Skip to main content
 

Evolution by Natural Selection in Oldfield Mice

By Katherine S. LaCommare, Peter A. Van Zandt

Evolution by Natural Selection in Oldfield Mice


 

Abstract

The theory of evolution by natural selection is simple, elegant, and profound. Yet, a large number of undergraduate students including biology majors, medical students, and pre-service science teachers maintain a large set of misconceptions that interfere with a solid understanding of the process of natural selection. It is also well known that lecturing is an insufficient strategy to help students confront and correct these misconceptions. This activity uses the evolution of coat color in oldfield mice (Peromyscus polionotus) as the basis of a case study in which students investigate the role of variation, heritability, and selection in the evolution of a trait. Students examine graphs, data, and excerpts from a series of papers that have been published about this system over the last 100 years. The content is delivered as an interrupted case and encourages peer-to-peer teaching and interaction. The case is appropriate for use in non-major, introductory, or advanced biology courses.

   

Date Posted

01/07/2019

Overview

Objectives

  • Summarize the logic of evolution by natural selection.
  • Explain the role and source of variation, the role of heredity, genetics, survival and reproduction, and the environment in natural selection.
  • Apply this logic to explain how adaptations arise in organisms.
  • Correctly describe natural selection in written work and avoid language that elicits misconceptions. For example, students should be able to articulate that populations evolve, not individuals, that evolution doesn't happen in response to need, and that natural selection is not random.
  • Envision, manipulate, and display data and use information to predict patterns in data.

Keywords

Oldfield mice; evolution; natural selection; beach mice; Peromyscus;

  

Subject Headings

Biology (General)
Ecology
Environmental Science
Evolutionary Biology
Zoology

EDUCATIONAL LEVEL

High school, Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division

  

FORMAT

PDF

   

TOPICAL AREAS

N/A

   

LANGUAGE

English

   

TYPE/METHODS

Analysis (Issues), Interrupted

 

 

Asset 2