Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science

Abstract

While evolution is widely and confidently taught in high schools across the country, there are some educators who struggle with the topic. There are a variety of reasons for this. Some states prohibit the teaching of evolution in public schools, and sometimes teachers lack the background knowledge on the topic, while others simply choose not to contend with the possibility of pushback from the community. Middle and elementary school teachers are the most likely to lack coursework and training to teach evolution.The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES) is a teacher-led organization that was started for the sole purpose of creating and curating quality, free resources to teachers who are teaching evolution. Their mission is to provide elementary and middle school teachers the tools they need to effectively teach evolution and answer its critics based on the Next Generation Science Standards. There is a team of over 80 teachers who contribute to TIES, testing, writing, and recommending educational materials, as well as conducting professional development workshops to help support science teachers at all levels.The website is organized with nine pages: About, Teacher Materials, Workshops, Online Workshops, TIES book, Webinars, TIES TiPs, Contribute Resources, and Join TIES. The Teacher Materials page contains dozens of resources of all varieties. There are complete evolutionary biology units for middle school and high school (in both English and Spanish) that can be delivered in person or completely virtually. The Ready-To-Go evolution units have a collection of activities and notes that any science teacher can use to effectively address all the NGSS middle and high school evolution standards. Answer keys are provided on request.The Ready-To-Go unit for grades 6–8 includes three bell-ringer activities, classroom presentation with all essential vocabulary, background on the work of Charles Darwin, evidence of evolution and natural selection, and links to extension activities. There is also an assortment of hands-on investigations that provide notes and support for teachers, regardless of their expertise, to facilitate hands-on evolution simulations. These include lab activities where students simulate the natural selection of bird beaks and coloration of peppered moths. There are also online games that have been vetted by experienced life science teachers along with general online resources for teaching evolution.The site also has Ready-To-Go units for high school and elementary grades (3–5) that address all the NGSS LS4-Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity standards.On the workshop page, users will find upcoming and past TIES workshops. There is a recorded workshop that walks the viewer through how to use the entire Ready-To-Go unit with all the supplemental materials linked on the online workshops page. The TIES book with all of its resources can be found on the TIES book page. Additionally, there are recorded and upcoming webinars from presentations by classroom teachers, scientists, and authors. These webinars would be helpful to teachers who are looking to refresh their content knowledge or to learn more about current research in the field of evolutionary science.From complete units to individual activities and professional learning, the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science has something for every biology, middle school, and elementary teacher to make sure their students have a deep and comprehensive understanding of evolution.