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Abstract
My dissertation is unique in that it is split into two fields: Genetics and Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). My genetics work investigates the role of immune function in the evolution of parental care by looking at social immunity in beetles. Social immunity moderates the spread of pathogens in social groups and is especially likely in groups structured by genetic relatedness. The extent to which specific immune pathways are used is unknown. My work investigates the expression and social role of three functionally separate immune genes (pgrp-sc2, thaumatin, and defensin) during parental care in the beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. These genes reside in different immune pathways, allowing me to test whether specific components of the immune system are targeted for social immunity. I develop this work by further investigating how changes in social environment, specifically family size, influence expression of social immunity in mothers and offspring. This project expands the concept of social immunity in the family beyond parental care by manipulating the extent of conflict between parents and offspring and among siblings and examining contributions to social immunity. I make very specific predictions about how my manipulations would affect social immunity based on social theory previous work in social immunity. My predictions are not met, revealing previously unknown constraints to social immunity in the context of family life. In my DBER work I explore an essential type of instructor knowledge called pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as a grounding framework to identify and analyze the kind of resources instructors need to help develop this critical knowledge base. An instructor’s ability to facilitate student learning is influenced by their PCK, which is topic- specific knowledge for teaching and learning. My dissertation work aims to demonstrate the utility of PCK as a framework for analyzing existing research by identifying gaps in the collective knowledge and proposing research priorities for maximum impact on evolution education practices. Another aim of this research is to identify the collective knowledge that is available to undergraduate evolution instructors and to make that knowledge more accessible. I collected and analyzed over 300 peer-reviewed publications. From my analyses I propose priorities for the research community and generate an open-access searchable database for instructors.