Using NOVA Labs Evolution Lab

Last week in Analytical Biology (Honors Bio), we began our Comparative Reproduction Unit. To get us doing some comparing, we did Mission 1 and Mission 2 of the NOVA Labs Evolution Lab. After watching a brief video and answering a few questions, students are off to building phylogenetic trees based on similarities and differences between different organisms.

The kids loved it, as it is set up more like a game than studying. I like that you can try out your tree and if it doesn't work (if dots fall off of the tree), you can readjust and try again. You can also click on the magnifying glass icon to get more information about the organisms you are trying to compare. This information is helpful for knowing how to put the tree together.

Although I only asked them to complete the first two missions, many students went on to the other missions--even though they covered topics that we haven't seen yet, namely DNA similarities to build trees. One student asked permission if she could complete all of the missions on her own. Of course!

One of the relationships they were surprised about was that a fungus was more closely related to animals than to plants. It led to some discussions about heterotrophs and autotrophs.

I set up a classroom in mypbslearningmedia.org and then could push out the assignment to my students through Google Classroom. The process isn't perfectly smooth, but all of my students found their way into the missions without too much help, and several students helped others to navigate their way in.

As students get further into the trees, they get more complicated. There is certainly some frustration as the trees get more difficult, but one student will figure it out and their celebration of figuring it out tends to encourage others to press on.

There are questions throughout to keep students focused on the learning that's happening. it also gives them an introduction to cladograms that they will have to interpret on the Regents exam in June, so that's another plus for this activity.

The Great Clade Race

Last year I went to an AP Biology workshop and the presenter shared several resources with us.  One of the resources was The Great Clade Race by David W. Goldsmith. This activity first appeared in The American Biology Teacher, 65(9):679-682. 2003. Here is one link to that article. There are several other resources associated with the Great Clade Race here. Our presenter also shared a set of student questions for the students to use as they walked through the activity.  I reworked that sheet to better flow with my class.  Here is my adapted version of the student sheets.

Each student lab group receives a huge piece of paper, a set of markers, and a set of racer cards that have been stamped along the pathway they take in the race.  Students use the cards to determine what path each racer took to get to the finish line. I encourage each group to plan their race course out on scrap paper first, and then move on to the big paper when they're happy with their map.  Initially, students tell me this is impossible, but after some struggle, they all figure it out.  All the lab groups draw the race out on their huge sheets of paper and we compare them.  At first they exclaim that theirs is different from another, but then they realize the paths are just rotated around a branch point. This leads into the understanding that cladograms can pivot at branch points and still be the same cladogram.

Once they're feeling fairly confident in their cladogram skills, we add another racer--who of course doesn't easily fit within the original paths of the race.  Eventually, they figure out that they have to draw in a checkpoint a second time to get him out of the race--an analogous trait!

Then we're ready to move onto classifying organisms, and so they move onto their clade critters.  In this part they also make a table comparing the characteristics and use it to help them make their new cladograms.  I love how this lab pulls in so many concepts in a step-wise manner.