What Kind of Mind: Lesson 2 Evolution

Lesson 2: Evolution

This lesson introduces further philosophical ideas about the mind, and introduces the topics of evolution and the scientific method. Other questions that the lesson considers includes:

• How do animals adapt to the environment? 
• How do scientists carry out research? 

Skills:

• Curriculum for Excellence SCN 2-10a, SCN 2-11a, SCN 2-14b, SCN 2-20a, SCN 2-20b
• Group discussion
• Scientific methodology such as following evidence
• Analytical and evaluative thinking

Key Resources:

• Lesson slides, L2: Slides for the lesson, including discussion starting points and video links.
• Lesson plan, L2: Lesson outline, detailing the lesson intentions, skills and success criteria.
• Teacher notes, L2: Detailed notes going into the background of discussion raised, detailed activity instructions and equipment etc.
• Annotated slides, L2: Additional teaching notes alongside the presentation slides.

Worksheets: (These resources can also be easily printed as part of the student work booklet)

• Beakless finch worksheet: Task to identify evolutionary change, associated with slide 5.
• Beak matching worksheet: Activity for slide 7, considering which finch beak suits the environment best.

Additional resources: 

• A Brief Guide to Evolution: Background information on evolution featuring more detail about DNA, the time scheme of evolution and the evolutionary process. There are also specific sections detailing the evolution of the mind and how animal research can help inform our understanding of this.

 Printable resources for all lessons:

• Student workbook: This booklet contains all of the written class activities for students, condensing the resources into a booklet of five sheets of paper (so 20, A5 pages for the students to work on). Although the PDF may look like the pages are in an *interesting* order, if printed correctly they will fold into the booklet. To do this, ensure that printing is double sided, and that the printer is set to flip pages on the short edge. 
• Student prints: This printing resource contains all of the individual sheets to be used by the students throughout the project such as the images to be stuck into their booklets and the researcher questionnaires. The document is designed to be printed double sided, meaning that there are some blank pages so individual resources can be separated. [Page breakdown: (P1-2) Pre-program questionnaire, (P3-P4) Post-program questionnaire, (P5) Lesson 1 Images for intelligence task, (P6) Blank, (P7) Lesson 3 Images for the family tree task, (P8) Blank, (P9) Lesson 6 Images for intelligence task.]
• Teacher prints: This printing resource contains all sheets the teachers will use throughout the project  including teacher questionnaires and answer sheets. The document is designed to be printed double sided, meaning that there are some blank pages so that each individual resource can be separated. [Page breakdown: (P1-P4) Pre-program questionnaire, (P5-P9) Post-program questionnaire, (P10) blank, (P11) Lesson 3 answers, (P12) blank, (P13) Lesson 4 communication task.] 

"Living Links" Learning Programme at RZSS

A bespoke learning programme of interactive, interdisciplinary and online sessions on themes from What Kind of Mind? has been developed by the "Living Links" collaboration between the University of St Andrews and RZSS aiming to deepen learners' connections with nature, increase awareness of how our minds affect our health and wellbeing, and promote an understanding of the role of research in scientific development.

This free resource can be found on the RZSS Discovery and Learning ZOOdle (Zoo "Digital Learning Environment") website at https://discover.rzss.org.uk/livinglinks.