COURSES

The course, held by Prof. Milena Bandiera (geneticist and lecturer in Biology Didactics at the 'Roma Tre' University), allowed participants to reflect and test themselves on the fundamentals of innovation in Biology Didactics (the transition from theory to practice, the qualifying principles of teaching activities, 'prescriptions'). There were also two sessions dedicated respectively to methodological innovation in the classroom ('active and cooperative learning', 'one minute paper', 'concept cartoon', 'role playing', 'problem-based learning', 'multiple choice tests') and methodological innovation in the laboratory exemplified through practical activities.

The course, held at the Convento dell'Annunziata in Abbiategrasso (Milan), was attended by around fifteen teachers, mainly from high schools, from various locations in Italy. The course was organised and held by SIBE members with the collaboration of ANISN. The lessons were held by: Marco Ferraguti (The speed of the evolutionary process), Maurizio Casiraghi (Species at the supermarket: is there a barcode of life?), Renato Fani (The tree of life: the phylogeny of prokaryotes), David Caramelli (The evolution of man: new data and new hypotheses), Mauro Mandrioli (Adaptations and phenotypic plasticity), Giorgio Bertorelle (The role of chance in evolution) and Lino Ometto (The things that evolution does not explain). Two presentations on the Tridentine Museum of Natural Sciences also took place, given by Prof. Marina Galetto (The didactics section of the Tridentine Museum of Natural Sciences: aims and activities) and Prof. Matteo Cattadori (The didactics section of the Tridentine Museum of Natural Sciences: relationships with teachers and work in the web). Finally, the meeting was brought to a conclusion by a didactic performance on sexual selection. A bridge was built between two realities that rarely talk to each other: that of research and that of higher education, and we left with the desire to continue collaborating on educational projects.

The course, organised in collaboration with the Gran Paradiso National Park, was aimed at Master's and PhD students, and hosted a maximum of 15 participants. The course lasted three days (15-17 May), followed by a final excursion (18 May). The school was supported by internationally renowned researchers as lecturers: - John Endler (University of Exeter): Ecology and evolution of animal behaviour. - Lynda Delph (Indiana University): Evolutionary ecology and reproduction in plants. - Curt Lively (Indiana State University): Evolution and co-evolution: sex and genetic diversity in host-parasite systems. - Paolo Sordino (Zoological Station Anton Dohrn, Naples): EvoDevo.

The first summer school for PhD students promoted by the Italian Society of Evolutionary Biology was organised in collaboration with the Alpine Ecology Centre in Viote del Monte Bondone (Trento). Over the four days of the school (19-22 June 2007), fourteen students and six researchers from all over Italy discussed various aspects of genome evolution. The lectures covered both theoretical aspects and examples drawn directly from the lecturers' research topics, ranging from: - Natural selection and genome evolution (J. Parsch, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). - Evolution of the plant genome (M. Morgante, University of Udine). - Chromosome evolution (M. Rocchi, University of Bari). - Molecular markers in the study of the genome (L. Bargelloni, University of Padua). - Evolution of the mitochondrial genome of metazoans (C. Gissi, University of Milan). - Advances in genomic research (G. Valle, University of Padua). - The evolution of non-coding DNA (L. Ometto, University of Lausanne)