This game thrusts students into the intellectual ferment of Victorian England just after publication of On The Origin of Species. Since its appearance in 1859, Darwin’s long-awaited treatise in “genetic biology” had received reviews both favorable and damning. Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce’s arguments for and against the theory sparked a vigorous, complex debate that touched on a host of issues and set the stage for the Royal Society’s consideration of whether or not they ought to award Darwin the Copley Medal, their most prestigious prize. While the action takes place in meetings of the Royal Society, Great Britain’s most important scientific body, a parallel and influential public argument smoldered over the nature of science and its relationship to modern life in an industrial society. A significant component of the Darwin game is the tension between natural and teleological views of the world. But the scientific debate also percolated through a host of related issues: the meaning and purposes of inductive and hypothetical-speculation in science; the professionalization of science; the implications of Darwinism for social reform, racial theories, and women’s rights; and the evolving concept of causation in sciences and its implications for public policy. The Revised Edition updates this venerable game to incorporate current Reacting best practices while preserving the core intellectual drama.”

Categories
Activities Educational Resources Webpages

Natural Selection Video Game: Catch a Mimic

Video Game: https://www.embodied-games.com/games/natural-selection-catch-a-mimic/play-catch-a-mimic/

Teaching Materials: https://www.embodied-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/teacher-lecture-Catch-A-Mimic-uploaded_Final_2019.pdf

Embodied-Games.com. (2019). Natural Selection: Catch a Mimic. Embodied Games. https://www.embodied-games.com/games/natural-selection-catch-a-mimic/play-catch-a-mimic/

House, B. & Johnson-Glenberg, M. (2019). Lesson Plan For “Catch a Mimic: Natural Selection.” Embodied Games. https://www.embodied-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/teacher-lecture-Catch-A-Mimic-uploaded_Final_2019.pdf

A video game simulation which can help students actively engage in learning how certain species evolve over many generations via natural selection and appear to “mimic” or copy the appearance of other animals. The game emphasizes that this evolutionary process takes many generations (a long time) in order for this mimicry to occur through natural selection to help address the common misunderstanding that the organism intends to change their traits. The teaching materials provide a guide for content to highlight before and after students use this video game and potential lesson structures.

Course content area – Mimicry & Evolution by Natural Selection – Variability in traits, phenotype, fitness, mimicry, addressing misconceptions about evolution and intention, timeline for evolution (generations)

Course – Ethology: Animal Behavior (200 level)

Campus – Hunter College

Categories
Activities Assignments Teaching Materials

Mating Systems of Pinnipeds Worksheet

I use this worksheet after discussing the different factors that can affect the mating system of populations.

This assignment helps reinforce previously taught material from sexual selection (sexual dimorphism, operational sex ratio), as it requires the students to apply that knowledge to mating systems.

The goal of this assignment is for students to gain knowledge about the many characteristics of populations and individuals that can affect mating systems and get a sense that mating systems are not fixed.

Accompanying slides are available in the Animal Behavior Shared Class Resources Folder (for verified CUNY instructors).

Course content area – Mating Systems

Course – Evolution & Behavior (100 level)

Campus – Hunter College

Mating Systems of Pinnipeds Worksheet (1)Download

Categories
Activities Teaching Materials

The Mating Game

https://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article/74/9/648/92552/The-Mating-Game-A-Classroom-Activity-for

Moore, D., Holbrook, C. T., Meadows, M. G., & Taylor, L. A. (2012). The mating game: A classroom activity for undergraduates that explores the evolutionary basis of sex roles. The American Biology Teacher, 74(9), 648–651. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2012.74.9.9

A simulation in which all students are assigned a sex (male or female), corresponding paper gametes (4 large eggs or 48 small sperm), and a quality score. Students then mingle in an assigned breeding area until they can find a partner to mate with. Each mating and the offspring produced are then recorded in a spreadsheet that is reviewed at the end of the activity. 

The source materials provide a lesson plan with discussion questions, printout of paper gametes, and spreadsheet.

Class size – 36 (could work with larger class)

Required Materials – Paper gametes, headbands or name tags with assigned sex and quality, shared spreadsheet to record data

Estimated time – 60 min

Instructor notes and adaptation – I used name tags that clip onto the student’s clothing as a marker of assigned sex and quality instead of paper headbands. The quality values of each sex should be normally distributed which is hard to pre-determine since the number of students that attend class can vary.

Course content area – Sexual Selection

Course – Evolution & Behavior (100 level)

Campus – Hunter College

Categories
Activities Teaching Materials

A Quick and Simple Natural Selection Role Play

Butler, K. J. 2021. A quick and simple natural selection role play. CourseSource. https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2021.10

https://qubeshub.org/community/groups/coursesource/publications?id=2717&tab_active=about&v=1

Role play game in which students act as a population of living organisms (rabbits) with different versions of a trait (running speed) that are being selected for (fox predation). Over multiple generations with selection, students see the loss of the less adaptive versions of the trait (slow and medium running speed) and fixation of the most adaptive version of the trait (fast running speed).

The source materials provide LOs, lesson plan, slides, questions/answers

Class size – 50; works best with class of 20-30 students. With 50 students 4 students assisted in counting, disseminating, and collecting cards, and identifying individuals to be selected against (predators)

Required Materials – Note cards to indicate version of trait

Estimated time – 20-30 min

Instructor notes and adaptation – I added a homework assignment to give the students credit for participating and for learning the major objectives of the lesson (located in Google drive folder – LINK)

Course content area – Natural Selection

Course – Evolution & Behavior (100 level)

Campus – Hunter College

Categories
Activities Teaching Materials

Exploring Genetic Drift with Tuco tucos

Hsu, J., Imad, M., & Wilson, K.M. 2019. Furry with a chance of evolution: Exploring genetic drift with tuco tucos. CourseSource. https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2019.17

https://qubeshub.org/community/groups/coursesource/publications?id=2633&v=1

A simulation-based activity in which students work in small groups to select generations from an existing population – students record their group data for a large, medium, and small population – then the class reviews the data of all groups to show the overall effects of genetic drift on different size populations. Provides concrete simulation of sampling error – helps students to understand how random chance can impact allelic diversity.

The article and materials posted provide LOs, lesson plan, clicker questions

Class size – 50 (could work with larger class)

Required Materials – Poker chips, paper cups

Estimated time – 40-60 min

Instructor notes and adaptation – The original activity recommended using 2 different types of beans that were the same size. I struggled to find beans that were equivalent in size and this ultimately affected the outcome.

Because some of the desks are sloped and deskspace is limited I provided a plastic cup that students could place their bean population in and then randomly select their next generation from the cup. As students selected the beans from the cups they were more likely to select the larger beans which shifted to the top of the cup. While this affected the results the activity was still effective. Regardless, I will be using poker chips in the future.

While many students were able to grasp the overall concept (smaller populations more affected by genetic drift), some still struggled to understand random sampling. I recommend including additional examples and demonstrations (online simulator – https://www.whfreeman.com/BrainHoney/Resource/6716/SitebuilderUploads/Hillis2e/Student%20Resources/Animated%20Tutorials/pol2e_at_1502_genetic_drift_simulation/pol2e_at_1502_genetic_drift_simulation.html#).

I used a shared spreadsheet so the groups could add their data and then we could view it as a class. The spreadsheet and the follow-up assignment I used are included in the shared Google folder (accessible to verified users).

Course content area –Population Genetics & Mechanisms of Evolution – Genetic drift, mutation, gene flow, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

Course – Evolution & Behavior (100 level)

Campus – Hunter College