Selected by Science Teachers from NSTA
 Selected Lesson:
"Chips
are Down"
(Natural Selection)
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WHAT IS ENSIWEB?
This is a collection of classroom lessons
to help high school biology teachers more effectively
teach basic concepts in the areas of evolution and the
nature of science. They were developed and tested during
nine years of summer institutes by biology teachers from across
the nation.
SITE INTEGRITY is maintained through the oversight
by the three co-directors of ENSI:
Dr. Jean Beard (Biology Ed.)
Dr. Craig E. Nelson (Biology)
Dr. Martin Nickels (Anthropology)
and continuous feedback from the many ENSI and SENSI teachers,
professors and other users of this site. Check the People section for photos and bios of these
people.
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THANK YOU
We are especially grateful to theNational Science Foundation
for funding these institutes over the years and for extending
that funding to the development and maintenance of this web site
(NSF/TPE: 88-555-60 and 90-555-85 to Indiana University, and
91-552-59 to San Jose State University). We are also grateful
to Indiana University for allowing us the use of their web server
to make this material freely available to teachers. |
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NEWS, CHANGES, ADDITIONS
27 November 2011
Evolution: Education & Outreach
Journal
Offering Free Access to its Articles in 15 Issues
Until 2012
This journal, with its many excellent articles on
evolution and the teaching of evolution, is kindly allowing
FREE downloads
of any of the articles¬Ý (as PDF files) in their 15
issues,
from now until December 31, 2011.
Click Here for Details.
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23 October 2011
AIDS: Using Evolution
to Solve a Medical Problem
Chimp to Man: The Path of AIDS
Opening paragraph: "Our story begins sometime close to 1921,
somewhere between the Sanaga River in Cameroon and the Congo
River in the former Belgian Congo. It involves chimps and monkeys,
hunters and butchers, “free women” and prostitutes,
syringes and plasma-sellers, evil colonial lawmakers and decent
colonial doctors with the best of intentions. And a virus that,
against all odds, appears to have made it from one ape in the
central African jungle to one Haitian bureaucrat leaving Zaire
for home and then to a few dozen men in California gay bars before
it was even noticed ,Äî about 60 years after its journey
began." Click Here to get
complete article and teaching tips.
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20 September 2011
ANNOUNCEMENTS, UPCOMING EVENTS
1. Richard Dawkins Profile article in NY
Times, Science Section, Sept. 20.¬Ý Interesting and
informative.¬Ý Search NY Times online for article:
“A Knack for Bashing Orthodoxy.”
2. Jane Goodall live broadcast to a theater
near you, Sept. 27.¬Ý See www.FathomEvents.com/jane
for list of theaters nationwide, and tickets.
3. Bio-Survey Opportunity for Harvard Study.¬Ý
Contact Jaimie Miller jmiller@cfa.harvard.edu
before early October.¬Ý Based on misconceptions, for
middle school, high school teachers and classes.
4. HHMI’s “Bones, Stones, and Genes: The
Origin of Modern Humans” ,Äì watch
live Oct. 6 & 7.¬Ý Go to the HHMI site at http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/
to register and see schedule.
5. AIBS/NESCent Evolution Symposium and Teaching Workshop
at the NABT conference in Anaheim, CA, October 14-15.¬Ý
See http://www.aibs.org/events/special-symposia/changing_humans.html¬Ý
for details.
6. Bring Evolution to Your School/Community for Darwin
Day 2012.¬Ý Apply to be a stop on NESCent’s
2012 Darwin Day Roadshow.¬Ý See http://roadshow.nescent.org/
for details and registration (by October 31).¬Ý Or
email Jory Weintraub at jory@nescent.org
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13 May 2011
ANNOUNCEMENTS (Click Here for Details)
Evolution Education Opportunities This
Summer
New Assessment Tool for Misconceptions
from AAAS
New Laetoli Trackway Files Avalible as
HD PDF files
Do-It-Yourself DNA Kit files revised
PowerPoint for Whale Evolution lessons
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1 April 2011
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our ANNUAL
REPORT for 2010 - FINALLY completed? Get an overview
of the ENSIweb changes over the past year - and check out our
HIT counter -
UNBELIEVABLE INCREASE!
MAGIC HOOEY
STICK: New commercial source for multiple Hooey
Sticks, along with teaching strategy and other teacher information
must be obtained with teacher request to webmaster using school email address.
FOOTSTEPS
DATA: There have been teacher requests for published
estimates (by professional paleoanthropologists) of the actual
footlengths and stature (height) of the people who made the Laetoli
tracks. Those data are now listed (from two sources), linked-to
from the Footsteps
in Time lesson, and include some suggested projects and
other actions for students to explore further. The companion
lesson, Lengthy
Relationships, has also been extensively improved (mostly
in its PDF handout).
FOSSIL
PATTERNS in TIME: This article was published in
the February 2011 issue of Science Scope (NSTA
journal for middle school teachers). The article (by ENSI webmaster
Larry Flammer) presents an overview of the Patterns in Time lesson on the ENSI site.
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20 March 2011
NEW: DIGITAL VERSION of the
LAETOLI TOPO TRACKWAY
Thanks to teacher suggestion, we now have a digital
version of the Laetoli Topo trackway. Many teachers over
the past several years have used the full scale enlargement of
this trackway to give their students the exciting opportunity
to walk in the 3.6 million-year-old footsteps of "Lucy"
(Australopithicus afarensis) - and make a number of discoveries
by analyzing those tracks (see our Footsteps in Time and
the Laetoli Trackway Puzzle lessons). Now, you can just
download the very sharp 300 dpi trackway and have it printed
out directly in full scale (5X enlargement) at any print shop.
Click on title above to see how to get the NEW DIGITAL TRACKWAY.
Laetoli Trackway: a Teaching Tool
in South Africa
by
Dr. Terry Hutter in the CESLA outreach project.
Dr. Hutter works in Subsaharan Africa, largely through the CESLA
project that he helped establish, to bring hands-on education
to a wide range of people over much of South Africa, living especially
in rural areas. He has used the Laetoli Topo Trackway
as part of his African Origins presentations, to groups
from elementary through secondary, tertiary and adult groups,
to rural indigenous poor groups throughout South Africa, and
to private schools there. Dr. Hutter has kindly sent us some
of the pictures he's taken of students using the trackway. Some
of them are posted here, which you could use as PPT slides in
your presentations.Click on title to see pictures.
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8 February 2011
REVIEW:
New Pre-Test Tool
to Measure
Understanding of
Natural Selection
AND
Effective Strategy
to Teach
Understanding of
Natural Selection
CLICK
HERE
1. Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection - the "CINS"
test
- a 20-item tool analyzed for reliability to measure accurate
understanding about natural selection
2. Modeling Natural Selection - Using model-based inquiry
and wikis to learn about evolution
AND
Still Another Effective Strategy
for Repairing NS Misconceptions
A Review/Summary
and links from
ENSI Co-Director, Craig E. Nelson
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7 January 2011
WELCOME TO 2011 and the 14th year of ENSIweb
Recent Advances and Research in
Molecular Evolution
from the NESCent/AIBS Evolution Symposium at the
November 2010 NABT Conference in Minneapolis
Videos of illustrated talks from
four leading researchers are now available.
Get a better understanding of "genotype-phenotype"
relationships;
Explore a number of common misconceptions
about evolutionary concepts;
Free teaching resources, activities, papers and short videos.
See Details
Also, see the excellent article on
"Dinosaurs' Living Descendents"
in the
December 2010 issue of the Smithsonian magazine.
Recent discoveries, mostly of feathered dinosaurs in China,
have virtually clinched the dinosaur ancestry connection to today's
birds.
See Smithsonian.com site for the article
with excellent illustrations,
including an interactive version
of the Bird/Dinosaur Family Tree
shown in the article.
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26 September 2010
Additions in Classification
and Tree-Thinking
1. Sample Unit for Classification
and Diversity of Life,
with materials ready to use
2. Added to Phylogenies & Tree-Thinking:
a. David Baums's evolutionary tree QUIZ for pre-post testing
b. Baum's excellent figures for teaching Tree-Thinking - in PowerPoint
c, Access to Peabody Museum materials on Tree-Thinking
d. Access to articles in NSTA and NABT journals - for
members
e. Using "cartoon" figures to expose misconceptions
about family trees and evolution
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17 September 2010
TWO EVOLUTION ENHANCEMENTS:
Using RING SPECIES Demonstration
for Compelling Connection between
Microevolution and Macroevolution
How Do Chromosome Changes
Survive
to Produce New Species?
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17 August 2010
WELCOME BACK!
We have a variety
of upgrades; Most Notably:
PATTERNS
in TIME:
New INQUIRY segment for analyzing pattern
New Pre/Post Quiz
New Accumulation of Traits diagram
MAGIC HOOEY STICK:
New Revised Handout
All keys and explanation removed...
(so unavailable to students)
contact webmaster on school email for info
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19 March 2010
USEFUL
TOOLS for TEACHING
EVOLUTION & NATURE of SCIENCE:
Your Inner Fish - PowerPoint Slides
Update for Ensatina Studies (Step in Speciation)
Short Videos Explaining Evolution
Human Evolution Mosaic - Interactive
Ten Myths About Darwin
Pseudoscience Resources
Comments on Evolution Articles in ABT Feb. 2010 |
16 February 2010
Major Revision of
PATTERNS
in TIME
with easier-to-use "TimeScaleMarkers,"
Student Handout with Info & Directions,
Key to Chronology of Fossil Vertebrates
Updated PDF of the Entire Lesson -
(with Standards met in this lesson) |
4 February 2010
Don't Miss this month's issue of
The American Biology
Teacher
Devoted entirely to articles on Teaching Evolution
Click here
for list of articles and commentary
ALSO - Don't Miss "Creation"
the Book and Film about Darwin's Life
The film is currently playing in more theaters
check local listings
See Review and
Teaching Suggestions
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3 January 2010
A 20-YEAR ENSI RETROSPECT
A brief overview of ENSI's beginnings...
its transition to ENSIWEB...
and ENSIWEB's track record.
NEW
ADDITION to Patterns In
Time:
See the Overview PowerPoint
for Teachers,
along with ideas for its use in the lesson itself
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