NIH and BSCS have developed a new FREE resource for high school life science teachers- Evolution in Medicine. The materials can be accessed online, downloaded as a PDF, or you can order a hardcopy from NIH. Seems like a great life science supplement. You may also want to check into the archived webinar HERE.
The table below (from the NIH site) describes the units:
|
Lesson
|
Objectives
|
|---|---|
| 1. Ideas about the Role of Evolution in Medicine | Recognize that understanding the mechanisms of evolution, especially adaptation by natural selection, enhances medical practice and knowledge. Using an evolutionary tree, explore how common ancestry shapes the characteristics of living organisms. |
| 2. Investigating Lactose Intolerance and Evolution | Understand that natural selection is the only evolutionary mechanism to consistently yield adaptations and that some of the variation among humans that may affect health is distributed geographically. |
| 3. Evolutionary Processes and Patterns Inform Medicine | Examine how health and disease are related to human evolution and understand why some diseases are more common in certain parts of the world. Analyze data and apply principles of natural selection to explain the relatively high frequency of disease in certain populations. |
| 4. Using Evolution to Understand Influenza | Understand how comparisons of genetic sequences are important for studying biomedical problems and informing public health decisions. Apply evolutionary theory to explain the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. |
| 5. Evaluating Evolutionary Explanations | Understand the importance of evidence in interpreting examples of evolution and medicine. Appreciate that natural selection and common ancestry can explain why humans are susceptible to many diseases. |
Science for All 