Middle+School+Evolution+and+Human+Impact

The link for my unit on Evolution and Human Impact is below. Because the files for the activities were too large, I wasn't able to upload all the supplementing resources, they are from the book: Virus and the Whale. Feel free to contact me if you'd like them! -Cathy

Evolution and Human Impact

Areas for feedback: 1. Are the lessons meaningful for students and can they relate to them? A. I love the Monsanto debate. As we discussed in class, I think that is a great way to get students to really think about the implications of evolution in a real-world setting. There are so many movie clips (pro and against Monsanto) that you can find on youtube that can help your students learn about the different perspectives. I think if you get really excited about this portion of the module, your students will love it and feel like there is actually connection between science and people's lives. ~ Rachel S 2. How to incorporate more community involvement in the unit.



Cathy - Very cool unit! I think your kids will definitely be able to relate to the lessons you've planned. I think both the frogs and Monstanto lessons in particular are great and will definitely get your kids interested (as a side note, wasn't there a clip from the simpsons on mutant frogs or something a while back?). I also like that you're introducing the Galapagos Finches early on since many of my kids struggle with that example later on. One possible additional community resource to use - we had a visitor from the Leakey Foundation (Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman) visit our school and give a lecture to some of our kids on evolution and natural selection. He's on the faculty at Mount Sinai and our kids loved the talk he gave and seemed to get a lot out of it. If you'd like, I can get his contact information for you. -Rohit Tejwani