High School Teacher Internships at the University of Arizona

in the Evolution of Biological Complexity and Diversity

For more information contact Ms. Shanley Yates at 520-621-7509, shanley@email.arizona.edu.

As part of an NSF funded research grant on the topic of the evolution of multicellular life and biological complexity, two paid summer internships are available for high school teachers of biology and/or mathematics in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Michod at the University of Arizona (http://eebweb.arizona.edu/michod/). Stipend is $4,000 for 6 weeks during June and July to start in 2008.  The intern will be expected to become involved in the experimental and theoretical research in the lab and to develop a module for use in their classroom on the teaching of the evolution of biological complexity. The intern could also be a teacher in the NSF BioMe project (http://biome.bio5.org/), and those applicants who are interested in both programs are encouraged to contact us to discuss the synergistic opportunities available between these two programs.

Based on their working in our lab, the intern will (i) develop a module on the teaching of biological complexity, (ii) implement their module in their classroom the coming year, and (iii) prepare improvements on the module based on their experience in their classroom. These modules will be revised the following summer and this process iterated over the term of the grant so that by the end of the 3 year term of the grant we expect to have a fully developed module or unit on biological complexity for use in high school. Interns may reapply during following summers, but this is not mandatory. The trainees on the grant (graduate students and postdocs working in the lab) will be involved with the interns and will aid them during the school year.

Background on our research and the teaching of evolution

Our understanding of life is being transformed by the realization that evolution occurs not only among individuals within populations, but also through the integration of groups of individuals into new higher-level individuals—that is, through evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs). The major landmarks in the diversification of life and the hierarchical organization of the living world are consequences of a series of ETIs: from genes to gene networks to the first cell, from prokaryotic to eukaryotic cells, from cells to multicellular organisms, from asexually reproducing individuals to sexually reproducing pairs, and from solitary individuals to societies. How and why do groups evolve into individuals? These are the central questions motivating our research.

One of the major evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETI) in the history and diversification of life has been the transition from unicellular to multicellular life. This ETI was guided by the opportunities of cooperation among cells and the problem of cheating. The need to enhance cooperation while reducing cheating lead to the evolution of means to regulate cellular cheating and the conflict it creates. Basic features of multicellular organisms and cells can be understood as conflict mediators, for example, the germ line, programmed cell death, determinant growth, and the immune system. Furthermore, diseases, such as cancer, can be understood as a loss of this mediation in favor of cell cheating. We have developed a mathematical theory based on cooperation and conflict and the NSF research project involves further developing this theory and applying it to the case of the evolution of multicellularity in the volvocine green algae (Volvox, Chlamydomonas and their close relatives) as a model experimental system.

By addressing the issue of complexity in the context of ETIs, such as the transition from unicellular to multicellular life, we would like to address the ongoing crisis in our country concerning the teaching of evolution and complexity. The most recent opposition to evidence-based biology comes from proponents of 'intelligent design,' who claim that life is 'irreducibly complex,' and thus cannot be explained by Darwinian principles. We wish to confront such claims by offering an alternative framework for the teaching of life's diversity and complexity using ETIs and the evolution of multicellularity as case studies. Our framework to understand ETIs involves the concepts of cooperation and conflict, which should provide a familiar and intuitive framework for students. They are social individuals and familiar with cooperation and conflict in their lives. They have experienced how groups may gain new functions through cooperation, but only if within-group conflict is regulated. This provides teachers with a familiar framework to explain the very remarkable transitions in complexity during the history of life. The very idea of cooperation seems at first to be at odds with the Darwinian program (“nature red in tooth and claw”), but its central role in ETIs may be explained through the green algae Volvox and its relatives, which are readily available and currently used as lab organisms in schools.

In this way, by connecting our research on the ETIs with curriculum reform on the teaching of evolution, we intend to address the ongoing public controversy about complexity, intelligent design and the teaching of evolution.