An Integrative Approach for Teaching and Learning About Biological Evolution Through the Human Maladies of Addiction, Autoimmune Disease, Sleep Disorders, and Cancer

该项目旨在通过改进本科生物科学教育来服务于国家利益。为了做到这一点，它将制作一套互动教学材料，重点是生物进化与人类健康的相关性。许多学生在生物学入门课程中被介绍生物进化，这个主题通常在课程中只占很少的时间，并且与其他内容分开呈现。这种指导通常也局限于自然选择和适应的广泛概念，与进化过程中涉及的分子和/或细胞事件几乎没有联系。因此，许多学生没有在基本的进化论概念上获得坚实的基础，也没有理解进化论如何科学地适用于人类生物学。这个项目提供了一条途径，通过医学上相关的例子来教授和学习生物进化。这个项目将建立，试点，并传播课程材料，阐明人类疾病范例的进化基础，以及初级和高级生物学学生的健康状况。预计该项目将提供有关生物进化的教与学的新知识，并制作一套可用于广泛课程的教学材料和教师指南。该项目旨在开发和实施四个教材组合，通过关注四种普遍存在的人类疾病：成瘾、自身免疫性疾病、睡眠障碍和癌症来教授进化论。这些疾病中的每一种都将被用作将与人类健康相关的例子纳入本科教育的平台，其方式是整合不同生物水平的自然选择，从分子和细胞到器官系统和更高水平。此外，还将从历史和社会文化的角度探讨每一种疾病，包括所涉及的社会经济因素。这种结构为投资组合的潜在用途提供了极大的灵活性。例如，教师可以在所有四种疾病中使用遗传学模块，或者研究从细胞生物学到遗传学，再到生态学和社会学概念的一种疾病。该项目还打算描述学生如何与教材互动，以及这种互动如何影响他们对进化论的理解。具体地说，该项目将解决以下研究问题：1)教材组合如何影响学生对从分子遗传学到宏观尺度过程的人类进化的思考？2)教材组合如何影响学生对疾病本质的思考？3)教材组合如何影响学生对进化论的交叉和跨学科性质的思考？该项目将主要使用定性研究方法来表征学生如何与材料互动，材料如何影响学生的思维，以及学生对学习的看法。该项目由NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate biological sciences education. To do so, it will produce a set of interactive instructional materials focused on the relevance of biological evolution in human health. Many students are introduced to biological evolution in an introductory biology course, where the topic usually receives little time in the curriculum and is presented in isolation from other content. This instruction is also typically limited to the broad concepts of natural selection and adaptation, with little connection to the molecular and/or cellular events involved in evolutionary processes. As a result, many students do not acquire a solid foundation in basic evolutionary concepts or understand how evolution is scientifically applicable to human biology. This project provides an avenue through which biological evolution can be taught and learned through the lens of medically relevant examples. This project will build, pilot, and disseminate curricular materials that clarify the evolutionary underpinnings of exemplar human diseases and health conditions for both beginning and advances biology students. It is anticipated that the project will provide new knowledge about teaching and learning about biological evolution and produce a set of instructional materials and teacher guides that can be used in a broad spectrum of courses.The project aims to develop and implement four portfolios of teaching materials that will teach evolution by focusing on four pervasive human maladies: addiction, autoimmune disease, sleep disorders, and cancer. Each of these maladies will be used as a platform for incorporating human health-related examples into undergraduate education in way that integrates natural selection across different biological levels, from the molecular and cellular to organ systems and higher. In addition, each malady will be explored from historical and sociocultural perspectives, including the socioeconomic factors involved. This structure affords great flexibility in potential uses of the portfolios. For example, an instructor could use the genetics modules across all four maladies, or work through a single malady from cell biology, to genetics, to ecology and sociological concepts. The project also intends to characterize how students interact with the teaching materials and how this interaction impacts their understanding of evolution. Specifically, the project will address the following research questions: 1) How do the portfolios of teaching materials impact student thinking about human evolution from molecular genetics to macro scale processes? 2) How do the portfolios of teaching materials impact student thinking on the nature of disease? and 3) How do the portfolios of teaching materials impact student thinking on the crosscutting and interdisciplinary nature of evolution? The project will primarily use qualitative research methods to characterize how students interact with the materials, how the materials impact student thinking, and student perception of learning. This project is supported by the NSF IUSE: EHR Program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.