Hi all several weeks ago I posted a request for ideas for 1st year evolution =20=
labs. Below is a summary of the responses I got. Many thanks to =20 those who contributed ideas. cheers adam __________________________________________________________ Just a quick response. I've used freeware called Populus for years, =20 sure you have heard of it, if not used it before. This is really a =20 population ecology simulation/modeling program developed by Don =20 Alstad at the University of Minnesota. But, there is a nice model on =20= genetic drift which works well, helps students understand the impact =20 of drift on genetic diversity (heterozygosity) in populations of =20 different sizes. Can alter population size, and initial frequency of =20= alleles. Can also permit selfing, if interested in modeling plants. =20= Is free, easy to install and run, and can generate lots of data. =20 Have also used in conservation biology course, and used to estimate =20 minimum viable population size. Populus is worth a look for other =20 models as well, a number of which might be appropriate for an =20 evolution course, especially with the numbers of students you have to =20= deal with. Just a suggestion. Good luck. ____________________________________________________________ I teach an introductory Env. Sci. class online, and we use the =20 biology online labs website they have a fun evolution lab where =20 students change conditions on Darwin and Wallace islands to see how =20 population and beak size change over 300 years....might be worth =20 looking at?!?!?!?! www.biologylabsonline.com ____________________________________________________________ Loathe though I am to toot my own horn, you might want to check out Welden, C. W. and R. A. Hossler. 2003. Evolution in the lab: Biocide resistance in E. coli. The American Biology Teacher 65: 56 - 61. It's an experiment we run every year in an intro bio lab. It takes a couple of weeks, and the bacteria quite reliably evolve measurable resistance to triclosan, a widely-used antibacterial, over that time. If you're interested, I'll send you the step-by-step instructions we give the students, from our lab manual. _____________________________________________________________ 1) Petri dishes with agar and bacteria can be treated with =20 penicillin. Resistant strains grow back. That's artificial natural =20 selection. 2) Definitely take field trips to local fossil deposits and go to the =20= local natural history museum. ________________________________________________________________ Try "Classification and evolution of caminalcules" by Robert =20 Gendron. American Biology Teacher 62(8): 570-576. We do a predation lab using forceps and picking up "prey made of =20 paper squares. It examines changes in allele fequency from =20 generation to generation. I have it in electronic form -- also the =20 caminalcule lab directions. ___________________________________________________________________ Hi, I'm not sure if this would be any help, but here goes...I =20 actually teach middle school science, but I have found several labs =20 that seem to engage even adults. I have seen several cool =20 simulations including hunting for peppered moths. The site is http://=20= www.explorelearning.com/ and http://www.explorelearning.com/=20 index.cfm?method=3DcResource.dspResourcesForCourse&CourseID=3D344 There are some high school ones that are pretty engaging. Students =20 can see the effects of natural selection on both genotypes and =20 phenotypes. There are also quick assessment tools. As an undergrad. =20= I also greatly enjoyed visiting our school's greenhouse to view =20 bizarre plant adaptations. The video "Sexual Encounters of the =20 Floral Kind" was also very good. This may sound silly, but I have =20 used a lab in which groups of 3 to 4 students are given various =20 utensils (fork, spoon, knife, chop sticks, scissors)representing bird =20= beaks and a plate of "prey" which may be anything from beans to =20 candy. Students compete for prey in timed rounds and record their =20 prey each round. You can connect the predation success with fitness =20 (like number of prey =3D number of offspring that year) and then graph =20= the changes in phenotype based on natural selection on "beak" shape. _____________________________________________________________________ Hi. I was part of a group at the University of Virginia that =20 developed an laboratory course in Evolution. This course was funded =20 by NSF, and part of the outreach involved building a website to share =20= evolution orientated lab exercises. There is a short paper detailing =20 the making of the course: http://www.acube.org/volume_30/v30-2p3-8.pdf And the website can be found at: http://faculty.virginia.edu/=20 evolutionlabs/home.html or www.evolutionkills.org. I hope this is helpful. ____________________________________________________________________ A great contact for you would be Dr. Dorothy Boorse. =20 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Gordon's a college in Massachusetts, a =20 small school. She's got some brilliant resources. _____________________________________________________________________ You may wan to try EVODOTS (attached program-safe to download). It's =20 a great simple computer program that illustrates evolution well, I =20 think. ___________________________________________________________________ hello! Im a college sophmore, and last year we did a lab using pill =20 bugs and simulated natural selection. 20 pill bugs of varying size =20 were placed in a cup, and then the cup was placed upside down in a =20 small enclosure (1 square foot) with several shelters. On an =20 arranged signal, the bugs were released and students then tried to =20 use two forks to scoop as many of the 20 pill bugs out of the =20 enclosure into a cup (artificial predation) in a certain time frame. =20= Each pill bug was then timed as it "ran" a distance of 12 inches, and =20= was weighed. Statistical analysis was carried out to determine if =20 advantages (such as speed and size) influence college student =20 predation. If you are interested in this lab, let me know and i'll =20 try to get you more info (like, the lab sheet) ____________________________________________________________________ I am an ecologist (and not an evolutionary ecologist), so I have limited expertise. I will share what I do have. Please understand that these are still being refined! Most of these are adapted from other sources, often the original citation is lost. Please don't credit me. I would like to get a copy of what you are sent, please. Labs: 1. Evidence for Evolution: have students examine fossils, compare molecular clock data (hemoglobin molecule), view photos of embryos of various vertebrates, compare anatomy of various vertebrates (color-coded diagrams with various limbs compared, etc.) 2. Phylogeny: draw diagrams of common taxa, listing characters, etc. Cool exercise comparing phylogenies based on various data: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fosrec/Filson.html 3. Hominoid evolution: using skull models, make standardize observations. Draw trees and guess ID of taxa. 4. Genetic variation: compare various human traits for variability, difficulty in scoring, relative frequency of dominant vs recessive, etc. 5. Population genetics with snacks: investigate genetic drift, recessive lethal allele dynamics, selection models using candy "organisms." 6. Populus. An often-used software, and good. Cheap or free I think. 7. Videos. I show a couple of lectures by S.J. Gould and discuss. 8. Selection for antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Plating repeatedly and counting colonies requires lots of lab time and infrastructure. 9. Natural selection: predation pressure. Use various color bean "prey" and variously-mouthed "predators" (capture beans using bare hand or forceps or spoon or fork etc.) ____________________________________________________________ Have you looked into Avida (http://dllab.caltech.edu/avida/) ? It's =20 a digital/articial life computer program. We used it for an =20 undergraduate evolution lab at Case Western Reserve University. It's =20= a little more difficult initially, but gives a great way to see how =20 complex features can arise from very simple rules. ____________________________________________________________ I was looking through my huge email backlog and saw your post. I =20 have found the open-source java application Populus (http://=20 www.cbs.umn.edu/populus/) very useful in teaching undergrads =20 evolution in the context of an intro bio sequence and in =20 environmental biology. There are a number of canned models available =20 for population biology, but also natural selection, as well as =20 Mendelian and quantitative genetics. One model "woozeology", is a =20 great classroom demo, but many of the other models can form the basis =20= for labs or homework assignments. One of the best things about it is =20 that is easy to do "what if" experiments. There is an excellent help =20= system built in, which is like a mini-primer. It's free, and since it runs on java, is cross platform. It's easy =20 for students to download and install and doesn't use a lot of =20 computing power. I think that it is a great, resource and hope that =20 it works for you. ________________________________ Adam Oliver Brown, Ph.D Dept. of Biology/D=E9p. de biologie University of Ottawa/Universit=E9 d'Ottawa 30 Marie Curie Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1N 6N5 (613) 562-5800 ext. 6308 (613) 562-5486 (fax) (819) 962-7966 (cell) [EMAIL PROTECTED] In English: http://www.bio.uottawa.ca/scripts/mbr-e.php?id=3D68 En fran=E7ais: http://www.bio.uottawa.ca/scripts/mbr-f.php?id=3D68 ________________________________
