LINC»Projects/Processes LeBlanc Evolution

PROJECT: CHANGES OVER TIME | EVOLUTION

TEACHER: JESSICA LEBLANC

SCHOOL: CENTRAL LAFOURCHE HIGH SCHOOL

CONTENT: Science/Biology

GRADE LEVELS: 10th and 11th

OBJECTIVES:
The student should be able to:

• Analyze evidence on biological evolution utilizing descriptions of existing investigations, computer models, and fossil records (LS 14) ANALYSIS

• Explain how DNA evidence and the fossil record support Darwin’s theory of evolution (LS 16)
COMPREHENSION

• Compare structure to function of organs in a variety of organisms (LS 33) ANALYSIS

• Determine the relative ages of rock layers in a geologic profile or cross section (ESS 19) APPLICATION

• Use data from radioactive dating techniques to estimate the age of earth materials (ESS 18) APPLICATION

• Analyze data related to a variety of natural processes to determine the time frame of the changes involved (e.g., formation of sedimentary rock layers, deposition of ash layers, fossilization of plant or animal species) (ESS 22) ANALYSIS

VISUAL ARTS OBJECTIVES (benchmarks from the Louisiana Arts Contents Standards)

• Apply a variety of media, techniques, technologies, and processes for visual expression and communication (VA-CE-H2) APPLICATION

• Produce imaginative works of art generated from individual and group ideas (VA-CE-H5) APPLICATION

• Produce works of art that describe and connect art with other disciplines (VA-CE-H6) APPLICATION

• Critique works of art using advanced art vocabulary (VA-CA-H4) EVALUATION

TIME: 45 minutes

MATERIALS
Internet-ready computer equipped with Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, etc.) and Microsoft Paint
LCD projector w/ document arm
Pretest
Handouts
Teacher-created handout for video clips
Teacher-created handout for homologous structures
Industrial Melanism Laboratory Guide
Newspaper
White paper
Hole-punch
Timer
Forceps
Teacher-created cardstock handout of blocks with moth outlines
Teacher-created study guide
     4. Copy paper for illustrations
     5. Pencils
     6. Color pencils (in warm and cool colors)
     7. Posttest
     8. Evolution: Boxed Set (ISBN # 1-578078-56-3)
     9. Teacher’s notes on evolution (PowerPoint)

INTRODUCTION/PREPARATION/ANTICIPATORY SET:
Students will take a pretest (Appendix E) on art and evolution concepts. Teacher will show class online video clips (approximately 32 minutes total) from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution. Clips include “Isn’t Evolution Just a Theory?” (6:06), “Who Was Charles Darwin?” (6:38), “How Do We Know Evolution Happens?” (7:05), “How Does Evolution Really Work?” (6:41), “Did Humans Evolve?” (5:34), and “Why Does Evolution Matter?” (6:19). After students view each of the clips, the teacher will lead the class in a discussion about the students’ previously-held views on evolution to assess students’ background knowledge. Students will complete a teacher-created handout (Appendix A) covering concepts from the videos to assess students’ understanding of basic evolutionary concepts.

ACTIVITY:
Teach/Model: The teacher will present the major points of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, explain the importance of natural selection on the evolution of species using Darwin’s finches of the Galapagos Islands as an example (OBJ 1), present fossil evidence of evolution (OBJ 2), present and model use of radiometric dating to determine approximate age of fossils (OBJ 5), present and model use of analyzing rock layers to determine relative age (OBJ 4), and present and model the analysis of the natural processes involved in changing rock (OBJ 6).

Guided practice: As a class, students will explain in their own words the major points of Darwin’s theory (OBJ 1). As a class, students will explain in their own words how fossil evidence supports Darwin’s theory of evolution (OBJ 2). The teacher will show students charts of radioactive decay of isotopes and have the class state the age of a fossil based on the amount of decay (OBJ 5). The teacher will show students pictures of various rock formations including fossils and have the class state the relative age of the fossils using knowledge of rock-changing processes (OBJs 4 and 6).

Independent practice: This activity will begin in class and finish as a home assignment. Students will independently illustrate the major points of Darwin’s theory (OBJs 1, 7, and 9). Students will explain fossil evidence of how a dog-like organism could become a whale-like organism using the mechanism of natural selection (OBJ 2). Students will determine the age of the Earth using radiometric dating (OBJ 5). Students will use knowledge of rock changing events and changes in value to create a picture of a rock formation including fossils. Students will then write an analysis of the relative ages of the rock layers in their picture (OBJs 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9).

Closure: Students will reflect on new information they learned throughout the lesson as part of a reflective journal. Students will share their journals with the class.

Day 2
Review home assignment for understanding and evaluate classmates’ art (OBJ 10).

Teaching/Modeling: The teacher will present information on relatedness of species using DNA evidence (OBJ 2). The teacher will present information on homologous and vestigial structures (OBJ 3).

Guided Practice: The teacher will show DNA sequences to the class and have students analyze the relatedness of two or more species (OBJ 2). As a class, students will explain in their own words the argument for homologous structures and vestigial structures as evidence of evolution (OBJ 3).

Independent practice: This activity will begin in class and finish as a home assignment. Students will use knowledge of warm and cool colors to illustrate the relatedness of species using DNA evidence. Warm colors will represent sequences of DNA that two species have in common. Cool colors will represent sequences of DNA in which two species differ (OBJs 2, 7, and 9). Students will complete a teacher-created worksheet (Appendix B) on homologous structures (OBJ 3).

Closure: Students will reflect on new information they learned throughout the lesson as part of a reflective journal. Students will share their journals with the class.

Day 3
Review home assignment for understanding and evaluate classmates’ art (OBJ 10).

Teaching/Modeling: The teacher will present current evidence for evolution including industrial melanism, antibiotic and drug resistance (video clip on drug-resistant HIV), artificial selection (OBJ 1).

Guided Practice: Students will perform the Industrial Melanism Laboratory activity (Appendix D) in cooperative groups with teacher assistance (OBJ 1).

Independent Practice: This activity will begin in class and finish as a home assignment. Students will use knowledge of value, techniques to create value changes, and positive and negative space to depict natural selection’s effect on the changes of the peppered moths of England. Students will be given paper with 4 blocks, each containing the outline of a moth (Appendix C). Students will create value changes to depict light-colored moths on light and dark backgrounds and dark-colored moths on light and dark backgrounds; students will use the terms similar and contrasting values to describe their art (OBJ 1). Students will evaluate classmates’ art (OBJ 10).

Closure: Students will reflect on new information they learned throughout the lesson as part of a reflective journal. Students will share their journals with the class.

Day 4
Lesson Extension for Higher Order Thinking Skills
Review home assignment for understanding and evaluate classmates’ art (OBJ 10).

Teaching/Modeling: The teacher will remind students that Darwin had no knowledge of genetics, DNA, mutations, etc., but made his points strictly on observations. The teacher will model how an organism may change through natural selection due to environmental pressures/changes (OBJs 1 and 3).

Guided Practice: Students will describe the changes in a teacher-chosen organism based on teacher-chosen environmental changes (OBJs 1 and 3).

Independent Practice: The teacher will divide the class into small groups and assign each group of students a specific ecosystem (e.g., tundra, rainforest, savanna, coral reef, desert, grassland) and have the students list the characteristics of each (students may use background knowledge and textbook as resources). Students will identify a predominant animal that lives in that ecosystem along with its characteristics and its needs. Students will identify an environment-changing event (e.g. global warming, salt-water intrusion, pollution, melting of polar ice caps) thereby altering some of the characteristics of the ecosystem (e.g., grassland becomes desert, desert becomes tundra, coral reef becomes open ocean). Students will infer/predict if their animal would be able to survive in the new ecosystem. The students will discuss evolutionary characteristics of those organisms and what must change in order for that species to survive (OBJs 1 and 3).
Individually, students will then create a cartoon/storyboard of the changes in the environment and subsequent changes to their species. An evolutionary timeline should be estimated/established and included in their pictures. Students will use previous knowledge of warm and cool colors to illustrate climate changes (OBJs 7, 8, and 9). Students will evaluate their own work and their classmates’ work for choices in the adapted characteristics of their species and appropriate use of color (OBJ 10).

Closure: Students will complete teacher-made study guide for formal assessment.

Day 5
The students will take a posttest (Appendix E). Students will also take a formal exam on information covered throughout the unit. Students will go to the computer lab to recreate their story boards (with possible editing from peer reviews) using Microsoft Paint.

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT:
Pretest
Teacher observation/monitoring throughout class discussion and guided practice
Evaluation of independent practice and home assignments
Evaluation of students’ reflective journals
Evaluation of laboratory analysis
Posttest

ART CONTENT/CONCEPTS:
Visual Arts: This lesson is integrated with visual arts activities to enhance student understanding of DNA evidence for evolution and natural selection.
Technology: This lesson is integrated with technology activities (online videos, evolution DVDs) to enhance student understanding of evolutionary concepts.
Math: This lesson is integrated with math concepts. Students must be able to read and interpret radiometric dating graphs.

COMPREHENSIVE CURRICULUM, GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS AND STANDARDS/BENCHMARKS:
Science as Inquiry Grade Level Expectations (LA Department of Education Benchmarks)
SI 6 Use technology when appropriate to enhance laboratory investigations (SI-H-A3)
SI 7 Choose appropriate models to explain scientific knowledge or experimental results (e.g., objects, mathematical relationships, plans, schemes, examples, role-playing, computer simulations) (SI-H-A4)
SI 8 Give an example of how new scientific data can cause an existing scientific explanation to be supported, revised, or rejected (SI-H-A5)
SI 11 Evaluate selected theories based on supporting scientific evidence (SI-H-B1)
SI 13 Identify scientific evidence that has caused modifications in previously accepted theories (SI-H-B2)

MODIFICATIONS | ACCOMODATIONS:
Copies of lecture notes provided for 504 students with “copy of notes” listed as accommodation on IAP
Day 1 set induction includes video clips for visual and auditory learners
Drawing activities are included for visual and tactile learners
Cooperative grouping is utilized for small group and peer teaching accommodations
Industrial Melanism Laboratory activity includes use of forceps for tactile learners

TEACHER'S REFLECTION:
Although I’ve taught this evolution unit several times before, I was unsure how the art-integration would enhance student learning and how much longer the art concepts would take to teach. I highly recommend spending five 90-minute periods for this lesson to ensure that all of the art activities can be integrated; according to the students’ reflective journals, most stated that the activities helped them to understand the concepts. In fact, during the formal exam, I noticed students looking around at the posted artwork around the room for inspiration (there were no test item answers in the artwork).

One thing that quickly became evident while I was teaching was how easily art can be integrated. As I was describing the relative dating assignment to my honors class, I realized that the fossils in their layers could be objective, geometric, abstract, etc. shapes. Also, as we covered the worksheet on homologous structures, I thought that it would be possible to have students create enlarged drawings of the forelimbs of various animals (perhaps in groups) and use the techniques they learned to create value changes to highlight the similarities among the anatomical structure of the forelimbs (hatch the humerus, stipple the ulna, etc.)

I did not have time to go to computer lab to have students recreate their comic strips using Microsoft Paint; however, I plan to do that next week during our standardized testing administration (usually that week is considered a ‘dead’ week as teachers are not allowed to give formal tests).

After grading the formal tests of the students, I noticed a marked improvement in the quality of their constructed response questions. The average grade on this semester’s Unit 3 Exam was a 3.6 A compared to last semester’s exam scores which averaged a 2.8 B. I used the same formal exam each semester.

RESOURCES:
Louisiana State Department of Education Comprehensive Curriculum for Biology
Louisiana Arts Content Standards—Bulletin 1963
Louisiana Public Broadcasting (www.pbs.org)
Biology Textbook—Holt Biology
Holt Biology Industrial Melanism Laboratory
www.encarta.msn.com
www.zoology.ubc.ca
www.bill.srnr.arizona.edu
www.library.thinkquest.org
www.coe.west.asu.edu
www.evolution.berkely.edu
www.geologyrocks.co.uk
www.palaeos.com
www3.interscience.wiley.com
www.arnica.scustan.edu
www.biolessons.com
www.geology.ohio-state.edu
www.bbc.co.uk
www.ichthus.info
www.thecoloringspot.com
http://www6.district125.k12.il.us/~nfischer/Moth/darkmoth.htm
http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/peppermoth_paper.html