Early evolution of evolutionary thinking: teaching biological evolution in elementary schools

Rita Campos,Alexandra Sá-Pinto

doi:10.1186/1936-6434-6-25

Abstract

Evolution is considered the unifying concept in biology and is also a key theory underlying many areas of human knowledge. Teaching evolution from as early as kindergarten allows children to better understand concepts related with the biological world and prevents the development of negative feelings and misconceptions about the theory of evolution. However, evolution is absent from most of the educational curricula in the early school grades, even though some of its central concepts are common contents in the curricula of these initial years. In the present paper we present a set of activities that can be performed with elementary school students to explore and understand evolution and its impact on biological diversity, while promoting critical thinking and scientific literacy. These activities explore concepts of intra-specific diversity, genealogy and inheritance, natural selection, genetic drift, and systematics, using contexts that are familiar to students, and were articulated with the Portuguese official curriculum. Similar contents are present in elementary school curricula of other countries, namely Brazil, United Kingdom, France, United States of America, Canada, or Mozambique, and therefore the same activities can potentially be used in many different countries. Regardless of the complexity of the theory behind these concepts, our experience revealed that using these activities children were able to understand basic evolutionary mechanisms and to apply this knowledge in real case scenarios.

Highlights

Evolution is considered the unifying concept in biology and is a key theory underlying many areas of human knowledge
These observations led several researchers to propose an early exploration of evolutionary biology at elementary school or even kindergarten (Nadelson et al 2009; Hermann 2011; Wagler 2010, 2012 and references therein). In agreement with this view, several countries explicitly include, or intend to include, evolution in their official curricula for elementary schools. In some of these cases evolutionary mechanisms are not explored and evolution is only mentioned in the context of adaptation, preventing students to understand the real impact of evolution in biological diversity (Prinou et al 2011; Wagler 2012)
The key concepts that are required to understand biological evolution are simple, and students need only to recognize: (1) the existence of intra-specific variability; (2) that part of this variability can be transmitted over generations; (3) that the frequency of variable traits may change over generations; and (4) that these changes may cause the emergence of distinct species over time

Summary

Introduction

Evolution is considered the unifying concept in biology and is a key theory underlying many areas of human knowledge. Evolution is not an exclusive property of the natural world and knowledge on evolutionary mechanisms deeply impacted research areas as Despite its fundamental importance in biology and many other research fields, studies have shown that biological evolution is not yet accepted as a valid scientific theory by an important fraction of citizens from different nations (Miller et al 2006), and that misconceptions about evolution are frequent and shared by the general public, students, and teachers from several countries (Rutledge and Warden 2000; Nehm and Reilly 2007; Prinou et al 2011; Spiegel et al 2012) These misconceptions revealed to be persistent and difficult to overcome, even when applying learning programs designed to promote such conceptual changes (Bishop and Anderson 1986; Nehm and Reilly 2007). These contents are common to official elementary school programs worldwide and can be explored using examples, facts, and problems that are part of students’ daily life (Additional file 1; Prinou et al 2011)

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Conclusion