Education Commons^™

Evolving: Using Science Fiction To Engage Students In Evolutionary Theory, Chad Rohrbacher

Publications

Evolutionary biology is not well-understood by a majority of the population. Many misperceptions and misconceptions exist as well as outright resistance to the theory. Various teaching and learning strategies have been tried in an attempt to involve students in exploring the theory, with mixed results. The use of science fiction to engage students in this area has been sparse, and virtually no quantitative assessment of learning with the method has been done. Using Origins, an anthology based on evolution, we created an interdisciplinary teacher’s resource manual that will be offered free to teachers. This paper examines some of the difficulties …