Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Evolution Readiness project is working with school districts in Massachusetts, Missouri, and Texas to introduce fourth graders to the concept of evolution by natural selection. We provide students with a virtual environment they can populate with plants (and – coming soon! – animals). When the plants drop seeds, the new plants sometimes differ slightly from the "parent" plant, and are adapted to a slightly different environment. Students conduct virtual experiments to determine which variety of plant lives best in which environment. Later, they can alter the environment and observe the effect. If the changes are too abrupt the next generation will not include any plants that are able to survive in the new environment and the whole plant population will die. If the changes are gradual the population will evolve, over many generations, to adapt to the changed environments.

Researchers from Boston College are assessing students' content knowledge, scientific inquiry skills, and attitudes toward the nature of science, and comparing them to baseline data gathered last year in the same schools.

Wednesday Feedback Survey<--->

• Find out more about the project
• Setup classes and run activities in our Portal

Publications

• Newsweek featured "Nature's Little Scientists" about the Evolution Readiness project.
• The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) wrote a report entitled "Preparing Students to Learn About Evolution."
• Read Tuesday's Lesson: Teaching Evolution to Fourth Graders in the fall 2009 @Concord.
• Read Teaching Evolution with Models in the spring 2009 @Concord.