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In this set of three lessons from Galactic Polymath, students will learn that hybrids are not flukes—they’re commonly found in the wild and our grocery stores! By playing and reflecting on Foraging Frenzy (a research-inspired memory game) students will appreciate how climate change affects species ranges and the direction of evolution.
Students will be exposed to diverse scientific researchers, including a queer scientist who reflects on his journey and the impact of role models.
Sex can be classified in many ways depending on the species and context. The one fundamental method of classification that applies to all living things is to look at the size of the gametes. This article summarizes the concept of anisogamy (having two gametes of different size) and its evolutionary origins.
Biological sex takes on so many diverse patterns across species, but discussion of human sex often consists of an oversimplified and incomplete binary. Biologist Sam Sharpe discussed this issue in a five-minute INSPIRE talk at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in 2020.
In Interesting Engineering, Trevor English surveys the common phenomenon of animals changing sex, and its physiological and genetic basis. For student-facing use, we recommend prefacing this article with a language distinction: Animals “change sex” meaning there is a change in their production of sex hormones and a physical change in their reproductive organs. Humans instead undergo “gender transition”, with “sex change” being an outdated term for this process.
In JSTOR Daily, Juliet Lamb discusses non-human species that gain advantages by project an opposite-sex appearance which has parallels to transgender humans.
This video by Soliloquy outlines several hypotheses for why same-sex sexual behavior has persisted rather than becoming extinct in human and nonhuman species. Although not all of these hypotheses are supported by data, the video demonstrates how a behavior that appears deleterious to an individual can actually be neutral or beneficial when considering the complex social interactions within a population.
Image is a drawing of two faces split into puzzle pieces with image fragments of a DNA double helix and chromosomes.
In BBC News, William Kremer discusses how homosexuality in humans and animal species may fit in with the theory of evolution.
Image is a drawing of two faces split into puzzle pieces with image fragments of a DNA double helix and chromosomes.
In The Chronicle of Higher Education, evolutionary biologist David P. Barash reviews six leading hypotheses for the evolution of homosexuality as a behavior.
Image shows various birds with unique plumage.
This research by Nathan H. Lents finds that undergraduate students are more likely to accept evolutionary concepts after learning about the biological basis of reproduction and sexuality. The authors suggest that the topics of reproduction and sexuality may be opening students’ minds to accepting the ideas of evolution, or that these topics are high-interest and they make tangible and striking examples of evolution.