This Is The Good And Bad About Evolution Site

Evolution Site – Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts of biology teachers, misinformation about evolution persist. People who have absorbed popular science myths often assume that biologists claim they do not believe in evolution.

This site, which is a complement to the PBS program offers teachers resources that support the evolution of education, while avoiding the kinds of misconceptions that can undermine it. It’s organized in the “bread crumb” format to facilitate navigation and orientation.

Definitions

Evolution is a complex and challenging subject to teach effectively. People who are not scientists often have a difficult time understanding the subject, and some scientists even use a definition which confuses it. This is especially true when discussing the nature of the words themselves.

As such, it is important to define terms used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a simple and efficient manner. The site serves as an accompaniment to the 2001 series, and also a resource of its own. The material is organized in a manner that makes it simpler to navigate and comprehend.

The site defines terms such as common ancestor (or common ancestor), gradual process, and adaptation. These terms help frame the nature of evolution as well as its relation to other scientific concepts. The site provides an overview of the manner in which evolution has been examined. This information can be used to dispel the myths that have been created by the creationists.

You can also access a glossary which contains terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:

The process of adaptation is the tendency of hereditary traits to become better suited to an environment. This is a result of natural selection. Organisms that have better-adapted characteristics are more likely than those with less-adapted traits to survive and reproduce.

Common ancestor: The latest common ancestor of two or more species. The common ancestor can be identified through analyzing the DNA of the species.

Deoxyribonucleic acid: A large biological molecule that contains the information required for cell replication. The information is stored in sequences of nucleotides that are strung together into long chains, referred to as chromosomes. Mutations are the reason behind the creation of new genetic information within cells.

Coevolution is the relationship between two species in which the evolution of one species influence evolutionary changes of the other. Examples of coevolution are the interactions between predator and prey, or parasite and host.

Origins

Species (groups that can interbreed) change by a series of natural variations in their offspring’s traits. The causes of these changes are various factors, including natural selection, gene drift and mixing of the gene pool. The development of a new species could take thousands of years, and the process could be slowed down or speeded up by environmental factors like climate change or the competition for food or habitat.

The Evolution site tracks the evolution of various groups of animals and plants over time and focuses on the most significant transitions that occurred in the evolution of each group’s history. It also focuses on human evolution as a subject of particular importance to students.

When Darwin wrote the Origin in 1859, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been found. One of them was the infamous skullcap and the associated bones discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany, which is now known as an early Homo neanderthalensis. While the skullcap wasn’t published until 1858, a year before the first edition of the Origin appeared, it is extremely unlikely that Darwin had ever heard of it.

While the site focuses on biology, it also includes a good deal of information about geology and paleontology. Among the best features of the Web site are a series of timelines that show how geological and climatic conditions changed over time, and a map of the distribution of a few of the fossil groups featured on the site.

While the site is a companion piece to a PBS television series but it also stands on its own as a valuable source for teachers and students. The site is well-organized and provides clear links to the introduction content of Understanding Evolution (developed under the National Science Foundation’s support) and the more specialized features of the museum’s website. These hyperlinks facilitate the move from the enthralling cartoon style of the Understanding Evolution pages to the more sophisticated world of research science. In particular, there are links to John Endler’s experiments with Guppies that demonstrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.

Diversity

The evolution of life on Earth has resulted in a variety of plants, animals, and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures within their geological context and has numerous advantages over the modern observational and research methods for analyzing evolutionary phenomena. Paleobiology can examine not only processes and events that happen frequently or over time, but also the distribution and frequency of different species of animals in space throughout geological time.

The Web site is divided into various pathways to understanding evolution which include “Evolution 101,” which takes the viewer on a line through the nature of science and the evidence to support the theory of evolution. The course also focuses on common misconceptions about evolution and the history of evolutionary thought.

Each of the other major sections of the Evolution site is similarly developed, with materials that can be used to support a range of different pedagogical levels and curriculum levels. The site offers a wide array of multimedia and interactive resources that include animations, video clips and virtual labs as well as general textual content. The breadcrumb-like structure of the content aids in navigation and orientation on the massive website.

For instance the page “Coral Reef Connections” provides an overview of coral relationships and their interaction with other organisms. Then, it concentrates on a specific clam that can communicate with its neighbors and react to changes in the water conditions that occur at the reef level. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary, multimedia and interactive pages on the website, provide an excellent introduction to a broad range of topics in evolutionary biology. The content includes an overview of the role of natural selectivity and the concept of phylogenetics which is a crucial tool for understanding evolutionary changes.

Evolutionary Theory

For biology students the concept of evolution is a major thread that weaves together all the branches of the field. A rich collection supports teaching evolution across all disciplines of life science.

One resource, the companion to PBS’s television series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of an Web page that offers both the depth and the wide range of educational resources. The site offers a range 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 on this large website more closely connected to the fields of research science. An animation that introduces the concept of genetics is linked to a page about John Endler’s artificial-selection experiments with Guppies living in ponds native to Trinidad.

The Evolution Library on this website contains a large multimedia library of resources that are associated with evolution. The content is organized according to courses that are based on curriculum and follow the learning goals established in the biology standards. It includes seven short videos specifically designed for classroom use, which can be streamed for free or purchased on DVD.

Evolutionary biology is still an area of study with a lot of important questions to answer, such as the causes of evolution and how quickly it occurs. This is especially true for evolutionkr.Kr the evolution of humans which was a challenge to reconcile religious beliefs that held that humans have a distinct place in creation and a soul, with the notion that human beings have innate physical traits originated from Apes.

There are also a number of other ways evolution could occur, with natural selection as the most well-known theory. However, scientists also study other kinds of evolution, such as mutation, genetic drift and sexual selection, among others.

While many scientific fields of study are in conflict with literal interpretations in religious texts, evolution biology has been a subject of intense debate and opposition from religious fundamentalists. While certain religions have been able to reconcile their beliefs with the ideas of evolution, other religions haven’t.