Understanding Evolution : Personal response question For the instructor: Pedagogical research indicates that students learn better if they are actively

Understanding Evolution : Personal response Understanding Evolution : Personal response questionquestionFor the instructor:Pedagogical research indicates that students learn better if they are actively engaged. The following slides require only a few minutes each and are designed to actively engage students with lecture material on the topic of evolution by responding to multiple choice questions. The class can use response technology (like “clickers”) to record their answers, which are then presented as a histogram on the screen. A lower cost option is for students to hold up colored pieces of paper (red = A, yellow = B, etc.), allowing the instructor to visually assess the distribution of responses. The instructor can have students respond individually or after short group- or pair-discussions. Used at the beginning of class, this type of question can assess how well students have understood assigned reading or the previous lecture. During the lecture, the instructor can use these questions to assess current understanding of the lecture material, and based on the result, can further elucidate the concept. The responses may reveal an underlying student misconception, which can then be addressed. For tenacious misconceptions, instructors may wish to have students respond to the question, discuss the topic with a partner and explain their answer, and then respond to the question again, before the correct answer is revealed. In the majority of cases, students “self-correct” during these exercises.

This slideshow is provided by Understanding Evolution (understandingevolution.org) and is copyright 2011 by The University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, and the Regents of the University of California. Feel free to use and modify this presentation for educational purposes.

Understanding Evolution : Personal response Understanding Evolution : Personal response questionquestion

Mutation is a random process.a. agreeb. disagree


Which one of the following statements is accurate?

a. Natural selection works on variation already present in a population.

b. Natural selection works on non-heritable traits.

c. Individuals evolve through natural selection.d. Organisms evolve structures that they need.e. None of the statements are true.


Some head lice are now resistant to all commonly used pesticide shampoos used to kill them. Which is the better explanation for this observation?

a. Frequent contact with pesticide shampoos caused mutations that allowed the lice to become resistant so resistant lice became more and more common.

b. Some lice carried genes for resistance to the pesticide before contact with the shampoos and their numbers increased after lice shampoos became common.


The more we expose bacteria to antibiotics, the harder they will try to adapt.

a. agreeb. disagree


Which statement describes the swallow with the greatest evolutionary fitness?

a. A swallow that lives to be 3 years old and has four offspring, two of which survive to reproduce themselves

b. A swallow that lives to be 5 years old and has five offspring, one of which survives to reproduce

c. A swallow that lives to be 2 years old and has four offspring, all of which survive to reproduce themselves

d. A swallow that lives to be 7 years old and has three offspring, all of which survive to reproduce

e. All are equally fit


Only the strongest and healthiest individuals in a population will survive to reproduce.

a. agreeb.disagree


Genetic drift occurs in all populations, all the time.

a. agreeb.disagree


Genetic analysis of a large population of mink inhabiting an island in Michigan revealed a surprising large number of loci with a fixed allele—that is, loci without any genetic variation in the population. Which of the following is the most probable explanation for this genetic homogeneity?

a. The population exhibited nonrandom mating, producing homozygous genotypes.

b. The gene pool of this population never experienced mutation or gene flow.

c. A very small number of mink may have colonized this island, and this founder effect and subsequent genetic drift fixed many alleles.

d. The colonizing population may have had much more genetic diversity, but in the last year or two, genetic drift fixed these alleles by chance.


A class of 100 students was tested for the ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). It was found that 50 students could taste it very strongly (genotype TT), 20 students could taste it weakly (genotype Tt), and 30 students could not taste PTC at all (genotype tt). What is the frequency of the recessive allele, t, in the population?

a. 0.40b. 0.50c. 0.60d. 0.80


Which of the following phylogenies is currently best supported by available evidence?


Which taxon on the tree below is most advanced/specialized?

a. A

b. B

c. C

d. D

e. None of the above


Which taxon on the tree below is most closely related to taxon A?

a. B

b. C

c. D

d. All of the above areequally closely related to A


Which taxon on the tree below is most closely related to taxon C?

a. A

b. B

c. D

d. B and D areequally closely related to C

e. All of the above areequally closelyrelated to C


Which taxon on the tree below is most closely related to taxon D?

a. A

b. B

c. C

d. All of the above areequally closelyrelated to D

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Understanding Evolution : Personal response question For the instructor: Pedagogical research indicates that students learn better if they are actively