The practices describe behaviors that scientists engage in as they investigate and build models and theories about the natural world and the key set of engineering practices that engineers use as they design and build models and systems. The NRC uses the term practices instead of a term like “skills” to emphasize that engaging in scientific investigation requires not only skill but also knowledge that is specific to each practice. Part of the NRC’s intent is to better explain and extend what is meant by “inquiry” in science and the range of cognitive, social, and physical practices that it requires. Although engineering design is similar to scientific inquiry, there are significant differences. For example, scientific inquiry involves the formulation of a question that can be answered through investigation, while engineering design involves the formulation of a problem that can be solved through design. Strengthening the engineering aspects of the Next Generation Science Standards will clarify for students the relevance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (the four STEM fields) to everyday life.
This model lets us explore how the appearance of certain social behaviors can affect evolutionary population dynamics.
NetLogo: Evolution of resource use and social behavior (monitoring and punishment) Read More »
In this lesson, students analyze a select real-world social-ecological system by looking at factors of the resource(s) and ecosystem, resource user behaviors, and governance, to develop recommendations for improving the sustainable management of the resource.
Analyzing social-ecological systems Read More »
Our interdisciplinary teacher’s guide outlines our educational design concept. It provides introductory readings around core concepts of human sciences and ideas for exploring them in the classroom.
A Teacher’s Guide to Evolution, Behavior, and Sustainability Science Read More »
Analogy mapping is a tool for thinking about similarities and differences between different concepts or phenomena.
Tinbergen’s Questions can help organize complex causality of behaviors and other phenomena across time.
Tinbergen’s Questions Read More »
What can we learn from computer models about human evolution, behavior, and sustainability? Computer models allow us to observe and investigate the influence of environmental conditions and behaviors on the evolutionary development of social-ecological systems.
Students compare the stories of three Mexican fishing villages to understand the factors that enabled some villages to sustainably manage their fishing resources, while others failed.
Three Mexican fisheries Read More »
This NetLogo model lets students explore how competition for resources can affect the evolution of a population and can result in resource overuse. This model is similar to the Evolution and competition for forest resources model, but more abstract.
NetLogo Model: Evolution and competition for resources (abstract) Read More »
This NetLogo model builds on the model of Two Foresters. In this model, agents reproduce based on the amount of resources that they harvest.
NetLogo: Evolution and competition for forest resources Read More »
OpenEvo is an educational innovation project from the Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
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