You Say You Want Some Evolution, Well, You Know…

"When you have a student teacher like Mr. Kapolas who is immensely talented musically and you have a large number of students who are also musically inclined, then it only makes sense to turn those unique abilities loose on a project like this," said Central Biology Instructor Katie Titus.

Titus, of course, is noted for her use of inflatable Sumo suits to explain to students about the laws of physics and concepts such as the immovable object and the irresistible force.

"Ms. Titus is the best teacher," said Lynsey Pharazis, 14. "She really respects us as students."

Titus and her student teacher in Biology this semester, Chris Kapolas, work to actively engage students in learning.

"Both Ms. Titus and Mr. Kapolas are hands on teachers that make learning fun," said Drew Garbett, 15.

Kapolas, a student at Roosevelt University in Chicago, is enjoying himself as much as the students. "I am so fortunate to have a mentor like Katie Titus because she is an absolutely awesome teacher," he said.

Titus claimed that she was the lucky one. "Chris Kapolas is so talented and does an amazing job with the kids," she said. "Much of the credit for this project has to go to Chris because he worked with the students on how to develop and utilize their musical abilities to pull this off."

It is a unique gift to be able to create and implement alternative assessments to supplement the more traditional ones of tests and essays. Titus and Kapolas developed the Evolution Rocks! Project as just such a supplemental alternative.

Students were encouraged to make connections between the evolution, adaptation, environmental influence and survival of musical artists and styles and evolution in the larger world.

Both of their Biology classes were divided into three groups for the project. The emphasis was on rewriting the lyrics to a popular song to reflect their understanding of the basic concepts of evolution; such as natural selection, analogous and homologous structures, DNA, adaptation, mutation, variation, species survival, comparative embryology, geographic distribution and reproductive rates of survival, among others.

The students then had to practice and perform their songs and Kapolas was instrumental in helping the students develop and refine their musical abilities for the task.

The students connected their performances to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fund-raiser that District 127 sponsored. Students were asked to make voluntary donations after watching the performances.

Pharazis was a confident, outspoken young lady who had no problem being the emcee for the first period performances. She asked members in the audience various questions about evolution and those who gave correct responses were tossed a couple of Hershey’s Kisses.

During the first period class, Garbett and his group the Evolutionaires sang and played "Time Is On My Side" (originally recorded with vocals by Irma Thomas and popularized by the Rolling Stones). Group members included Kevin Haug, Grif Johnson, Garbett, Ben Shwaiko, Courtney Risinger, Nick Zehner, Nick Battaglia and Alex Wiegland.

Next up was The Mutations kicking it old school with "Evolution Baby" to the tune of Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby. Group members included Kurt Radke, Kyle Price, Lynsey Pharazis, Brandon Kim, Brett Yoder, Paul Swederberg, Sara Lux and Eilish Haggerty.

The closing act was Karsten West with a totally street rap song "Human Lives" to the tune of Kanye West’s "Flashing Lights." Karsten Koziol, a normally very quiet young man, took the mic and cut down the competition with switchblade rhymes. Group members included Mario Salguero, Kassandra Canadzic, Jackson Faerber, David Horvath, Margret Nielsen and Ashley Torres.

Each group was assigned a color-pink, yellow or green. Members of the audience were given three strips of paper, one of each color. After the performances, they voted for their favorite act by placing the colored strip of paper matching the group into a container passed around by class members.

First period the winning act was the amazing Karsten West who along with his dynamic group was enthusiastically called by the audience for an encore performance!

In the seventh period class, three groups also performed to a very enthusiastic audience. Tim Cross, 14, was emcess and his quirky sense of humor was put to use for his performances. (Look for him in a comedy club near you soon in about five years.)

The first group to perform in the afternoon was the Darwinites singing and playing "Hey Darwin" to the classic tune of "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. The group consisted of Marta Richtman, Jourdan Pitts, Eric Brankey, Tyler Boyle, Adam Watts-Shebesta, Alyssa Ha, Neish Poyer and Nishant Odak.

Love of Evidence followed up with a crazy rendition of "Evidence of Evolution" played and sung to tune of "Love Shack" by the B-52’s. Tim Cross was laying down the facts when he got funky with the lyrics and woke the audience up in a hurry. The backing musicians, vocalists and specialists were Kyle Henke, Jon Goon, Eddie Solorzano, Kyle Willis, Lexi Miller, Nevin Jernt and Nick Demain.

The last act of the day was the Durigans backed by the Durigettes who played and sang a smokin’ cut named "Use Some Evolution" based on the Kings of Leon’s "Use Somebody." Sam Wrzesinski, Eric Durigan, Jesse Foster, Natasha Polo, Torisha Jackson, Tony Kravets, Jon Ruiz and Kyle Maranon all contributed to the performance.

The audience voted for The Durigans backed by the Durigettes (great harmonies and backing vocals) who gladly played an encore. Titus thanked the group for taking that "leap of faith" with her to pull the event off with such courage and composure.

Kapolas also thanked them for their efforts especially those who were not really musicians but who learned enough and practiced enough to make some real music.

"I was more nervous singing in front of a hundred people here than I was playing football in front of several hundred this past fall," Garbett said.

Author's Note:  Creativity in the classroom led by dedicated, gifted teachers is instrumental to engaging students in the learning process. The Evolution Rocks! Alternative assessment you have just read about is but one example of the great things happening in our high schools. This will be the first of several articles highlighting the innovation and inspiration taking place in and outside of the classroom walls of our two high schools.