Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts of biology educators, misconceptions about evolution remain. Pop science nonsense has led many people to believe that biologists don't believe evolution.
This site, which is a companion to the PBS series offers teachers with resources that support evolution education and avoid the kinds of myths that make it difficult to understand. It's laid out in a "bread crumb" format to facilitate navigation and orientation.
Definitions
It's difficult to properly teach evolution. Non-scientists often misunderstand the subject and some scientists employ a definition that confuses it. This is particularly true when discussing the nature of the words themselves.
Therefore, it is essential to define terms that are used in evolutionary biology. Understanding Evolution's website provides this in a simple and efficient way. It is an accompaniment to the 2001 series, and also a resource on its own. The information is presented in a structured manner that makes it easier to navigate and understand.
에볼루션 카지노 defines terms such as common ancestor (or common ancestor), gradual process, and adaptation. These terms help frame the nature of evolution and its relation to other scientific concepts. The website provides a summary of the manner the concept of evolution has been tested. This information can be used to dispel myths that have been created by the creationists.
It is also possible to access a glossary of terms that are used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:
Adaptation: The tendency of heritable characteristics to become more suitable to a particular setting. This is a result of natural selection. Organisms with more adaptable characteristics are more likely than those with less adaptable characteristics to survive and reproduce.
Common ancestor: The latest common ancestor of two or more distinct species. By analyzing the DNA from these species it is possible to identify the common ancestor.
Deoxyribonucleic acid: A massive biological molecule that holds the information needed for cell replication. The information is contained in nucleotides arranged in sequences that are strung together into long chains, referred to as chromosomes. Mutations are the cause of new genetic information in cells.
Coevolution: A relationship between two species where evolutionary changes in one species are affected by changes in evolutionary processes in the other. Examples of coevolution are the interactions between predator and prey, or host and parasite.
Origins
Species (groups of individuals who can interbreed) evolve through natural changes in the traits of their offspring. Changes can be caused by numerous factors, like natural selection, gene drift, and mixing of the gene pool. The evolution of new species could take thousands of years. Environmental conditions, such as changes in the climate or competition for food resources and habitat can slow or speed up the process.
The Evolution site tracks the evolution of a number of different animal and plant groups through time and focuses on the most significant changes that took place in each group's history. It also explores human evolution and is a subject that is of particular interest to students.
When Darwin wrote the Origin, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been found. The famous skullcap, with the bones that accompanied it, was discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto of Germany. It is now regarded as an early Homo neanderthalensis. While the skullcap wasn't published until 1858, just a year before the first edition of the Origin appeared, it is very unlikely that Darwin had ever heard of it.
While the site is focused on biology, it also includes a good deal of information on geology and paleontology. The most impressive features of the Web site are a timeline of events which show how climatic and geological conditions changed over time, as well as an outline of the distribution of a few of the fossil groups featured on the site.
The site is a companion for a PBS TV series but it could be used as a resource for teachers and students. The site is very well organized and provides clear links between the introduction information in Understanding Evolution (developed with support from the National Science Foundation) and the more specific elements of the museum's web site. These hyperlinks make it easier to move from the cartoon-style Understanding Evolution pages into the more sophisticated worlds of research science. There are links to John Endler's experiments with guppies that illustrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.
Diversity
The evolution of life has resulted in a variety of animals, plants and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures in their geological context and has numerous advantages over the current observational and experimental methods in its exploration of evolutionary processes. Paleobiology is able to study not just the processes and events that occur frequently or over time, but also the relative abundance and distribution of various animal groups in space throughout geological time.
The website is divided into various pathways to understanding evolution, including "Evolution 101," which takes the viewer on a liner path through the nature of science and the evidence that supports the theory of evolution. The course also focuses on misconceptions regarding evolution, and also the history of evolutionary thinking.
Each of the main sections on the Evolution website is equally well-developed, with materials that support a variety levels of curriculum and teaching methods. In addition to general textual content, the site offers an array of interactive and multimedia resources including videos, animations and virtual labs. 에볼루션코리아 -like organization of the content assists with navigation and orientation on the massive website.
The page "Coral Reef Connections", for example, provides a comprehensive overview of coral relationships and their interactions with other organisms, and then zooms in to a single clam, which can communicate with its neighbors and respond to changes in conditions of the water at the reef level. This page, as well as the other multidisciplinary multimedia and interactive pages, offers a great introduction to many topics in evolutionary biology. The content includes an overview of the significance of natural selectivity and the concept of phylogenetics, an important tool for understanding evolutionary changes.
Evolutionary Theory
For biology students the concept of evolution is a major thread that binds all branches of the field. A vast collection of resources supports teaching about evolution across all life sciences.
One resource, which is the companion to PBS's TV series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of a Web page that provides depth and broadness in terms of educational resources. The site offers a variety of interactive learning modules. It also has a "bread crumb structure" that helps students move away from the cartoon style of Understanding Evolution and onto elements of this vast website that are closely related to the fields of research science. An animation that introduces the concept of genetics links to a page that highlights John Endler's experiments with artificial selection using Guppies living in ponds native to Trinidad.
Another useful resource is the Evolution Library on this website, which includes an extensive multimedia library of items related to evolution. The content is organized into the form of curriculum-based pathways that are in line with the learning objectives set out in the standards for biology. It contains seven videos designed specifically for use in the classroom, and can be streamed at no cost or purchased on DVD.
A number of important questions remain in the midst of evolutionary biology, such as what triggers evolution and how fast it occurs. This is particularly true for human evolution, which has made it difficult to reconcile that the physical traits of humans were derived from apes, and the religious beliefs that hold that humanity is unique among living things and holds a a special place in creation with a soul.
There are a myriad of other ways evolution can occur, with natural selection as the most popular theory. However scientists also study other kinds of evolution, such as mutation, genetic drift, and sexual selection, among other things.
Many fields of inquiry have a conflict with literal interpretations of religious texts evolutionary biology has been the subject of intense controversy and resistance from religious fundamentalists. Certain religions have reconciled their beliefs with evolutionary biology, but others haven't.