Using Evolution Genealogy in the Classroom

Teachers! I guarantee that if you start your lesson on evolution by stating "Did you know that your dog is your twenty-seventh million cousin?" you WILL receive the full attention of the class. It never fails to get the kids engaged, asking questions and offering thoughts. Evolutionary genealogy makes a personal connection between the students and the subject of evolution like no other method. Feedback from teachers on the effective use of this technique centers around a couple of core activities.

1) Geologic time. Evolution cannot be understood unless geologic time is clearly understood.

The vastness of geologic time is bread and butter to the oil and mining industries, and students should know this core finding of science as well. The slow workings of evolution achieve major changes only by being able to operate little by little over vast spans of time.

2) Explanation of key evolution concepts

• All life on Earth is related by descent with modification from common ancestors
• Modification through time takes place mostly through natural selection

3) Use of the Evogeneao tree of life diagram

Students pick their favorite animal, (or what they had for dinner), find the organism on the diagram, and trace along its line of descent to where it intersects the human line of descent. They then use the curved time lines to determine the approximate time when the common ancestor lived. Students line up to do this activity because they are so intrigued to make this connection.

For older or more advanced students: Construct a chart or spreadsheet of the results, to form a list of times of common ancestors. These can be between humans and another organism, or between two non-human organisms.

4) Calculating cousin and removal relationships

For older or more advance students, an excellent exploratory activity is to have students work out the number of generations down each line of descent to a common ancestor. This involves determining what sort of intermediate forms existed between the present form and the common ancestor, what the generation times of these forms might have been, and totaling the results. A comparison of the number of generations down each of the two lines of descent yields a rough cousin and removal relationship, just as in a standard genealogy. (See the Evolutionary Genealogy page of the website for more details).

Resources for the Classroom

The author of this website created a digital slide show for 2011 presentation at a local science museum. This very successful talk on evolution used Gary Larson cartoons and refutations of evolution opponents' talking points to explain this core finding of science. A few of the slides used in this talk are posted below. Teachers are welcome to a free PDF file of this slide show for use in their classroom, or as inspiration for their own illustrations. Contact Us. The author of this website would also be willing to present this talk to classrooms or communities if reasonably convenient for me to travel to the site. (No payment is required from the teacher or community.)

Numerous excellent websites on evolution provide a wealth of information for teachers. These are some of the best:

Evolution.berkely.edu
Ncseweb.org
Fieldmuseum.org/evolvingplanet
Talkorigins.org
Palaeos.com
Tolweb.org

A website with a huge trove of resource for teachers to explore geologic time is: Geosociety.org/educate