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Why is teaching taxonomy & cladistics so difficult?

Why is teaching taxonomy & cladistics so difficult?. -the problems -the old way -the proposed new ways. The Problems. -teaching information to a wide variety of abilities: majors & non-majors both with range of background knowledge

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Why is teaching taxonomy & cladistics so difficult?

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  1. Why is teaching taxonomy & cladistics so difficult? -the problems -the old way -the proposed new ways

  2. The Problems -teaching information to a wide variety of abilities: majors & non-majors both with range of background knowledge -teaching a complicated concept (taxonomy, cladistics & evolution) to complete understanding -teaching a new and extensive vocabulary -teaching using organisms that are unfamiliar to illustrate a complex idea (a double wammy)

  3. The Old Way -Linnean Hierarchy vs cladistics -Venn Diagrams -extensive vocabulary without connection to examples -Cladograms, cladograms and more cladograms -’Nuts & Bolts’ Exercise (too open ended)

  4. The (Proposed) New Ways -’Nuts & Bolts’ exercised revamped to make it more specific -Use of new materials to illustrate cladograms (Tinker Toys, pipe cleaner, mobiles) -Creation of a board game to illustrate evolution and its relationship to cladograms

  5. “Nuts & Bolts” exercise -use nuts and bolts to place on a pre-drawn cladogram -provide a specific ‘ancestor’ (eliminates students’ picking at random most primitive item) -give specific ‘character states’ to have students place items on cladogram -or roll dice to randomly choose next character (includes evolutionary theory)

  6. New Hands-on exercises -use of Tinker toys, pipe cleaners or mobile to show physical relations between clades and that nodes are inter-changeable (students have difficulty with rotation around a node, ie sister groups) -use of preprinted ‘fake’ organisms with evolutionary characters that students place on cladogram (with associated characters). Shows increasing of complexity and eliminates the need for pre-knowledge of organisms. -use of dice to randomly assign new characters to organisms as they evolve. Then create a cladogram of evolutionary pathway. -creation of a board game (similar to ‘Life’) that uses cards with evolutionary information (niches, physical characters, environmental factors, extinction, etc) to advance through time.

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