BIRDD Digital Library: Enhancing Evolution Education

比格尔调查与达尔文数据返回（BIRDD）数字图书馆是一个突破性的课程资源教学进化的“阿尔法”原型。自达尔文的经典之旅以来，BIRDD提供了从加拉帕戈斯的众多科学考察中收集的大量数据。尽管这一原型得到了学生、教授和研究生物学家的热烈响应，但BIRDD正在得到显著的改进和扩展。 阿尔法原型的生物多样性有限（它只包含关于雀类的信息，而不是乌龟、鬣蜥、蜥蜴、鲣鸟、军舰鸟、企鹅或任何植物、真菌、无脊椎动物或原核生物），新手很难导航，数据集之间的联系有限，不包含用于行为或其他时间分析的视频，并且数据除了作为制表符分隔的数据之外难以导出到其他软件包。 因此，BIRDD正在通过以下方式得到扩展：（1）开发新的软件;（2）获取重要的新的生物、地质、气象和海洋数据资源;（3）建立相互联系和更多的输出功能，以便能够对数据进行遗传学、空间和时间分析;（4）通过密集的讲习班和课堂实地测试以及形成性评估进行参与性设计，以及（5）使用BIRDD数字图书馆开发学生研究问题。 正在对这些材料进行实地测试和形成性评价，并向其他教育工作者分发，以提高BIRDD的可用性和教学潜力。 我们提出了一个案例，即普通学生和预科学生的生物学教育质量与我们如何帮助他们理解进化生物学的基本概念直接相关。公民对进化的一般理解水平不够。为了改善这种情况，学生需要获得支持实验室和实地工作的广泛数据和工具，教育工作者需要获得进化实验室的教学模型。BIRDD提供两者。

The Beagle Investigations Return with Darwinian Data (BIRDD) Digital Library is an "alpha" prototype of a groundbreaking curricular resource for teaching evolution. BIRDD makes accessible a tremendous variety and quantity of data that have been collected from numerous scientific expeditions to the Galapagos ever since Darwin's classic visit. Even though this prototype has received enthusiastic response from students, professors, and research biologists, BIRDD is being significantly improved and extended. The alpha prototype had limited bio-diversity (it only contained information on finches not tortoises, iguanas, lizards, boobies, frigate birds, penguins, or any plants, fungi, invertebrates, or prokaryotes), it was difficult for novices to navigate, had limited linkages between data sets, contained no videos for behavioral or other temporal analyses, and data were difficult to export to other software packages except as tab delimited data. Thus, BIRDD is being expanded through (1) new software development, (2) acquisition of important new resources of biological, geological, meteorological, and oceanic data, (3) construction of inter-linkages and more export functions so that the data can be analyzed phylogenetically, spatially, and temporally, (4) participatory design through intensive workshop and classroom field testing and formative evaluation, and (5) the development of student research problems using the BIRDD Digital Library. The materials are being field-tested with formative evaluation with dissemination to other educators to improve BIRDD's availability and pedagogical potential. We make a case that the quality of biology education for general and pre-professional students alike is directly related to how well we help them understand fundamental concepts of evolutionary biology. The general level of understanding of evolution by citizens is inadequate. To improve this situation, students need to have access to extensive data and tools that support laboratory and fieldwork, and educators need to have access to pedagogical models of laboratories for evolution. BIRDD provides both.