Films like Jurassic Park or X-Men present the concept of evolution as exciting and awe-inspiring. Teaching the real science in the classroom, however, often lacks that spark and can be clouded by misconceptions and mistrust.
This gap between engagement and education is not trivial; it can have serious consequences. We are currently seeing an alarming rise in anti-vaccination beliefs and climate change denial, and widespread scepticism toward science.
It has perhaps never been more important for teachers to help students to build “science capital” - the knowledge, experiences, attitudes and support that helps people to connect with science in their everyday lives.
Understanding evolutionary theory is a crucial part of this. To paraphrase the geneticist Professor Steve Jones, genetics is biology’s spelling but evolution is its grammar. Put simply, evolution helps us to make sense of all biological knowledge. Without an understanding of evolution, students might be able to memorise facts about genes, cells or systems, but they are unlikely to fully understand how those seemingly separate concepts are connected.
Teaching evolution
So why isn’t evolution getting the airtime it deserves? A lack of teacher training, combined with a perplexing lack of prominence within the national curriculum, has left many teachers struggling to cover this important topic.
Adding evolution to the primary national curriculum in 2014 was a good start, but how can we expect non-specialists to teach this complex concept without guidance and materials?
It will come as no surprise that hands-on approaches using tangible materials, such as fossils, can significantly enhance engagement and deepen understanding.
A conducted by Freeman et al (2014) demonstrated that undergraduate students studying science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects in environments where they experience active learning, as opposed to passive, lecture-style instruction, perform better when assessed.
Handling the physical evidence of evolution may help school students to develop an understanding of extinction, common ancestry and deep time (the concept of geological time, which spans billions of years, far beyond the scale of human experience) - a particularly challenging concept.
There are many museums and organisations such as the and the , that offer free or low-cost fossil loan kits to schools for three to four weeks at a time. These are ideal for extended cross-curricular projects or use with multiple year groups and classes.
Research has also shown that students are able to grasp evolutionary concepts more effectively when genetics is taught first. Consequently, simply adjusting the order of your curriculum and topic rotations, placing genetics before evolution, can significantly improve student understanding of evolution. It is a change that requires minimal disruption, minimal cost and offers maximum impact.
Of course, the most effective way for pupils to learn about evolution would be watching it unfold in real time, through a process known as experimental evolution. This is a scientific approach that uses laboratory or controlled field experiments to study the process of evolution, and can help to illustrate that evolution is a dynamic, ongoing process and not something purely historical.
Until now experimental evolution has been largely confined to academic research and whilst successful projects in the US have used microorganisms to demonstrate evolution in small-scale classroom studies, its potential in education remains largely untapped.
Experimental evolution
At the University of Bath we are attempting to change that. Building on cutting-edge research, our Taylor Lab has developed , a hands-on kit, featuring bacteria, that allows students of all ages (both primary and secondary) to observe evolution in action over the course of a couple of days.
There is no requirement for specialist equipment or prior knowledge. We supply all materials and comprehensive training in the necessary practical skills and concepts, as well as pre- and post-assessments to track student progress.
Investigating the effectiveness of this tool is the subject of my PhD research and it will be the largest study of its kind in the UK.
We are aiming to recruit students from as many educational settings as possible, from mainstream schools to alternative provision and home education, as these latter groups are underrepresented in educational research.
Evolution is just as urgent and evidence-based as any other science topic, and innovative approaches like this highlight that.
Beth Morillo-Hall is a postgraduate research student in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Bath
To learn more about the Evoscope project, its free training, resources and assessments, please complete the .
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