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- All Subjects: Biology
- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Creators: Collins, James
- Status: Published
Description
Evolution is the foundation of biology, yet it remains controversial even among college biology students. Acceptance of evolution is important for students if we want them to incorporate evolution into their scientific thinking. However, students’ religious beliefs are a consistent barrier to their acceptance of evolution due to a perceived conflict between religion and evolution. Using pre-post instructional surveys of students in introductory college biology, Study 1 establishes instructional strategies that can be effective for reducing students' perceived conflict between religion and evolution. Through interviews and qualitative analyses, Study 2 documents how instructors teaching evolution at public universities may be resistant towards implementing strategies that can reduce students' perceived conflict, perhaps because of their own lack of religious beliefs and lack of training and awareness about students' conflict with evolution. Interviews with religious students in Study 3 reveals that religious college biology students can perceive their instructors as unfriendly towards religion which can negatively impact these students' perceived conflict between religion and evolution. Study 4 explores how instructors at Christian universities, who share the same Christian backgrounds as their students, do not struggle with implementing strategies that reduce students' perceived conflict between religion and evolution. Cumulatively, these studies reveal a need for a new instructional framework for evolution education that takes into account the religious cultural difference between instructors who are teaching evolution and students who are learning evolution. As such, a new instructional framework is then described, Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCCEE), that can help instructors teach evolution in a way that can reduce students' perceived conflict between religion and evolution, increase student acceptance of evolution, and create more inclusive college biology classrooms for religious students.
ContributorsBarnes, Maryann Elizabeth (Author) / Brownell, Sara (Thesis advisor) / Nesse, Randolph (Committee member) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Husman, Jenefer (Committee member) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Guided by Tinto’s Theory of College Student Departure, I conducted a set of five studies to identify factors that influence students’ social integration in college science active learning classes. These studies were conducted in large-enrollment college science courses and some were specifically conducted in undergraduate active learning biology courses. Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, I identified how students’ identities, such as their gender and LGBTQIA identity, and students’ perceptions of their own intelligence influence their experience in active learning science classes and consequently their social integration in college. I also determined factors of active learning classrooms and instructor behaviors that can affect whether students experience positive or negative social integration in the context of active learning. I found that students’ hidden identities, such as the LGBTQIA identity, are more relevant in active learning classes where students work together and that the increased relevance of one’s identity can have a positive and negative impact on their social integration. I also found that students’ identities can predict their academic self-concept, or their perception of their intelligence as it compares to others’ intelligence in biology, which in turn predicts their participation in small group-discussion. While many students express a fear of negative evaluation, or dread being evaluated negatively by others when speaking out in active learning classes, I identified that how instructors structure group work can cause students to feel more or less integrated into the college science classroom. Lastly, I identified tools that instructors can use, such as name tents and humor, which can positive affect students’ social integration into the college science classroom. In sum, I highlight inequities in students’ experiences in active learning science classrooms and the mechanisms that underlie some of these inequities. I hope this work can be used to create more inclusive undergraduate active learning science courses.
ContributorsCooper, Katelyn M (Author) / Brownell, Sara E (Thesis advisor) / Stout, Valerie (Committee member) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Orchinik, Miles (Committee member) / Zheng, Yi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The complex life cycle and widespread range of infection of Plasmodium parasites, the causal agent of malaria in humans, makes them the perfect organism for the study of various evolutionary mechanisms. In particular, multigene families are considered one of the main sources for genome adaptability and innovation. Within Plasmodium, numerous species- and clade-specific multigene families have major functions in the development and maintenance of infection. Nonetheless, while the evolutionary mechanisms predominant on many species- and clade-specific multigene families have been previously studied, there are far less studies dedicated to analyzing genus common multigene families (GCMFs). I studied the patterns of natural selection and recombination in 90 GCMFs with diverse numbers of gene gain/loss events. I found that the majority of GCMFs are formed by duplications events that predate speciation of mammal Plasmodium species, with many paralogs being neutrally maintained thereafter. In general, multigene families involved in immune evasion and host cell invasion commonly showed signs of positive selection and species-specific gain/loss events; particularly, on Plasmodium species is the simian and rodent clades. A particular multigene family: the merozoite surface protein-7 (msp7) family, is found in all Plasmodium species and has functions related to the erythrocyte invasion. Within Plasmodium vivax, differences in the number of paralogs in this multigene family has been previously explained, at least in part, as potential adaptations to the human host. To investigate this I studied msp7 orthologs in closely related non-human primate parasites where homology was evident. I also estimated paralogs’ evolutionary history and genetic polymorphism. The emerging patterns where compared with those of Plasmodium falciparum. I found that the evolution of the msp7 multigene family is consistent with a Birth-and-Death model where duplications, pseudogenization and gene lost events are common. In order to study additional aspects in the evolution of Plasmodium, I evaluated the trends of long term and short term evolution and the putative effects of vertebrate- host’s immune pressure of gametocytes across various Plasmodium species. Gametocytes, represent the only sexual stage within the Plasmodium life cycle, and are also the transition stages from the vertebrate to the mosquito vector. I found that, while male and female gametocytes showed different levels of immunogenicity, signs of positive selection were not entirely related to the location and presence of immune epitope regions. Overall, these studies further highlight the complex evolutionary patterns observed in Plasmodium.
ContributorsCastillo Siri, Andreina I (Author) / Rosenberg, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Escalante, Ananias (Committee member) / Taylor, Jesse (Committee member) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The closer integration of the world economy has yielded many positive benefits including the worldwide diffusion of innovative technologies and efficiency gains following the widening of international markets. However, closer integration also has negative consequences. Specifically, I focus on the ecology and economics of the spread of species and pathogens. I approach the problem using theoretical and applied models in ecology and economics. First, I use a multi-species theoretical network model to evaluate the ability of dispersal to maintain system-level biodiversity and productivity. I then extend this analysis to consider the effects of dispersal in a coupled social-ecological system where people derive benefits from species. Finally, I estimate an empirical model of the foot and mouth disease risks of trade. By combining outbreak and trade data I estimate the disease risks associated with the international trade in live animals while controlling for the biosecurity measures in place in importing countries and the presence of wild reservoirs. I find that the risks associated with the spread and dispersal of species may be positive or negative, but that this relationship depends on the ecological and economic components of the system and the interactions between them.
ContributorsShanafelt, David William (Author) / Perrings, Charles (Thesis advisor) / Fenichel, Eli (Committee member) / Richards, Timorthy (Committee member) / Janssen, Marco (Committee member) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Evolution is a key feature of undergraduate biology education: the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has identified evolution as one of
the five core concepts of biology, and it is relevant to a wide array of biology-related
careers. If biology instructors want students to use evolution to address scientific
challenges post-graduation, students need to be able to apply evolutionary principles to
real-life situations, and accept that the theory of evolution is the best scientific
explanation for the unity and diversity of life on Earth. In order to help students progress
on both fronts, biology education researchers need surveys that measure evolution
acceptance and assessments that measure students’ ability to apply evolutionary concepts.
This dissertation improves the measurement of student understanding and acceptance of
evolution by (1) developing a novel Evolutionary Medicine Assessment that measures
students’ ability to apply the core principles of Evolutionary Medicine to a variety of
health-related scenarios, (2) reevaluating existing measures of student evolution
acceptance by using student interviews to assess response process validity, and (3)
correcting the validity issues identified on the most widely-used measure of evolution
acceptance - the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) - by
developing and validating a revised version of this survey: the MATE 2.0.
ContributorsMisheva, Anastasia Taya (Author) / Brownell, Sara (Thesis advisor) / Barnes, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Cooper, Katelyn (Committee member) / Sterner, Beckett (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023