EvolvingSTEM teaches lessons that reach well beyond the classroom

Students learn essential life science topics through hands-on experience, draw connections to real-life medical applications, and gain confidence in STEM learning.

EvolvingSTEM teaches students lessons that reach well beyond the classroom

Students learn essential life science topics through hands on experience, draw connections to real-life medical applications, and gain confidence in STEM learning.

HOW WE PRACTICE
Evolution in Action

EvolvingSTEM is an authentic laboratory experience that allows students to watch evolutionary change happen in one week by growing a harmless bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, under conditions that select for mutant bacteria that are better suited to living on a plastic bead, a novel environment that selects for bacteria with increased biofilm formation abilities.

COMPARE
Differences in Bacteria Samples

Compare colony shapes of ancestral (A) and evolved (D) populations by growing bacteria on agar plates.

WHY IT WORKS
Rapid Diversification of Heritable Traits

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Student Learning

By observing populations of bacteria evolve, students will develop a deeper understanding of key life science topics.

Students can directly apply their experimental findings to real world applications in evolutionary medicine. For example, several mutations that appear in P. fluorescens during the EvolvingSTEM experiment also evolve in a closely related species, P. aeruginosa, during chronic wound infections.

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Natural Selection and Evolution

Students will understand how environmental factors contribute to changes in the distribution of traits among individuals in a population over time.

Inheritance and Variation of Traits

Students will observe that traits are passed on from parents to their offspring and understand that DNA mutations are the underlying reason for trait variation among individuals in a population.

Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

Students will observe how interactions between organisms and their environment influence ecosystem dynamics.

Structure and Function

Student will understand the connection between DNA and protein structure and how changes can influence how an organism interacts with its environment.

EvolvingSTEM Improves Student Knowledge

Students who completed the EvolvingSTEM curriculum scored significantly better on an assessment targeted to the Next Generation Science Standards than students who received only the standard, lecture-based curriculum.

Cooper VS, Warren TM, Matela AM, Handwork M, Scarponi S. 2019. EvolvingSTEM: A microbial evolution-in-action curriculum that enhances learning of evolutionary biology and biotechnology. Evolution: Education and Outreach 12:12.

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