Teaching Examples
I have developed in-class exercises
designed to help students learn to
- access the primary literature
- read and evaluate results presented in
figures, tables, and text,
- think critically about the
implications of the results.
I provide the students with the Abstract,
some background from the Introduction, and charts, tables, and
figures. Small groups of students work to understand the article and to
answer my questions. Students find this challenging at first, but with
practice they become proficient and enjoy these exercises. End-of-semester
evaluations indicate that students find these exercises very useful.
Examples of some in-class exercises and
exam questions from Evolution (BIOL 4974, Spring 2003, U. of Colorado –
Denver).
The material for these exercises and exam
questions is drawn from the following sources:
Burd, A.D.,
F. Gould, J.R. Bradley, J.W. Van Duyn, and W.J. Moar. 2003. Estimated
frequency of nonrecessive Bt resistance genes in bollworm, Helicoverpa
zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in eastern North Carolina.
Journal of Economic Entomology 96:137-142.
Heath, D.D.,
J.W. Heath, C.A. Bryden, R.M. Johnson, and C.W. Fox. 2003. Rapid evolution
of egg size in captive salmon. Science 299:1738-1740.
Olsson, K.,
and J. Agren. 2002. Latitudinal population differentiation in phenology,
life history and flower morphology in the perennial herb Lythrum
salicaria. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 15:983-996.
Van Treuren,
R., R. Bijlsma, J.M. Tinbergen, D. Heg, and L. Van de Zande. 1999. Genetic
analysis of the population structure of socially organized oystercatchers (Haematopus
ostralegus) using microsatellites. Molecular Ecology 8:181-187.
Weber, L.I.,
and J.A. Levy. 2000. Genetic population structure of the swimming crab
Callinectes danae (Crustacea : Decapoda) in southern Brazil.
Hydrobiologia 420:203-210.
Whiting,
M.F., S. Bradler, and T. Maxwell. 2003. Loss and recovery of wings in stick
insects. Nature 421:264-267.
Zhu, D.Y.,
G.S. Lawes, and I.L. Gordon. 2002. Estimates of genetic variability and
heritability for vegetative and reproductive characters of kiwifruit (Actinidia
deliciosa). Euphytica 124:93-98. |
