LESSONS INFORMATION
TOPICS
The lessons fall into three major areas: NATURE OF SCIENCE, EVOLUTION , and ORIGIN OF LIFE. Within each area, the lessons have been placed into specific topic categories, based on the focus topics of the ENSI program. Some lessons could fit into two or more topics, and this is usually indicated in those lessons, often with appropriate cross-links.

NATURE OF SCIENCE: Realm (nature) and Limits: uncertainty, tentativeness, contingency, pseudoscience Basic Processes: problem solving, hypothesizing, testing, critical comparison of criteria Science's Social Context: bias, values, historical constraints, collaboration.

EVOLUTION Patterns: Geology/Paleontology: age dating, geological history, plate tectonics, timelines, fossils, extinctions Paleo-Anthropology: human evolution, the fossil evidence Classification: hierarchy, relationships, cladistics.

EVOLUTION Processes: Adaptations, Imperfections, Contrivances Variation and Natural Selection Speciation: including co-evolution Macroevolution: mass extinctions, punctuated equilibria vs. gradualism, neoteny, mosaics ORIGIN OF LIFE

USING AND COPYING LESSONS
You may print hardcopy of any material on this site directly from your net browser, or you may copy and save the material to your system, and then access it offline with your word processor for modification and printing for your personal use. All we ask is that the lessons be used essentially in the manner and context described and for the purposes intended, in keeping with the ENSI concepts. We also ask that proper credit be given to ENSI and the appropriate author(s).

Copy/Save/Print: The best way to save and print any text material (e.g. all the information for a lesson):

With the desired lesson showing on your web browser screen... 1. Select All (this is "command-A" on a Mac); all text will show white-on-black.
2. Copy (command-C); this copies all selected text to your clipboard.
3. Open your wordprocessor, and open a new page (command-N).
4. Paste (command-V); this will put the copied text on that page.
5. Save the document (properly named) for future access, processing, and printing.
6. Return to your browser to directly copy or print any pdf documents for the lesson, or to see another lesson.

Adobe pdf Format: In some cases, student handouts have been created which are formatted in a particular way, or they contain tables or diagrams. So, a pdf-formatted version has been created with Adobe Acrobat, which you may read using Adobe Reader. The format is maintained through any common platform (Windows, Macintosh, or Unix). If you don't have the Adobe Reader application on your system, you can download this directly from Adobe, who make the program available FREE from their web site, with complete simple directions for your system.

When you access pdf pages from within a lesson, be sure to get acquainted with the menu bar and the toolbar icons. Use the "Help" pull-down menu to activate the "Show Balloons" function to help you do this.

CURRICULUM
Questions have been raised about how these lessons are sequenced. "When is it best to present Nature of Science lessons?" "When is it best to introduce Evolution lessons?" "Which lessons work best?" "Which lessons should you start with?" "In what sequence do the lessons work best?"

As you may well imagine, there is no one correct or even best answer to any of these questions. We all teach differently, based on experience, style, and the teaching environment. However, we will try to address some of the questions in a general way.

The ENSI program clearly encourages teachers to begin the course with (or use very early in the course) lessons in the Nature of Science, just to set the tone (the true nature of science, in contrast with some popular misconceptions). Then, throughout the course, recycle elements of the nature of science in the context of other topics.

Also very early in the course, according to the ENSI philosophy, the unifying topic of Evolution should be introduced, preferably with lessons on human evolution. And again, wherever evolution provides clear insight and "connectedness" in other topics of the course, be sure to point this out (or, even better, ask you students to do that).

Examples of workable sequences will be offered in our section on Teaching Units. For starters, you will find the sequence used by the webmaster to open his Biology course, and introduce the topics of the the nature of science and evolution, with special emphasis on presenting human evolution as a captivating way to enter into an overview of evolution in general. Many of the lessons used are on this web site.

REQUEST FOR UNIT PLANS: If you have a particular approach or sequence of lessons which has worked well for you (using ENSI lessons), share it with your colleagues. Send (email) it to us, and we will add it to the site.