NSF Award
9950740
The Beagle Investigations Return with Darwinian Data (BIRDD) Digital Library is an "alpha" prototype of a groundbreaking curricular resource for teaching evolution. BIRDD makes accessible a tremendous variety and quantity of data that have been collected from numerous scientific expeditions to the Galapagos ever since Darwin's classic visit. Even though this prototype has received enthusiastic response from students, professors, and research biologists, BIRDD is being significantly improved and extended. The alpha prototype had limited bio-diversity (it only contained information on finches not tortoises, iguanas, lizards, boobies, frigate birds, penguins, or any plants, fungi, invertebrates, or prokaryotes), it was difficult for novices to navigate, had limited linkages between data sets, contained no videos for behavioral or other temporal analyses, and data were difficult to export to other software packages except as tab delimited data. Thus, BIRDD is being expanded through (1) new software development, (2) acquisition of important new resources of biological, geological, meteorological, and oceanic data, (3) construction of inter-linkages and more export functions so that the data can be analyzed phylogenetically, spatially, and temporally, (4) participatory design through intensive workshop and classroom field testing and formative evaluation, and (5) the development of student research problems using the BIRDD Digital Library. The materials are being field-tested with formative evaluation with dissemination to other educators to improve BIRDD's availability and pedagogical potential. We make a case that the quality of biology education for general and pre-professional students alike is directly related to how well we help them understand fundamental concepts of evolutionary biology. The general level of understanding of evolution by citizens is inadequate. To improve this situation, students need to have access to extensive data and tools that support laboratory and fieldwork, and educators need to have access to pedagogical models of laboratories for evolution. BIRDD provides both.
