The module begins by introducing the three domains of life: bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, and explains that all living things share a common ancestor. By understanding this single unifying concept, students are able to understand the evolutionary history and relationships of all living things. Students are introduced to the process of illustrating evolutionary relationships with branching diagrams called cladograms. Students learn that once a cladogram has been constructed for a group of organisms, it can be used to answer all kinds of interesting questions based on the shared inherited features of those organisms.
During this module students will learn that:
Comments from one teacher:
“On the first day we navigated the module, some of my students
were bored…saying 'we know this already.' We had finished our study of evolution and genetics
about 2-3 months ago. However, on the second day, as they were going through the 4th and 5th
files, discussion within the partners and between groups was wonderful. Everyone was engaged
and debating, questioning, arguing. I saw some real student-to-student learning going on as
they interacted both with the module and each other to reach an understanding of the concepts.”
Comments from our evaluator:
Eight teachers and 223 students, representing three middle schools and five high schools,
participated in an evaluation of this module. Data demonstrated that students who explore this
module generally increased their understanding of particular key concepts. “Specifically, they
show that students who are not initially able to identify cladograms, their purpose and their
associated concepts, are considerably better able to articulate this information after having
completed the module. These findings speak well for the future of the module as an appealing,
effective educational tool for students and teachers alike.”
None. This tour is intended to be an introduction to phlyogenetics and the use of cladograms.