1 / 17

Shawna McMahon, John Moore & Biodiversity Team Colorado State University

Endangered Species Conservation as a Context for Understanding Student Thinking about Genetic Diversity 2011 NARST Presentation Written by: Shawna McMahon and John Moore (Colorado State University) Culturally relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacy

honora
Download Presentation

Shawna McMahon, John Moore & Biodiversity Team Colorado State University

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Endangered Species Conservation as a Context for Understanding Student Thinking about Genetic Diversity 2011 NARST Presentation Written by: Shawna McMahon and John Moore (Colorado State University) Culturally relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacy Long Term Ecological Research Math Science Partnership April 2011 Disclaimer: This research is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation: Targeted Partnership: Culturally relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacy (NSF-0832173). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

  2. Endangered Species Conservation as a Context for Understanding Student Thinking about Genetic Diversity Shawna McMahon, John Moore & Biodiversity Team Colorado State University

  3. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Motivation & Context

  4. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Research Goals • Explore student thinking about genetic diversity in the context of endangered species – do they even think about it? • Evaluate if “place” plays a role in this thinking – specifically, will answers differ between charismatic, distant megafauna and local, less charismatic organisms?

  5. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Sample of Framework:Genetic Diversity @ Individual/Population

  6. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Captive Breeding

  7. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Level 1 Answers:Relationships, Aesthetics, Protectionism Student 709 (10th Grade, Polar Bear): “i w ould slect the non violentones that can have self controll.the bears that are nice and polayfuland that look interesting.i would only choose 4” Student 1015 (9th Grade Polar Bear): “i would select a group that is healthy and very good in the wild. i would look for nice fur, good survival instincs, and friendly. i would choose the same amount of male and female.” Student 1219 (8th Grade, Plover): “i would get the ones who needed the most help”

  8. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Level 2 Answers:Healthy & Reproductive Student 1230 (7th Grade, Warbler): “I will probably choose healthy birds, so they live longer.I would look for young, entergetic birds. I would choose about 10 males and 10 females, to be safe.

  9. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Level 3 Answers:Best Adapted Student 1127 (12th Grade, Polar Bear): “I would look for the polar bears that are the biggest size population because those seem to be surviving the best and probably have characteristics best suted to there envronment.”

  10. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Level 4 Answers:Genetic Variation for Future Adaptation Student 1219 (8th Grade, Plover): “i would look for a lot of different birds w/ different characteristics. i would choose just the weak or just the strong birds because if you take stonger birds you can mess up the ecosystem and if you take the weaker ones and try to re introduce them back into the wild, they'll probably die. when you get a mix of strong and waek ones you keep the gene pool varied and give the birds a better chance of survival” Student 765 (9th Grade, Polar Bear): “I would select a fairly large group that had sufficient genetic diversity in order to preserve as many traits and variations as possible.“

  11. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy All Animals Together n = (L1-4) = 266(79%) 289(88%)

  12. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Distant vs. Local - California n = (L1-4) = 29(71%) 17(50%)

  13. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Distant vs. Local - Colorado n = (L1-4) = 54(84%) 58(79%) n = (L1-4) = 42(95%) 46(90%)

  14. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Distant vs. Local - Michigan 40(93%) 49(92%) n = (L1-4) = 57(92%) 66(92%) n = (L1-4) =

  15. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Distant vs. Local – MD & NY 17(89%) 19(95%) n = (L1-4) = 17(77%) 24(96%) n = (L1-4) =

  16. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Overall:All Grades/Sites by Animals n = (L1-4) = 268(86%) 17(68%) 104(84%) 115(92%) 44(96%)

  17. Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy Summary of Findings • HS slightly higher than MS • Not much difference in distant vs. local species • Some differences between site (especially NY) • Good context for talking about genetic diversity in populations Future: Design an intervention that helps kids explore genetic diversity & its consequences

More Related