Teaching Assistant Discussion Evaluation - PAUP Exercise
Did the students enjoy this discussion / project
1) I think the demo (PAUP with mtDNA) was just biding time
2) Hard to tell. They liked GENBANK but we didn't have enough computers
to effectively show them PAUP.
3) I think so. They seemed to like the GENBANK stuff and the PAUP exercise
What did the students learn from this discussion project?
1) I'm not sure if they learned anything - if they understood how to build
the phylogeny there was not much gained.
2) Some of the computer resources available for molecular systematics
3) Availability of information on the net. That they don't have to do trees
by hand! Not sure about the Wagner trees. I don't think going through the
Wagner method was particularly helpful for their understanding of trees,
evolution, parsimony . . .
What did you like best about this week's discussion?
1) Using GENBANK
2) GENBANK
What didn't you like?
1) The show-and-tell of the computers didn't work well - most students just
waited until the demo was over so they could leave.
2) Not sufficient time or resources for PAUP
3) Wagner method - it's not intuitive
In what ways can this exercise be improved?
1) Make this a homework exercise. More time to discuss GENBANK.
2) If we could find a program to put on the computer lab computers, the phylogeny
assignment would work better as a homework assignment.