The Evolution & Medicine Review

Evolution and Medicine High School Curriculum Supplement Available Free for Fall Classes

Aug 21, 2012 | Reviews | 2 comments

This supplement, sponsored by 10 participating NIH institutes and centers and the Office of the Director. is available without charge for all of your students .  Paper versions are being mailed now, the web version is also available.  The teacher’s supplement is now available For details seethe NIH website  for curriculum supplements.

Grades 9–12
Students explore evolutionary principles and learn how evolution informs human health, biomedical problems, and disease treatment. The supplement contains two weeks of lessons that are easily integrated into your curriculum and are aligned to national and state standards.

Lesson
Objectives
1. Ideas about the Role of Evolution in Medicine Recognize that the mechanisms of evolution, especially adaptation by natural selection, enhance medical practice and understanding. 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.
Supplement cover page for 'Evolution and Medicine'
Sponsored by 10 participating NIH institutes and centers and the Office of the Director.

2 Comments

  1. Joe Alcock on November 9, 2011 at 12:17 am

    This is exciting news! This curriculum is quite similar to one that I use to teach Evolutionary Medicine at the University of New Mexico. High school is a terrific place to start teaching thee worthy topics. Kudos to the folks that made this happen.

  2. Mark Friedman on June 2, 2012 at 10:51 pm

    This is great news for us HS science teachers that place heavy emphasis on teaching evolution.
    Can you please e-mail me a paper version?
    Thx
    M

    Mark L. Friedman
    Educator, Physio-Anatomy and Marine Biology
    Chair, Animo Leadership Science Department
    Ánimo Leadership Charter High School
    11044 South Freeman Avenue, Inglewood, Ca. 90304
    Phone: 310-216-3277 Room 304
    Fax: 323.565.4421 Cell: 310.350.7515 >