Biology 1001: Evolutionary

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Biology 1001Evolutionary Ecological
Perspectives

• Sue Wick
• Sehoya Cotner
• Bruce Fall
• Rebecca Coobs John Nerva
• with Walker Paul!

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Biol. 1001 2nd largest course
Biol. 1009 6th General Biology Program (MCB)
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General Biology Program
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Biol. 1001

• Content evolution, genetics, ecology
• CLE biology with lab environment theme
• Diverse audience 90 non-majors
• History
• Future separate majors course

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Lectures
T/Th, 75 min. assessment exams (3),
quizzes (2/3 grade) instructors 2-3 per
semester (7 total)
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Labs
20 students (60 sections) grad TAs (15-20
per term) assessment quizzes,
presentations, lab reports, papers, homework,
tear-out.
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General Biology Tutorial Room
TA office hours Undergrad tutors Lab
lecture multimedia Exam posting
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Challenges

• Huge lectures (600)
• Multiple instructors
• Exams
• Attendance
• Preparedness
• Morale
• Disengagement
• Reputation

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Challenges

• Huge lectures (600)
• Multiple instructors
• Exams
• Attendance
• Preparedness
• Morale
• Disengagement
• Reputation

Grade distribution A 15-20 B 20-30 C
35-45 D 10-15 F lt 5
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Summary of Work Thus Far

• Sue Spring 2005
• Online quizzes
• Case studies
• Group activity folders
• Bruce Summer 2005
• Unannounced lecture quizzes (35 pts)
• (10 of 12, mult. choice essay)
• Sehoya Fall 2005
• Sue Spring 2006

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Optical scanner
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Sehoya Fall 2005

• In-Class Activities
• Unannounced quizzes
• Assessment

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Activity Vertebrate Phylogenyor, how are the
major vertebrate groups related?

• Organisms lancelet, lamprey, fin fish,
  salamander, turtle, cat (mammal)

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Demo Vertebrate Phylogenyor, how are the major
vertebrate groups related?

• Organisms lancelet, lamprey, fin fish,
  salamander, turtle, cat (mammal)
• How to construct a phylogeny?
• lancelet (nonvertebrate) is the outgroup
• Fill in character table
• Characters vertebral column, hinged jaws, four
  walking legs, amniotic egg, hair
• Replace with 0s 1s.
• Construct a phylogenetic tree based on the
  character table

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Fill in this character table
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Designate ancestral and derived traits (0s and
1s)
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Warning they arent all this easy!
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In-class Quizzes

• Intentions disclosed
• Unannounced
• On previous lectures material
• Some questions designed to be representative of
  exam material
• 3 questions
• Some based on in-class activities

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• 1. In the phylogenetic trees above, numbers
  represent species and the same species are shown
  in both trees. Which two species are represented
  as sister species in Tree 2 but not are not
  represented as sister species in Tree 1?
• A. 1 and 2
• B. 2 and 3
• C. 3 and 4
• D. 6 and 5
• E. The two trees show all the same
  phylogenetic relationships.

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Preliminary Assessment

• Student perceptions of lecture
• Vs Packer F05
• Vs Cotner Sp05
• Student perceptions of utility of in-class
  activities
• Disastrous focus group
• Exam comparison

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Class Lecture Attendance

• Students reporting gt75 attendance
• Cotner F05 94.1
• Cotner S05 83.6
• Packer F05 76.4
• Chi-square 19.503, p0.012
• Students in Cotner F05 more likely to report
  high attendance

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Class Reported Degree of Preparation

• Students who report being very or moderately
  prepared for class
• Cotner F05 47.2
• Cotner S05 63.7
• Packer F05 32.4
• Chi-square 17.636, p0.007
• Students in Cotner F05 are significantly less
  likely to report a high degree of preparedness
  than students in Cotner S05, but more likely
  than students in Packer F05

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Intriguing..?

• Science majors find lectures slightly more useful
  than non-science majors
• Juniors/seniors much more likely not to prepare

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How effective were the activities?(student
reporting)
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Cotner Conclusions

• Quizzes improve attendance
• Activities are perceived as effective
• Most effective activities are most structured
• Quizzes/activities dont seem to have dramatic
  effect on exam performance

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Sue Spring 2006

• Case studies
• day 1 interrupted cs on scientific method
• 5-7 others through semester inherited human
  disease sexual selection in fish fir, moose
  wolf of Isle Royale etc.

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• Ceaseless formative assessments!
• group work (in folders) genetics problems gene
  combinations in meiosis mushroom burger carbon
  cycle experimental design
• on-line study questions
• individual essays, summaries, diagrams, concept
  maps (into folders, on NCR paper, ungraded but
  reviewed in next class)

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• In-class quizzes
• Guiding students to take responsibility,
• see course in perspective metacognition
• course and unit objectives in syllabus (Blooms
  taxonomy)
• daily overview, expectations at start and end of
  class
• harp on rationale for and utility of the frequent
  assessments

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Exam Comparison
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Evolution by Natural Selection Is it testable?

• In pairs share ideas develop an idea for an
  experiment to share with the class
• What organisms will you study?
• What data will you collect?
• Will you perform any sort of experimental
  manipulation?
• Write this down.
• Be specific

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Evolution by Intelligent Design Is it testable?
Individually design an experiment to test the
hypothesis that intelligent design leads to
evolutionary change What organisms will you
study? What data will you collect? Will you
perform any sort of experimental
manipulation? Write this down.
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Features of Science

• Empirical - data from observation,
  experimentation
• Systematic - built on organizing principles
• Logical
• Testable - repeatable
• Natural (materialistic) explanations
• Open to change
• Also lack of evidence cannot be used to support
  scientific hypotheses!!

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Why do fireflies glow?
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A few hypotheses

• To attract a mate
• To ward off predators (aposematic display)
• Predation (via mimicry of mating display)
  Photinus example in text, p.1182.