Evaluating two approaches to helping college students understand evolutionary trees through diagramming tasks

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology education
• Macroevolutionary concepts

Background:

• Understanding evolutionary theory requires proficiency with evolutionary trees.
• Implementing active macroevolution curricula in large college classes is challenging.
• Traditional textbook learning is prevalent in higher education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of two distinct teaching methods for macroevolution.
• To compare learning gains from a software-based laboratory (EvoBeaker) versus a lecture/paper-based activity.
• To assess the applicability of these methods in diverse university settings.

Main Methods:

• Two treatments were compared: Treatment 1 (EvoBeaker software laboratory) and Treatment 2 (prerecorded lecture with paper-based activity).
• Learning gains were assessed using pre- and posttests administered to students across nine college-level biology classes.
• Student performance was analyzed to identify gains in understanding specific macroevolutionary concepts and skills.

Main Results:

• Both Treatment 1 and Treatment 2 resulted in significant learning gains, particularly in addressing common misconceptions.
• Learning gains extended beyond knowledge typically acquired from standard textbook material.
• The two treatments showed equivalent overall learning gains, with each performing better in specific areas.

Conclusions:

• Active learning approaches, including software-based labs like EvoBeaker, can effectively enhance student comprehension of macroevolution.
• The EvoBeaker software provides comparable learning outcomes to traditional hands-on methods.
• The positive results suggest that EvoBeaker is a viable and potentially scalable tool for teaching evolutionary trees in diverse higher education biology courses.