Association for Biology Laboratory Education

One Fish, Two Fish, Real Fish, Fake Fish: Using Free Online Tools to Teach Tree Thinking
    



Advances in Biology Laboratory Education, 2020, Volume 41

Hans D. Lemke & Anna M. Davis

https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v41.art11

Abstract

Tree thinking is a fundamental skill in biology. This workshop highlights two exercises that are designed to provide students with experience interpreting trees and using them to test a hypothesis. Both use a freely available set of web tools (www.phylogeny.fr) to analyze sequences downloaded from GenBank. The first exercise uses molecular data to simulate testing the identity of fish species served in a sushi restaurant. The second is a guided inquiry exercise that allows students to use phylogenetic techniques to test the claims of a simulated advocacy group. In this workshop, we will work through these exercises and then discuss how the techniques can be adapted for other scenarios.

Keywords:  Evolution, phylogenetics, Inquiry-based learning, molecular phylogeny, tree thinking

University of Ottawa (2019)