Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts by biology educators, misconceptions persist about the evolution. Pop science nonsense has led many people to think that biologists don't believe in evolution.
This site, which is a companion to the PBS series - provides teachers with materials that promote evolution education and help avoid the kinds of myths that hinder 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. It is often misunderstood by non-scientists, and even some scientists have been guilty of using an interpretation that is confusing the issue. This is particularly relevant to discussions on the meaning of the word itself.
It is therefore essential to define the terms that are used in evolutionary biology. Understanding Evolution's website helps you define these terms in a simple and efficient manner. The website is a companion to the show which first aired in 2001, but also functions as an independent resource. The material is organized in a way that makes it easy to navigate and understand.
The site defines terms like common ancestor and gradual process. These terms help to frame the nature of evolution as well as its relationship to other concepts in science. The website then provides an overview of how the concept of evolution has been researched and verified. This information can be used to dispel misconceptions that have been propagated by creationists.
You can also consult a glossary that includes terms that are 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 with more adaptable traits are more likely than those with less-adapted traits to survive and reproduce.
Common ancestor: The most recent common ancestor of two or more distinct species. The common ancestor can be identified through analyzing the DNA of the species.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A huge biological molecular that contains the necessary information for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotide sequences, which are strung into long chains, referred to as chromosomes. Mutations are the basis for new genetic information within cells.
Coevolution is a relationship between two species in which evolutionary changes in one species are influenced by evolutionary changes in the other. Examples of coevolution are the interactions between predator and prey, or parasite and host.
Origins
Species (groups which can interbreed) change through a series natural changes in the traits of their offspring. The causes of these changes are numerous factors, like natural selection, gene drift and mixing of the gene pool. The development of new species can take thousands of years. Environmental conditions, like climate change or competition for food resources and habitat, can slow or accelerate the process.
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 each group's history. It also examines the evolution of humans, which is a topic of particular importance for students.
Darwin's Origin was written in 1859, when just a few antediluvian fossils of human beings had been discovered. The most famous among them was the skullcap and bones that were discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany which is now believed to be an early Homo neanderthalensis. Although the skullcap was not published until 1858, just a year before the first edition of the Origin was published, it's very unlikely that Darwin had ever heard of it.
While the site focuses on biology, it contains a wealth of information about geology and paleontology. The Web site has numerous features that are particularly impressive, including the timeline of how geological and climate conditions have changed over the course of time. It also features maps that show the locations of fossil groups.
The site is a companion for a PBS TV series but it can also be used as an educational resource by teachers and students. The site is extremely well organized and provides clear links between the introductory material in Understanding Evolution (developed with support from the National Science Foundation) and the more sophisticated elements of the museum's web site. These hyperlinks make it easy to move from the cartoon-style Understanding Evolution pages into the more sophisticated worlds of research science. Particularly there are hyperlinks to John Endler's experiments using Guppies that demonstrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.
Diversity
The evolution of life on Earth has led to a wide variety of animals, plants, and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures in their geological environment offers many advantages over the current observational or experimental methods for exploring evolutionary phenomena. In addition to studying the processes and events that happen frequently or over a long period of time, paleobiology allows to study the relative abundance of different kinds of organisms as well as their distribution in space over geological time.
The site is divided into a variety of pathways to understanding evolution, including "Evolution 101," which takes the viewer on a line through the science of nature and the evidence supporting the theory of evolution. The course also focuses on the most common misconceptions about evolution, as well as the evolution of thought.
Each of the other sections of the Evolution site is equally well constructed, with materials that can support a variety of educational levels and pedagogical styles. In addition to the standard textual content, the site also has a wide range of interactive and multimedia resources, such as video clips, animations, and virtual labs. 무료에볼루션 is presented in a nested bread crumb-like fashion that helps with navigation and orientation within the vast web site.
The page "Coral Reef Connections", for example, gives a brief overview of coral relationships, their interaction with other organisms, and then zooms in on one clam, which can communicate with its neighbors and react to changes in the conditions of the water 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 the broad variety of topics in evolutionary biology. The content also includes an overview of the importance of natural selection and the concept of phylogenetic analysis which is a crucial tool in understanding evolutionary change.
Evolutionary Theory
Evolution is an underlying thread that is found throughout all branches of biology. A rich collection supports teaching evolution across the disciplines of life sciences.
One resource, which is a companion to the PBS television series Understanding Evolution, is an outstanding example of a Web site that offers both the depth and breadth of its educational resources. The site has a wide array of interactive learning modules. It also features an encased "bread crumb" structure that helps students move from the cartoon-like style of Understanding Evolution to elements on this large Web site more closely linked to the field of research science. For example an animation that explains the concept of genetic inheritance links to a page that focuses on John Endler's artificial selection experiments using guppies in the ponds of his native country of Trinidad.
The Evolution Library on this website is a vast multimedia library of assets related to evolution. The content is organized according to the form of curriculum-based pathways that are in line with the learning goals set forth in the biology standards. It includes seven short videos specifically designed for use in classrooms, and can be streamed at no cost or purchased on DVD.
Evolutionary biology remains an area of study that poses many important questions, such as what causes evolution and how fast it takes place. This is particularly true for human evolution, where it has been difficult to reconcile the notion that the physical characteristics of humans evolved from apes and religious beliefs that claim that humans are unique among living things and holds a a special place in creation. It is a soul.
There are also a number of other ways in which evolution can occur including natural selection, which is the most popular theory. However scientists also study other kinds of evolution, such as genetic drift, mutation, and sexual selection, among other things.
While many scientific fields of inquiry have a conflict with the literal interpretations of religious texts evolutionary biology has been the subject of particularly controversial debate and resistance from religious fundamentalists. Certain religions have reconciled their beliefs to evolution while others haven't.