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Simulating Natural Selection Level: Primary/Intermediate --- Content: Science |
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Mr. Jones is a middle
grades science teacher whose class is studying evolution and natural
selection. This is a topic that is frequently difficult for his students to
understand. After completing this unit, he wants his students to understand
that naturally occurring variations in traits can allow some members of a
species to survive while others perish. He wants them to distinguish between
traits that can be inherited and those that are not. The unit question is
“Describe how changes in the environment effects whether or not animals
survive.” Because adaptation and
natural selection are gradual processes occurring over many generations, they
are difficult for students to observe. Therefore, Mr. Jones will ask students
to explore the topic through the use of a simulation. The simulation allows
students to select variations for rabbits and to see how these variations are
inherited by future generations. It also allows students to introduce
predators into the environment and to control the amount of food that is
available for the rabbits. The simulation tracks changes in the population of
rabbits over time for the conditions the students choose. To begin the unit, Mr.
Jones introduces students to the simulation, demonstrating how to introduce
variations into the population and how to change the environment. He explains
that their investigations will be easier to understand if they change just
one thing at a time in the simulation and document the results. Students work in pairs
or small groups to investigate different questions, such as “How does the
color of rabbits affect their survival?” They record population data from the
simulation for each generation of rabbits, enter it into the Create a Graph
Classic graphing tool, create a line graph,and post
their graphs to a wiki created by their teacher so that they can compare the
graphs generated by each small group. They then work on a research paper
using a template provided by their teacher. In the paper, they describe their
method and results, and discuss their results. The final step in the
research paper is to connect their research to existing theories and the work
of real scientists, especially Charles Darwin. Mr. Jones uses Moodle to
provide students Internet resources on Darwin and the topic of natural
selection. Using these resources, the students write a literature review to
add to their paper. Mr. Jones then
organizes the students into editorial boards that review all the research
papers for presentation in a digital journal special issue on natural
selection. He provides the editorial boards with a rubric and asks them to
review all the papers of their classmates and provide feedback based on the
rubric. Once these “editors” have completed their review, Mr. Jones averages
the ratings for each paper from each editorial board and creates an online
journal with the top three papers using a digital storybook tool called Tikatok Tools used in this
scenario Problem solving and
data analysis: Create a Graph Classic: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/classic/ Creation and
publication: Tikatok http://www.tikatok.com/ Mediawiki Daily and professional
practice: Moodle Virtual collaboration:
Mediawiki |