BioEd Presentations
Many of the speakers who spoke at BioBd have
agreed that their talks can be listed on the AWC website so that teachers
can access the material and use it in the classroom.
The presentations use the Microsoft Silverlight
browser plug-in. If your Mac or PC does not have Silverlight installed
you will be prompted to download and install it. Once installed you
will need to restart your browser. (On testing we found some presentations don't work well on the Mac but all are fine on the PC.)
The talks are listed alphabetically based on the surname of the presenter.
Unnatural Selection
- a play written by acclaimed writer Bernard Beckett to actively engage young people in biological education. “Julia is preparing a presentation on Evolution for a Breakfast Television slot. Julia's best friend Sophie has met a man, Max, who might just be the one. Max however is a Creationist and Sophie begs Julia to consider changing her topic. Meanwhile Amanda, television producer, is struggling to understand the concepts and is asking Julia to make it 'a little bit simpler.' And then Max falls for Julia...” Presentation...
Azon-Jacometti, Marco
Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
Enhanced soil biodiversity increases biological control of Botrytis
cinerea
Botrytis cinerea causes botrytis rot, a disease that costs
the New Zealand wine industry about $40million/yr. These costs largely
comprise fungicide applications, which damage the environment, lead
to resistance in the fungus, damage ecosystems and negatively impact
on marketing. In this work, mulches made from organic waste-stream
materials were used to improve the soil environment and enhance soil
biological activity which competed with B. cinerea for space
and resources. This competition, coupled with elevated vine resistance
to the disease, reduced botrytis rot on grapes to a level where fungicides
were not required. Various environmental and vine quality parameters
were also improved. Improvements to soil quality included increased
soil moisture and nutrient levels; fruit quality improvements included
grape skin strength, phenolic levels and sugar concentration. Effective
science communication to school students about the implications of
these results will also be discussed. Presentation...
Bay, Jacqueline
Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand
The Evolution of Biology Education in New Zealand
Biological science has undergone exponential growth and change in
the past 150 years. The nature of biological knowledge, the organisation
of the discipline, and the process of biological research have all
changed dramatically. In the same period, secondary school biology
education has experienced extensive growth and change. These changes
have been influenced by advances in biological science, technology,
pedagogy and educational practice. Advances in science and technology
have allowed exponential growth in understanding of biology that has
impacted on society in areas of health, horticulture, agriculture,
sustainability and environmental management. Changes in educational
practice have influenced the ways in which biology is taught and the
contexts within which it is presented. The complexity of the biological
concepts that 21st century society engages with, and the relevance
of biology to daily life mean that development of functional biological
literacy is more complex and potentially more important than ever before.
This paper will trace the evolution of biology education in NZ secondary
schools from 1878 to 2008 and explore the pathways that in partnership,
science and science education can take to lead to a biological education
appropriate for 21st century society. Presentation...
Beckett, Bernard
Hutt Valley High School, Wellington, New Zealand
Talkin' 'bout a revolution
Darwin's dangerous idea has been described as humanity's most profound.
Certainly it has displayed a power to change everything it touches;
biology, medicine, crime fighting, theology, philosophy, computer programming...
only our school curriculum appears to have escaped unscathed.
Given that it is now 150 years since the publication of 'On the Origin
of Species' this response lag seems a little tardy, even by education's
standards.
So just what is it the educators have to fear? What opportunities
are our children are missing out on the classroom, and what can we
do to change this sorry state of affairs? Presentation...
Buckeridge, John
Natural Resources Engineering at RMIT University, Melbourne,
Australia
Barnacles, biologists, bigots and natural selection… Confound and
exterminate the whole tribe!
Over the period 1851-1854, Charles Darwin published four
comprehensive monographs on living and fossil Cirripedia (barnacles).
This work comprises some of his most insightful observations on the
nature of organisms, although surprisingly, except for one or two brief
comments, barnacles are ignored in the seminal 1859 edition of “The
Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”. This paper examines
the level of frustration Darwin experienced with the material he had
at hand, and contemplates how far we, the children of Darwin have evolved
in the last 150 years. It also examines some of the big issues facing
the biosphere, particularly the deleterious environmental changes that
mankind has contributed to, and contemplates the ways we are, and should
be, addressing these in biological science curricula. It closes with
a reflection upon the secularity of biology, and the importance of
ensuring that science is based upon empirical evidence. Presentation...
Buklijas, Tatjana
The Liggins Institute, Universty of Auckland
A History of Evolution of Medicine
The concept of evolution greatly influenced nineteenth-century medicine. Although Darwin himself was more interested in human biology than medicine as such, his concepts informed the work of his (British) medical contemporaries on the nature and causes of diseases and, especially, the recently developed germ theory. At German medical schools—academic powerhouses of the era—professors of anatomy combined evolution with embryology to explain the adult form. But in the twentieth century evolution was largely excluded from medical curricula. Especially in the decades post-Second World War, studies of the ways in which human evolutionary history underpins human health and disease, were seen as dangerously deterministic. Yet by the early 1990s Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams could announce ‘the dawn of Darwinian medicine’. How and why did this change happen? Presentation...
Charleston, Michael
University of Sydney, Australia
Thinking laterally: a story of HIV evolution and how things
may be less than obvious
HIV continues to be a major health problem all over the world, with
AIDS accounting for approximately three million deaths world-wide each
year. We certainly need to know more about how it evolves in
order to find ways to combat it. We do know that it evolves very
fast, and that it almost certainly jumped into the human population
from chimpanzees and another primate called the Sooty Mangabey ---
these correspond to the two major strains HIV1 and HIV2 respectively. HIV
belongs to a genus of viruses called lentiviruses, which includes several
varieties of virus that infect other primates like the chimps and sooty
mangabeys.
So how long have these viruses been infecting primates? On one
hand the evolutionary tree of the viruses looks pretty similar to that
of the primates, which perhaps suggests that the viruses have been
infecting primates for about 25 million years; on the other hand, we
know that HIV evolves significantly within individuals, within months
--- several orders of magnitude faster than the evolutionary rate of
their primate hosts.
This talk is a small exploration of how these two seemingly contradictory
pieces of evidence can be reconciled, using some biology, some probability,
a little programming, and a dash of lateral thinking. Presentation...
Clement, Pierre
University Lyon 1, France
French Teachers' and students' conceptions on Evolution
A survey on teachers' conceptions on Evolution (teaching in Primary School or in upper levels, language or biology) shows that in France (n = 732) 4% of teachers think that God plays an important role in evolution of species. This amount is 98% in Algeria (n = 223), 96% in Morocco (n = 330), 95% in Tunisia (n = 753) and 92% in Senegal (n = 324). More challenging is the amount of antievolutionist teachers' conceptions, related to the origin of life, or to the origin of humankind: less than 2% in France but 92% in Algeria, 86% in Morocco, 70% in Senegal and 62% in Tunisia. Other results coming from this research will be presented and their use in teachers' training will be discussed.
In a French high school of the suburbs of Lyon (Lycée Doisneau in Vaulx-en-Velin), most of the students come from immigration (mainly from these African countries). Their conceptions on evolution can be an indicator (and a challenge) of their cultural (non) integration in France. An inquiry in the last school level (17-18 years old) shows that, before a teaching on evolution, half of students are not convinced by evolution, mainly by the origin of humankind "from monkey". Two teachers (of Biology and Philosophy) worked together to try to change students' conceptions on evolution, organizing debates in their classrooms, as well as workshops and conferences on how define science and religion. The analyse of this innovation can also be used to improve teachers' training. Presentation...
Crozier, Ross
James Cook University, Australia
Darwin and the evolution of sterility
Insects with the highest grade of sociality, termed eusociality, have workers
which are sterile or at least have minimal reproductive capacity. How ‘the
struggle for existence’ could result in the evolution of sterility appears
sight paradoxical, but today we understand this as due to kin selection, under
which reduced reproduction by some individuals is favored if they assist relatives
sufficiently to pass on genes identical to their own. Darwin seems to have
understood this principle to the limits that anyone could with no knowledge
of genetics and hesitant with mathematics. After Darwin, comments by Fisher
and Haldane showed they understood the principle, and Hamilton developed the
basic quantitative framework we have today. Hamilton noticed that the genetic
system of insects such as ants, bees and wasps, with males having only one
set of chromosomes and females two, leads to full sisters being much more closely
related than is the case where both sexes have two sets of chromosomes, as
in humans. He suggested that this asymmetry led to the frequent evolution of
sociality with reproductive altruism in such groups; today we agree, though
with rather different reasoning, and know that this evolution also had a strong
interaction with sex ratios. More recently, Pamilo noted that kin selection
can lead to reduced overall group reproductive success, Wade has suggested
that maternal effect genes might have been important in the evolution and maintenance
of eusociality, and Queller has modelled how genetic imprinting could change
selection. The sequencing of the honeybee genome has accelerated the search
for genes affecting altruism, and facilitated the search in related insects.
A likely early success will be finding the ‘anarchy’ gene reported by Oldroyd,
which controls key aspects of honeybee sociality. Presentation...
Cutler, Steve
New Zealand Marine Studies Centre, Dunedin
Anoraks, crab buckets and geeks: A practical approach to a possible future with more University support of secondary and public education
This oral presentation is like a chocolate-coated ice-cream. The sweet and flavoursome scoops into a University based science extension programme for keen biology students are dipped in a thin coating of a dark, nutritious and mind altering evolutionary paradigm.
Scoop 1: Our most notable, and transportable evolutionary inheritance, the brain. There are no reading centres, no maths centres, no seat of intelligence. How does the gifted brain learn? How does this relate to facilitating learning, particularly learning in biological science?
Scoop 2: How does this address science education in the future /for the future? There is congruence and compatibility between how the gifted brain learns, education for resilience, education for sustainability and evidence of best practice in teaching science that can inform structure and strategy in programme content and design.
Scoop 3: The New Zealand Marine Studies Centre programme has developed and evolved over the past 3 years to being a well respected and appreciated approach for meeting the needs of the gifted, particularly in science. The key aspects of the programmes, with the voice of students, teachers, and parents involved.
The cone: The monitoring, assessment, development and evolution of the programmes. What students, teachers, parents and researchers tell us.
The dip: Why is it important for our future to nurture the gifted and talented, particularly in biological sciences? Presentation...
Dixson, Alan
School of Biological Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington
Sexual Selection and the Origin of Human Mating Systems
Among his many original contributions, Charles Darwin was, in a sense, a pioneer
in studies of sexology. Thus, in his " Descent of Man and Selection in
Relation to Sex (1871), Darwin attempted to apply his ideas concerning sexual
selection in animals to explain the evolution of human sex differences in morphology
and behaviour. However, although he was aware that sexual selection influenced
traits such as body size, weaponry and attractive secondary sexual adornments,
Darwin did not appreciate that the reproductive organs, and patterns of sexual
behaviour have also been influenced by sexual selection during the evolution
of many kinds of animals. Careful comparisons of such traits, and mating systems
in monkeys, apes and human beings can provide important insights into the remote
origins of human sexual behaviour. This lecture focuses upon the origins of
mating systems,patterns of mate choice and sexual behaviour during hominid
evolution in Africa, where anatomically modern humans first appeared, more
than 150,000 years ago. Presentation...
Dress, Andreas
Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, China
Is Darwin's Theory of Evolution "Falsifyable"?
In his autobiography, Sir Karl Popper claimed that Darwin's theory of evolution
is (like his own theory of "Critical Rationalism") NOT a scientific
theory, but metaphysics, as it does not yield any conclusions that lead to
predictions that can be put to a rigourous scientific test by appropriately
designed experiments.
In the lecture, I will discuss at least one such conclusion, viz. the conclusion
that current species evolved from common ancestors along complicated iterated
branching processes that can be represented best by "evolutionary trees".
I will demonstrate that some modern methods for phylogenetic analysis can,
in fact, put this conclusion to a rigourous test. More specifically, there
are methods for phylogenetic analysis that I will review by means of example
which do NOT presuppose the existence of a phylogenetic tree, but rather check
whether or not the given data fit into a tree-like branching pattern. Presentation...
Fissenden, Joanna
Kaikoura High School , New Zealand
A Practical Approach to Evolution
Human Evolution can be a daunting subject to teach and to learn, particularly
as it is a dynamic topic! Year 13 students often complain of its relevance
to them and struggle to understand the significance of events such as controlling
fire or refining tools. At our particular school we found the topic was one
that students were least successful in, had the highest dislike for and least
amount of interest in. We felt we needed to try and change both the attitudes
and level of achievement in the Human Evolution papers. The program we have
used in our school has a practical base rather than theoretical. The students
are basically encouraged to be hands on ‘cave men’ for the duration of the
topic, culminating in a week of stone tool making, fire making, and preparing
food. This presentation is to show what we do and maybe encourage others to
consider some of our basic practicals for use in their own programs. For us
as a school the level of Y13 achievement has significantly improved and it
has become a focal topic for many of our students. Presentation...
Gaff, Holly
Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA
Teaching the biology and ecology of infectious disease through mathematics
Infectious diseases have been a major cause of mortality and morbidity of humans since the beginning of time. Their geographic spread and evolutionary adaptations have posed continuously changing challenges to public health and well-being. Predicting the best practices for the prevention and control of diseases is a difficult task as testing various options would frequently involve unethical and potentially lethal consequences. Additionally, disease dynamics are rarely simple, and so choosing what may appear to be the best intervention could result in completely unexpected results. Mathematical models provide a tool to study infectious diseases without any endangerment. Vector-borne diseases are particularly challenging given the involvement of multiple species. Developing and applying models of diseases can be helpful to identify the best intervention strategies. Examples of this process will be given for tick-borne diseases, mosquito-borne diseases and more. Presentation...
Giordan, Andre
LDES university of Geneva , Switzerland
Teaching and communicating evolution: Proposals for innovative approaches and didactic research
Since Darwin and Wallace published their conclusions, the idea of evolution of life is the basis of biological studies. Developments in genetics and molecular biology have brought forth material evidence of evolutionary phenomena, constantly deepening and consolidating explanatory models. However, evaluations of public knowledge of the subject, including samples of high school graduates with scientific diplomas, have revealed great confusion and broad lack of knowledge. These difficulties are not solely linked to external factors such as religion and ideas related to creationism and “intelligent design”. A number of these problems also originate in the functioning of the scientific community itself. There are still dysfunctions in education, including at the university level, and in communication of these ideas by museums and the media. Researchers writing articles in scientific reviews and organizing exhibits in reputed museums unknowingly include in their presentations traces of finalism and concepts such as Homo sapiens being at the summit of a pyramid of beings! It would seem that the scientific models of evolution have not been fully assimilated. In teaching programs, including university-level, evolutionary knowledge is presented diversely as an intangible fact, an array of phenomena to be explained, a structuring paradigm etc. The links between traditional genetics, population genetics, genomics, paleontology and molecular biology are not clearly established. Evolutionary arguments either remain very implicit, or underlying, or are taught at the end of a program as a “crowning achievement”! Divergences and disagreements between rival scientific schools of thought regarding explanatory methods help maintain pseudo-scientific vagueness. Historical and epistemological approaches – in which researchers are ill prepared – should be more widely introduced in curricula, so as to analyze distorted reasoning processes and more or less clearly defined opposing concepts. Furthermore, mentally integrating the idea of evolution is no simple matter, for it requires going beyond the obvious. Teaching evolution is fraught with pitfalls. Unfortunately, secondary and university textbooks and the usual frontal or constructivist approaches are not up to the task of broadly sharing this knowledge. The answer lies in proposing diverse didactical research in biology that can produce tools and resources to train teachers, communicators and researchers. Presentation...
Gray, Russell
University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Darwinism and the evolution of culture
In The Descent of Man, Darwin (1871) noted that, “The formation of different languages and of distinct species ...are curiously parallel". In this talk I will explore how these "curious parallels" enable us to study the evolution of language and culture in much the same way as we study biological evolution. I will show how methods derived from evolutionary biology can be used to shed light on long standing problems such as the origin of the Indo-Europeans and the peopling of the Pacific. Presentation...
Harris, Kerri-Lee
Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne ,
Australia
Recent trends in biological sciences teaching in Australian
universities
The recent history of university study in the biological sciences
reflects the dynamic nature of the life science disciplines. New fields
of study have emerged, and degrees have diversified in response to
both market-demands and changes within the disciplines. The notion
of a typical biological science degree structure has little meaning
in higher education today. Yet across these diverse courses there are
a number of themes to emerge. There is increasing emphasis on the development
of generic skills, and on interdisciplinary teaching and learning.
Collaborative learning is widely encouraged, and peer assessment has
become a feature of many courses. In this session, the findings from
a recent survey of undergraduate degrees in the life sciences across
Australia will be presented. In particular, the presentation will describe
the range of learning outcomes prioritised, and the overall aims of
such programs. The presentation will also draw upon findings from a
nationwide project on assessment in the biological sciences in Australian
higher education. Finally, the implications of these current changes
for the future of education in the biological sciences will be discussed. Presentation...
Hickford, Jon
Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
Using Gene-Markers for Sustainable Sheep Production: A New Zealand
Biotechnology Lesson
The sheep industry is one of our major export earners with products ranging
from racks of lamb to Merino wool. Sheep are grazed across most of the country
and much of the landscape is both for better and for worse, modified for grazing
animals. A good deal of the hill country of the east coast of both islands
is sustained in tussock grassland by sheep (and cattle) grazing and loss of
grazing pressure, would in many instances lead to invasion by undesirable plant
pests. Despite its prominence, sheep farming is barely sustainable and for
a number of reasons. Among these is poor economic return, especially when balanced
against the high cost of buying land of marginal productivity. This has lead
to a decline in sheep numbers. Sheep farmers are therefore motivated to improve
their balance sheet and reducing input costs is one way of doing this. Breeding
has always been a way of achieving this and for at least the last 8000 years
sheep farmers around the world have manipulated genetics to maximise productivity
while maintaining the robustness of their stock. We have developed genetic
tools called gene-markers to assist with breeding more robust sheep. Specifically,
we have developed DNA tests that can identify sheep that are 1) less likely
to get the hoof disease footrot and 2) die from exposure at birth. These tests
have been sold as commercial products to breeders for a number of years and
have been shown to markedly reduce the incidence of hoof disease and lead to
more lambs surviving. This reduces input costs and/or increases the productivity
of sheep and with footrot has led to a marked decline in the use of antibiotics,
vaccines and foot-bathing chemicals. The underlying technology fits with NCEA
Level 3 Biology teaching, especially Achievement Standard 90718 in which students
need to “Describe applications of biotechnological techniques”. At Lincoln
we regularly host school visits to the Gene-Marker Laboratory and coordinate
this with teaching about gene technologies. Our approach and the technologies
will be discussed. Presentation...
Howe, Christopher
University of Cambridge , UK
The evolution of medieval manuscripts
Evolution depends on the error-prone copying of genetic material, usually
DNA. Biologists can use the differences in sequences of DNA, or the proteins
encoded, to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among organisms, which are
generally depicted as ‘family trees’. A battery of sophisticated computer programs
is available for this purpose. However, living organisms are not the only things
that are reproduced by error-prone copying. In the days before printing, scribes
copied manuscripts individually, and changes were introduced during the copying
process – sometimes accidentally, sometimes deliberately. Manuscript scholars
have long been interested in using differences among texts to reconstruct their
copying history. This process is called stemmatic analysis and shows an obvious
similarity to the construction of evolutionary trees of organisms based on
their DNA or protein sequences. Stemmatic analysis has traditionally been done
manually, which is very laborious. We have been applying the computer programs
of evolutionary biology to manuscript texts to provide powerful stemmatic tools
for manuscript scholars. Reassuringly, the conclusions reached using our computer
programs are very similar to those reached from conventional stemmatic analysis.
Indeed, the parallels between DNA evolution and textual evolution are remarkably
close. I will present our work, with a range of examples including Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales, Dante’s Monarchia (a treatise on political philosophy), and
the New Testament. Presentation...
Huson, Daniel
Tuebingen University, Germany
From the Human Genome to the Metagenome
Metagenomics is an exciting new field of biology in which the aim is to study
microbial communities using DNA sequencing. Typical communities are taken,
for example, from soil, sea water, air, gut content or ancient bones. Traditionally,
bacteria are studied in culture, however more than 99% of all species of bacteria
are deemed unculturable and so direct sequencing seems to be the only way to
study most bacteria. The two basic questions asked in metagenomics are: (1)
What is the taxonomical content of a sample, that is, which species occur in
which proportions? (2) What type of genes play a predominant role in the community?
This presentation will provide an introduction to metagenomics and will make
some suggestions how to explore this topic in the classroom. Presentation...
Larkum, Anthony
School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The Darwin-Fox Papers
In 1828, Charles Darwin followed his second cousin William Darwin Fox to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where Fox was in his final year. Both were studying to enter the Church of England, as so many graduates did in those days. However, they struck up a strong bond of friendship almost immediately and Fox was instrumental in introducing Darwin to College and University life and to the study of “Beetles”. When Fox left for the summer vacation, and to become a clergyman, in 1828, Darwin was bereft and while they met only twice more before the Voyage of the Beagle, we have a series of some forty letters outlining Darwin’s biological and broader scientific development at this critical stage. Fox also urged Darwin to attend the Rev Professor J S Henslow’s public lectures: Fox attended in 1828 and 1829, but it was not until 1830 that Darwin did so. And then a strong life-long friendship began between these two men. It was Henslow who recommended Darwin for the Beagle voyage. Fox also kept a diary of his life at Christ’s College from 1824-26. While this was before Darwin’s arrival, it gives a vivid account of student life at the time and belies Francis Darwin’s assertion that his father had given a false view of Cambridge life at the time: “I gather from some of my father’s contemporaries that he has exaggerated the Bacchanalian nature of these parties”. After the Voyage of the Beagle, the two cousins, continued to correspond, to near the time of Fox’s death in 1880, two years before Darwin’s death. Unfortunately, most of the extant letters are from Darwin to Fox; Fox was an avid collector, much more so than Darwin in some respects. Nevertheless, the one-sided correspondence has provided biographers of Darwin with a rich source of primary material on scientific, social and family affairs from 1828 to 1880. Now the correspondence is enriched by the discovery of a large number of the diaries of Fox, which provide further invaluable information shedding light on many points raised by the correspondence. Presentation...
Leveque, Guy
Cimeos, Saint Doulchard, France
Assisting Darwin digitally
1-A pedagogical software: A Question: Does an ICT tool help to deal with evolutionnist
theory? ? The software « Phylogène ». Le logiciel « Phylogène » ? Pedagogical
software is produced by National Institute of Pedagogical Research. The authors
: Naoum Salamé and Monique Dupuis. ? This software contains : Data : Pictures,
Data: Anatomic and physiological features. With this software students can
building a matrix for comparing, then Showing enclosing boxes, phylogenetic
tree. ? In Biology curriculum in France: in Middle school (11): To class animals
and plants in an evolutive way. Groups enclosing other groups (as Russian dolls)
are built. In High school (last form): to show primary feature and evoluted
feature. A phylogenetic tree can be built. 2- Using Phylogène. For middle school,
classifying in an evolutive way and preparing to evolution theory : choosing
animals, plants, and their evolutive features, pupils can build feature matrix
then use an original display to show species in embroided groups . For High
school building a phylogenetic tree and answer to this question ; “Is sea bream
nearer from shark or from cat?” 3-Our research about use of numerical tools
to learn evolution theory. ? Is this digital tool efficient enough to deal
with evolutive theory? Presentation...
Lombard, François Edmond
LDES Université de Genève , Switzerland
Adapting teacher training to new evolution research approaches
As research methods have evolved to include new genomic approaches, based
on freely available data and tools, an opportunity for proving and teaching
evolution has been translated into teacher training programs in Geneva. The
data from countless entire genomes and tools for comparing and extracting evolution
evidence in conserved patterns, (BLAST, etc.) or building phylogenetic trees
(Phylodendron,…) can be easily accessed via Internet. Ever more research in
evolution is based on sequence analysis, providing new and very strong evidence.
This authentic data and tools can be freely used by any student or teacher,
opening new educational opportunities to explore, test and validate hypotheses.
Possibly the strongest evidence ever is directly available to all schools.
However new knowledge and competencies need to be developed to allow teachers
to integrate these approaches into their classes. Indeed, these new information
processing approaches in biology might be unfamiliar to biologists trained
only a few years ago. As part of a comprehensive teacher training program in
Geneva, evolution teaching and inquiry modules were developed within Geneva
university in a collaboration of researchers in educational science LDES (Prof
Giordan), TECFA and genomics (UniProtKB - Swiss-Prot,) and was deployed in
teacher training programs since 5 years, and the scenario-based modules are
freely available. How to include this new approach of evolution teaching in
various chapters of biology, opportunities for new inquiry tracks for students
will be discussed. Conditions and reasons for uneven acceptance of acceptance
by institutions or teachers, and possible solutions will be discussed. Presentation...
Meikle, Heather
Palmerston North Girls' High School , New Zealand
International Biology Olympiad - the New Zealand Story
The International Biology Olympiad is an annual event which allows gifted
and talented secondary school biologists to meet and share ideas with others
from around the world. The inclusive process of training and selection within
New Zealand will be discussed. The benefits of the training programme for high
achieving Biology students who may not be chosen for the New Zealand team will
also be outlined. Presentation...
Morwood, Mike
University of New England, Australia
Hobbits in Context: The Life, Time and Death of Homo floresiensis
Mike’s talk will summarise current research on Homo floresiensis, a tiny, endemic human species from the island of Flores, Indonesia. The range of primitive morphological traits evident in the type specimen (nicknamed ‘Hobbit’), and in the remains of at least 14 other individuals, indicate that this species is derived from a hominin lineage in Asia that predated the arrival of Homo erectus. The lecture will discuss the significance of these findings in the context of research on other islands in the region, as well as insular evolution and faunal biogeography in general. Presentation...
Paterson, Adrian
Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
Drowning Zealandia, flying moa, ancient mammals: teaching the controversies
from current New Zealand evolutionary science
The study of evolutionary biology is extremely active in current New Zealand
science with many established ideas about the evolution of New Zealand’s biota
being questioned by new research. Rather than waiting for the dust to settle
it is better to engage our students with the ongoing controversies in order
to stimulate their interest and give a better appreciation of how science works.
In this talk I will cover some of the recent studies and their implications,
how to find out more about them and what they mean for evolutionary theory. Presentation...
Phillips, Matthew
Australian National University, Australia
Living Fossils: Platypus and Echnida
The term “living fossil” was coined by Charles Darwin and now is typically
defined morphologically, referring to living species that have remained anatomically
and ecologically very similar to their fossil relatives, which may be hundreds
of millions of years older. Taxa noted by Darwin, such as platypus and South
American lungfish are still textbook living fossil exemplars, despite being
about as morphologically and ecologically distinct from their fossil forebears
respectively as any mammal and fish. In contrast to the morphological definition,
Darwin appears to have been aware that living fossils are often more distinct
than their living non-fossil cousins from their shared ancestors, referring
to living fossils as “aberrant”. Furthermore, Darwin employed a more inclusive
definition in which living fossils, “like fossils, connect to a certain extent
orders now widely separated in the natural scale”. This could be viewed as
a phylogenetic definition of living fossils. I briefly consider vertebrates
and suggest that most supposed living fossil taxa fit Darwin’s phylogenetic
definition, but few fit the morphological definition. The ecological distinctiveness
of most “living fossils” is curious and I consider this in examining long-held
beliefs that such species only survive due to less severe competition with
more “advanced” species. Presentation...
Radits, Franz Johannes
University of Vienna , Austria
Science learning through research in life science projects
In many European countries, the science system attempt to improve their relations
to the public by inviting kids in scientific laboratories offereing the possibibility
of joint research. However, the question must be clarified, how does the concept
of research change due to the participation of children in technical research
projects. An equally important question seeks to identify the structures which
would be suitable for institutional interdisciplinary cooperation between two
socially contrary groups, such as schools and research universities. The present
article presents and discusses the theoretical background and the evaluation
of a working model entitled ”Kids Participation in biological Research” (KiP).
The teachers and students develop and explore their own questions according
to the paradigm of Action Research. This means that solutions
to the problems of “mutual research which go beyond the cultural borders imposed
by school and university“ should not be developed outside the realm of practicing
experts and then transferred into the place of practice. Solutions are to be
developed through repeated bouts of action and reflection of all participants.
This conceptual pattern of action and reflection follows the precepts of reflexive
rationality; the concept was shaped by DONALD SCHÖN (1983) and LAWRENCE STENHOUSE
(1975). The model has yielded many encouraging results dealing with research
(WISEMAN & KNIGHT 2003). First results of the evaluation and expiriences
of paticipatory action research will be presented. Presentation...
Raichvarg, Daniel
University of Burgundy, France
Darwin as a monkey
Many people know the caricature representing Darwin as a monkey swinging from
a tree branch. Some people know that and who the author was : the well-known
and talented caricaturist André Gill. A few scholarly papers such as “Darwin
in caricature : a study in the popularization and dissemination of Evolution”
(Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 2001) deal merely with
Gill. Wikipedia, as well ! Both tell us When and Where it was published. But
they are silent on the Why. Why did André Gill decide to bring out this caricature
in August 1878 and in la Petite Lune ? The story is worth a detour… In fact,
it refers to a criminal case which hit the headlines during 6 months (from
March to September 1878) but quickly faded from popular memory and is hardly
– if not at all – remembered today. However, ten years later, the French writer
Alphonse Daudet’s play Struggle for Wife was an attempt at adapting the story
for the stage. But in 1889 during the Paris great Exhibition, people had rather
climb up on to the Eiffel Tower than care about a man coming down a tree. The
reason why the caricature and the play failed to attract popular attention
may be a significant standpoint from which to examine scientific popular culture.
One hypothesis could be that these media were acting as science critics and
facing an huge obstacle : scienticism. Presentation...
Rodrigo, Allen
Allan Wilson Centre, University of Auckland, New Zealand
The curse of the possible: why science educators are failing the public
The most disheartening phrase that a science educator hears is "But its
possible, isn't it?". The public perception of science as an enterprise
that treats all theories as equally worthy of our attention is wrong but, I
argue, the fault is ours. We have relied on stock phrases ("but
it cannot be tested", "but there's no evidence", etc) that carry
little weight with the lay person. Using the Intelligent Design debate,
I will illustrate why our responses still fail to convince. There is
an appropriate strategy, I think, but it will involve a greater degree of soul-searching
about the nature of science than we have been accustomed to. Presentation...
Semple, Charles
Allan Wilson Centre, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Finding the Needle in the Haystack
The holy grail for evolutionary biologists is to correctly reconstruct the
so-called Tree of Life using the characteristics of present-day species. However,
there are at least a zillion possible trees and so finding the true tree is
like searching for the needle in the haystack. Even on a much smaller (and
more realistic) scale whereby one is searching for the tree that, under some
criterion, best fits a given data set on 20 present-day species, this problem
manifests itself. In this talk, we outline some of the inherent mathematical
difficulties in finding the needles. Presentation...
Simon, Chris
University of Connecticut, USA & Victoria University of Wellington, New
Zealand
Using NZ cicadas to teach Darwin's Origin of Species
The breadth of Charles Darwin’s interests was so great that it is possible
to find comments from this extraordinary thinker on nearly any organism. Cicadas
are no exception. In frequent correspondence with leading entomologists in
the United States, Charles Darwin speculated on the species status of 13- and
17-year periodical cicadas. These recklessly theatrical creatures emerge by
the millions every 13- or 17-years in perfect synchrony. Only two forms of
each life cycle—a large form and a dwarf form—were known in Darwin’s time but
evolutionary studies over the last 50 years have turned up a total of seven
species and revealed a unique mechanisms for their origination. New Zealand
cicadas are not periodical but they are amazingly diverse (more than 50 species)
and equally fascinating. Their diversity is related to climate and landscape
changes over the last 10 million years. Their relatives can be found in Australia
and New Caledonia and appear to have colonized the rest of the world from Australasia.
Within this interesting group of cicadas are many examples that can be used
to illustrate the nature of species and species boundaries. Examples from my
research on the evolution of cicada species will show how knowledge of DNA,
acoustical behavior, geology and ecology have helped to understand the maintenance
and origin of these often overlooked species. Presentation...
Spencer, Hamish
Allan Wilson Centre, University of Otago , New Zealand
Darwin’s Dilemma: Should One Marry One’s Cousin?
Charles Darwin famously agonized about whether or not he should marry his
first cousin, Emma Wedgwood. Well aware of the consequences of inbreeding among
domestic animals and plants, Darwin was concerned about the possibility of
similar effects in humans. In the end, however, his worries did not stop his
proposal, although later, as his own health deteriorated, he became convinced
that their children had inherited their various medical problems as a result.
In Victorian society, first-cousin marriage was not uncommon, especially among
the moneyed classes, but in most Western countries today, such unions are high
stigmatized and extremely rare. I examine the reasons for this change, its
manifestation in laws banning first-cousin marriage in many American states
(and the absence of such laws elsewhere in the West), before discussing the
scientific basis for these views. The topic is of current concern in light
of controversial comments by British politicians about the consequences of
cousin marriage in the Pakistani immigrant population in England. Presentation...
Steel, Mike
Allan Wilson Centre, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Frontiers of phylogeny
Evolutionary tree thinking traces back (at least) to Darwin, yet the subtleties
of devising fast and accurate techniques to find these trees continues to challenge
mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists. In this talk I will
describe how simple mathematical ideas can help us predict when tree reconstruction
methods might be misled, and allow us to develop more accurate ways to constructing
a tree (or network) of life. I will also suggest the type of mathematical skills
that are likely to be the most useful for future students wishing to work in
this area. Presentation...
Sterelny, Kim
Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
The Evolution of Human Natures
There has been a recent boom in the project of placing the human mind in an
evolutionary context; in developing an evolutionary psychology. This overall
project is important and right. But in this paper, I will argue that the most
prominent version of this idea underplays one of our most distinctive capacities:
our ability to function adaptively in informationally challenging but novel
environments. As a consequence, these versions of evolutionary psychology overstate
the invariant and genetically canalised aspects of human psychology, and understate
the adaptive importance of our cognitive plasticity. Part of the Darwinian
message is its rejection of essentialism, of the idea that species have fixed
essences, essences that define the species. Variation at a time and over time
is normal, and is not bound by intrinsic limits. Humans, I shall argue, are
a particularly vivid and distinctive exemplar of this Darwinian message. Individual
development plasticity mediates evolutionary plasticity: we are evolvable because
we are adaptable. Presentation...
Sutherland, Colin
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK
Infectious Diseases Research and Education: What's going on with Human
Parasitic Infections?
Parasitic diseases infect 100's of millions of people across the globe, particularly
in tropical and low income countries. With a particular emphasis on malaria
in all its forms, I will discuss examples of how research is, and in some cases
is not, enhancing education about parasitic diseases in endemic countries.
In particular, I will explore the tension between developed countries' love
affair with investigator-driven research, and the needs of disease control
programmes in Africa and elsewhere for skilled personnel on the ground. Some
recent examples of surprising new findings in malaria will also be presented. Presentation...
Traynor, Lee Cameron
Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Teaching Species Origins
Darwin provided us with competition as the ultimate cause of species diversity, and the Modern Synthesis has elucidated the proximate mechanisms by which species diverge and become independent entities. A problem in the classroom is often that, “Nobody ever saw a new species evolve”. Although this is factual nonsense, there is a feeling that speciation is the “mystery of mysteries” that Herschel once termed. As everyday essentialists, children are not easily able to recognise when or how new species might arise. Beginning with speciations which are happening around us as we speak – polyploidy in angiosperms – I have developed a series of teaching interventions aimed at helping senior high school students explore the nature of species and speciation. Rather than learning the biological species concept by heart, students are encouraged to make and test hypotheses about the reproductive behaviour of incipient species. At the same time their knowledge of cell theory can be used to understand how genome changes affect fertility. This, in turn, enables them to interpret information about current genomes as evidence for speciations past. The interventions place emphasis on the independent use of the scientific method and the consilience of science in biology, not necessarily to replace naïve essentialism, but to extend it to a deeper understanding of speciation in particular and evolution in general. Lee Traynor is Senior Lecturer in English for Science at the Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany and is currently completing a Ph.D. in Biology Education. Presentation...
Winkworth, Richard
School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of the South Pacific
Darwin and Dispersal
For Darwin dispersal was the only possible explanation for the transoceanic
distributions of numerous Southern Hemisphere plants and animals. In his veiw
the landmasses were, and always had been, static. The only way for an organism
to cross between continents was long distance dispersal. Widely accepted for
a century, dispersal was quickly relegated to the rank of irrelevant noise
with the recognition of plate tectonics in the1960s. Vicariance – the idea
that organisms had simply moved around with the landmasses they inhabited –
became the dominant explanation. However, this view has recently been challenged
by evidence from molecular phylogenetic studies. As hard as it may be to believe
genetic data provides compelling evidence that the ancestors of many transoceanic
disjuncts jumped vast marine barriers. Long distance dispersal is again in
fashion. In this talk I will highlight the insights from genetic data that
have lead to this shift thinking as well as some of the other novel insights
molecular data has given us about transoceanic dispersal. Presentation...
Wratten, Steve
Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
The educational oportunities associated with restoring functional
biodiversity to agricultural land
Teaching biodiversity and its value will assume an increased role in New
Zealand school curricula from 2010. The aesthetic, spiritual and conservation
values of biodiversity are well known and are included in the Maori concept
of kaitiakitanga.
However, it is more important than ever to understand and value the ecostysem
services (ES) (nature's services) that biodiversity provides-especially
as current biodiversity loss is at its fastest rate in the history of humanity.
It is usually assumed that biodiversity added to agriculture is inimical
to production-hence the dominance of agricultural monocultures. However,
this is not the case and the relationships between ecosystem functions and
services and biodiversity are currently being actively researched.
An exemplar of this approach is the 'Greening Waipara ' programme in North
Canterbury. A partnership between 50 winegrowers and ecologists is changing
the vineyard landscape-and children's education about biodiversity and its
functions is a key part of that-via the world's first vineyard biodiversity
trails with associated childrens' biodiversity quiz sheets. Presentation...
Yarden, Anat
Department of Science Teaching, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Bridging between the dynamics of biological discoveries and high-school
biology education
Since biology is one of the most dynamic research fields within the natural sciences, the gap between the accumulated knowledge in biology, and the knowledge that is taught in schools, increases rapidly with time. Our long-term objective is to develop means to bridge between the dynamics of biological discoveries and the high school biology teachers and students. Toward this end we attempt to adapt practices employed by scientists to the practices by which students and teachers accumulate and advance their knowledge within the discipline of biology. We developed a concept for learning biology through scientific research articles that are adapted to the knowledge level of high-school biology students, and termed this new text genre adapted-primary-literature (APL). We found that learning biology using APL developed high-school students' inquiry thinking skills, promoted students' engagement with the subject matter as well as their ability to integrate knowledge acquired while learning other biological topics. We also developed a web-based research simulation that makes use of bioinformatics tools, in order to teach high-school biology majors basic ideas in genetics. The research simulation includes interactive problem-solving activities that are based on the human-genome databases and search engines. We found that learning through the research simulation promotes acquisition of a deeper and multidimensional understanding of the genetics domain as well as influences students’ comprehension of the practices and scientific ways of thinking. Taken together, the use of authentic scientific practices has numerous benefits in advancing high-school biology students’ comprehension of the discipline and their scientific literacy. Presentation... |
