In our work with high school students and nonmajors college populations, we have been troubled by wide gaps in experience, confidence, and access to rigorous science content. In order to make science an inclusive community, it is important that all students have experiences that allow them to engage in science practice, while also being developmentally appropriate for students’ age and current understanding. This need is particularly acute in the area of evolutionary biology, where both misconceptions and cultural resistance continue to impede broad public understanding of scientific ideas.

We read with great interest the recent exchange of ideas in this journal regarding tree-thinking. In the March and April 2015 issues of ABT, Davenport, Milks, and Van Tassell presented a set of activities designed to expose high school students to the concepts of phylogenetics. These activities asked students to read and construct evolutionary tree diagrams to support a development of...

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