* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Teacher`s Guide - Discovery Education
Objections to evolution wikipedia , lookup
Natural selection wikipedia , lookup
Sociocultural evolution wikipedia , lookup
Unilineal evolution wikipedia , lookup
Mormon views on evolution wikipedia , lookup
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District wikipedia , lookup
Jewish views on evolution wikipedia , lookup
Punctuated equilibrium wikipedia , lookup
Hindu views on evolution wikipedia , lookup
Hologenome theory of evolution wikipedia , lookup
Acceptance of evolution by religious groups wikipedia , lookup
Genetics and the Origin of Species wikipedia , lookup
Creation and evolution in public education in the United States wikipedia , lookup
Koinophilia wikipedia , lookup
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex wikipedia , lookup
Creation and evolution in public education wikipedia , lookup
Great Books: Origin of Species Teacher’s Guide Grade Level: 9–12 Curriculum Focus: Life Science Lesson Duration: Two class periods Program Description Darwin’s theory of natural selection has provoked acclaim and debate since it was detailed in his Origin of Species in 1859. Explore the book that revolutionized science and culture. The program examines evolutionary theory from its beginnings with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the famous Scopes Monkey trial, and how political leaders such as Adolf Hitler have twisted Darwinian theory and used it for their own purposes. Lesson Plan Student Objectives • Discover that Charles Darwin presented a theory of evolution in 1859 that has been accepted and debated since then. • Produce a timeline to show how botanists, zoologists, geologists, geneticists, and other scientists have contributed to the study of evolution since the 18th century. Materials • Reference materials about the history of the science of evolution • Roll paper • Rulers • Index cards • Staples, pushpins, tape, or another fastening device to attach roll paper to the wall and index cards to the roll paper • Great Books: Origin of Species video Procedures 1. Discuss Charles Darwin and his discoveries about plant and animal life with students. A good way to introduce this topic is to view portions of the Great Books: Origin of Species video. Tell students that they will produce a large-scale timeline, called “The History of the Science of Evolution.” This timeline will have dates and, above or below the dates, will provide details Great Books: Origin of Species Teacher’s Guide 2 about the people who have played major roles in advancing knowledge about the evolution of plants and animals. Go on to tell students that after they collaborate to finish the timeline, they will individually write a brief analysis of what the overall timeline shows. 2. Ask students, perhaps those who most often display mathematical intelligence, to figure out how long a piece of roll paper they should mount horizontally for the timeline, beginning with the year A.D. 1700. (If you have room to give 1 foot to every decade from 1700 to today, students will need at least 30 feet of paper, plus some paper for left and right margins; if you don't have that much room, ask students to calculate a new length per decade or to propose an alternative to ticking off every 10 years.) 3. On the large piece of roll paper—stapled, pinned, or taped to the wall—direct one or several students to draw a continuous horizontal line and to tick off on it the equal segments of 10 years each (or to proceed with the alternative mathematical plan). They should begin on the left with A.D. 1700 and end on the right with the current year. The students should label each tick mark with its corresponding year. Note the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection at 1859. 4. Assign one or more of the following names to individual students or pairs of students; the names are listed here in alphabetical order: • • • • • • • • Bateson, William Buffon, George Crick, Francis, and Watson, James de Vries, Hugo Dobzhansky, Theodosius Eldredge, Niles, and Gould, Stephen Jay Haldane, J.B.S Hardy, G.H., and Weinberg, W. • • • • • • • • • • • Hutton, James Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste Linnaeus, Carolus Lyell, Charles Mayr, Ernst Mendel, Gregor Ray, John Simpson, George Stebbins, G. Ledyard Wallace, Alfred Russel Wegener, Alfred Explain to students that the list consists of scientists who preceded or followed Darwin or worked at the same time as he. It will be each student or pair's responsibility to prepare one or more 3” × 5” cards with information about their assigned scientist's contribution(s) to or against the theory of evolution. The card should also carry the date of the scientist's contribution. Acknowledge that not only Darwin himself but other scientists, too, won and lost favor over time among the scientific community. The final timeline as prepared by your students may carry more than one card for a given scientist in order to show when he was in and out of favor or to show that he contributed more than one idea to the theory of evolution. Since students will be writing about a scientist's work on a small index card, they must write succinctly. Students cannot go into enormous detail; they must make every word count. Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved. Great Books: Origin of Species Teacher’s Guide 3 5. Identify which printed and Internet resources students may use to identify key events in building the theory of evolution. 6. Ask each student or pair to submit a draft of the index card(s) to you for review. If a card needs revision or editing, send the student or pair back to do more research or to focus the writing more. 7. When you've signed off on each card, have students attach them to the roll paper at the appropriate date. 8. After students have finished their individual or paired work, review with them the timeline as a whole. Give students time to study the timeline on their own or in small groups. Then ask each student to write a short analysis of what the timeline says about forming a theory of evolution; three paragraphs will do. Assessment Use the following three-point rubric to evaluate students’ work during this lesson. • 3 points: Students wrote concise and articulate statement on index card of scientist’s contribution(s) to the theory of evolution; included a clearly written analysis with thesis statement and many examples. • 2 points: Students wrote an adequate statement on index card; included an adequately written analysis with thesis statement and some examples. • 1 point: Students wrote an inadequate statement on index card, requiring teacher’s or another student’s input before posting card to timeline; included a weak written analysis lacking meaningful thesis statement and enough examples. Vocabulary eugenics Definition: A science that deals with the improvement (by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed Context: Eugenics is the idea that we should somehow apply principles to make us evolve into a superior species. evolution Definition: A theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved. Great Books: Origin of Species Teacher’s Guide 4 Context: Darwin visualized the progress of evolution as being like a tree of life. heredity Definition: The sum of the qualities genetically derived from one's ancestors Context: In the random shuffle of heredity, each new individual is born slightly different from others. naturalist Definition: A student of natural history, such as a field biologist Context: It took a naturalist and trained observer named Charles Darwin to hold the world up to the microscope of his mind and see what everyone else had seen in a way no one else ever had. natural selection Definition: A natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adjusted to their environment and that leads to the perpetuation of genetic qualities best suited to that particular environment Context: Darwin's explanation for the diversity of animals was based on his theory of natural selection. He reasoned that the more different the members of a species became, the better able they would be to take advantage of diversified places in nature. mutate Definition: To change either the physical relation of chromosomes or the genetic sequence in an organism Context: Unlike bacteria and viruses, which can mutate and adapt with astonishing speed, man cannot. sociobiology Definition: The comparative study of social organization in animals including humans, especially with regard to genetic basis and evolutionary history Context: Sociobiology is a field of study that attempts to understand present-day behaviors such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, or jealousy from an evolutionary perspective. Academic Standards National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences provides guidelines for teaching science in grades K-12 to promote scientific literacy. To view the standards, visit this Web site: http://books.nap.edu/html/nses/html/overview.html#content. This lesson plan addresses the following national standards: Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved. Great Books: Origin of Species Teacher’s Guide • • 5 History and Nature of Science: Science as a human endeavor; Nature of scientific knowledge; Historical perspectives Unifying Concepts and Processes: Evolution and equilibrium Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) McREL’s Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education addresses 14 content areas. To view the standards and benchmarks, visit http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/browse.asp This lesson plan addresses the following national standards: • Science: Life Sciences—Understands biological evolution and the diversity of life • Language Arts: Viewing—Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media; Writing: Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process, Gathers and uses information for research purposes; Reading: Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts Support Materials Develop custom worksheets, educational puzzles, online quizzes, and more with the free teaching tools offered on the Discoveryschool.com Web site. Create and print support materials, or save them to a Custom Classroom account for future use. To learn more, visit • http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/teachingtools.html DVD Content This program is available in an interactive DVD format. The following information and activities are specific to the DVD version. How To Use the DVD The DVD starting screen has the following options: Play Video—This plays the video from start to finish. There are no programmed stops, except by using a remote control. With a computer, depending on the particular software player, a pause button is included with the other video controls. Video Index—Here the video is divided into sections indicated by video thumbnail icons; brief descriptions are noted for each one. Watching all parts in sequence is similar to watching the video from start to finish. To play a particular segment, press Enter on the remote for TV playback; on a Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved. Great Books: Origin of Species Teacher’s Guide 6 computer, click once to highlight a thumbnail and read the accompanying text description and click again to start the video. Curriculum Units—These are specially edited video segments pulled from different sections of the video (see below). These nonlinear segments align with key ideas in the unit of instruction. They include onscreen pre- and post-viewing questions, reproduced below in this Teacher’s Guide. To play a particular segment, press Enter on the TV remote or click once on the Curriculum Unit title on a computer. Standards Link—Selecting this option displays a single screen that lists the national academic standards the video addresses. Teacher Resources—This screen gives the technical support number and Web site address. Video Index I. Introduction (11 min.) An introduction to Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and a discussion of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial in which a teacher was charged with teaching evolution in the classroom. II. History of Evolution (11 min.) A look at evolutionary theory from its beginnings with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck all the way through to Darwin’s theory of natural selection and the modern use of artificial selection. III. Biology and Human Evolution (13 min.) Darwin publishes his theory after a young naturalist writes to him about his own observations of natural selection in Malaysia. Learn about Darwin’s theory at work in modern science. IV. Darwinian Theory Misused (10 min.) Learn about Eve, humankind’s theoretic maternal ancestor. Discover how political leaders such as Adolf Hitler twisted Darwinian theory and used it for their own purposes. Curriculum Units Segment 1. Introduction: Origin of Species Pre-viewing question Q: Why do you think there are so many different plant and animal species? A: Answers will vary. Post-viewing question Q: What is evolution? A: Evolution is a theory that all living things originally came from a small group of organisms. Through mutation and survival of those best adapted to their environment, these organisms evolved over time to become higher life forms. Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved. Great Books: Origin of Species Teacher’s Guide Segment 2. Church vs. Evolution Pre-viewing question Q: Should educators be allowed to teach about controversial subjects? A: Answers will vary. Post-viewing question Q: What was the Scopes Monkey Trial? A: A teacher named John Scopes was brought up on charges that he taught evolution in his public school classroom. He was found guilty and fined $100. Although the verdict was overturned on a technicality, the law against teaching evolution stayed on the books in Tennessee until 1967. Segment 3. Charles Darwin Pre-viewing question Q: What was the industrial revolution? A: A period in history when technology was growing by leaps and bounds. People were experimenting with science and machines, and the steam engine was invented. Post-viewing question Q: Why did Darwin want his essay on natural selection published after his death? A: He was afraid of the response to the theory by the Anglican Church, and was worried that he would be persecuted for coming up with it. Segment 4. Good Breeding Pre-viewing question Q: What is the difference between artificial and natural selection? A: In artificial selection humans have selectively bred for traits and characteristics they desire. In natural selection the best-suited organisms are the strongest, and these are the ones that will reproduce. Post-viewing question Q: How have humans encouraged the evolution of resistance? A: By overmedicating, vaccinating, and attempting to combat all viruses and diseases with aggressive science, we have ensured that only the most resistant bacteria and viruses will survive. After several generations the surviving bacteria or virus becomes resistant to whatever tried to kill it. Segment 5. Human Evolution Pre-viewing question Q: What ancient human traits are no longer be necessary for modern life? A: Answers will vary. Post-viewing question Q: Who was Eve? Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved. 7 Great Books: Origin of Species Teacher’s Guide A: Eve is our theoretic maternal ancestor. Some 200,000 years ago a small group of hominids that have collectively become known as Eve are thought to have begun human ancestry. There may have been anywhere from about 2,000 to 10,000 “Eves.” Segment 6. Misinterpretations of Darwin Pre-viewing question Q: What are some ways Darwin’s theories have been misinterpreted in the modern world? A: Answers will vary. Post-viewing question Q: Why was Darwin uncomfortable with the notion of evolution? A: Evolution implies that an organism is going from a lesser state to something better. Darwin’s definition had no goal or direction. Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved. 8