Resource Roundup: environmental Science & Gender-Inclusive Adaptations

Resource Roundup is a newly periodic attempt to capture all the links aggregated through conversations and requests, shared by many. We focus on science education materials but have encountered enough sex education-adjacent curriculum to share the collection below. Your mileage may vary. (RXS)

We shared this guide with attendees at a workshop this year.

TITLE: Gender Inclusive Adaptations to Environmental Education

  1. Overall Guides

    1. Principles of Gender Inclusive Biology (cheat sheet)

    2. How to Respond to Common Questions/Objections to GIB teaching (quick & easy tips)

    3. Gender-Inclusive Biology: A Framework in Action (NSTA article with resources)

    4. How do we present gender, sex, and sexuality as part of inclusive and accurate science teaching? (extensive STEM Teaching Tools brief)

    5. Middle & High School Resources (direct links to lessons)

  2. Models for Gender & Sexuality Teaching

    1. Gender Visualization Tools

      1. Scientific American - Beyond XX and XY (flowchart)

      2. GLSEN Gender Triangle Education Guide (identity-expression-attribution-assignment)

      3. Gender Unicorn (spectra)

      4. Gender & Sexuality Galaxies (cloud concept map)

    2. Sex Determination - Why so many ways of doing it?

  3. Language

    1. Language Guide (table, differentiated by discipline & intensity)

    2. Talking to Kids About Science in a Gender-Inclusive Way (article w/ table)

    3. STEM/Equity Etymology Posters (print-ready slides)

  4. Gender & Environmental Education 

    1. Epigenetics - environment changes genetics 

      1. Temperature-dependent sex determination (crocodile video)

      2. Temperature-dependent sex determination (turtle video)

      3. Touch-based sex determination (slipper limpets video & diagram)

      4. Early life nurturing & later life stress response (lick your rats)

    2. Variation & Survival During Change - what survives?

      1. Evolution of Sexual Reproduction (Nature summary)

      2. Gender Showcase (bite-size posts about enduring variation in survival)

      3. Queer species database of 200+ organisms (research source)

      4. Diverse Animal Reproduction (survey & reflection) (r- k- strategy gallery walk)

      5. Pigeonetics Game (answer key available in guide)

    3. TEK - traditional ecological knowledge

      1. Why do the foods we eat matter? (Native-driven environmentalism for salmon in 3 case studies) (at a glance guide)

      2. (See also newsletter issue Oct2019)

      3. Resource roundup on this coming soon; just need to describe them (RXS)

    FURTHER RESOURCES

    Myths of Human Genetics (data and graphs for lots of human genetic traits that aren’t clear; tongue rolling, widow’s peak, etc.)

    Questionable Questions About Transgender Identity (Answers to Qs it’s rude to ask)

    Questions Parents Ask About Transgender People

Attendees also received a summary of all the resources and Q&As generated during the workshop, as well as opportunities to workshop their own curriculum on request. (If you’re interested in a workshop online, send us a note via the form at the bottom of the page.)

The temperature of the nest determines the gonads that form in crocodile eggs. (Gender Showcase, 9-12)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. How do changing temperatures affect a crocodile egg’s development?

  2. How will average global temperature changes affect a crocodile egg’s development?

  3. Predict an increase, decrease, or stable population change if average temperatures increase or decrease.

Book excerpt: Among reptiles, specifically turtles, crocodiles, and some lizards, gonadal identity is determined by the temperature at which eggs develop, not by chromosomes. The eggs are usually laid in the ground and covered with sand or moist dirt from which they absorb water, swelling in size as they age. Reptile embryos start developing within their egg, and after a while primordial germ cells form. When reptile primordial germ cells move to the genital ridges of their parents, both the germ cells and the parental embryo presumably experience the same environmental temperature. Both germ cells and parent therefore receive the same message about which sex to develop as, and their agendas automatically agree.

Scientists reported the first case of intersexuality in an African dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetrapspis), a 10 year-old male-presenting crocodile with gonads that were ovotestes.

We used to think crocodiles couldn’t be intersex, because we had never found any before. Our understand was that crocodiles needed two separate types of cells that never occur together.

This discovery shows we have so many more questions to ask about sex determination!

Image caption: A dwarf crocodile. (C) Jim Frazee

Because the model we use to explain sex determination in crocodiles cannot help explain this evidence, we must keep asking questions and build better models for looking at our evidence.

Langer: Half of the 22 extant species of crocodilians have been examined for occurrence of temperature dependent sex determination (TSD). In TSD reptiles, masculinizing temperatures yield 100% or a majority of males, whereas feminizing temperatures yield 100% or a majority of females. In the transition range of temperature (TRT), a mix of males, females and sometimes intersexes are obtained. However, the molecular mechanisms behind TSD and an explanation for the occurrence of intersexuality remain elusive.

References

  • C. Johnston, M. Barnett, and P. Sharpe, 1995, The molecular biology of temperature-dependent sex determination, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., ser. B, 350: 297-304.

  • J.W. Lang and H. Andrews, 1994, Temperature-dependent sex determination in crocodilians, J. Exp. Zool. 270-28-44.

  • S. Langer, K. Ternes, D. Widmer, & Frank Mutschmann. The first case of intersexuality in an African dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis). Zoo Biol. 33:459–462, 2014. DOI:10.1002/zoo.21149

  • C. Smith and J. Joss, 1993, Gonadal sex differentiation in Alligator mississippiensis, a species with temperature-dependent sex determination, Cell Tissue Res. 273:149-62. 

  • Wibbles, Bull, and Crews, 1994, Temperature-dependent sex determination. Journal of Experimental Zoology 270(1):71 - 78. DOI: 10.1002/jez.1402700108