Here we present five activities developed to explore evolution in Portuguese elementary schools under contents that are present in the official curricula (Additional file 1).
Genealogical trees are often used in Portuguese elementary schools to explore familiar relationships as part of the official programs (Ministério da Educação 20012004), and other countries also include the analysis of familiar relationships and history in their curricula (Additional file 1 and references therein).
Also, by discovering that numerous human traits display strong variability and by classifying themselves according to these distinct traits, students are expected to develop respectful attitudes towards human differences and to reject any discriminatory behavior (as intended in several official curricula; Additional file 1).
An additional issue facing new curricula is student time constraints and integration into existing teaching methodologies.
Regarding the Greek language, the Digital School (DS), dschool.edu.gr, developed by Greece's Ministry of Education, appears to be the main platform offering curricula and additional recourses.
Between April and September 2013, undergraduate curricula and additional information (panel 1) were obtained from publicly available recognised medical school websites (ie, schools' own websites, government websites, student forums, newspaper websites, and independent university guides and literature).
This activity also allows students to recognize the large number and diversity of extant species and provides them tools to classify organisms according to their features, a goal that is common to the vast majority of official curricula here analyzed (Additional file 1 and references therein).
Engineering curricula (e.g., containing additional resources, such as indications of pedagogical strategies and assessment instruments) are significantly fewer.
12052_2013_25_MOESM1_ESM.pdf Additional file 1: Contents of Official Curricula for elementary schools that can be explored using the described activities.
