Lesson #4- Discussion Strategies
Name: Isabel Anheier
Subject Area: Integrated Science
Topic: Important people
4.24.09
Age/Grade Level: 8
Unit: Evolution
Time allotted: approx 1 hr
Preparation:
Purpose of the lesson:
To teach students about major historical figures in the study of evolution.
Standards targeted:
EL.HS.RE.08 Understand, learn, and use new vocabulary that is introduced and taught
directly through the informational text, literary text, and instruction across the subject
areas.
EL.HS.RE.14 Understand technical vocabulary in subject area reading.
SC.08.LS.03.04 Explain how our understanding of heredity has changed over time.
SC.08.LS.05 Describe and explain the theory of natural selection as a mechanism for
evolution.
Student learning objectives:
To get to know the following scientists, their contributions, relevant time period, studies,
etc: Charles Darwin, Jean Baptiste Lamarck, Alfred Russell Wallace, August Weismann,
Gregor Mendel, Hugo de Vries,
Materials needed: 5 laminated information cards of each of the above people, Evolution
Tea Party handout
Vocabulary: evolution, genetics/genes, variation, theory, natural selection, transmutation
of species, biogeography
Activity:
Introduction:
Begin by explaining to the students that we will be doing a meet and greet with famous
scientists that impacted the study of evolution. Review the Theory of Evolution and
ideas of natural selection, genetics, etc. Then pass out the Evolution Tea Party handout
and one card to each student (15 minutes).
Learning Activity:
Each student will fill out the top portion of the handout on the scientist that they are to
portray. Each will visit each of the other 5 scientists. They are to work in pairs, not
groups, so that they can focus on one person at a time. They may choose to read from the
card, but are encouraged to paraphrase what they have learned and ask each other
questions in order to complete their Tea Party handout. Students will find out when the
person lived, what discoveries they made in the study of evolution, when those
discoveries were made, their gender, and other pertinent facts to why they are recognized
as an important scientist in the field. Students are to take notes on each of the 5 people
they meet (25 minutes).
Closure: Gather as a class to discuss any important or interesting facts that they learned
about. Focus on the fact that all of the scientists were older white males, as well as the
time periods that they lived in. Discuss how this is changing and becoming more flexible
with modern society (10 minutes).
Adaptations/differentiations:
For students below reading level, provide a vocab sheet for more difficult scientific
words that may appear on the persona cards. The major points that they need to record
on their Tea Party sheet will be clear and in appear in order on the card as they appear on
the worksheet.
Assessment:
Student evaluation:
Students will be assessed on completion of their Tea Party worksheet- they must
interview each of the 5 other scientists and record age, time frame, discoveries and their
importance. Worksheet is worth 30 points (5 for each scientist, 6 in total).
Evaluation of the lesson:
This lesson was relatively easy to create. The most intensive part was to gather
information about each of the scientists and compile it into relatively short but
informational cards for the students to use. I feel one important feature of this lesson is in
the closure- the discussion of the traits that all of the scientists have in common (older
white males). Students often overlook or don’t quite understand how deeply embedded
sexism and racism was even just 50 years ago, let alone 200. It’s important for them to
realize the advances we have made and although there is still a lot of disparity,
opportunities for women and people of color are becoming more and more available in
the field of science.
Persona Cards for the Evolution Tea Party
Charles Darwin
Born in England as Charles Robert Darwin in February of 1809, I
grew up to study the natural sciences and eventually went on a 5
year voyage on the HMS Beagle from 1831-1836. We
circumnavigated the Earth, and I first became popular as an author
on geologic theories after returning. However, curiosity was
sparked within me as I studied the geographical distribution of
wildlife and fossils collected during this 5 year expedition. As a
result, I first formulated my idea of natural selection in the year
1838, just 2 years after returning from my voyage. I did not write
my most famous On the Origin of the Species until 1859, more than 20 years later. My
book detailed the evolutionary descent and modification within species by natural
selection. It is a good thing that I beat my competitor, dear Alfred Russell Wallace, to the
punch.
Jean Baptiste Lamarck
Born in France in August of 1744, I was a French soldier,
naturalist, and academic. I began as a botanist and was
appointed as the Chair of Botany at the Jardin des Plantes in
1788. I later became a professor of zoology, and in 1802 was
one of the first people to use the term biology in its modern
sense. I am attributed to the first truly cohesive theory of
evolution when I hypothesized about use and disuse of
characteristics that eventually differentiate organisms from one
another and increasing the ladder of complexity in speciation. My theory of inheritance
of acquired characteristics, or “soft inheritance”, is now known as Lamarckism, and is
unfortunately has given way to modern genetics and “hard inheritance”.
Alfred Russell Wallace
Born in January of 1823, I was a British naturalist, geographer,
anthropologist, explorer, and biologist. I studied in the Amazon
and the Malay Archipelago and later identified the Wallace Line in
Indonesia (on one side of which species are largely in common
with those of Australia, on the other of which the species are like
those of Asia). I am often referred to as the “Father of
Biogeography”. I wrote a letter to Charles Darwin in 1858 about
the concepts of natural selection that I had been working on. To
my dismay, Darwin published these ideas and the Theory of
Evolution just one year later, and his name has now become popularly synonymous with
the concept, as mine has become shrouded in history books.
August Weismann
Born in January of 1834 in Germany, I am a famous evolutionary
biologist. My most famous work focused on the germ plasm theory,
in which inheritance takes place by means of gametes (germ cellsegg and sperm), not somatic cells (all other cells in the body). I
contended that genetic information can not be passed from somatic
cells to germ cells, and this is now known as the Weismann barrier,
and rules out Lamarckism. My theory is now central to modern
evolutionary thought. However, I was rather suspicious of Gregor
Mendel’s work, even though it is now widely accepted. Around
1930-1940, I was named by Ernst Mayr (an important biologist in
th
the 20 century) as one of the most important evolutionary thinkers, second to only
Charles Darwin himself.
Gregor Mendel
I was born an ethnic German in the Austrian Empire in July of 1822
in an area now known as the Czech Republic. I became an
Augustinian priest and later a scientist, becoming famous for my
work on genetics and inheritance in pea plants. An avid gardening
hobby as a child lead to my observation of genetic inheritance and
variation in 29,000+ pea plants in my adulthood. I am now referred
to as the Father of Genetics- quite funny considering I was also a
Father in the priest sense of the word. My work was never deemed
important until the turn of the 20th century, and is now considered
very important to the discovery of modern genetic theory. Two laws came out of my
work- the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment, which is now
known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.
Hugo de Vries
I am a Dutch botanist, born in February of 1848. I later wandered
into the field of genetics, after rediscovering Medel’s laws of heredity
in the 1890’s. In 1889 I wrote Intracellular Pangenisis on the topic of
inheritance of traist via a particular particle, later shortened from
“pangenes” to “genes”. I worked on hybridizing the evening
primrose, and came to the same conclusions as Mendel. I matched
my work with that of Gregor Mendel’s publication from 40 years
earlier, and published my own without mentioning his name. A
fellow scientist, Carl Correns, criticized me and I eventually
conceded to Mendel’s prior experiments that had matched my own.
After retiring in 1918, I continued my work at my new estate, experimenting on new
plants until my death in 1935.
Name__________________
Evolution Tea Party
Read your info card on the scientist you will portray. Identify and record the
following information about your person before introducing yourself to others.
Name___________________________ Age range during major discoveries__________
M/F?
Primary occupation/areas of study____________________________________
Write a 3-5 sentence summary of what you know about this person, their discoveries, etc.
Identify the same information about each of the other 5 scientists whom you speak
with.
Name___________________________ Age range during major discoveries__________
M/F?
Primary occupation/areas of study____________________________________
Write a 3-5 sentence summary of what you know about this person, their discoveries, etc.
Name___________________________ Age range during major discoveries__________
M/F?
Primary occupation/areas of study____________________________________
Write a 3-5 sentence summary of what you know about this person, their discoveries, etc.
Name___________________________ Age range during major discoveries__________
M/F?
Primary occupation/areas of study____________________________________
Write a 3-5 sentence summary of what you know about this person, their discoveries, etc.
Name___________________________ Age range during major discoveries__________
M/F?
Primary occupation/areas of study____________________________________
Write a 3-5 sentence summary of what you know about this person, their discoveries, etc.
Name___________________________ Age range during major discoveries__________
M/F?
Primary occupation/areas of study____________________________________
Write a 3-5 sentence summary of what you know about this person, their discoveries, etc.