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PART ASBI3U – Evolution UnitEnduring KnowledgeWhat do you want your students to know and be able to do long after they leave your class! Remember to incorporate your enduring knowledge into every lesson that you plan and teach!Big Ideas for this Unit (from the Curriculum Guidelines)Evolution is the process of biological change over time based on the relationships between species and their environmentsThe theory of evolution is a scientific explanation based on a large accumulation of evidenceTechnology that enables humans to manipulate the development of species has economic and environmental implicationsOverall Expectations (from the Curriculum Guidelines)By the end of this unit, students will:C1. Analyze the economic and environmental advantages and disadvantages of an artificial selection technology, and evaluate the impact of environmental changes on natural selection and endangered speciesC2. Investigate evolutionary processes, and analyze scientific evidence that supports the theory of evolutionC3. Demonstrate an understanding of the theory of evolution, the evidence that supports it, and some of the mechanisms by which it occurs CULMINATING ACTIVITY or ACTIVITIES: Unit test based on the achievement chart (knowledge/understanding, thinking, application, and communication portions) – Will use a rubric for communication (rather than allocating a specific question to assess it). Will have a mix of multiple choice, matching, and short answer questions. Will create questions with the students as a class activity after each lesson, and use some of them on the unit test. Will provide students with choice for short answer questions. QUESTION 1: Why are there so many species of dogs? Day 1:Introductory video – artificial selection “And Man Created Dogs” 2: What can fossils tell us about how species changed over time?Day 2: Diagnostic assessment – Evolution survey – 10-15 evolution statements that students must say are either true or false. Used as an assessment for learning – I will be able to adjust my instruction to address alternate conceptions students may have. I will give them the same survey at the end, take it up, and allow them to see how their knowledge has changed/expanded.Have vegetables available to groups. 1: Ask students to sort the veggies into groups based on which they think are closely related. Groups will share their thoughts and reasoning behind it.2: Tell them that they all stem from the same plant (wild sea cabbage). Identify the plants (names) and try to identify what the part of the sea cabbage was selected for to make these different vegetables.Discuss pros and cons of artificial selection and cloning through think-pair-share.Need vegetables:-Kohlrabi-Brocolli-Cauliflower-Brussel Sprouts-Kale-Cabbage-Some others to throw them off.Evolution survey modified from on flu vaccine (for discussion) 3: Did humans evolve fists for fighting? Why do we still have a tailbone and arrector pili?Day 3: Introduce Darwin, his Voyage, observations, and hypotheses.Which limb doesn’t belong? Website to get students’ minds on (activate prior knowledge) and to let them gain confidence in what they already know (about homologous and analogous features).Think-pair-share of vestigial features humans and other animals have. Which limb doesn’t belong? 4: Have students read the Toronto Star article Throwing a Punch at Evolutionary Beliefs. Have students do a placemat activity for what they thought was most interesting, shocking, weird, if they agree/disagree, etc. Have students answer questions to be assessed for and as learning (provide descriptive feedback). Article: 4: Does the strongest and fastest always win?Day 5: Bunnies and adaptation phet simulation – allow students to explore on the iPad. Have a class discussion afterward about observations on what it means to be “fit”. Have groups choose an organism and describe the adaptations it has evolved to increase fitness. Read the Survival of the Sneakiest comic and answer questions (assessment for and as learning). Bunnies and adaptation phet simulation of the Sneakiest comic 6: To discuss the different types of natural selection (directional, stabilizing, and disruptive), have the class do a simulation. Have class stand in a row from shortest to tallest, and give them different scenarios – the “survivors” must step forward, while the rest become part of the environment once more. From the survivors, another scenario is given, and “survivors” must step forward. Run the rainfall and bird beaks Gizmo on the iPads for students to further explore the different types of natural selection.Birds and beaks Gizmo 7: Natural Selection Interactive Activity: Use materials (see right) to have students attempt to pick up food using their “tools”. Is one tool more suited to pick up one type of food? For another trial, take away one food source, all of the students who were not successful in picking up food go hungry and do not reproduce. Inquire to the class why this would happen? Can this occur in real life? What do the tools represent? To discuss sexual selection, show the class the male version of species who are sexually dimorphic, and ask if they think it is the male or the female, and what they think the female looks like. Show them the bird of paradise video. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these sexual traits. Assign each group an organism and a particular trait they have. Ask them to discuss what possible selective pressures caused these traits to evolve.Activity materials:Tools: Forks with two middle prongs missing, spoons“food”: marbles (regular size) and toothpicks.Large space to complete activity is needed, the hallway will likely do.Bird of paradise video 8: Discuss the negative impact of humans and environmental degradation on organisms (especially those that are endangered) and natural selection.Peppered Moth Lab – students will work in groups. Purpose is to study the effect that industrialization and air pollution had on a population of light- and dark-coloured moths. Students will record data and graph it. Students will also answer questions (assessment of learning). QUESTION 5: Can evolution occur without natural selection? Day 9: Have students brainstorm on the guiding question.Show the video The Five Fingers of Evolution. Introduce bottleneck effect and founder effect. Have students do a simulation of the bottleneck effect and founder effect by using bottles and beads. Show students the bottleneck and founder effect video made by students to recap. The Five Fingers of Evolution and founder effect homemade video (sound quality not the greatest) 10: Hardy-Weinberg Principle – teach students the theory behind it, tying in Punnett squares that they learned in the genetics unit. Model how to answer problems with them on the board. Then, do one problem with the entire class.Sage-and-scribe activity – have the problem on the board, and have one student be the sage (explaining verbally what to do) and the other be the scribe (writing down only what the sage is saying). Take up solution, and have the partners switch roles. QUESTION 6: Do ligers really exist?Day 11: Discuss prezygotic and postzygotic reproductive isolating mechanisms using many real-life examples and visuals. Have students guess if certain animals can breed to produce viable offspring – explain the postzygotic mechanism that explains why they cannot. Use language analogy to explain allopatric speciation – have students start off by explaining different Canadian slang, then compare words spoken in Canada and the United States to words spoken in England (the species separated geographically), and finally compare Canadian words to words spoken in United States (the species further separated geographically). Day 12: Speciation activity:Have students pick up a card upon entry to the classroom assigning them different environments. Make sure there are two groups assigned per environment (eg. Arctic 1 and Arctic 2). Students will create a list of phenotypic traits that members of their groups have – and will draw a picture of their organism based on these traits. Students will then allow their organism to reproduce and evolve for 500 generations – assuming no new traits arise, what would the organism look like now? Students will describe it. Allow the organism to evolve for another 500 generations (1000 total), allowing mutations to occur. Students will draw their new organism and explain why they have certain features (adaptations). Students will do a walkabout to compare their drawing to 1) groups with the same environment as them and 2) groups with different environments. Debrief – were the organisms in different environments similar? Were the organisms in the same environment similar? Why or why not?Speciation activity modified from 7: How can so many species live so “harmoniously” together? Day 13: Discuss patterns of evolution (adaptive radiation, divergent evolution, convergent evolution, coevolution) by doing a jigsaw. Have students come up with real life examples. In the discussion, use Pokemon as an example for divergent evolution.Show the bullhorn acacia tree and ants symbiotic relationship video as an example of coevolution. Bullhorn acacia tree and ants 8: Why did the dinosaurs go extinct?Day 14: Group students based on dinosaur “species” picked up upon entering classroom.Show students 1) a diagram/picture of the diversity of living things 3800 MYA to present day, and 2) a diagram/picture of the diversity of dinosaurs 250 MYA (ie. Dinosaurs first appeared) to 65 MYA (ie. dinosaur extinction).Brainstorm what the diagrams show, possible reasons for the trends, and possible reasons for the extinctions. Have students create a 5-7 minute presentation, showing this information in any way they want (a skit, an oral presentation, a comic, a story, etc).Placemat activity about the cause of extinction they believe is most accurate (after seeing the variety of causes that the groups have come up with).Teacher read out a narrative (with pictures?) about what the Earth was like 3800 MYA to present day, including what happened to the dinosaurs.After the short presentations, show The 6 Craziest Extinctions Ever video and open up a discussion and to consolidate learning. The 6 Craziest Extinctions Ever 15: Missing links in the fossil recordDescribe what the Archaeopteryx species looked like – believed to be the transitional form/missing link between dinosaurs and birds. Have students draw what they think this species looked like based on the description (minds on activity). Have students choose an organism from a list of missing link organisms. Students will research on it and find out the ancestor as well as the modern species, and facts about the transitional species. Students will present their findings to the class and will draw a picture to represent their interpretation of the transitional species. QUESTION 9: How did humans evolve? Are we still evolving? Day 16: Discuss human biological characteristics that we think make us unique. Show the Tool Use in the New Caledonian Crow video to explain that some animals share the same biological characteristics as humans. Explain that it is the degree to which these characteristics have evolved, which is what makes humans unique. Assessment of learning: Hominoid Skulls Lab – to examine half-size models of the skulls of different hominoid species. There will be eight stations where students rotate among and make observations and measurements. Students will then choose one of the hominoid species and research about them – they will present their findings in any way they wish. They may include information such as measurements (size of skull, size of teeth, defining physical features), achievements/discoveries, etc. Tool Use in the New Caledonian Crow 17: Discussion on our cultural evolution. Have students bring in an artifact of something they like to do (music, movies, sports, art, etc.). Have a discussion about our cultural differences from other animals, and also how culture has changed over time.Show students the UNESCO’s Seven Billion Project (including the photo of 1.3 billion faces merged together! Students will get a laugh out of it). Show students pictures of faces merged together per “race” for males and females. Have students make observations and come to conclusions (there is no such thing as human races! It is a cultural classification). UNESCO’ Seven Billion Project Day 18: Review period for unit test using Kahoot! – a game/quiz website similar to TimePlay. Have 20-30 questions made up – students will answer using their device as a clicker. Can provide feedback after each question. Teacher and students can see how many students answered which option. Can download results/data for a record. 2: Look at fossils online to get students interested.Show video clip of Jurassic Park scene where they used dinosaur blood stored in a fossilized mosquito to clone a dinosaur. Could this really happen? What were some of the errors in Jurassic Park?The Great Fossil Find activity – students work in groups and “discover” bones of an organism over the course of “5 days”. Students must record observations in their chart and guess what organism they have discovered at the end of each day. Each day, an extra clue is given to the groups in addition to more bones. Students must answer questions at the end individually to consolidate their learning.Look at fossils fossilized mosquito resurrect dinosaurs?Jurassic Park cloning video a Fossilized Mosquito Resurrect Dinosaurs? DNews (2:35) B: ii. What do students already know? (Students’ Prior Knowledge)There are many common alternate conceptions in evolution, as I have noticed from research/articles, talking to my associate teacher, and speaking with my colleagues. The most common alternate conception in evolution is probably the belief that “humans came from monkeys/chimpanzees”. Others include that survival of the fittest means the strongest always wins; that evolution is no longer occurring; that a new species can arise quickly due to a single mutation; etc. One website I found, which was an amazing resource for the Evolution unit, also lists misconceptions about evolution and their corrections: . Another site does a similar thing, and has a documentary about teaching evolution in schools (Intelligent Design on Trial): . There are also several Youtube videos about evolution misconceptions and their “truths”, which could be a good resource to use for students. Myths and misconceptions about evolution – Alex Gendler (TED-Ed 4:23) animations, but may feel a bit “childish” for older studentsTop 5 Evolution Misconceptions (Super Scienced 3:12) animations – may be more appropriate for older students5 Common Myths About Evolution | Mashable (Mashable 3:07) audio, but great images and interesting factsFacts about Human Evolution (SciShow 12:32) video, probably better after lessonDoesn’t mention misconceptions, but explains human evolution Very engaging, good images, and good graphic representations (eg. phylogenetic tree)To address these alternate conceptions, I created a diagnostic assessment (see below) consisting of 11 True or False questions. I gave this assessment to my students at the beginning of the unit – they had to complete it individually. I didn’t give them the answers. At the end of the unit, I gave them the exact same assessment questionnaire, which they again had to complete individually. I returned their original assessment questionnaire so that they were able to look at how their knowledge had changed over the course of the unit. I then took the questionnaire up with the students, opening up discussion. Many of the students liked comparing their original responses to their current ones. My students were enthusiastic about this questionnaire, but I would have liked it to have been a bit more fun (a group activity rather than an individual questionnaire? Adding images?). SBI3U1 Evolution SurveyIndividually, and without looking up the answers, please indicate whether each of the following statements is true (T) or false (F) in terms of how you think biologists use and understand the term “evolution” today. You DO NOT have to AGREE with the statement for it to be “true”. Your answers will not affect your grade, so don’t worry! Note: In every case below, “evolution” means “biological evolution”.Evolution is a process that includes the origin of life.According to evolution, humans came from monkeys a long time ago.There were other scientists before Charles Darwin to propose the theory of evolution.Evolution is also known as “Natural Selection”.At one point, most Europeans accepted the idea that Earth and all living things could not change and had not changed since their creation.Evolution is something that happened only in the past; it is not happening now.Evolution is something that happens to individual organisms.Evolution means more than just “change”.All the species in the world will eventually become super advanced due to evolution. Evolution has been tested and challenged many times, but has always been supported by the results.According to evolution, new species usually result from major mutations in a single generation.PART C:What Will We Do?Why? (How they will learn and what they will learn)DAY 14Group students based on dinosaur “species” picked up upon entering classroom.“Why did the dinosaurs go extinct?” Guiding question. Have students write their answer on a piece of paper, kept private.Show students 1) a diagram/picture of the diversity of living things 3800 MYA to present day, and 2) a diagram/picture of the diversity of dinosaurs 250 MYA (ie. Dinosaurs first appeared) to 65 MYA (ie. dinosaur extinction). In their groups, have students brainstorm what the diagrams show, possible reasons for the trends, and possible reasons for the extinctions. Have students create a 5-7 minute presentation, showing this information in any way that they want (a skit, an oral presentation, a comic, a story, etc).Have students complete a placemat activity in their groups about the cause of extinction they believe is most accurate (after seeing the variety of causes that the groups have come up with).Teacher read out a scenario about what the Earth was like 3800 MYA to present day, including what happened to the dinosaurs.After the short presentations, show The 6 Craziest Extinctions Ever video and open up a discussion and to consolidate learning. To change up the groups so that each student can get to know each other (helps to create a positive classroom environment). Will also make transitions smoother, since students will already know their groups for the activity.This question will be given to engage students in the lesson. Students will have time to think about the answer to themselves, and to write in on a piece of paper that only they will see. This will activate any prior knowledge and will also act as a self-diagnostic assessment.This allows students to explore the topic before being explained the answer, allowing them to take ownership of their learning, thus increasing engagement and motivation. A diagram provides a quick and easy way for students to obtain information (more engaging than reading a large paragraph). Students will be creative and use critical thinking in order to analyze the diagram. Students will also have to collaborate with group members and share ideas.Students will be able to express their ideas in any format they want. This allows them the flexibility to present in which way best suits their needs. This “freedom” again allows students to take ownership of their learning, increasing engagement and motivation to learn. These presentations will also allow students to see other students’ points of view. It may also be beneficial for the kinesthetic learners.The placemat activity allows discussion among groups, but in a less intimidating (since it is not with the entire class), and more private manner. Students are given the opportunity to self-reflect first, then share answers with the group. Doing this after seeing the presentations may help those who may not have had a great grasp on the causes of extinctions. Students may also compare their placemat responses to their self-diagnostic assessment answers to see if their beliefs changed.Having the teacher read the narrative will get the students interested (rather than reading it like a formal text/paragraph). This may cater to the auditory learners. The teacher may have visuals to make it even more story-like.The video acts as a summary, but also provides further extra information, for those who are keen to learn more. This video may also open up a class discussion, which acts as a consolidation activity. ................
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