Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts by biology educators, misconceptions persist about the evolution. People who have been exposed to the nonsense of pop science often believe that biologists are saying they do not believe in evolution.
This rich Web site - companion to the PBS series It provides teachers with materials which support evolution education and avoid the kinds of misinformation that can make it difficult to understand. It's organized in a "bread crumb" format to make navigation and orientation easier.
Definitions
It is difficult to properly teach evolution. 무료에볼루션 who are not scientists often have a difficult time understanding the subject and some scientists use a definition that confuses it. This is particularly true when it comes to discussions about the nature of the word.
As such, it is crucial to define the terms that are used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a clear and useful way. It is a companion for the 2001 series, and it is also a resource on its own. 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 define the nature and significance of evolution to other concepts in science. The site also provides an overview of how the concept of evolution has been tested and validated. This information can be used to dispel misconceptions that have been propagated by creationists.
It is also possible to get a glossary of terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:
Adaptation: The tendency for hereditary traits to become more suitable to a particular setting. This is the result of natural selection. Organisms with better-adapted characteristics are more likely than those with less-adapted traits to survive and reproduce.
Common ancestor (also known as common ancestor) The most recent ancestral ancestor shared by two or more species. The common ancestor can be identified through analyzing the DNA of these species.
Deoxyribonucleic acid: A large biological molecule that contains the information required for cell replication. The information is contained in a sequence of nucleotides that are strung together to form long chains, also known as chromosomes. Mutations are the source of new genetic information within cells.
Coevolution is a relation between two species where evolution of one species are influenced by evolutionary changes of the other. Examples of coevolution include the interaction between predator and prey, or parasite and host.
Origins
Species (groups of individuals who can interbreed) change through a series of natural changes in the traits of their offspring. Changes can be caused by 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 can be slowed down or speeded up by environmental conditions such as climate change or competition for food or habitat.
The Evolution site traces through time the evolution of different animal and plant groups, focusing on major transitions within each group's past. It also focuses on the evolutionary origin of humans which is especially important for students to know.
Darwin's Origin was written in 1859, at a time when only a handful of antediluvian fossils of humans were discovered. The famous skullcap, along with the bones that accompanied it were discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto of Germany. It is now recognized as an early Homo neanderthalensis. It is highly unlikely that Darwin was aware of the skullcap, which was first published in 1858, which was a year after the publication of the first edition of The Origin.
While the site focuses on biology, it also offers a lot of information about geology and paleontology. The most impressive features of the Web site are a series of timelines that illustrate the way in which climatic and geological conditions changed over time, and an outline of the geographical distribution of some fossil groups listed on the site.
The site is a companion to a PBS TV series but it could also be used as a resource by teachers and students. The site is extremely well-organized and has clear links between the introduction content in Understanding Evolution (developed with support from the National Science Foundation) and the more specific components of the museum's Web site. These hyperlinks help users move from the engaging cartoon style of the Understanding Evolution pages to the more sophisticated world of research science. There are also links to John Endler's experiments with guppies. They illustrate the importance ecology in evolutionary theory.
Diversity
The evolution of life on Earth has produced a diversity of animals, plants, and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures within their geological context and has a number of advantages over the current observational and experimental methods for analyzing evolutionary phenomena. Paleobiology focuses on not only processes and events that occur frequently or over time, but also the relative abundance and distribution of different species of animals across the geological time.
The website 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 path also reveals common misconceptions about evolution as well as the history of evolutionary thought.
Each of the main sections on the Evolution website is equally well-developed, with materials that support a variety curriculum levels and teaching styles. In addition to general textual content, the site features an extensive selection of interactive and multimedia resources including videos, animations and virtual laboratories. The content is laid out in a nested bread crumb-like fashion that helps with navigation and orientation on the Web site.
The page "Coral Reef Connections", for example, gives a brief overview of the relationships between corals, their interaction with other organisms, and then is enlarged to show one clam, which is able to communicate with its neighbours and respond to changes in the conditions of the water at the reef level. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary interactive and multimedia pages offers a great introduction to the many areas of evolutionary biology. The content also includes an overview of the role of natural selectivity and the concept of phylogenetics analysis, an important method for understanding the evolution of changes.
Evolutionary Theory
For biology students evolution is a crucial thread that connects all the branches of the field. A rich collection supports teaching evolution across the disciplines of life sciences.
One resource, the companion to PBS's television series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of an Web page that offers both depth as well as broadness in terms of educational resources. The site offers a range of interactive learning modules. It also features an "bread crumb structure" that helps students move away from the cartoon style that is used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements of this vast website that are closely connected to the worlds of research science. Animation that introduces the concept of genetics, which links to a page highlighting John Endler's experiments with artificial selection using guppies on native ponds in Trinidad.
Another resource that is worth mentioning is the Evolution Library on this web site, which contains an extensive collection of multimedia assets related to evolution. The content is organized into the form of curriculum-based pathways that are in line with the learning goals set forth in biology standards. It contains seven videos designed specifically for use in the classroom, and can be streamed for free or purchased on DVD.
Evolutionary biology remains a field of study with a lot of important questions to answer, such as what causes evolution and the speed at which it occurs. This is particularly true for human evolution, which has made it difficult to reconcile the idea that the innate physical characteristics of humans were derived from apes and religious beliefs that hold that humanity is unique in the universe and has an enviable place in creation, with a soul.
There are a myriad of other ways evolution can take place and natural selection being the most popular theory. Scientists also study other types like mutation, genetic drift, and sexual selection.
Many fields of inquiry have a conflict with literal interpretations of religious texts, evolutionary biology has been the subject of fierce debate and opposition from religious fundamentalists. While some religions have been able to reconcile their beliefs with the theories of evolution, others haven't.