Mom! Dad! Why Can’t You Leave Me Alone?

In this lesson, “Why Can’t You Leave Me Alone?” students explore the selective pressures that led to the evolution of parenting behavior in Dentrobatidae, or Poison Dart Frogs. This lesson engages students in creative thinking to arrive at a plausible explanation for the evolution of a seemingly taxing behavior. Traditionally adaptations are presented as examples in lessons and their evolutionary advantage is described to students without much thought of the process. This lesson utilizes a student-led modeling activity in which they are presented with various facts, data, and environmental variables through which they craft a story to answer the question of why Poison Dart Frogs just cannot leave their offspring alone. Students will take part in a whole class brainstorm activity of variations. They will then write a storybook taking that variation from a mutation in the population to an adaptation fixed in the species.