MythUnderstood

This final activity reviews the key science ideas from the unit. Students read an illustrated tall tale (3 are provided) about how certain animals got their traits. They identify the myths in the stories then use science ideas to explain what could have happened.

Ensure that your students comfortably grasp the science ideas in Part 1 before moving to Part 2. Unfortunately, if they use incorrect ideas in their retelling, it may reinforce their misunderstandings.

1. Show the video How Natural Selection Works. Focus on the Big Thorns section (~1:42-3:00).
2. Give each student a story and a student sheet.
   • The elephant story is the easiest to work with, and the armadillo story is the most challenging.
3. Have students complete Part 1 on the student sheet, working independently if possible.
4. Discuss Part 1 as a class. Make sure students understand the ideas in Part 1 before moving on.
5. Have students complete Part 2.
   • Tip: If students aren't quite ready to do their own story, you could do it together using the Big Thorns example from the video (see answer key).
6. Have students share their Part 2 stories with the class, if desired.

Optional: Allow students to complete Part 2 in a different way. Some ideas: oral story or poem, written short story, children’s book, comic or infographic, news story, interview with the character(s), skit. Students may want more information about the animals to complete their stories. You could provide resources or students could look this up themselves.

• You may decide to use this TED-ED video about the Minotaur and a scientific explanation for the myth. Watch here.
• Have students peer review the stories with sticky notes to verify the science.
• “I created a rubric for students from the list of items a good example of the corrected Myth would possess (in teacher key). Some students still wanted to say that the trait came from the organism having a need (ex: reaching food high in trees). The rubric helped to remind them that natural selection was happening over many generations”.

• Natural selection can only work on inherited trait variations that already exist in a population.
• Traits that are helpful in a particular environment become more common in a population over many generations.
• Only traits influenced by genes can pass from parents to offspring.

Copies

MythUnderstood stories (pdf) — Includes 3 stories. Make one story per student. Print single-sided; may be laminated for re-use.
Student sheet (pdf) — Make one per student.

• Why do people create myths?
• Do you create your own myths?
• Why is it sometimes hard for people to accept new scientific ideas?

The stories in this activity were inspired by and are loosely based on Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, an old-fashioned collection of Lamarckian origin tales.