The move away from a human-centered view of the natural order

Activities

1. Creation myths

  (estimated time: 45 minutes)

A powerpoint with several creation myths from different cultures is available. These can be narrated by the teacher or a student with little introduction. The student sheet encourages discussion about these stories and their relationship with science.

creation myths powerpoint (, 90 KB)
creation myths teacher notes and student sheets (, 41 KB)

2. Evolution activity

  (estimated time: 60 minutes (depending on approach chosen))

These notes could form the basis of a teacher presentation of the development of ideas using a historic perspective. Alternatively students could be asked to research 1 or 2 of these landmarks in thinking, and create a group time-line display of evolutionary theory. The students could present the section they have researched to the rest of the class.

Notes (, 66 KB)

3. Genetics of sickle cell anaemia

This activity is a 1300 word article about sickle cell disease with various DART activities to help students engage with the text. The article discusses science explanations including inheritance, genetic screening and evolution. The ethics of genetic selection, and how this is affecting current human evolution is discussed.

Teacher Notes and Student Sheets (, 46 KB)

4. Lamarck's theory

  (estimated time: 30 minutes)

Some ideas for the teaching of Lamarck's theory including question and answer card game. The cards are designed so that they can be cut out folded in half and stuck.

Teacher Notes and Student Sheets (, 10 KB)

5. Natural Selection in Lake Malawi

In this short DART activity students are asked to distinguish explanations from evidence in a passage about the evolution of chichlid fish in Lake Malawi.

Teacher Notes and Student Sheets (, 26 KB)

6. Sickle cell disease and selection

  (estimated time: 40 minutes)

In this activity students simulate the selective pressures that exist in nature, which can change the frequency of a particular allele in a population. The example used is sickle cell anaemia, and the simulation uses beads to represent alleles.

Teacher Notes and Student Sheets (, 54 KB)

7. Simulating Evolution

  (estimated time: 30 minutes)

The principles determining the changes in structure which occur during the evolution of organisms can be applied to any collection of specimens. These can be arranged into 'volutionary trees' showing the order in which changes in structure probably occurred. The same kind of analysis can be applied to a collection of man-made artifacts, pretending that each is an organism and then determining the probable course of evolution. The phenomena of divergence of closely related forms, convergence of distantly related forms and parallel evolution can all be illustrated.

Student Information (, 0.8 MB)