A Guide To Evolution Site From Start To Finish
Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts of biology educators, there are still a lot of misconceptions about evolution. People who have been exposed to pop science nonsense often assume that biologists do not believe in evolution.
This rich website - companion to the PBS series It provides teachers with materials that support evolution education and avoid the kinds of myths that hinder it. It's laid out in the "bread crumb" format to facilitate navigation and orientation.
Definitions
Evolution is a complicated and difficult subject to teach well. click this link here now is often misunderstood by non-scientists, and even scientists have been guilty of using definitions that confuse the issue. This is especially true when it comes to discussions about the definition of the word itself.
It is crucial to define the terms that are used in evolutionary biology. Understanding Evolution's website provides this in a simple and efficient manner. The site is both a companion for the 2001 series, and also a resource on its own. The content is presented in a way that assists in navigation and orientation.
The site defines terms such as common ancestor and the gradual process. These terms help frame the nature and significance of evolution to other scientific concepts. The site then offers an overview of how the concept of evolution has been researched and verified. This information will help to dispel the myths created by creationists.
It is also possible to get the glossary of terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:
Adaptation: The tendency of heritable traits to become better suitable to a particular setting. This is a result of natural selection, which happens when organisms that are better adapted characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce than those with less adapted characteristics.
Common ancestor: The latest common ancestor of two or more distinct species. The common ancestor can be identified by analyzing the DNA of the species.
Deoxyribonucleic acid: A massive biological molecule that contains the information required for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotide sequences that are strung into long chains called chromosomes. Mutations are the basis for new genetic information in cells.
Coevolution is a relationship between two species in which evolutionary changes in one species are affected by changes in evolutionary processes in the other. Examples of coevolution include the interaction between predator and prey or the parasite and the host.
Origins
Species (groups that can crossbreed), evolve through a series natural changes in the traits of their offspring. The changes can be caused by a variety of factors such as natural selection, genetic drift, and gene pool mixing. The development of a new species may take thousands of years, and the process may be slowed down or accelerated due to environmental conditions, such as climate change or the competition for food or habitat.
The Evolution site traces the emergence of various species of plants and animals over time and focuses on the most significant shifts that occurred throughout the history of each group. It also explores the human evolutionary roots, a topic that is crucial for students to understand.
When Darwin wrote the Origin in 1859, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been found. Among them was the famous skullcap and bones that were discovered in 1856 at the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany, which is now known to be an early Homo neanderthalensis. It is unlikely that Darwin was aware of the skullcap, which was first published in 1858, one year after the publication of the first edition of The Origin. Origin.
The site is primarily an online biology resource however it also includes a lot of information on paleontology and geology. The Web site has numerous features that are especially impressive, such as an overview of how geological and climate conditions have changed over the course of time. It also includes a map showing the distribution of fossil groups.
The site is a companion to the PBS television series, but it could be used as a resource by teachers and students. The site is very well-organized and offers 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 realms of research science. There are links to John Endler’s experiments with guppies, which illustrate the importance ecology in evolutionary theory.
Diversity
The evolution of life has resulted in an array of plants, animals and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures in their geographical context and offers many advantages over modern observational and experimental methods of examining evolutionary processes. In addition to examining processes and events that occur regularly or over a lengthy period of time, paleobiology allows to study the relative abundance of various kinds of organisms as well as their distribution throughout the geological time.
The website is divided into a variety of ways to learn about evolution that include "Evolution 101," which takes the user on a linear path through the science of nature and the evidence to support the theory of evolution. The path also examines myths about evolution, as well as the history of evolutionary thought.
Each of the other 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 has a range of multimedia and interactive resources, including animations, video clips and virtual laboratories in addition to general textual content. The content is laid out in a nested bread crumb style that facilitates navigation and orientation within the large Web site.
The page "Coral Reef Connections", for example, provides an overview of the relationships between corals and interactions with other organisms and then zooms in on one clam, which can communicate with its neighbours and respond to changes in water conditions that occur on the reef level. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary interactive and multimedia pages, gives a good introduction to many topics in evolutionary biology. The material also provides an overview of the importance of natural selection as well as the concept of phylogenetic analysis, which is a crucial method to understand evolutionary change.
Evolutionary Theory
For biology students the concept of evolution is a major thread that weaves together all the branches of the field. A wide selection of resources helps teachers teach evolution across the disciplines of life science.
One resource, a companion to the PBS television series Understanding Evolution, is an outstanding example of an Web site that provides the depth and breadth of its educational resources. The site has a variety of interactive learning modules. It also features an embedded "bread crumb" structure that allows students to transition from the cartoon style of Understanding Evolution to elements on this large Web site more closely linked to the world of research science. Animation that introduces the concept of genetics links to a page about John Endler's experiments with artificial selection using guppies on native ponds in Trinidad.
Another useful resource is the Evolution Library on this site, which has an extensive library of multimedia resources related to evolution. The content is organized into courses that are based on curriculum and follow the learning goals established in the biology standards. It includes seven short videos designed specifically for classroom use, which can be streamed at no cost or purchased on DVD.
A number of important questions remain at the core of evolutionary biology, such as what causes evolution to occur and how fast it happens. This is particularly true for human evolution, where it's been difficult to reconcile the notion that the physical characteristics of humans were derived from apes and religious beliefs that hold that humanity is unique among living things and has a special place in creation. It is a soul.
Additionally there are a myriad of ways that evolution can occur, with natural selection being the most popular theory. However scientists also study different kinds of evolution like mutation, genetic drift, and sexual selection, among others.
Many fields of inquiry have a conflict with the literal interpretations of the Bible Evolutionary biology has been the subject of controversial debate and resistance from religious fundamentalists. Some religions have reconciled their beliefs with evolution, but others haven't.