We investigated second and third graders’ capacity to understand microevolution, given a learning progression leveraging intuitions to build more adequate explanations, problematizing core ideas within scientific practices, and in-depth study of a single domain (botany or animal behavior). The intervention was implemented in both researcher-taught summer school and regular school-year classrooms in two consecutive years, allowing refinement of instruction mid-course, as well as comparison of learning outcomes. A case study examined how the pedagogy functioned within a strategically selected segment of curriculum enactment. Analysis of pre- and post-instruction interviews, using mean scaled estimates and maximum learning progression levels, revealed significant conceptual advancements for all cohorts across both sites and years. After Year I, a majority of children in researcher-taught and regular classrooms could predict and explain the impact of traits’ differential survival advantage on next-generation shifts in relative frequency given particular environmental change. After Year II, the majority in each cohort formed normative predictions and explanations of population changes across multiple generations. This pattern reflects a basic understanding of microevolution, providing evidence of the capacity of primary grade children to understand abstract ideas and, more generally, to benefit from much more conceptually and epistemically ambitious curriculum than current science standards recommend.

我们研究了二年级和三年级学生理解微观进化的能力，考虑了利用直觉来建立更充分的解释，在科学实践中对核心思想提出质疑的学习进展，以及对单个领域（植物或动物行为）的深入研究。这项干预措施已连续两年在研究人员授课的暑期学校和常规学年的课堂中实施，从而可以改进课程中期教学，并比较学习成果。一个案例研究检查了教学法在战略制定的课程制定部分中如何发挥作用。使用平均规模估计和最大学习进度水平对教学前后访谈进行的分析显示，在整个站点和年份中，所有同类群组在概念上都取得了显着进步。第一年以后在特定的环境变化下，下一代相对频率的变化。在第二年之后，每个队列中的大多数人形成了对多代人口变化的规范性预测和解释。这种模式反映了对微进化的基本理解，为小学三年级儿童理解抽象思想的能力提供了证据，并且更广泛地从概念和认识论上雄心勃勃的课程中受益，远远超出了当前科学标准的建议。