Events

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

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.

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