Evolution

Module description

In this module, students are invited to falsify or confirm a common statement about evolution. The statements come from people who classify evolution as a non-scientific theory. In an introductory video, several evolution-related opinions are brought up, which are further discussed in groups. Group discussion leads to a myth-busting activity where students seek evidence to falsify or confirm a chosen statement. Based on the nature of this topic, this activity is planned to be conducted based on secondary evidence (searches from the internet). It can follow an open or a guided inquiry format. In the first case, students can search for any reliable sources and apply their plans to be more familiar with the topic. The second option would be more helpful for them as they will have a suggested plan.

Through this activity, students learn to assess the reliability of information/sources (from science/research databases, popular science, other media). After making conclusions, students prepare to present their findings to their classmates in a relevant and convincing manner (e.g., through video posts). In the final activity, they are asked to enact a school headmaster's role and write an answer letter to the parents requesting to exempt their child from lessons on Evolution.

The module consists of teacher material (teaching suggestions, science background information) and student material (intro video, interactive worksheets, fact videos, video tutorial).

Learning objectives targeted by the module

• Media competence: develop students’ skills in:
  • assessing the reliability of information
  • presenting the evidence in a manner relevant to a given audience,
  • reacting adequately and responsibly to fake news and conspiracy theories presented in (social)media.
• Digital competence: develop students’ skills in using digital media while presenting their inquiry results to the other groups.
• Science competence:
  • develop students' understanding of the ways how science knowledge is generated;
  • develop knowledge about evolution;
  • develop their ability to plan and devise procedures for testing hypotheses and interpret the findings.
• Social competence: develop students’ argumentation skills and skills when finding group consensus in controversial climate change related issues.

Expected prior knowledge about evolution

• Life has been on Earth for a long time.
• Present day life forms are related to past life forms.
• Many life forms that once existed have gone extinct.
• Life forms/species change through time.
• Similarities and/or differences among existing organisms.
• Living things have offspring that inherit many traits from their parents but are not exactly identical to their parents.
• Scientific ideas can change through time.
• Scientific theories are built through a collective endeavour.

Module structure

This module consists of 6 activities. The sequence of activities is given in Figure 1 and Table 1 (see below).

Table 1. Learning activities of the radiation module

Requirements for physical environment

Smart phone, computer, internet, display equipment for demonstrating videos

Assessment

Students can be assessed in different ways throughout the module, including science process skills, general competencies, such as argumentation skills, and topic-related content knowledge.

Assessments that could be applied in this module:

Formative:

• Oral/written feedback from the teacher (based on observations, questions asked, etc.) throughout the module, incl. individual / group work.
• Oral/written feedback from the teacher on individual / group worksheets.

Summative:

• Grades assigned by the teacher on the group presentation (based on the students’ video product, slides, etc. and its performance, and students’ ability to provide relevant answers/comments).
• Grades assigned by the teacher on group or individual worksheets.

Teaching suggestions

The module starts from an introductory video for opening up a few opinions about the Theory of Evolution. The aim of the video is to raise further questions rather than giving them immediate answers. It is expected that after watching video 1 and/or video 2 (Activity 1), students in groups feel intrinsically motivated to find out more about the validity of the Theory of Evolution.  An intention is to involve students in committing to activities that relate to a better understanding of the issue – an issue seen by students as relevant to their lives, not simply relevant to the curriculum. It seeks to draw students’ attention to thinking about their prior knowledge and sharing their conceptions and views with peers.

In activity 2, students must choose a common statement about the topic and, in open inquiry format, create a hypothesis / research question that can be falsified / confirmed / answered.

Activity 3 can be conducted in two alternative ways. By the first option, the students create a hypothesis / research question that can be falsified / confirmed / answered and devise their own plan of action in order to obtain the necessary information.

By the other option, students will use the material on the basis of guided inquiry. This material suggests reliable sources that students can refer to. Students are asked to answer specific questions and gradually come to the confirmation or falsification of the chosen statement.

Through juxtaposing media/data sources and their content, students analyse critically their reliability, and make justified conclusions based on the evidence found. As reliability assessment can be a real challenge for students, the student material is supplied with a tool that students can use when searching and analysing the information. Also, the teacher could explain its use by demonstrating and analysing both reliable and less reliable sources as learning examples before the students start to implement this tool on their own.

In order to learn how to communicate their findings, students are guided to produce a video poster, slide show, etc. (Activity 4). Student material is provided with criteria the produced material should fulfil. These criteria can be used formatively for self-assessment by students during the process and for peer assessment when presenting the video and answering to the questions of their peers and the teacher (Activity 5). For the last, students can use the following assessment tool to give feedback to the other groups.

In activity 6, students are invited to solve a case - they are asked to enact the role of a school headmaster and write a response to the parents of one of the students with a request to exempt their child from lessons on the topic of Evolution theory and from studying it because the creationist approach to the origin of the Earth and life is advocated at home. Here, students can use their imagination and critical thinking to justify the study of Evolution theory, taking partially a perspective of people with supposedly different beliefs and trying to indicate the potential worth or benefit from their point of view while, at the same time, explaining the organisational position in the question.