Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts of biology educators, misconceptions about evolution persist. Pop science fiction has led a lot of people to believe that biologists don't believe evolution.
This rich Web site - companion to the PBS series It provides teachers with materials that support evolution education and help avoid the kinds of misconceptions that make it difficult to understand. It's organized in the "bread crumb" format to aid in navigation and orientation.
Definitions
Evolution is a complicated and challenging subject to teach effectively. It is often misunderstood even by non-scientists, and even scientists are guilty of using definitions that confuse the issue. This is particularly applicable to discussions on the definition of the word itself.
It is therefore crucial to define the terms that are used in evolutionary biology. Understanding Evolution's website does this in a simple and efficient way. The site serves as an accompaniment to the 2001 series, and also a resource on its own. The information is organized in a manner that makes it easier to navigate and comprehend.
The site defines terms such as common ancestor, the gradual process, and adaptation. These terms help to frame the nature of evolution and its relation to other scientific concepts. The site then offers an overview of how the concept of evolution has been researched and validated. This information can be used to dispel myths that have been engendered by creationists.
You can also access a glossary that includes terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:
Adaptation: The tendency of heritable traits to become better suited to a particular environment. This is the result of natural selection. Organisms that have better-adapted traits are more likely than those with less adaptable traits to survive and reproduce.
Common ancestor: The most recent common ancestor of two or more species. By analyzing the DNA from these species, it is possible to identify the common ancestor.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A huge biological molecular that contains the necessary information for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotides arranged in sequences that are strung together into long chains, called chromosomes. Mutations are the cause of new genetic information within cells.
Coevolution is the relationship between two species where evolution of one species are influenced by evolutionary changes in the other. 에볼루션사이트 of coevolution are the interactions between predator and prey, or the parasite and the host.
Origins
Species (groups of individuals who can interbreed) develop through natural changes in the traits of their offspring. The changes can be triggered by a variety of causes, including natural selection, genetic drift and gene pool mixing. The evolution of a new species could take thousands of years, and the process can be slowed down or speeded up due to environmental conditions, such as climate change or the competition for food or habitat.
The Evolution site tracks the development of various groups of animals and plants over time with a focus on the key changes that took place in the evolution of each group's history. It also focuses on the evolutionary origin of humans and humans, a subject that is crucial for students to know.
Darwin's Origin was published in 1859, at a time when only a few antediluvian fossils of humans had been found. The famous skullcap, along with the bones associated with it, was discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto of Germany. It is now regarded as an early Homo neanderthalensis. It is highly unlikely that Darwin knew about the skullcap, which was published in 1858, one year after the first edition of The Origin. Origin.
The site is mostly one of biology, but it also contains lots of information about geology and paleontology. One of the most appealing features of the Web site are a series of timelines that illustrate how geological and climatic conditions changed over time, as well as an interactive map of the geographical distribution of some fossil groups listed on the site.
Although the site is a companion piece to the PBS television show but it also stands on its own as a great resource for teachers and students. The site is extremely well-organized and has clear links between the introduction material in Understanding Evolution (developed with support from the National Science Foundation) and the more sophisticated components of the museum's Web site. These hyperlinks make it easy to move from the cartoon style of 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 ecology in evolutionary theory.
Diversity
The evolution of life has produced an array of plants, animals and insects. Paleobiology, the study of these creatures in their geological context offers many advantages over modern observational or experimental methods for exploring evolutionary processes. Paleobiology can examine not only processes and events that occur regularly or over time but also the relative abundance and distribution of different species of animals in space throughout the geological time.
The site is divided up into several options to study the subject of evolution. One of these paths, "Evolution 101," walks the reader through the evolution of nature and the evidence of evolution. The path also examines myths about evolution and the background of evolutionary thought.
Each of the other main sections of the Evolution site is equally created, with resources that can be used to support a range of educational levels and pedagogical styles. The site offers a wide array of interactive and multimedia resources that include video clips, animations and virtual laboratories as well as general textual content. The content is laid out in a nested bread crumb fashion that aids navigation and orientation within the large web site.
For example, the page "Coral Reef Connections" gives a brief overview of the relationships between corals and their interactions with other organisms. It then zooms in on a single clam that is able to communicate with its neighbors and respond to changes in the water conditions at the level of the reef. This page, as well as the other multidisciplinary, multimedia, and interactive pages on the site, provide an excellent introduction to a broad variety of topics in evolutionary biology. The content includes an explanation of the role of natural selectivity and the concept of phylogenetics as a key tool for understanding evolutionary changes.
Evolutionary Theory
For biology students evolution is a crucial thread that connects all branches of the field. A rich collection of resources supports teaching about evolution across the life sciences.
One resource, a companion to the PBS television series Understanding Evolution, is an outstanding example of an Web site that offers both the depth and breadth of its 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-like style that is used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements on this site that are more closely connected to the worlds of research science. An animation that introduces the concept of genetics, which links to a page about John Endler's experiments with artificial selection using guppies on native ponds in Trinidad.
The Evolution Library on this website has a huge multimedia library of resources that are associated to evolution. The content is organized into curricula-based pathways that correspond to the learning objectives outlined in biology standards. It includes seven short videos specifically designed for classroom use, which can be streamed for no cost or purchased on DVD.
Many important questions remain in the midst of evolutionary biology, including what triggers evolution and the speed at which it occurs. This is especially true for human evolution, which has made it difficult to reconcile that the physical traits of humans evolved from apes and religious beliefs that hold that humans are unique in the universe and has an exclusive place in the creation with a soul.
There are a variety of other ways in which evolution can take place, with natural selection as the most popular theory. However, scientists also study other types of evolution such as genetic drift, mutation, and sexual selection, among others.
While many scientific fields of inquiry conflict with the literal interpretations of the Bible evolutionary biology has been the subject of particularly fierce debate and opposition from religious fundamentalists. Certain religions have embraced their beliefs to evolution while others haven't.