From Newsroom to Classroom

摘要

Want a great example of evolution for your classroom? If we are guided by our textbooks, we should look to the radiation of Darwin’s finches (Grant and Grant ), the return of whales to the water (Thewissen ), the evolution of modern horses from their tiny ancestors (MacFadden ), or some similar well-established example for a case study. But are these sorts of illustrations the most compelling to students? Though such classic examples of evolution have more than earned their keep in the biology classroom, they are also removed from students’ everyday lives. , for example, may fascinate some students but leave others wondering why they need to know this stuff. Just how relevant is a 50-million-year-old horse to a 14-year-old’s fast-paced media-driven world?