BIRDD Digital Library: Enhancing Evolution Education

Beagle调查返回达尔文数据（BIRDD）数字图书馆是一个开创性的进化论课程资源的“阿尔法”原型。从达尔文的经典之旅开始，从对加拉帕戈斯群岛的无数次科学考察中收集到大量的数据，BIRDD使人们可以访问这些数据。尽管这个原型得到了学生、教授和研究生物学家的热烈响应，但BIRDD仍在得到显著改进和扩展。alpha原型的生物多样性有限（它只包含雀类的信息，而不包含陆龟、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的信息），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，数据很难导出到其他软件包，除非作为标签分隔的数据。因此，BIRDD正在通过以下方式得到扩展：(1)新的软件开发；(2)获取重要的生物、地质、气象和海洋数据的新资源；(3)建立相互联系和更多的输出功能，以便对数据进行系统、空间和时间上的分析；(4)通过密集的讲习班和课堂实地测试和形成性评价进行参与式设计。(5)利用BIRDD数字图书馆开发学生研究问题。这些材料正在进行实地测试和形成性评价，并分发给其他教育工作者，以改善鸟类保护计划的可用性和教学潜力。我们认为，普通学生和专业预科学生的生物学教育质量直接关系到我们如何帮助他们理解进化生物学的基本概念。公民对进化的总体理解水平是不够的。为了改善这种情况，学生需要获得广泛的数据和工具来支持实验室和实地工作，教育者需要获得进化实验室的教学模型。BIRDD两者都提供。

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.