Observing populations and testing predictions about genetic drift in a computer simulation improves college students’ conceptual understanding

Abstract

Background: Evolution is a difficult subject for students, with well-documented confusion about natural selection, tree thinking, and genetic drift among other topics. Here we investigate the effect of a simulation-based module about the conservation of black-footed ferrets, a module designed with pedagogical approaches that have been demonstrated to be effective, for teaching genetic drift. We compared performance on the Genetic Drift Inventory (GeDI) of students who completed the module and students who were in classes that used other methods for teaching genetic drift.Results: Students in 19 courses using the simulation-based module improved their understanding of genetic drift significantly after completing the Ferrets module, as measured by the GeDI. Students in five control courses actually performed significantly worse on the GeDI after instruction. The lower scores in the control courses were driven by a decrease in these students' understanding of key concepts. Conclusions:The Ferrets module appears to be an effective way to teach genetic drift. In the control courses, students' progress in understanding genetic drift may pass through a stage where their understanding of key concepts is worse than it was prior to instruction. However, students who learned genetic drift in courses that used the Ferrets module showed a more rapid increase in their understanding of key concepts related to genetic drift. This result suggests that the paths that students can take to move from novice to expert understanding may be more varied than was previously predicted.

Automated Writing Assessments Measure Undergraduate Learning after Completion of a Computer-Based Cellular Respiration Tutorial

“…Consistent with studies showing nonscientific ideas persist (e.g., Price et al, 2016), not all changes in student responses were consistent with a more expert-like explanation. We found that students added the Developing idea of Excretion.…”

Genie: An interactive real-time simulation for teaching genetic drift

“…For example, the award-winning software Avida-ED, has been effectively used to introduce evolutionary ideas to freshmen students via hypothesis testing (Abi Abdallah et al 2020), understand the role of low-impact mutations in evolution (Nelson and Sanford 2011), and to test the robustness of genetic drift in small populations (Labar and Adami 2017). Nonetheless, it should not be forgotten than different students can master the same topic using different paths (Price et al 2016), and that different classroom settings might be more suitable for distinct teaching methods. Simply put, there is no 'fit all' teaching strategy that can be universally implemented.…”

“…Previous studies have created approaches aimed to identify student misconceptions regarding genetic drift (Andrews et al 2012;Price et al 2014), and study activities and software have been developed, tested, and made publicly available (Price et al 2016;Revell 2019;Staub 2002). These serve as indicators that the knowledge gap regarding genetic drift instruction is being addressed.…”

Iterative design of a simulation-based module for teaching evolution by natural selection

“…In an open-response assessment in the previous study by Abraham et al (2009), this was the most commonly expressed misconception on both the pre and post-test. This is not surprising given that processes involving randomness are difficult for students to understand (Ferrari and Chi 1998;Meir et al 2007;Garvin-Doxas and Klymkowsky 2008;Price et al 2016).…”