Algae in the Tree of Life: Building Teaching Materials for Teaching and Learning About Evolution and Phylogenetic Trees

• Grant number: 25/15728-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany
• Principal Investigator: Priscila Barreto de Jesus
• Grantee: Murilo Pereira Chaves
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 25/02429-1 - Algae everywhere: guiding elements for teaching Biology, AP.R

Abstract

Knowledge about the evolution of algae is not always contextualized or well explored due to the lack of quality material and aspects related to everyday life. Teachers and teaching material producers faced this superficial approach to "algae" during their initial training in their undergraduate Biological Sciences programs, which directly impacts the way the content is explored in basic education. This is also a reflection of botany teaching as a whole, which is often characterized as theoretical, memorized, and decontextualized. There are also great difficulties in teaching evolution and the various misinterpretations that occur in the classroom. In this sense, this project aims to develop teaching materials for the teaching and learning of evolution and phylogenetic trees, contrasting the proximity of all animals in the tree of life with the almost universal presence of algae in different clades.