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Workshop Detail: Monday, July 20, 2009
(K-12): Fundamental Principles of Science - Evolution
presented by
Joana Ricou, Duquesne University, Gera Bosco, Duquesne University
Curriculum Developed by SEPA Program at Duquesne University
Exploration is Never Extinct!
Teaching the fundamental principles of Evolution is tough. But once you realize that the evidence for evolution is all around us and that all of modern biology relies on these principles it becomes clear that all children can and should know this. We also know that Charles Darwin was once a fun loving boy, a nice guy, an adventurer, a loving husband and family man. We’ll learn how to talk about Darwin and his discoveries. We learn what Darwn never knew; he never knew about DNA. We will explore some of the evidence.
The hands on activitities are based on our year-long production, DARWIN 2009 – A PITTSBURGH PARTNERSHIP (www.sepa.duq.edu/darwin).
Veggie Variation: Developed for the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. This activity can be demonstrated with a trip to the grocer or as a gardening activity. Learn about the concepts of species, variation, domestication, and artificial selection. Students will observe live examples of the Brassicaceae oleracea species and learn how artificial variations within a species can produce new domesticated plants. Students can participate in the "Mystery Seed" activity where they can plant a mystery variety of basil plant to take home and identify as it grows.
Family Trees: A gardening activity that looks as "Family Trees," which combines the ideas of Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Reginald Punnett. Create a planted Punnett squares that showcase genetic variability and learn about plant reproduction.
Fleshing Out Fossils: In his world travels, Darwin studied fossils of extinct organisms and saw that they looked very similar to living organisms. This led him to realize that all organisms are related and come from common ancestors! Students will actively learn about the connection between anatomy and common descent as they handle and compare/contrast fossils, using the lesson plan as a guide. "Horse Evolution" Exploration: Discover the differences between horses and their earlier relatives, and learn about how environment changes led to the evolution of the modern horse through a fun demonstration and hands-on activity! The innovative replicas created by Pittsburgh company Mechanimal, Inc. who has been sculpting and building models for the museum for over a decade. Today they are able to use digital modeling to create durable and identical replicas of million-year old fossils!
What Would I Do Without You? Ever wonder why the Zebra has black and white stripes? It wasn't just a fashion statement. It was for survival! Teach students about co-evolution and adaptation through the ecological relationship of predator-prey.
Zoo – A Class System: Sometimes it may seem like life is a mess, but scientists have organized all organisms into meaningful categories. Not only that, but this organization led some of the most revolutionary work in Biology, as with Darwin's principle of evolution! Instruct students in the criteria used to construct the taxonomic model, beginning with an exciting, interactive activity that demonstrates how everyday objects can be arranged and allow students to see how both common and exotic animals fit into the same taxonomic system.
Feathered Families: Learn about the concepts of relatedness, species and speciation, adaptation, environmental influences, and taxonomy. Look at birds of prey and complete a compare/contrast activity that shows the similarities and differences found between birds of prey.
Unique Beak Physique: You'll never look at beaks the same again after exploring how Darwin's principle of natural selection has shaped the life of birds. Help your students discover how adaptations and favorable traits arose due to environmental factors. Using an interactive model of various beak shapes, students will be able to see how beaks have evolved to perform unique functions.
Ask Darwin: Given an opportunity to ask one question, what would you ask Charles Darwin? We polled more than 1,000 Pittsburghers from every age group. Ultimately, we chose 199 of the most popular questions, from “did humans evolve?” to “did you have a pet?” and everything in between—touching on Darwin’s life, work, and the principles of science he discovered. Then, Darwin answers. That is to say, the answers to these questions were assembled from Darwin’s texts, notes, personal correspondence, and the like, essentially providing first-hand responses from one of the most controversial, yet influential, scientists in history. With Synthetic Interview technologies the answers are delivered by Darwin himself (or at least a digital representation of him). An interactive computer program, it lets people select a question from a menu and a digital Darwin responds. Also, given that Darwin died 126 years ago, we asked modern experts to comment, so you can hear from scientists, paleontologists, priests, a rabbi, a lawyer and more. Similar to a web-quest, students will have question sets that will guide their exploration of Darwin’s life and legacy.
Dr. John Archie Pollock is director of the Regenerative Medicine Partnership in Education, a Science Education Partnership Award and a Darwin Evolution Revolution Award, both from the National Center for Research Resources (NIH). Associate Professor of biology at Duquesne University, John holds additional faculty appointments at Carnegie Mellon University's STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and Entertainment Technology Center. John has also served as Principal Scientist for the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, Inc. (www.ptei.org). John is an educator who has taught courses in a wide range of disciplines including math, physics, ethics, philosophy, neuroscience, and general biology. His outreach teaching has included working with high school and middle school biology. Currently, he participates in weekly activities with young learners (4 -7 year olds) and 5th - 7th graders. As a scientist, John is a principal investigator directing research that explores the development of the nervous system. He received his BS and MS in Physics, and PhD in biophysics, from Syracuse University. He also received post-doctoral training at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Honors and awards include: Winters Foundation Research Award, James A. Shannon Director's Award (National Institutes of Health), Basil O'Connor Research Award from the March of Dimes Foundation, Visiting Scholar Award from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Australia, a Grass Foundation Traveling Lecturer for the Society for Neuroscience and two Science Education Partnership Awards from the National Center for Research Resources (NIH).
For More Information, please visit www.sepa.duq.edu.
Summer Institute, a component of the MIDAS Project, is supported by a