Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
For the instructor:
Pedagogical research indicates that students learn better if they are actively engaged. The
following slides require only a few minutes each and are designed to actively engage
students with lecture material on the topic of evolution by responding to multiple choice
questions. The class can use response technology (like “clickers”) to record their answers,
which are then presented as a histogram on the screen. A lower cost option is for students to
hold up colored pieces of paper (red = A, yellow = B, etc.), allowing the instructor to visually
assess the distribution of responses. The instructor can have students respond individually
or after short group- or pair-discussions. Used at the beginning of class, this type of question
can assess how well students have understood assigned reading or the previous lecture.
During the lecture, the instructor can use these questions to assess current understanding of
the lecture material, and based on the result, can further elucidate the concept. The
responses may reveal an underlying student misconception, which can then be addressed.
For tenacious misconceptions, instructors may wish to have students respond to the
question, discuss the topic with a partner and explain their answer, and then respond to the
question again, before the correct answer is revealed. In the majority of cases, students “selfcorrect” during these exercises.
This slideshow is provided by Understanding Evolution (understandingevolution.org) and is
copyright 2011 by The University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, and the
Regents of the University of California. Feel free to use and modify this presentation for
educational purposes.
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Mutation is a random process.
a. agree
b. disagree
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Which one of the following statements
is accurate?
a. Natural selection works on variation
already present in a population.
b. Natural selection works on non-heritable
traits.
c. Individuals evolve through natural selection.
d. Organisms evolve structures that they need.
e. None of the statements are true.
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Some head lice are now resistant to all commonly used
pesticide shampoos used to kill them. Which is the
better explanation for this observation?
a. Frequent contact with pesticide shampoos caused
mutations that allowed the lice to become resistant
so resistant lice became more and more common.
b. Some lice carried genes for resistance to the
pesticide before contact with the shampoos and
their numbers increased after lice shampoos
became common.
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
The more we expose bacteria to antibiotics,
the harder they will try to adapt.
a. agree
b. disagree
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Which statement describes the swallow with the
greatest evolutionary fitness?
a. A swallow that lives to be 3 years old and has four
offspring, two of which survive to reproduce themselves
b. A swallow that lives to be 5 years old and has five
offspring, one of which survives to reproduce
c. A swallow that lives to be 2 years old and has four
offspring, all of which survive to reproduce themselves
d. A swallow that lives to be 7 years old and has three
offspring, all of which survive to reproduce
e. All are equally fit
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Only the strongest and healthiest individuals
in a population will survive to reproduce.
a. agree
b.disagree
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Genetic drift occurs in all populations, all
the time.
a. agree
b.disagree
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Genetic analysis of a large population of mink inhabiting an
island in Michigan revealed a surprising large number of loci
with a fixed allele—that is, loci without any genetic variation in
the population. Which of the following is the most probable
explanation for this genetic homogeneity?
a. The population exhibited nonrandom mating, producing
homozygous genotypes.
b. The gene pool of this population never experienced mutation
or gene flow.
c. A very small number of mink may have colonized this island,
and this founder effect and subsequent genetic drift fixed
many alleles.
d. The colonizing population may have had much more genetic
diversity, but in the last year or two, genetic drift fixed these
alleles by chance.
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
A class of 100 students was tested for the ability to
taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). It was found that 50
students could taste it very strongly (genotype TT), 20
students could taste it weakly (genotype Tt), and 30
students could not taste PTC at all (genotype tt). What
is the frequency of the recessive allele, t, in the
population?
a. 0.40
b. 0.50
c. 0.60
d. 0.80
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Which of the following phylogenies is currently best
supported by available evidence?
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Which taxon on the tree below is most
advanced/specialized?
a. A
b. B
c. C
d. D
e. None of the above
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Which taxon on the tree below is most closely related to
taxon A?
a. B
b. C
c. D
d. All of the above are
equally closely
related to A
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Which taxon on the tree below is most closely related to
taxon C?
a. A
b. B
c. D
d. B and D are
equally closely
related to C
e. All of the above are
equally closely
related to C
Understanding Evolution : Personal response question
Which taxon on the tree below is most closely related to
taxon D?
a. A
b. B
c. C
d. All of the above are
equally closely
related to D