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| Tree of Life Labs Examples Entry Template Requirements Equipment | ||||||||||
Tree of Life Info
For Instructors:1) More Background: Students can be overwhelmed by the diversity of life; there are so many phyla to learn, so many key characteristics, so many taxonomic names! Students often focus on the details of the specific taxa they need to know and miss the larger perspective that all the groups are connected through evolution. Yet it is this big picture that is the more important message. What is an effective way of teaching this big picture? The Tree of Life exercise addresses this challenge by having students directly interact with the "big picture" by building their own tree of life with digital images. And thus this exercise helps students appreciate that all of life is interconnected through evolution. 2) Specifics of Tree of Life Exercise: The Tree of Life exercise can be used as an ongoing project for laboratory sections or as an exercise for lecture classes. A tree template is provided on the website (adapted from Campbell and Reece 2002, Maddison 2001). Students build their own tree using digital images. Students start by choosing the domain of life for which they have an image, and then choosing more and more specific clades until they reach the most specific taxon for which they have an image. After students locate this branch, they answer questions about their organism (e.g., Provide taxonomic hierarchy; Where did you encounter this organism?; Identify three interesting features of this organism; Identify three traits this organism has that links it to other members of its class, phylum and kingdom; Describe its life cycle) and post their image on the tree. A universal tree is automatically made from all image entries for a class. This website is designed solely for this Tree of Life exercise; it does not allow you to draw trees or construct phylogenies from data. Contact staub@gonzaga.edu to arrange for the use of our tree program at your site or for specific series of exercises using the Tree of Life.
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