Making Sense of Evolution

Background and Rationale

Background

My 8^th grade students are bright, inquisitive, and demanding, which creates a dynamic learning environment. Unfortunately, many students struggle with difficulties both in and out of the classroom. High poverty, high rates of student mobility, financial strains, struggles with basic transportation, and procuring school supplies all serve as the backdrop for many students just trying to make it day-to-day. Central High School, also the home of Central Junior High, was the very first high school in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Originally located in downtown Tulsa, Central was pushed north and westward in the 1960s in order to comply with changing requirements about desegregation, and thus began serving a more racially diverse and socioeconomically challenged set of students. White flight out of the area complicated these plans for integration, leaving a diverse set of students that are socioeconomically challenged. As recently as 2011, discussions were floated to consolidate the building and move students elsewhere.

Tulsa Central Junior High School itself only exists as a result of Project School House, a program designed to save money by consolidating and shuttering numerous schools within the Tulsa District starting in 2011. Central High School was on the list of school sites to be shuttered, but continues to remain open with the addition of a junior high school that includes grades 7 and 8.

Budget cuts are again affecting Tulsa Public Schools, with teacher cuts, central office positions being whittled down, and numerous other cost saving measures being undertaken due to recent state revenue failures in Oklahoma. Low projected enrollment numbers for Central Junior High and High School have meant even more teaching positions and resources are being taken away from the students at my school site.

The student population of Central is impoverished, as 100% of Central Junior High students are eligible for a free/reduced lunch. Central is a racially diverse junior high, with African American students making up 54% of the population, followed by 28% white, 10% Hispanic, 6% Native American and 1% Asian. These challenges of are not unique to Tulsa, nor is the importance of critical thinking and learning around fundamental scientific concepts.

In years past, my students have described learning about evolutionary concepts as “scary” or in direct contradiction with personal belief systems. As a result, it is my intention to provide students with facts and evidence that will be accessible while helping them to gain critical understandings and frameworks for the natural world. As a result, this unit will be useful for any instructors teaching 8^th grade and following the Next Generation Science Standards as well as for teachers local to Oklahoma, as these standards are largely similar.

Rationale

The teaching of evolutionary concepts to Junior High Students is paramount. Oklahoma is well known for taking a regressive stance on science in the educational realm. Yearly, the state legislature considers legislation that would undermine the teaching of fact based science in favor of “teaching the controversy” and mandating that students be taught intelligent design concepts or other versions of creationism in science courses. Such proposals have elicited strong reprimands from the National Association of Biology Teachers and the American Institute of Biological Sciences. These reprimands have not stopped the state legislature from taking up similar measures as recently as 2016.

Such ideological fights over science fall short of actual discussion of what is best for students. Oklahoma has a major gap of college-educated citizens, which in turn is creating a “brain drain” and a damper on the state economy. As the economy continues to favor skilled, technically adept, critical thinking workers, I fear that we will see our young people continue to fall behind.

Teaching the facts of evolution as well as the critical thinking to understand it are pivotal to individual students. I believe this to be critical from a social justice standpoint. All students deserve to have a quality education that can yield for them tangible benefits, whether those benefits come in the form of a greater understanding of the natural world, the building of fundamental critical thinking skills, or a newfound love of science that could propel an entire career in a Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) field.