The Significance of the Study of Evolution: Development and Implementation of an Interactive Course Module: Phase I

Abstract

The goal of this project is to create an interactive, one week coursemoduleto supplement teaching students about the connections between molecular evolution, macroevolution, microevolution and how they pertain tothehuman body and health. Thisinteractive course module is beingdeveloped using resources from the Internet that will allow the students to better understand the content. The main purpose of this course modulewill be to show that evolution is an evidence based science that affects public health and all fields of biology. Those who believe that evolution is antithetical to their beliefs, their concerns and the controversies that surround the study and teaching evolution will be addressed to ease any problemsthatthey may have. Surveys will be given at the beginning and end of the course to gauge the students' current and learned knowledge of evolutionand to get feedback for further improvement. This pedagogical research will be used to show that evolution is based on empirical evidence and is necessary to learn as it serves as the foundation of phylogenetic studies in biology. This knowledge can be applied to better understand individual human health and then to the wider field ofpublic health.