Author: Aidan

Teaching evolutionary concepts using a bowl of sweets

This lesson is how we lost our ‘Healthy Schools’ accreditation.

Evolutionary theory is an area where students often come to us with misunderstandings. The ‘bowl of sweets’ analogy is a handy way of providing a memorable concrete model of natural selection. The approach described here is based on an original lesson on natural selection by Carol Tang.  I’ve adapted it in ways that make it quicker and more to the point because I’m rarely trying to teach the concepts of natural selection ex nihil and more usually trying to assess how well my students have acquired the relevant ideas earlier in their education and fix things if necessary, so it’s more of an ‘entry check’.

Prepare by putting some sweets in a bowl. There needs to be a variety. I usually include Lindors, Starburst, Skittles and licorice. The licorice is important because most students don’t like it. Whatever you use, check it beforehand to make sure it’s medically (e.g. nuts) and culturally (e.g. kosher/halal) safe for your students. Put an equal number of each type of sweet in the bowl, ensuring the bowl contains a sufficient number so that about half the sweets will be left if every student has one.

This activity assumes either that you know your students have learned about natural selection previously or you have set some advance study on it.  At the start of the class, pass the bowl round, inviting the students to take one each. I teach this class near the end of Autumn term so I say it’s because Christmas is coming up. When you want to start discussing evolution, invite the students to gather round while you explain that you put a known number of each type of sweet in the bowl and you’re interested to see what’s left. Tip the bowl out onto a sheet of paper and separate them out, counting how many of each are left (typically for my students, all the Lindors are gone, about half the chews remain and all the licorice is left).

At this point, tell them that the bowl of sweets can be used as an analogy for the process of natural selection and ask them to consider why. From there you can develop a discussion of evolutionary concepts. Questions I generally find useful (obviously, it depends what they come up with) include:

  • How could the bowl of sweets represent an evolutionary process?
  • Which is the fittest sweet? (Answer usually Lindor.) What makes you say that?  What about if we look at it from the sweet’s point of view?
  • What do the sweets represent?
  • What do you (the class) represent?
  • What are the traits that help a sweet survive in this environment?

In my experience, the analogy of the bowl of sweets provides a useful bridge between the abstract ideas underlying natural selection and the usual exemplifications, most of which seem to involve moths. It’s a rewarding activity as it almost always provides lots of those ‘penny drops’ moments when students suddenly get what it’s all about.

Here are some resources for a lesson on evolutionary explanations of aggression with this demo as an element.  It starts with some definitional stuff around defining and classifying aggression.  Then comes the bowl of sweets demo.  Subsequently there is a transfer activity and a Socrative quiz on evolutionary misconceptions.  There is a slideshow to support the activities.

 

Resources: two lessons on using drugs to treat drug addiction (Edexcel ‘key question’)

Image by Philippa Willitts

Here is a two lesson sequence on an Edexcel ‘key question of relevance to today’s society’ for biopsychology (zip file of all resources). It’s on the question of whether it’s a good idea to use drugs like Methadone to treat drug addiction. It assumes you’ve set advance reading on the topic.  In lesson one the students debate the issue, and in lesson two they plan and write an extended response about it. The lessons are designed to help the students understand what an examiner will be looking for in their responses to this type of question, so teachers of other specifications YMMV.

Resources: Socrative quizzes on choice of statistical test

From what I’ve posted recently you might have got the impression that all I ever teach is choice of statistical test. Believe me, it’s starting to feel that way. Quiz one, quiz two and quiz three are all geared towards the Edexcel specification but could easily be adapted to include a greater range of tests.

Resources: inferential statistical test choice

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Here are some things for teaching inferential statistical test choice and justification. There’s a test choice chart with some exercises, a stats test choice walkthrough (three decisions) and some test choice and justification exercises based around criminological psychology topics.  There is also another Socrative quiz on statistical test choice. These were written with the Edexcel A-Level statistics requirements in mind, so YMMV.

Resources: Socrative quizzes on various topics

Image: kake

I’ve been making quite a lot of use of the quiz/assessment website Socrative.com (free account needed; pay for enhanced features). I’m mainly using it to check comprehension of preparatory reading assignments, particularly for targeting areas where misconceptions are likely to arise (e.g. the difference between privacy and confidentiality when discussing research ethics). Here are some of the quizzes I’ve made recently.

Bio-Psychology

Criminological psychology

Research methods and statistics

 

A demonstration practical: correlation between digit ratio and aggression

Source: wikimedia.org
Source: wikimedia.org

It’s blindingly obvious that students will learn things better if we model them first (see Rosenshine, 2012) and most of us are in the habit of modelling all sorts of things, including the sorts of thinking and writing skills that Psychology requires. However, with the recently increased emphasis on practical skills at A – Level (in Edexcel’s specification, anyway) I’ve found myself planning for lots of practical work and it occurred to me that I’ve never modelled the whole process of a practical investigation for my students. Bits of it, yes, but not the whole thing. On reflection, that strikes me as a bit of an oversight. Here is an attempt to put that right. The aims are twofold: (1) to show, all in one, the steps involved in carrying out a practical investigation so that students have an overview of what they will need to do and how it all fits together; and (2) model good research practices and set appropriate expectations about ethical conduct during research. It is based around a  practical investigation that can be done in 45-60 minutes depending on the size of the group.  It’s a correlational study of the relationship between D2:D4 digit ratio and aggression.  There’s a lesson plan, a slideshow, a PBAQ-SF questionnaire for measuring aggression an  Excel spreadsheet for analysing the results and a sheet for students to record their observations during the demo.  I’ve also written an example report, which is pitched for students studying the Edexcel specification (users of other specifications YMMV).

Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of instruction: research-based strategies that all teachers should know. American Educator, Spring 2012.  

Resources: two lessons on recreational drugs and synaptic activity

Image by Philippa Willitts.

Here are two lessons on recreational drugs. The first helps students understand the range of mechanisms by which different recreational drugs affect synaptic activity. There is a lesson plan, slideshow and an activity in which students must work out the effect of a different drugs on postsynaptic firing rates. The second lesson explores where our understanding of cannabinoids comes from and contains different activities to get students thinking about biopsychological research. There is a lesson plan, a slidehow and a reading on cannabis research. Edit: here is a link with more detail on the reciprocal teaching routine. Also, I forgot there was a Socrative quiz to go with this lesson.

Resources: a lesson on synaptic transmission

Here are some resources for a lesson on synaptic transmission. It’s based around this modelling activity for teaching synaptic transmission. There are some slides, a text on synaptic transmission, a Socrative quiz on the structure of synapses and a moderately tricky activity on summation and excitatory/inhibitory inputs.

Resources: 47,XYY kayrotype and criminality

Souce: wikimedia. Creative commons license.

Here’s a lesson on the 47,XYY karyotype (XYY syndrome) using the jigsaw format. It starts with a factual learning check and some slides to support an explanation of three different explanations of the association between XYY and offending. The jigsaw element is oriented towards using research into 47,XYY as a way of discussing various issues and debates in psychology. These are based on some of those specified by Edexcel (reductionism, socially sensitive research, development of knowledge over time and nature/nurture) but I imagine they’re fairly broadly applicable. There’s a slideshow, a Socrative true/false quiz on XYY and a set of jigsaw materials on XYY for four groups.

Resources: the glutamate hypothesis of schizphrenia

A colleague needed a short text on the glutamate hypothesis for a reciprocal teaching activity but couldn’t find one pitched at the right level. I therefore wrote one, because it was more fun that what I was actually supposed to be doing.