Witnessing Phenotypic and Molecular Evolution in the Fruit Fly

Heil, Caiti Smukowski; Hunter, Mika J.; Noor, Juliet K. F.; Miglia, Kathleen J.; Manzano‐Winkler, Brenda; McDermott, Shannon R.; Noor, Mohamed A. F.

doi:10.1007/s12052-012-0447-5

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The "Wonderful Fruit Fly" website is an important tool for seeing how Punnett square experiments can be carried out with fruit flies [37]. Recently, a multi-day exercise was designed to demonstrate concepts of inheritance and molecular evolution, allowing students to observe molecular evolutionary changes in class [38]. Furthermore, fruit flies can be used for behavioural experiments, in particular for food preference [39]- [40].…”

Section: International Journal Of Innovation and Research In Educatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fruit Fly Drosophila as a Powerful Tool in Teaching Life Sciences in Middle and High School Classrooms

Intra¹,

Pasini²

2018

EDULEARN Proceedings

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Living organisms can be used as important didactic tools for students, and we report here for the first time the evaluation of a scientific laboratory on Drosophila. The aim of this work is to attract more students towards science disciplines and a real appreciation for animal kingdom. We aimed to capture students' interest, develop important educational experiences, and promote the basic and integrated science process skills that are involved in scientific inquiry, including direct contact to a living organism and authentic research on Drosophila melanogaster. We performed this experience in non-selective middle (100 students) and high school classrooms (200 students). The practical activities were carried out over three months. Initially, we decided to make homemade fly traps to catch flies, so that students could observe, recognize and have a direct contact with Drosophila. Several experiences were performed, such as the evaluation of different methods for immobilizing flies, and the observation of life cycle, sexual dimorphism, Drosophila mutants plus several species of Drosophilidae. Moreover, students prepared a procedure for fly food, and a method for anesthetizing flies. With sample questionnaires, we obtained a survey of the experiences and so we observed a general agreement and a broad consensus (82 %), since students considered the experiences very stimulating. As a final result we obtained that students improved their attitudes towards science.

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Section: International Journal Of Innovation and Research In Educatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fruit Fly Drosophila as a Powerful Tool in Teaching Life Sciences in Middle and High School Classrooms

Intra¹,

Pasini²

2018

EDULEARN Proceedings

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“…This requires minimal alterations to the procedure outlined above and serves as an even stronger demonstration of the increase in frequency of red eye color by natural selection. For a more advanced version of this exercise involving molecular techniques, see Heil et al (2012).…”

Section: Day 2 (~2 Weeks Later)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Witnessing Evolution First Hand: A K–12 Laboratory Exercise in Genetics & Evolution Using Drosophila

Heil

Manzano‐Winkler

Hunter³

et al. 2013

The American Biology Teacher

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We present a laboratory exercise that leverages student interest in genetics to observe and understand evolution by natural selection. Students begin with white-eyed fruit fly populations, to which they introduce a single advantageous variant (one male with red eyes). The superior health and vision associated with having the red-eye-color allele confers a fitness advantage, and the students can watch the spread of the allele within the population. The increasing numbers of red-eyed flies they observe over generations demonstrate evolution by natural selection. The students concurrently learn genetic principles, including basic inheritance and X-linkage. . lectures and detailed instructions are available for download at http://www.biology.duke.edu/noorlab/ flyevolution.html, and educators are free to modify them for their individual use. MaterialsJ J J Carolina Biological Supply Natural Selection with Drosophila Kit (includes below items plus Teacher Manual and Student Guide): 171995. H o w t o d o i t

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“…Almost all introductory undergraduate biology experiences include hands-on laboratory sections (henceforth "labs") as potential avenues for inquiry learning and to help students with science reasoning skills. Biology-lab-education literature has described numerous inquiry-oriented experiences involving experimental, hypothesis-testing to address mechanisms of evolution that can be accomplished in single lab periods using simulations or over the course of several weeks (National Research Council 1998, Kalinowski et al 2006, Spiro and Knisely 2008, Heil et al 2012). However, biologylab-education associated with products of evolution, especially biodiversity, is less investigative, more guided and most commonly seen as a "march through the phyla" of living organisms, emphasizing memorizing and characterizing often without much evolution-based integration and with almost no opportunities for evidence-based science reasoning (see Harris-Haller 2008, Vodopich and Moore 2008, Addy and Longair 2009, Scully and Fisher 2009.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of pre-lab learning activities, a post-lab written report, and content reduction on evolution-based learning in an undergraduate plant biodiversity lab

et al. 2014

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Background: Commonplace biodiversity labs in introductory undergraduate biology typically emphasize declarative knowledge. We contend that shifting these labs to emphasize evolution, higher-order cognition, and science reasoning would benefit student learning. Four factors that likely make evolution-based higher-order learning goals difficult to achieve in these labs are: the novelty and quantity of required declarative knowledge, the number of integrated concepts, the theoretical nature of evolution, and limitations on working memory. Thus, we propose that a model to shift learning from lower-order declarative knowledge to evolution-based higher-order integration in these labs would reduce overall lower-order content, increase time efficiency through hands-on pre-lab activities, and increase evidence-based reasoning through written post-labs that emphasize evolution-based higher-order integration. We tested this contention by comparing exam performances of students who did and did not participate in the redesigned lab. Methods: A new plant biodiversity lab design was implemented in an introductory undergraduate biology lab class. The lab class was a separate class from the complementary lecture class, but the content-oriented learning goals were similar between the lecture and lab. We compared achievement of students in lecture + lab to those in lecture only with a pre-assessment and a mid-semester exam which contained questions that were both related and unrelated to the plant biodiversity lab learning goals. Results: Students in 'lecture + lab' relative to 'lecture only' did not perform significantly different on the pre-assessment lower or higher-order questions. On the post-assessment, students in lab + lecture performed significantly better on knowledge questions that were unrelated to lab with an improvement of 5.9%. Moreover, students in lab + lecture also performed significantly better on lab-related knowledge questions and lab-related evolution-based integrative reasoning questions with a range of 6.3 to 11% improvement, compared to students in the lecture only group. Conclusions: The proposed framework was successful in improving student learning for both lower-order declarative knowledge questions and evolution-based questions involving higher-order integration of concepts. In addition, because students in lecture + lab outperformed students in lecture only on questions unrelated to lab content, our proposed model highlights the importance of multiple inquiry-oriented lab experiences in higher education.

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Witnessing Phenotypic and Molecular Evolution in the Fruit Fly

Cited by 3 publications

References 11 publications

The Fruit Fly Drosophila as a Powerful Tool in Teaching Life Sciences in Middle and High School Classrooms

The Fruit Fly Drosophila as a Powerful Tool in Teaching Life Sciences in Middle and High School Classrooms

Witnessing Evolution First Hand: A K–12 Laboratory Exercise in Genetics & Evolution Using Drosophila

Impact of pre-lab learning activities, a post-lab written report, and content reduction on evolution-based learning in an undergraduate plant biodiversity lab

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