Sponsored by UCMP, in partnership with the National Center for Science Education, the Beacon Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Think Evolution VIII: A summer institute for science educators

Calling all middle school, high school, and community college biology teachers and science educators!

Put on your evolution eyeglasses and your nature of science thinking cap and join us for (yet another) fun-filled five days of evolutionary explorations with biologists and educators at the University of California. The Think Evolution Summer Institute, returning for its eighth year, will combine lectures by prominent evolutionary biologists with sessions focused on hands-on activities for the middle school, high school, and community college classroom.

Monday through Friday, July 25–29, 2016
UC Museum of Paleontology, 2063 Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley
9:00 am to 3:00 pm

$75.00 for five days; includes lots of free resources distributed to participating teachers plus morning and afternoon snacks.

Tentative Agenda has been added. Speaker bios coming soon!

We still have space! Register today!

Institute schedule

Morphology, Histology, Ichnology: New Insights into the lives of Dinosaurs

New discoveries and techniques have overthrown old concepts of the mighty dinosaurs and their ancient ecosystems. This compelling group is an exciting microcosm of how macroevolutionary forces shape major clades of animals. During this talk Ash will explore how recent research has revealed intimate details of dinosaur lives and let us discover things about them we thought were forever lost to the depths of time. Understanding how we know what we know about dinosaurs shows the power of the fossil record to illuminate the past.

Pseudogenes as a simple yet powerful tool to understand life's evolutionary history

Regression evolution, or vestigialization, involves the reduction or complete loss of a formerly useful trait in a lineage of organisms. This is driven by evolutionary changes to the DNA underlying these traits, frequently via the accumulation of mutations that disrupt the function of a formerly useful locus. When these inactivating mutations occur in the protein-coding portion of a gene, it results in a nonfunctional pseudogene. In the absence of fossil data, pseudogenes can inform the timing of macroevolutionary events, such as changes in sensory systems, diet and the loss of anatomical structures. In addition, many pseudogenes occurring naturally in animals are at loci associated with human disease, suggesting these species can be utilized to uncover new gene-disease associations.

Testing a proposed driver of the end-Permian forest collapse and the Earth's largest mass extinction

The cause of Earth's largest mass extinction (~252 million years ago) remains hotly disputed. Over the past few decades, a wide range of kill mechanisms have been proposed to explain disappearance of major animal lineages. However, the fossil record of terrestrial ecosystems during this interval is notoriously fragmentary and challenging to interpret. Among the only direct stress imprints from crisis deposits are fossilized malformed pollen grains. These grains were produced by forest trees as woodland ecosystems vanished across the planet. By studying pollen development in living plants under a hypothesized stress, my research hopes to better interpret the nature of the end-Permian forest collapse. In this talk, findings of the first attempt to experimentally test a proposed mass extinction driver will be presented along with evolutionary implications.

Overcoming limits to sampling through high throughput sequencing technology - examples from recent and ancient diversifications in the Banana/Ginger plant order

To understand diversity and diversification, scientists have been classifying organisms into similar groups for thousands of years. However, looks can be deceiving or confusing when trying to find the closest relative of an organism. With DNA, evolutionary biologists can corroborate or refute relationships inferred from morphology and generate new insights about the tree of life while enabling us to test hypotheses about the evolution of form and function. Now, with advanced DNA sequencing technologies, DNA from previously unavailable specimens (e.g. those preserved in herbaria) can be used to generate phylogenetic trees with unprecedented genomic sampling. I will discuss new methods I have developed and employed for overcoming difficult challenges in understanding the evolutionary relationships of several groups with a history of either ancient or recent rapid diversification.

Winter drives responses of terrestrial organisms to climate change.

Although the best known consequence of climate change may be increased heat waves in the summer, winter conditions are also changing markedly, and in some cases these changes can have even larger impacts than changes experienced in summer. During the presentation, I'll talk about the consequences of winter climate change for terrestrial organisms, in particular insects, and present some new research showing how winter conditions can impact ecology and evolution. This work is important because winter climate change is altering energy balance, phenology, and cold stress in overwintering organisms leading to cascading biological impacts that carry over into the growing season affecting survival and fitness.

Strategies for teaching evolution in ways that stick

Sparking curiosity in students is an important element of successful learning. We all want students to reach an "Aha!" moment, but this only works if there is a "Huh?" moment that comes first. Out of this confusion, curiosity arises. I applied this approach to my own teaching by starting a class in evolution not with what we are covering, but instead by asking questions. No answers, just questions. This helped to engage students from the start, highlighted gaps in their knowledge, and encouraged them to ask their own questions. In this talk, I will share teaching approaches that draw from key aspects of "sticking teaching."

Supporting student success in evolutionary biology: research on student conceptions, instruction, and assessment

Much of my research focuses on student conceptions in biology, particularly in ecology and evolution. Using a variety of approaches, I work to characterize student conceptions, design assessment instruments to help instructors diagnose confusions and assess instructional approaches, and assess the effectiveness of computer-based instruction in evolution. My research has included a range of topics, such as natural selection, genetic drift, dominance, and acceptance of evolutionary theory which I will present in my talk.

Considering the "Full House" of variation: testing Gould's hypotheses of directionality in evolution

Much speculation exists among evolutionary biologists on whether or not evolution follows predictable, directional trends. Stephen Jay Gould famously argued that directionality was not common in evolution and that trends in the fossil record are more apparent than real. As an alternative, he proposed that models of neutral drift have far more explanatory power than models with active selection. I will present two case studies testing for directionality in the evolution of organism size (biovolume) and biological complexity in fossil and extant organisms.

A conversation with Julia Sigwart, Queen’s University

Specializations and adaptations of molluscs in extreme environments

Deep sea hydrothermal vents are places of high biodiversity in both the present and in deep time. Specialized adaptations in molluscs and other vent organisms exploit extreme environments and show a remarkable ability to adapt to environmental change. Using an integrative approach that incorporates morphological, molecular, and phylogenetic methods, I will highlight how the diversity and diversification of mollusc species in present-day deep sea environments and in the fossil record, guide our understanding of ecological interactions in these unique settings.