Skip to content

Learning Hub
Labs
- Educational Design Lab
- Community Science Lab
Bases
About

Menu

Learning Hub
Labs
- Educational Design Lab
- Community Science Lab
Bases
About

Events

OpenEvo regularly hosts or contributes to a diversity of
online, in-person, and hybrid events with collaborators from around the world.

Upcoming Events

Network Meet-up @ Learning Planet Festival 2024

We will host a networking event where school stakeholders share their experiences implementing educational innovations and school-based community science projects in their local contexts. Stay tuned for more information

January 25, 2024 2:00 pm
Online
English

Past Events

Workshop: Computersimulationen zu Evolution und Nachhaltigkeit @ 4. Mitteldeutscher MINT-Kongress für Lehrkräfte

Workshop: Computersimulationen zu Evolution und Nachhaltigkeit Die Themen Evolution und Nachhaltigkeit sind mit mehreren Lernschwierigkeiten verbunden, denn sie sind das Ergebnis komplexer Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Organismen und ihrer Umwelt, und evolutionär-ökologische Prozesse spielen sich meist über größere Raum- und Zeitdimensionen ab. Die sogenannte agenten-basierte Modellierung ist eine Methodik, welche in den letzten Jahrzehnten insbesondere in einigen Zweigen der Verhaltens- , Evolutions- und Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften verwendet wird, um derartige Dynamiken komplexer Systeme zu erforschen. Im Rahmen dieses Workshops werden eine Reihe an digitalen Lehrmaterialien in Form von agenten-basierten Computersimulationen mit der Software NetLogo sowie dazugehörige Unterrichtsmaterialien vorgestellt und mit Teilnehmenden ausprobiert. Die Modelle eignen sich insbesondere für die Behandlung von Konzepten der Ökologie (logistisches Populationswachstum, Wachstumsrate, Tragfähigkeit); evolutionäre Konzepte wie Merkmal, Variation, Selektion, Vererbung, Fitness, Gründereffekt; Mechanismen der Evolution von Kooperation, wie Verwandtenselektion, reziproker Altruismus, Ethnozentrismus; Konzepte der Verhaltensökologie (Kosten-Nutzen, soziales Dilemma, Kooperation, Konkurrenz); kulturelle Evolution von kulturellen Merkmalen durch soziales Lernen; sowie Konzepte der Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften (Tragik der Allmende; höchstmöglicher Dauerertrag). Aufgrund der fächerübergreifenden Ausrichtung werden durch die Materialien auch Konzepte des Sozialkunde- und Ethikunterrichts thematisiert.

September 23, 2023 11:00 am
In person
German

Talk: Understanding agency in evolution education @ FDdB-Tagung 2023 Ludwigsburg

Humans are born with a drive to notice the behaviors of the agents around us. This drive develops into our expansive capacities for interpreting the minds and goals of those agents. Our propensities for such agential cognition are a foundation for our ability to engage in shared goals and the emergence of societies through culture. Despite this foundational aspect to human reasoning about agency, the development of our conceptual understanding of agency can be far from intuitive. Evolution education, classically conceptualized, has been largely focused on suppressing such agential reasoning. Agential reasoning is often viewed as antagonistic to evolutionary reasoning, and reasoning about agential causes may be framed in dichotomous terms, as oppositional to evolutionary reasoning. Yet, evolutionary processes very frequently involve agents with goals at various levels of organization within complex systems. These goal-directed agents sometimes act in ways that influence trait functions or selection pressures within ecosystems. Thus, how humans develop a generalized and structured scientific understanding of the concept of agency in relation to evolution is of central importance, both to our everyday living, and our scientific literacy, as individuals, communities, and as a species. We present a novel framework and early empirical work in educational design research to support interdisciplinary innovations at the intersection of evolution and sustainability education, focused, in part, on developing a conceptual understanding of agency.

September 20, 2023 8:30 am
In person
English, German

Workshop: A school fit for humans? @Learning Planet Festival 2023

How should schools be designed to foster learning and wellbeing for all in the 21st century? Teaching and social learning are hallmarks of our species, but in the millions of years of our evolutionary history, schools are a very recent “invention”. On the one hand, the way most schools are designed has not really changed much ever since formal schooling spread across the globe some 200 years ago. On the other hand, there are many different kinds of schools in the world, and many different ways to teach, learn, and organize a school community. What do students, teachers, parents, and other community members think about school design, such as the role of teachers, exams, grades, homework, curricula in education? What kind of school is “fit for humans” in the 21st century?

January 25, 2023 11:30 am
Online
English

Human Behavior & Climate Action. Climate Classroom @COP27

This Climate Classroom Lesson will explore the intersection of Human Behavior and Climate Action. The lesson will provide an introductory perspective on the interdisciplinary behavioral sciences as they relate to supporting effective and collective climate action. We present climate action as a collective action problem and explore ways to address collective action problems. We present Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom’s Core Design Principles as a framework of social conditions that foster cooperation and discuss the use of the framework for effective climate action.

November 15, 2022 2:00 pm
Online
English

7. TUD-Sylber-Konferenz “Lehrkräftebildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung”

Workshop “Reflexion über menschliches Verhalten als Fokus in der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung” In diesem Workshop stellen wir zwei miteinander verwobene Ansätze vor, welche wir und Kolleg:innen international in der Lehrer:innenaus- und weiterbildung umgesetzt haben: unser Bildungskonzept für menschliches Verhalten als fächerübergreifendes Thema in der BNE sowie Prosocial als ein Konzept und Methodenkoffer für die wertorientierte Förderung von Zusammenarbeit und Flexibilität. Beide Ansätze haben gemeinsam, dass sie Reflexionen über menschliches Verhalten in den Mittelpunkt stellen, diese mit aktueller Forschung aus den Verhaltenswissenschaften und aktuellen Problemstellungen der nachhaltigen Entwicklung verknüpfen und davon ausgehend Selbst- und Sozialkompetenz sowie ein tieferes Verständnis über die Ursachen, Diversität und Flexibilität menschlichen Verhaltens fördern. Im Workshop stellen wir einige Beispiele von Methoden und Inhalten dieser Ansätze vor und tauschen uns über die resultierenden Chancen und Herausforderungen für die Lehrkräftebildung aus. Der Workshop richtet sich an Lehrende und Lehramtsaus- und -fortbildende von Oberschulen und Gymnasien insbesondere der Fächer Biologie, Ethik, Gemeinschaftskunde/Wirtschaft/Recht, Geographie und Geschichte sowie weitere Interessierte des Bildungssystems.

November 5, 2022 12:00 am
Online
German

Workshop: Teaching human behavior as an interdisciplinary theme. Integrating concepts of contextual behavioral science in K-12 education @ ACT2022 conference Poznan, Poland

In current secondary education and teacher training, human behavior seems to be ‘everywhere and nowhere’ in the curriculum. In many educational standards internationally, reflections on human behaviors and their consequences, and responsible behavior change towards valued outcomes, are often core aims and implicit threads throughout, but there seems to be relatively little emphasis on exploring and applying the core concepts and principles of behavioral science, including of contextual behavioral science, themselves. Research indicates that current curricula and teaching practice may in fact reinforce understandings of human behavior that can be considered unhelpful for developing psychological flexibility, such as in biology and economics education. While psychoeducation has been shown in numerous studies to be a worthwhile approach to fostering psychological flexibility in certain contexts, much less focus has been on informing and supporting K-12 curriculum design. To close this gap, we have developed an educational design concept that aims to put the theme of human behavior, as well as the core concepts and principles underpinning the contextual behavioral sciences, into the center of instruction across subjects. In this workshop we present our international educational work around this design concept, explore concrete examples, and discuss the opportunities, challenges, and room for improvement regarding the role that the contextual behavioral science community might play in informing future curriculum design in K-12 education.

September 9, 2022 10:45 am
Online
English

Workshop: Evolving Interdisciplinarity in Evolution Education: A Problem or Opportunity for Our Field? (EvoKE Conference, Barcelona)

In the general education context, evolution is predominantly considered to fit solely within the domain of biology education. In contrast, at the level of scientific discourse, evolutionary theory informs a wide range of disciplinary sciences: natural, social, and computational. This is not simply a case of education lagging behind science. Instead, it represents an important and under explored controversy in our field that likely has significant educational implications. On the one hand, scientists from across disciplinary divides have converged on the scientific value of various generalized conceptions of evolutionary change across domains beyond genetics (e.g. culture, cognition, and machine learning). On the other hand, some traditions within both the biological sciences and humanities remain skeptical of the scientific merit or value of generalizing evolution beyond the gene-centered conceptions of the Modern Synthesis. This persistent controversy among scientists has largely, though not entirely, prevented the emergence of a more interdisciplinary conceptualization of evolution education in the K-12 curriculum. In this discussion-focused workshop, we will explore the implications, opportunities, and challenges in teaching evolution as an interdisciplinary science through the generalization of core evolutionary concepts. Facilitators and audience participants will drill down to the core Nature of Science issues and practical teaching implications of both views. Discussions will be oriented around effective strategies for navigating conceptual divides in our community while also communicating to the public the unified consensus aspects of evolutionary science.

November 22, 2021 6:30 pm
In person
English

Workshop: Prosocial Konzepte und Methoden für die Förderung von menschlichem Wohlbefinden und Zusammenarbeit @ Seminar “Vom Wissen zum Handeln”

Prosocial – Konzepte und Methoden für die Förderung von menschlichem Wohlbefinden und Zusammenarbeit

October 30, 2022 2:00 pm
In person
German

Workshop: Evolutionary Thinking Across Disciplines. Problems and Perspectives in Generalized Darwinism

October 22, 2021 11:30 am
In person
English

Vortrag “Verhaltensänderung und Zusammenarbeit in Lehr- und Lernprozessen fördern mit dem Prosocial-Ansatz” @ Resilienztage HTWK

Was macht uns Menschen aus? Sind wir eine „resiliente Art“? Sind wir „von Natur aus“ mit Fähigkeiten ausgestattet, die für unsere individuelle Resilienz und für die Resilienz der Gruppen, denen wir angehören, förderlich sind? Antworten auf diese Fragen liefern uns insbesondere Erkenntnisse aus den interdisziplinären Verhaltenswissenschaften. Diese Erkenntnisse stehen mitunter in starkem Widerspruch zu den mentalen Modellen und Narrativen über die Natur des Menschen, welche sich in unserer Kultur ausgebreitet haben. Der Prosocial-Ansatz vereint diese Erkenntnisse und entwickelt Methoden, die es Einzelnen und Gruppen ermöglichen, achtsam und akzeptierend mit unseren „Schwächen“ umzugehen, uns unserer Stärken und Werte bewusst zu werden, und dann unser Verhalten, unser Zusammenleben, unsere Kulturen immer wieder zu reflektieren und gemeinsam wertorientiert zu gestalten. In diesem Vortrag wird der Prosocial-Ansatz sowie Beispiele aus der Praxis für dessen Umsetzung, inklusive in Bildungskontexten, vorgestellt.

October 22, 2021 1:15 pm
Online
German

Talk @ Life Improvement Science conference 2021

Talk: Evolving a more prosocial world Through cooperation and psychological flexibility Developments across a number of human science disciplines in the last decades have provided insight into the conditions and behaviors that influence valued outcomes such as sustainability, prosociality, and well-being. Three scientific trends in particular have relevance for the development of a Life Improvement Science. First, an emerging transdisciplinary understanding of evolutionary science helps us to view individuals, groups, and larger societies as systems, changing and adapting behaviors and cultures through evolutionary processes that span across levels, and can have various outcomes regarding the things that individuals and communities might care about. Second, the transdisciplinary area of cooperation science studies cooperation dynamics across biology, ecology, psychology, economics and political science. In particular the work of political scientist Elinor Ostrom showed that cooperation and prosociality towards sustainable resource use tend to be promoted across cultures and settings only under certain social conditions, and is hindered when these conditions are not met. Hence, well-doing and prosociality are predicted to occur – to evolve through (cultural and behavioral) evolutionary processes – under conditions such as having a shared sense of identity and shared values, equity, transparency, and autonomy. Third, the field of contextual behavioral science has advanced an evidenced approach to mental health called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is part of the so-called third wave of behavioral interventions, with a focus on core cognitive processes such as acceptance and mindfulness, values clarification, and action in line with values. The interactions of these processes within individuals and groups tend to promote psychological flexibility, or the capacity to move towards valued outcomes even in the face of difficult or challenging internal experiences and circumstances. Together, these fields have the potential to inform interventions that foster well-doing across a range of contexts. In this talk, we give an overview of how these fields have been integrated in the context of the Prosocial ARC process, an approach aimed at catalyzing prosocial behavior and culture change to consciously evolve who we are, how we connect with each other, and how we interact with the planet. The Prosocial ARC process is a development by Prosocial World, a global U.S. based non-profit organization and applied research community that is eager to connect and work on the topic of Life Improvement Science. The talk will also give an overview of the current scope, research aims, and network development of the Prosocial World community and how it relates to Life Improvement Science. In particular, we highlight examples of how Prosocial is being implemented towards evolving schools as places for well-doing and life improvement.

June 12, 2021 11:00 am
Online
English

Why is human behaviour at the center of education? | Dustin Eirdosh | TEDxLeipzigInternationalSchool

In September 2020, students at the Leipzig International School organized a TEDx event around the theme of boundaries, personal, social, and planetary. Our own Dustin Eirdosh presented a talk entitled “Why human behavior is at the center of education”, which frames how the science of human behavior offers new ways for students to extend their learning beyond the boundaries of classic school subjects. The talk highlights why human behavior is central to understanding the human condition more broadly, and how our understanding of human behavior impacts how we relate to ourselves and others. The talk concludes with a call to action regarding how schools can re-conceptualize the role of human behavior as both scientific content to be engaged, and an empowering context for school and community action towards a more sustainable future

September 19, 2020 5:00 pm
In person
English

The science behind sustainable behaviors – ISTE Global Collaboration Network Webinar

Today’s global society faces major challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including sustainable resource use, social equality, and providing access to good education, health and human well-being for all. What can we learn from the communities of the world, from our evolutionary history, from our everyday behaviors and experiences, and from other living beings about how to master these challenges of cooperation and sustainability? In this webinar, find out how Global ESD works internationally to support sustainability education initiatives that connect concepts in human evolution, behavioral ecology, and sustainability science. By linking scientific perspectives on social change with students and classrooms seeking to make the world a better place, our aim is to foster a global discussion about where we are going in the light of where we all have come from. Join Dustin Eirdosh and Susan Hanisch in this month’s ISTE Global Collaboration PLN Webinar to understand the learning opportunities in behavioral science perspectives for teaching sustainability science in K-12.

May 13, 2020 2:00 pm
Online
English

OpenEvo is an educational innovation project from the Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Learning Hub
Labs
- Educational Design Lab
- Community Science Lab
Bases
About

Learning Hub
Labs
- Educational Design Lab
- Community Science Lab
Bases
About

Evolve the future of education with us!

Creative Commons (CC-BY-SA) 2022- OpenEvo

Imprint