And this is a school run by evil Pearson who controls all the textbooks, so that’s a bit of a comfort even as America’s educational standards slip down the tubes.
And this is a school run by evil Pearson who controls all the textbooks, so that’s a bit of a comfort even as America’s educational standards slip down the tubes.
I’d like to see endosymbiosis covered. At this grade level they should have the structure of a cell down, and at least be able to define both chloroplasts and mitochondria. Mitochondrial evolution has continued within our cells and offers some of the strongest evidence, as well a form of evidence they are more likely to experience (23 and me, etc), in the form of genomic testing.
This is obviously a curriculum based on the historical way in which we established the theory of evolution, and while a traditional approach to science (to effectively teach it as historical anecdote), I don’t think it’s the most engaging. Students in this age range have their eyes roll like giant boulders off a cliff when confronted with the highly dynamic concepts of finches and peas. At the end of the day it’s the story of a dude who married his cousin and was fond of plant tropisms. Maybe more interesting when you are a bit more mature.
If you take it from the perspective of endosymbiosis, you get to tell a story of cells attacking or invading other cells, but how evolution didn’t stop there. And because evolution didn’t stop, that’s why and how we know everyone on the planet is related.
It’s probably a bit much for eight graders but I’ve also seen HIV being used as the central teaching element for evolution, about specifically how the virus evades the human immune response system by constantly evolving.
Just because there was some specific order white Europeans discovered some particular concept in, doesn’t make it necessarily the best way to teach a concept, nor is it a presentation of the strongest forms of evidence for that concept.