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Table 1 Inventory of concepts, activities, and thinking skills in the Natural Selection and Species and Speciation modules

From: Interactive Evolution Modules Promote Conceptual Change

Natural selection

Concepts

Activities and thinking skills

Populations evolve; individuals do not evolve

Accompany Darwin on a virtual field trip, contrasting Darwin’s reasoning about the interaction, chance, and heredity with widely held misconceptions

Natural selection is not a random process

 

Genetic mutations that produce phenotypic variations occur randomly. They are not an intentional response of organisms

Play the “Fitness Fever” game, scoring points for analyzing fitness of genotypes and selecting changes that enhance fitness

Natural selection acts on existing phenotypic variation; it does not cause variation

Play the role of a predator feeding on a population of peppered moths over three generations

Phenotypes that allow organisms to survive and reproduce in the environment will increase over time relative to other phenotypes

Calculate changes in allele frequencies due to predation and appraise evidence for microevolution of the population

Species and speciation

Concepts

Activities and thinking skills

Species definitions vary, e.g. morphological vs. biological vs. phylogenetic

Classify frog population into species categories, applying the biological, morphological, and phylogenetic species definitions

Species are composed of a number of different populations

Deconstruct evolutionary and geological events leading to the distribution of modern-day Fuschia species

Evolution of new species can occur allopatrically or sympatrically

Interpret phylogenetic and biogeographical evidence to analyze hypotheses explaining observed patterns of speciation

Lack of gene flow, or reproductive isolation, between populations leads to speciation

Evaluate several types of evidence and judge whether populations constitute separate species in two case studies; one involving mosquitoes and a second involving panthers