Evolution 3BIbDF10-11 2011/12

Book

The work will be based on the lecture of "Why Evolution is True", Jerry A. Coyne, Penguin ISBN 978-0-14-311664-6.



Related websites:

• http://jerrycoyne.uchicago.edu/index.html
• http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/

Format

• for each chapter, collaborative work between two groups of students of my 2 bilingual classes
• production of a written document.

Written part

Work by groups of two in class and at home… Each group will work on a particular chapter… so you'll have to define first which topic you would like to work on…
At the same time, a group from the other bilingual class will work on the same wiki page (chapter) as you… This will implicate that you'll have to collaborate in English with this group for the production of the written document. = interclass approach.
Goal? For each group, the main goal will be to highlight and describe the main points of the chapter you are studying.
How? Inquiry Based Learning: Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge. (from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html). You'll have to reed the chapter, and raise questions and then answer to them in order to build a final written document that will be published.

Evaluation

This work will be evaluated... in two ways: posters (+ poster presentation) and during the semester oral exam.
The role of the written part is for you to put together the main ideas of each chapter in a collaborative manner. These summaries will help you to read in a second step the entire book in an easier manner and maybe to have a better understanding of some tricky points.
Then each group will create a poster that will synthesize the main "take home messages" of the studied chapter. The poster will be evaluated in two ways: poster by itslef and an oral presentation of each poster in class.
The semester exam in June will be an oral exam. You'll pick up a question on the book and in relation with my course and you'll have 15 minutes of preparation and then 15 minutes of presentation and discussion.

As you can see, there is a multi-level procedure:

1. chapter analysis and synthesis (wiki page)
2. poster construction and presentation
3. reading of the entire book with the help of the wiki document
4. semester oral exam
   

Hope it's gonna work! It's up to you... and me!

Chapters

• 3BIbDF10/3BIbDF11

1. WEIT_2012_Chap1 - What Is Evolution?: ??&??; ??&??

2. WEIT_2012_Chap2 - Written in the Rocks: ??&??; ??&??

3. WEIT_2012_Chap3 - Remnants: Vestiges, Embryos, and Bad Design: ??&??; ??&??

4. WEIT_2012_Chap4 - The Geography of Life: ??&??; ??&??

5. WEIT_2012_Chap5 - The Engine of Evolution: ??&??; ??&??

6. WEIT_2012_Chap6 - How Sex Drives Evolution: ??&??; ??&??

7. WEIT_2012_Chap7 - The Origin of Species: ??&??; ??&??

8. WEIT_2012_Chap8 - What About Us?: ??&??; ??&??

• Chapter 9 (Evolution Redux) will not be studied in class but you'll have to read it by your own anyway for the exam.

References

• http://evolution.berkeley.edu/
• http://darwin-online.org.uk/
• http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/
• http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/variation/related/

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