Students often hold strong attitudes regarding topics they encounter during their studies, and many instructors feel that these attitudes can have strong effects on students' performance. We characterized students' attitudes toward evolution and investigated the influence of students' attitudes (pre-course and post-course) regarding evolution on…

DEVELOPED AND SUBJECTIVELY EVALUATED ARE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS FOR USE IN AN INTRODUCTORY COLLEGE LEVEL GENERAL EDUCATION BIOLOGY COURSE, WHICH EMPHASIZES THE DYNAMIC AND INVESTIGATIVE ASPECTS OF SCIENCE. THE MATERIALS, WHICH USE A CASE HISTORY APPROACH, WERE DEVELOPED BY EDITING EXCERPTS FROM CLASSICAL SCIENTIFIC PAPERS WITH ADEQUATE EDITORIAL…

Provides rules for a game which simulates selection pressures on a hominid group. Objectives include an appreciation of how selectivity works, an understanding of how abiotic factors are able to influence a population, and how interactions within the population can influence the group. (JM)

This book was designed for middle and junior high school science classes and focuses on island biogeography, ecology, and evolution. Sections include: (1) "Galapagos: Frame of Reference"; (2) "Ecology and Islands"; and (3) "Evolution." Nineteen standards-based activities use the Galapagos Islands as a running theme…

Describes a one month intensive course, offered at Westminster College, entitled Science and Literature: A Study in Values.'' The interdisciplinary course is an attempt to break down the barriers of specialization, and to focus on the reactions of students, scientists, and humanists to Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection. (JR)

Discusses the problems of teaching time concepts to children. Suggests alternatives to the traditional time line. Describes the use of bottles and boxes as symbols of units of time when encouraging children to visualize and understand time. Provides information which will assist teachers in using these techniques. (KO)

Describes exercises in which tabs from aluminum beverage cans are used to introduce principles of classification, biostratigraphy, and evolution. Provides diagrams which represent dorsal and ventral views of species and a table which graphs units of time in relation to species duration. (RT)

Describes three episodes illustrating teacher's and preservice teacher's difficulties in teaching evolution. Presents a series of activities for teaching evolution using the conceptual change approach to teaching science. (PR)

Describes the following examples of natural selection for use in science instruction: sickle-cell anemia and human beings, clogged crabs, the rounding of the human head, shell color in land snails, pollinator behavior and flower color, copper tolerance in a grass, lizards and quick change, and Darwin's finches. (PR)

This study explored how some college students understand the nature of the theory of evolution and how they evaluate its scientific status. We conducted semistructured interviews with 15 college biology seniors in which we asked them to explain why they think evolution assumes the status of a scientific theory, how it compares to other scientific…

In 1925, Williams Jennings Bryan, a former congressman from Nebraska and a former Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson, spent two agonizing weeks defending his religious faith that cost him his life a month after. Bryan was a prosecutor of high school teacher John Scopes, who had violated Tennessee state law by teaching the theory of evolution.…

A proactive instructional strategy for teaching evolution, which consists of the use of small group and peer discussion, is presented. While teaching about evolution, the teachers should consider and address the needs of the students and see the practical implications of the evolutionary theory by overcoming apprehension, misunderstanding and…

Contemporary mathematics education is at a crossroads. It has become exposed to forces, both static and dynamic, that pose a challenge to its traditional place in academia. Mathematics has a long-established status as perhaps the most critical foundation for analytical knowledge. But the manner in which mathematics instructors choose to respond to…

Surveys reveal that many in our society have an inadequate and inaccurate understanding of evolution (Alters & Alters, 2001). Much of this can be traced directly to popular misconceptions about the nature of science. This, in turn, can be linked to misrepresentation by those opposed to evolution, although inadequate or ineffective treatment by ill…

Presents experiments using wild birds as predators and pastry as prey and colored stones as background to demonstrate natural selection. Describes the exercise as an exercise in simulating natural selection. (Author/CW)