Curriculum Chats: Inheritance, Variation and Evolution

Previously, we asked on the twitter page which topics in each of the sciences you thought required the most thought in the curriculum. For biology, you chose the topic of inheritance, variation and evolution and in the video below, Dom Shibli, Pritesh Raichura, Jo Castelino, Rachel Wong (BioRach) and Christian Moore Anderson get together to discuss just that. Please let us know on the twitter page what your thoughts are: do you agree/disagree with any of the approaches? Has it made you think differently about the topic? Do you have an alternate approach?

You can use the chapters embedded in the video to find any of the specific questions that we discuss (you might need to be on YouTube to actually see them):

• 00:00:00 Welcome and introductions
• 00:01:23 What do students find hard about the topic of inheritance, variation and evolution?
• 00:10:00 What do teachers find hard about teaching the topic of inheritance, variation and evolution?
• 00:20:05 What do you do to help students conceptualise something as complex as the function of the gene alongside the chemical basis of inheritance?
• 00:30:20 How might you sequence this topic in your school? Thinking out loud discussion.
• 00:58:20 Examples (and non-examples) of how you might teach this topic.
• 01:16:20 In brief, what do students you want students to learn in KS3 to prepare them for this topic?

Below are some links to some of the blogs and articles that were touched upon:

Link to Biology SLOP booklets, collated by Adam Robbins: https://google.com/amp/s/reflectionsinscience.wordpress.com/2020/06/12/biology-slop-the-next-generation/amp/…

Link to the story of how humans evolved to digest milk into adulthood: https://bbc.com/future/article/20190218-when-did-humans-start-drinking-cows-milk…

Pritesh’s blog on curricular narrative, written in response to this chat https://bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/curricular-narrative/

Inheritance via ‘Nature and Nurture’? It’s time to change perspectives https://cmooreanderson.wixsite.com/teachingbiology/post/inheritance-via-nature-and-nurture-it-s-time-to-change-perspectives-biologycurriculum…

On Mendelian genetics and the misconceptions it can instill https://cmooreanderson.wixsite.com/teachingbiology/post/on-mendelian-genetics-and-the-misconceptions-it-instills…

Developing a biologist’s gaze: the organism in its environment https://cmooreanderson.wixsite.com/teachingbiology/post/developing-a-biologist-s-gaze-the-organism-in-its-environment…