Meeting Abstract

P2.48  Wednesday, Jan. 5  Teaching natural selection through performance PRICE, R. M.; University of Washington, Bothell becca.price@uwb.edu

Discussing evolution can create a tense classroom environment in which both proponents of evolution and creationists react defensively. Using an unusual mode of instruction can refocus the timbre of the classroom toward learning. To create such an environment, I developed an inquiry-based exercise that uses performance to teach the fundamentals of the evolutionary process of natural selection. The simulation, which I typically use in class sizes of 45, begins when all but four students distribute themselves throughout a room and strike a pose; they are the “prey.” Two of the remaining students are “predators”, and the last two are recorders that tabulate the way frequencies of traits change. The predators and recorders choose a criterion in secret for selecting prey, for example “hands above the waist”, and then have ten seconds to hunt. Every time a predator touches a prey, that prey “dies”. Then, the prey population reproduces. In this model, the population size remains the same, and survivors reproduce by cloning just before they die. Students model this in the classroom by having the survivors move to a new location and then assume the same posture that they had before. The students who represented prey that were eaten re-enter the population, copying any of the surviving poses. Round 2 begins, and the predators have another ten seconds to hunt. Round 3 follows exactly like Round 2, etc. Three rounds are usually sufficient to demonstrate selection. We conclude with in-class discussion and homework that reinforces understanding of the concepts. I then ask students to design their own performances to model how migration, mutation or genetic drift change allele frequencies in populations. Preliminary evidence suggests that the exercise helps students correct many misconceptions about the process of natural selection.