Novel approach to teaching biological diversity in middle school
NSF support for education graduate student, postdoc, or teacher
We are research scientists working on the major transitions in biological individuality that have occurred during the history of life on earth. We use social principles, such as cooperation and conflict, to understand these major evolutionary transitions. As part of a recently funded NSF research project (non-technical abstract below), we seek a partnership with an education professional to apply our social framework to the teaching of biology in middle school. This partnership could take several forms, including RA support for an education graduate student, post-doctoral support for a Ph.D. in a related field, or part-time support for a middle school science teacher.
Major transitions in biological individuality are relatively rare events in the history of life that have given biology one of its most familiar characteristics: its hierarchical structure and organization. Biological individuals, such as genomes, cells and organisms are comprised initially as groups of cooperating individuals from lower levels. For example, the genome evolved from groups of cooperating genes, the eukaryotic cell evolved from groups of bacteria-like cells, and multicellular organisms evolved from groups of cells. Our research uses the theory of social interactions between individuals to explain how groups of individuals become a new kind of evolutionary individual. More information about our research can be found at our lab website (http://michodlab.arizona.edu/) or on Research Gate or Google scholar.
We would like to extend our social framework for understanding biological diversity and organization to the teaching of biology in middle school. We are looking for a graduate student, postdoc, teacher, or other education professional to help us develop a feasibility study to test the merit of this idea. This is a new and exciting project; if successful, it could transform the teaching of biology. Social theory involving the principles of cooperation and conflict should provide a familiar and intuitive framework for students. Students 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 conflict is regulated. This social framework provides teachers with a set of familiar principles to explain the very remarkable transitions in biological complexity that have occurred during the history of life as new kinds of biological individuals were created.
The very idea of cooperation seems to be at odds with classic Darwinian theory, but its central role in biology may be explained using a model organism that we use in our research, the volvocine green algae. Volvocine algae are readily available and can be incorporated into the Arizona science standards for middle school. The AZ science standards interweave content areas, crosscutting concepts with the practices of science. We seek to integrate evolutionary transitions in individuality and the volvocine green algae into these State Standards.
Please consider joining us in our endeavor to improve the teaching of biology in middle schools using a novel framework based on social principles like cooperation and conflict and evolutionary transitions in individuality. Informal inquiries and questions welcome. Please contact Dr. Richard Michod at michod@u.arizona.edu(link sends e-mail).
A graduate student candidate for this position would most likely be enrolled in an education program. Enrollment in a science program could be acceptable, if the student has interest and skills in transforming scientific research into the practice of education. In the ideal case, the graduate student would incorporate their work here into their dissertation work. The candidate could also be a post-doc with a Ph.D. in a relevant field. The postdoctoral position would likely be a part-time position for budgetary reasons. The candidate could also be a middle school science teacher interested in these ideas and looking for a part-time job. Financial support and salary is negotiable and will be commensurate with the candidate background and mutually agreed-upon position. Yearly renewal of this position is possible.
To apply, email the following to Dr. Richard Michod (michod@u.arizona.edu(link sends e-mail)) with the subject line "NSF education partner application: [Your full name]." Include (i) a letter introducing yourself and briefly explaining what interests you about this project, (ii) a curriculum vitae, including a full list of publications (pre-print articles can be included), (iii) a one-page statement describing your background, experience and future interests, and (iv) contact information for three references.
At the University of Arizona, we value our inclusive climate and we know that diversity in experiences and perspectives is vital to advancing innovation, critical thinking, solving complex problems, and creating an inclusive academic community. As a Hispanic-serving institution, we translate these values into action by seeking individuals who have experience and expertise working with diverse students, colleagues, and constituencies. Because we seek a workforce with a wide range of perspectives and experiences, we provide equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability. As an Employer of National Service, we also welcome alumni of AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and other national service programs and others who will help us advance our Inclusive Excellence initiative aimed at creating a university that values student, staff and faculty engagement in addressing issues of diversity and inclusiveness.
Non-technical abstract of associated NSF research grant
Human bodies are made up of many cells, but, for billions of years, life on earth consisted of unicellular organisms whose bodies are made up of a single cell. Why and how unicellular organisms evolved into multicellular individuals is a major unsolved question in biology. Answering this question will help scientists understand one of the more familiar features of life on earth which is its hierarchical structure. Genes exist in chromosomes, chromosomes exist in cells, cells exist in multicellular organisms, and multicellular organisms exist in complex societies. Each of these levels in the hierarchy of life represents an evolutionary individual, that is, a unit of adaptation on which natural selection acts. During evolution, each one of these levels or individuals has arisen from a group of lower-level units. How did groups of cells evolve into a new multicellular individual is the basic question addressed by this proposal. The researchers approach this question by testing a general theory of evolutionary transitions in a specific group of organisms. The researchers present a novel hypothesis that stress responses are instrumental in the origin of cell groups and in the origin specialized types of cells that arise in these groups. They will test this hypothesis in the volvocine green algae, a lineage of organisms that span hierarchical levels from single cells to multicellular individuals. Testing this hypothesis will help the scientists to better understand human disease. For example, the evolution of cancer in a human body is the reversal of the processes studied in the research. A cancerous cell has stopped cooperating with other cells in the multicellular group and has regained its capacity to evolve at the single cell level. In other words, cancer is a disease in which individuality changes from the level of the multicellular group back to the level of the cell. The proposed work will use the principles involving evolutionary transitions in individuality generally to develop curricula to better teach biology to middle school students. The proposed work will also develop methods of high-throughput phenotyping and imaging of cell groups that may help with medical diagnosis.
Evolution by natural selection requires heritable variation in fitness at the individual level. During evolutionary transitions in individuality, such as the evolution of multicellular individuals, fitness must be remapped from the cell level to the new level of the multicellular individual. Previous work has shown that stress responses can be a major impetus for the reorganization of fitness during the transition to multicellular individuality. There are two basic criteria of multicellular individuality investigated in the work, group inseparability and somatic cell division of labor. The workers have shown that these two individuality criteria respond to stress in species of intermediate complexity and individuality. These are normally undifferentiated colonial species that are closely related to unicellular and differentiated species. The researchers will examine the phenotypic and underlying genetic responses to stress that affect group formation and the origin of new cell types. They will characterize the plastic development of somatic cells in response to environmental stress and use phylogenetic methods to reconstruct the evolutionary history of these plastic somatic cells. This will allow them to determine whether the plastic development of somatic cells preceded or followed the origin of key genes necessary for cellular differentiation. They will use experimental evolution to test whether obligate cellular differentiation evolves in lab populations under the conditions predicted by their models. They will also characterize changes in group formation in response to environmental stress. The researchers will identify the genetic basis for these stress responses via experiments utilizing gene expression analyses and gene knockouts. This will allow them to understand the role played by gene co-option in the origin of group formation and new cell types and with it, greater levels of individuality. They will measure variability in fitness at the cell and group levels in a sample of species of varying degrees of individuality to see (i) whether greater individuality leads to decreases in variation in survival and reproduction and (ii) if heritable variation in fitness increases at the group level relative to the cell level during an ETI as predicted by their theory. Finally, they will continue to develop the mathematical theory of fitness reorganization during ETIs, and model specifically the evolution of the genotype-phenotype map along with the evolution of two key individuality traits studied in their empirical work, somatic differentiation and group inseparability.