Table 2 Brief description of teaching scenarios

1

Similarities and differences

Students observe pictures of organs belonging to different organisms, learn how to interpret a phylogenetic tree and guided to conclude common descent using classification, cross-matching, and discussion

C → E

I ↔ E

C → I

I ↔ E

C ↔ E

I ↔ C

(All)

2

Mitosis-Meiosis

They collect data from chromosome tabs, create and use model organisms, make predictions, and describe and discuss how the activity is related to theoretical terms, focusing on the analogies

C ↔ E

I ↔ C

All

3

Mutations

They play a Chinese whisperer’ s game, link the activity with ideas through cross-matching, justify the observed differences using theoretical terms

C ↔ E

I → C

All

4

Natural selection

They pretend to be birds competing for seed collection, record and process their data, draw conclusions and describe the phenomenon under study

C → E

E → I

I ↔ C

All

5

Genetic drift

They simulate genetic drift using pom-poms, record and analyze data and make predictions

C → E

I → E

C → I

All

6

Evolution’ s mechanisms in action

Using a digital simulation, they test given scenarios or make new ones in order to investigate how evolution mechanisms affect population sizes

C → E

I → C

All