Students should not graduate from high school without understanding that scientific debates are essential components of scientific methodology. This article presents a brief history of ongoing debates regarding the hypothesis that group selection is an evolutionary mechanism, and it serves as an example of the role that debates play in correcting faulty ideas and stimulating new research in the pursuit of extending scientific knowledge.

Before beginning a series of presentations on evolution, it would be prudent to survey the general level of students' understanding of prerequisite basic concepts of reproduction, heredity, ontology, and phenotypic diversity so that teachers can avoid devoting time to well-known subjects of general knowledge and can spend more time on subjects that are unknown, forgotten, or misunderstood by most students. This article outlines a Socratic method for surveying and teaching to address these concerns.

Students compare banding patterns on hominid chromosomes and see striking evidence of their common ancestry. To test this, human chromosome no. 2 is matched with two shorter chimpanzee chromosomes, leading to the hypothesis that human chromosome 2 resulted from the fusion of the two shorter chromosomes. Students test that hypothesis by looking for (and finding) DNA evidence of telomere segments at the fusion site, thus reinforcing the likelihood of our common ancestry with chimps and showing that we all carry the molecular fossils of telomere fusion! Students see how multiple lines of evidence make a compelling case for common ancestry.

We present a laboratory exercise that leverages student interest in genetics to observe and understand evolution by natural selection. Students begin with white-eyed fruit fly populations, to which they introduce a single advantageous variant (one male with red eyes). The superior health and vision associated with having the red-eye-color allele confers a fitness advantage, and the students can watch the spread of the allele within the population. The increasing numbers of red-eyed flies they observe over generations demonstrate evolution by natural selection. The students concurrently learn genetic principles, including basic inheritance and X-linkage.

The purpose of this study was to design a teaching method suitable for science high school students using atomic force microscopy. During their scientific inquiry procedure, high school students observed a micro-nanostructure of a biological sample, which is unobservable via an optical microscope. The developed teaching method enhanced students' science-learning motivation and scientific creativity.

Many anatomy students begin the course with a misconception that human males and females do not have the same number of ribs. At the root of that misconception is Genesis 2:21–22, in which God removes a rib from Adam to make Eve. Removal of a body part is a surgical procedure, and one does not pass on the results of surgery to one's offspring. The prevalence of this misconception is therefore an opportunity to discuss Lamarckian inheritance in the classroom.

To learn why natural selection acts only on existing variation, students categorize processes as either creative or sorting. This activity helps students confront the misconception that adaptations evolve because species need them.

The increase in “big box” stores over the past decade has provided a great source of specimens for use in teaching diversity in biology.