Denise Pope – SimBio software

1. Denise Pope – SimBio software • Education software for college biology – virtual labs, tutorials, and interactive textbooks • My “course unit” for this assignment is a sequence of two virtual lab modules on: • Natural selection (“Darwinian Snails”) • Experimental design (“Experimenting with Snails”) • Designed to be used in sequence (not on the same day) • No dates on here since I am not actually teaching a class

2. Format of virtual labs • Format moves between: • Reading onscreen instructions • Interacting with simulations: • Manipulating parameters • Running & observing results • Answering MC & other constrained-format questions: • Prediction questions (with no feedback) • Identify, understand, apply & evaluate questions (with feedback) • So combination of learning activities & formative assessments

3. Learning objectives Darwinian Snails module: • Understand necessary conditions for natural selection • Recognize and overcome misconceptions about natural selection (especially need-driven mutation & adaptation) • Apply understanding of natural selection to new scenarios Experimenting with Snails module: • Understand elements of good experimental design • Apply understanding of good experimental design to interpret and evaluate experiments • Apply understanding of good experimental design to design, set up, conduct, and interpret their own experiments

4. Alignment grid for Darwinian Snails

5. Alignment grid for Experimenting with Snails

6. Tuesday (3 hours): • Discuss short answer questions as a class • Work in groups • Darwinian Snails S2 & 3 in groups • Discussion • DS S4 in groups • Discussion • DS S5 in groups • Discussion • Start on homework questions Castletop diagram for suggested use of both lab modules over 2 weeks (for Instructor’s Guide) Week 1: Darwinian Snails Week 1 • Monday (by midnight): • Download Darwinian Snails • Complete only Section 1 (S1) • Follow all instructions; answer all questions; revise answers until correct • Answer short answer questions in-class activities • Wednesday (by midnight): • Take NS graded questions • Friday (by midnight): • Written evaluation of graded questions • Saturday & Sunday: • Take NS pre-test (by midnight Fri) • Register for SimUText & download app (by midnight Sunday) • If necessary, contact SimBio customer support out-of-class activities

7. Tuesday (3 hours): • Work in same groups • Experimenting with Snails S2 • Analyze HW answers • EwS Section 3 • Pause to record design & draw setup; compare • Run experiment • Record data • Replicate • Draw graph • Write conclusion Castletop diagram for suggested use of both lab modules over 2 weeks (for Instructor’s Guide) Week 2: Experimenting with Snails Week 2 in-class activities • Monday (by midnight): • Work in teams • Answer homework questions from last week • Friday-Monday: • Self-evaluation of experimental design • Wednesday (by midnight): • Take ED post-test • Take SALG (Student Assessment of Learning Gains) • Saturday & Sunday (by midnight): • Take ED pre-test out-of-class activities

8. Detailed breakdown of Experimenting with Snails

9. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P1 Introduction to study system (dogwinkles & red rock crabs) Introduction to module objectives

10. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P3 See also next slide Introduction to exemplar experiment – study system (crossbills & pine cones)

11. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P4 Animated summary of experiment

12. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P5 • Introduction to “control of variables” strategy and definitions of: • Independent variable • Dependent variable • Control

13. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P6 Matching activity – apply terms to pine cone experiment

14. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P7 See also next slide Introduction to replication; start replication activity

15. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P8 Finish replication activity

16. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1formative assessments Back to grid Back to castletop Extension with more information S1P8 See also next slide Replication (understanding, application?)

17. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 formative assessments Back to grid Back to castletop S2P8 • Replication (analyzing, evaluating) Not in current version of lab, but for next version I want to write an additional (formative assessment) question to have them try to derive a more general principle of why replication is important, based on this one example. Starting with an open response question (I will have to revise it into a multiple choice or other constrained-format question for the next version of the lab). Q. Based on what you learned from the graph, explain why, in addition to using seven crossbills, the researchers also used several pairs of pine cones for each bird. Generalizing from these examples, give reasons to support the assertion that replication is an important component of good experimental design.

18. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1formative assessments Back to grid Back to castletop S1P9 See also next slide Evaluate appropriateness of studies to test hypothesis

19. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1formative assessments Back to grid Back to castletop S1P9 Evaluate appropriateness of studies to test hypothesis (continued)

20. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 1activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P8 After finishing Section 1, go back to the homework questions you submitted as a group: “Think of a biological scenario (real or plausible) where you would like to test if a trait has evolved through natural selection, and think about how you would go about testing for each of the conditions of natural selection” For one of the tests you proposed, identify the appropriate: • Independent variable • Dependent variable • Control • Replication

21. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S2P2 Re-introducing study system & question (dogwinkles & red rock crabs) Introduction to experimental process

22. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S2P4 Observe variation between populations Introduction to experimental tools

23. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 formative assessment Back to grid Back to castletop S2P6 Statement of hypothesis Plan design with “LabLibs” (select from drop-downs); write prediction

24. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S2P7 Set up experiment

25. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S2P7 Move to next slide Decide what data to collect

26. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 activities Back to grid Back to castletop (Not in lab itself, suggestion for Instructor’s Guide) Before running experiment, do self-check of experimental design: • Record design plan (LabLibs) • Record prediction • Draw experimental setup (with numbers & sources of snails, numbers of crabs, etc., for each tank) • Compare plan (LabLibs) with setup: • Are they equivalent? • If not, should one of them be changed? • Compare them to the stated hypothesis – is the experiment addressing the hypothesis?

27. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S2P7 • Run experiment Record data

28. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S2P8 Summarize results

29. “Experimenting with Snails” Section 2 activities Back to grid Back to castletop S2P10 Refine test Write conclusion

30. Activities and assessments for Darwinian Snails

31. Pre-lab assignments for Darwinian Snails Back to grid Back to castletop (Not in lab itself, suggestion for Instructor’s Guide) Complete Darwinian Snails Section 1: • There are 8 pages • Be sure to read the extension about histograms on p. 2 • Read all instructions, carry out all tasks and answer all questions • Tasks on page 2 & 5 • 4 questions • You will get credit for these tasks and questions – 50% for completion, and 50% for correctness on your final submitted answer, so you will get more credit if you take this seriously and if you persist to the correct answer

32. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P1 Read about Robin Seeley’s study

33. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P2 Making histograms

34. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S1P6 Evaluate histograms

35. Pre-lab assignments for Darwinian Snails Back to grid Back to castletop (Not in lab itself, suggestion for Instructor’s Guide) Answer these questions: • What do histograms tell you about a population? • Why are histograms showing the population before and after the best graphical representation to illustrate whether evolution has happened in a population? • What other graph types might show evolutionary change, and what information do those types leave out?

36. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S2P5 Play crab; select easiest snails to eat; observe results after 3 generations

37. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S3P16 Make prediction

38. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S3P8 Reflecting on prediction; recognizing misconceptions

39. Discussion questions for Darwinian Snails Back to grid Back to castletop Continued on next slide (Not in lab itself, suggestion for Instructor’s Guide) After Sections 2 & 3: • Describe the role that variation plays in natural selection • Describe the role that heritability plays in natural selection • Describe the role that differential survival and reproduction plays in natural selection • Describe what happened when differential survival was removed, then: • Explain how what happened is evolution but is not evolution by natural selection • Explain why evolution by this mechanism (genetic drift) still requires the other two conditions of (variation and heritability) to work • If you have time, you can test to see what happens if you remove both differential survival and one of the other two

40. Discussion questions for Darwinian Snails Back to grid Back to castletop (Not in lab itself, suggestion for Instructor’s Guide) After Sections 2 & 3: • The term “differential survival” here is used as shorthand for differential survival and reproduction, because in this scenario, the trait specifically affects whether the snails are eaten or not, but ultimately fitness is measured in terms of number of surviving offspring, so differential survival only matters if it means that the individuals who don’t survive leave fewer offspring than the individuals who do. Think about two other biological examples (real or plausible) where: • There is no differential survival but there is differential reproduction • The trait doesn’t affect survival or reproduction directly, but might still lead to differential survival and reproduction

41. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S4P5 Move to next slide Making prediction about direction of mutation in the presence of crabs

42. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S4P6 Move to next slide Observing direction of mutation

43. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S4P6 Reflecting on and evaluating prediction about direction of mutation

44. Discussion questions for Darwinian Snails Back to grid Back to castletop (Not in lab itself, suggestion for Instructor’s Guide) After Section 4: • Describe the role that mutation plays in evolution by natural selection • Did your prediction differ from what you saw happening? • Describe how the appearance of mutations is affected by the environment

45. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S5P6 Assessing understanding of heritability

46. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S5P3 Apply concepts to Seeley’s study

47. “Darwinian Snails” activities Back to grid Back to castletop S5P7 Evaluate Seeley’s study

48. Discussion questions for Darwinian Snails Back to grid Back to castletop Wrap-up on next slide (Not in lab itself, suggestion for Instructor’s Guide) After Section 5: • Do you have any residual confusions about the definition of any of the terms (e.g., natural selection, variation, heritability, differential survival?) • If so, check the glossary in the lab and/or consult your textbook or online sources • Come up with general rules of thumb for how you would test for evolution by natural selection • How can you test for, or observe, each of the conditions of natural selection?

49. Discussion questions for Darwinian Snails Back to grid Back to castletop (Not in lab itself, suggestion for Instructor’s Guide) Wrap-up discussion: • What is a misconception? • What misconceptions exist about evolution by natural selection? • Reflect on whether you came in here with any misconceptions about natural selection (or experienced this at an earlier stage in your education). Did you have any ‘aha’ moments? If so, what led to those moments? • What would you say to a friend who had one of these misconceptions to explain how scientists differ in their explanation of the phenomenon? What examples could you give that would confront their misconceptions?

50. Graded questions for Darwinian Snails Back to grid Back to castletop Sample of some of the graded questions: