Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts of biology educators, there are still a lot of misconceptions about the evolution. People who have absorbed popular science myths often assume that biologists do not believe in evolution.
This rich Web site - companion to the PBS series offers teachers with resources that promote evolution education and avoids the kinds of myths that undermine it. It's organized in a "bread crumb" format to facilitate navigation and orientation.
Definitions
It's not easy to effectively teach evolution. It is often misunderstood by non-scientists, and even some scientists are guilty of using a definition that confuses the issue. This is especially relevant when discussing the meaning of the words themselves.
It is therefore crucial to define the terms used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a clear and useful way. 에볼루션 카지노 사이트 is a companion to the series that first aired in 2001, but it also functions as an independent resource. The content is presented in an organized manner that makes it simpler to navigate and comprehend.
The site defines terms like common ancestor, gradual process, and adaptation. These terms help frame the nature and significance of evolution to other concepts in science. The website then provides an overview of how the concept of evolution has been tested and validated. This information will help to dispel the myths created by creationists.
It is also possible to find the glossary of terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:
Adaptation is the tendency of hereditary traits to become more suitable to their environment. 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: The latest common ancestor of two or more species. The common ancestor can be identified by studying the DNA of the species.
Deoxyribonucleic acid: A large biological molecule that contains the information necessary for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotides arranged in sequences that are strung together to form long chains, also known as chromosomes. Mutations are the basis for new genetic information in cells.
Coevolution is a relationship between two species where evolutionary changes in one species are dependent on evolutionary changes in the other. Coevolution can be observed through the interaction between predator and prey, or parasite and hosts.
Origins
Species (groups which can interbreed) develop through a series natural changes in the traits of their offspring. The changes can be triggered by a variety of causes that include natural selection, genetic drift, and gene pool mixing. The development of a new species can take thousands of years and the process could be slowed or increased due to environmental conditions, such as climate change or competition for food or habitat.
The Evolution site traces through time the emergence of various animal and plant groups with a focus on major changes within each group's past. It also explores the human evolutionary roots, a topic that is especially important for students to comprehend.
Darwin's Origin was written in 1859, when only a handful of antediluvian fossils of human beings had been discovered. The famous skullcap, with the associated bones were 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 one year before the first edition of the Origin was published, it's very unlikely that Darwin had heard or seen of it.
While the site is focused on biology, it also includes a good deal of information about geology as well as paleontology. One of the most appealing features of the website are a set of timelines which show how climatic and geological conditions changed over time, and an interactive map of the geographical distribution of some fossil groups listed on the site.
The site is a companion for the PBS TV series but it could also be used as a source for teachers and students. The site is well-organized and offers clear links to the introductory material of Understanding Evolution (developed under the National Science Foundation's funding) and the more specialized features of the museum's website. These hyperlinks make it easy to move from the cartoon-style Understanding Evolution pages into the more sophisticated realms of research science. In particular there are links to John Endler's research with guppies that illustrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.
Diversity
The evolution of life has resulted in a variety of plants, animals and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures in their geological context and has a number of advantages over the current observational and experimental methods of examining evolutionary phenomena. Paleobiology can examine not only the process and events that take place regularly or over time but also the distribution and frequency of different groups of animals across the geological time.
The site is divided up into different routes that can be taken to study the subject of evolution. One of the paths, "Evolution 101," guides the user through the evolution of nature and the evidence of evolution. The path also explores common misconceptions about evolution as well as the evolution of thought.
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 also has a wide range of interactive and multimedia resources like videos, animations, and virtual labs. The content is laid out in a nested bread crumb-like fashion that helps with navigation and orientation on the web site.
For example, the page "Coral Reef Connections" provides a comprehensive overview of the relationships between corals and their interaction with other organisms, then zooms in on a single clam that can communicate with its neighbors and react to changes in water conditions at the level of the reef. This page, as well as the other multidisciplinary, multimedia and interactive pages on the site, offer an excellent introduction to a broad variety of topics in evolutionary biology. The content includes an explanation of the significance of natural selectivity and the concept of phylogenetics, an important tool for understanding evolutionary changes.
Evolutionary Theory
For biology students, evolution is a key thread that connects all branches of the field. 에볼루션 카지노 teaching evolution across all disciplines of life science.
One resource, which is the companion to PBS's television show Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of an Web page that offers both the depth and the breadth in terms of its educational resources. The site has a wide array of interactive learning modules. It also features a "bread crumb structure" that allows students to move away from the cartoon style used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements on this large website more closely linked to the worlds of research science. For instance an animation that introduces the notion of genetic inheritance leads to a page that focuses on John Endler's experiments with artificial selection with guppies in native ponds of Trinidad.
The Evolution Library on this website has a huge multimedia library of materials that deal with evolution. The content is organized in curriculum-based pathways that correspond to the learning goals set forth in the biology standards. It contains seven short videos designed for use in classrooms. These can be viewed online or purchased as DVDs.
Evolutionary biology is an area of study that has many important questions, such as the causes of evolution and how fast it happens. This is particularly relevant for the evolution of humans which was a challenge to reconcile religious beliefs that held that humans have a distinct place in the creation and a soul with the notion that human beings have innate physical traits evolved from the apes.
Additionally there are a variety of ways that evolution can occur, with natural selection being the most widely accepted theory. Scientists also study other kinds like mutation, genetic drift, and sexual selection.
While many fields of scientific inquiry conflict with the literal interpretations of the Bible, evolutionary biology has been the subject of intense controversy and resistance from religious fundamentalists. Certain religions have reconciled their beliefs with evolutionary biology, while others haven't.