Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts of biology teachers, misinformation about evolution persist. Pop science nonsense has led people to believe that biologists aren't believers in evolution.
This rich Web site, which is a companion to the PBS program, provides teachers with materials that promote evolution education, while avoiding the kinds of misconceptions that make it difficult to understand. It's organized in a nested "bread crumb" format to make it easy for navigation and orientation.
Definitions
Evolution is a complicated and difficult subject to teach effectively. Many non-scientists are unable to grasp the concept, and some scientists even use a definition which confuses it. This is particularly applicable to debates about the meaning of the word itself.
It is essential to define terms used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a clear and useful way. The site serves as an accompanying site for the 2001 series, and it is also a resource on its own. The content is presented in a nested fashion that assists in navigation and orientation.
The site defines terms such as common ancestor, the gradual process and adaptation. These terms help to define the nature and relationship of evolution to other scientific concepts. The site then offers an overview of how the concept of evolution has been vetted and validated. This information can be used to dispel misconceptions that have been created by the creationists.
You can also access a glossary that includes terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:
Adaptation: The tendency of heritable characteristics to become more suited to a particular environment. This is due to natural selection, which happens when organisms with better adapted characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce than those with less adapted characteristics.
Common ancestor (also known as common ancestor): The most recent ancestral ancestor shared by two or more species. By studying the DNA of these species it is possible to identify the common ancestor.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A huge biological molecular that holds the information required for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotide sequences, which are strung into long chains called chromosomes. Mutations are the reason behind the creation of new genetic information within cells.
Coevolution is the relationship between two species in which the evolutionary changes of one species are influenced by evolutionary changes of the other. Coevolution can be seen in the interaction of predator and prey, or parasite and hosts.
Origins
Species (groups of individuals who can interbreed) change through natural changes in the traits of their offspring. These changes are caused by a variety such as natural selection, genetic drift and gene pool mixing. The development of new species can take thousands of years. Environmental conditions, such as climate changes or competition for food resources and habitat can slow or speed up the process.
The Evolution site follows the evolution of various groups of animals and plants, focusing on major transitions in each group's history. It also examines the evolution of humans, which is a topic of particular importance to students.
When Darwin wrote the Origin, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been discovered. The famous skullcap, along with the associated bones were discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto of Germany. It is now known as an early Homo neanderthalensis. Although the skullcap was not published until 1858, which was one year before the first edition of the Origin appeared, it is highly unlikely that Darwin had heard or seen of it.
The site is mostly an online biology resource however, it also has lots of information about geology and paleontology. Among the best features on the site are a series of timelines which show how geological and climatic conditions changed over time, and an outline of the geographical distribution of some of the fossil groups featured on the site.
Although the site is a companion to the PBS television show however, it can stand on its own as an excellent resource for teachers and students. The site is very well organized and provides clear links between the introduction material in Understanding Evolution (developed with support from the National Science Foundation) and the more specific elements of the museum Web site. These links facilitate the transition from the engaging cartoon style of the Understanding Evolution pages to the more sophisticated world of research science. Particularly there are links to John Endler's experiments with guppies that illustrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.
Diversity
The evolution of life on Earth has resulted in a variety of animals, plants, and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures within their geographical context and offers a number of advantages over the current observational and experimental methods for analyzing evolutionary processes. In addition to studying the processes and events that happen regularly or over a long period of time, paleobiology allows to analyze the relative abundance of various species of organisms and their distribution across the course of geological time.
The site is divided up into several routes that can be taken to study the subject of evolution. One of the paths, "Evolution 101," takes the viewer through the nature and evidence of evolution. The path also examines myths regarding evolution, and the background of evolutionary thinking.
Each of the other major sections of the Evolution site is equally well constructed, with materials that support a variety of different pedagogical levels and curriculum levels. The site includes a variety of multimedia and interactive resources which include animations, video clips and virtual laboratories in addition to general textual content. The breadcrumb-like arrangement of the content assists with navigation and orientation on the massive Web site.
The page "Coral Reef Connections", for example, provides a comprehensive overview of the coral's relationships and their interactions with other organisms and is enlarged to show one clam that is able communicate with its neighbors and respond to changes in the water conditions that occur on the reef level. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary, multimedia and interactive pages on the site, offer an excellent introduction to a broad range of topics in evolutionary biology. The content also includes an overview of the importance of natural selection as well as the concept of phylogenetic analysis which is a key tool in understanding evolutionary changes.
Evolutionary Theory
For biology students, evolution is a key thread that binds all the branches of the field. A wide selection of resources helps teachers teach evolution across the disciplines of life science.
One resource, the companion to PBS's television series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of a Web page that provides depth as well as breadth in terms of its educational resources. The site offers a variety of interactive learning modules. It also has a "bread crumb structure" that allows students to move away from the cartoon style used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements of this vast website that are closely connected to the fields of research science. For instance, an animation introducing the concept of genetic inheritance links to a page highlighting John Endler's experiments with artificial selection with guppies from the native ponds of Trinidad.
The Evolution Library on this website contains a large multimedia library of assets related to evolution. The content is organized into courses that are based on curriculum and follow the learning goals established in biology standards. hop over to here includes seven short videos designed specifically for use in classrooms, and can be streamed for free or purchased on DVD.
Evolutionary biology remains a field of study that poses many important questions, such as what triggers evolution and the speed at which it takes place. 바카라 에볼루션 is particularly true for the evolution of humans where it was a challenge to reconcile religious beliefs that held that humanity has a unique position in the universe and a soul with the idea that innate physical traits originated from Apes.
There are a myriad of other ways in which evolution can occur, with natural selection as the most well-known theory. However, 에볼루션카지노사이트 study other kinds of evolution like genetic drift, mutation, and sexual selection, among others.
While many fields of scientific inquiry have a conflict with literal interpretations of the Bible, evolutionary biology has been the subject of particularly intense controversy and resistance from religious fundamentalists. Certain religions have reconciled their beliefs to evolution but others haven't.