Why Evolution Site Could Be A Lot More Hazardous Than You Thought

Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts of biology teachers, misinformation about evolution persist. Pop science nonsense has led many 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 myths that make it difficult to understand. It's arranged in a nested "bread crumb" format to make it easy for navigation and orientation.

Definitions

It's difficult 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 particularly true when discussing the nature of the words themselves.

As such, it is essential to define terms used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a clear and useful manner. The site serves as an accompanying site for the 2001 series, and it is also a resource on its own. The material is presented in a structured manner that makes it easier to navigate and comprehend.

The site defines terms like common ancestor and the gradual process. These terms help frame the nature of evolution as well as its relation to other scientific concepts. The website then provides an overview of how the concept of evolution has been tested and verified. This information can help dispel myths created by creationists.

It is also possible to access the glossary of terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:

Adaptation: The tendency for heritable characteristics to become more suited to a particular environment. This is a result of natural selection, which occurs when organisms that are better adapted traits are more likely survive and reproduce than those with less adaptable traits.

Common ancestor (also called common ancestor): The most recent ancestor that is shared by two or more species. The common ancestor can be identified through analyzing the DNA of the species.

Deoxyribonucleic acid: A huge biological molecule that contains the information needed for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotide sequences that are strung into long chains called chromosomes. Mutations are the source of new genetic information in cells.

Coevolution is the relationship between two species where evolution of one species are influenced evolutionary changes in the other. Coevolution can be observed in the interactions between predator and prey, or parasite and hosts.

Origins

Species (groups which can interbreed) change by a series of natural variations in the traits of their offspring. Changes can be caused by many factors, such as natural selection, gene drift and mixing of the gene pool. The evolution of new species could take thousands of years. Environmental circumstances, such as changes in the climate or competition for food resources and habitat can impede or accelerate the process.

에볼루션카지노  through time the evolution of various species of plants and animals and focuses on major changes in each group's past. It also explores human evolution, which is a topic of particular importance to students.

Darwin's Origin was written in 1859, at a time when only a handful of antediluvian fossils of humans had been found. The famous skullcap, with the bones associated with it, was discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto of Germany. It is now recognized as an early Homo neanderthalensis. Although the skullcap was not published until 1858, which was a year before the first edition of the Origin appeared, it is very unlikely that Darwin had heard or seen of it.

While the site focuses on biology, it also includes a good deal of information about geology as well as paleontology. The Web site has a number of aspects that are quite impressive, including a timeline of how climate and geological 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 the PBS TV series but it could also be used as a resource for teachers and students. The site is well-organized and provides easy links to the introductory content of Understanding Evolution (developed under the National Science Foundation's funding) as well as the more specialized features of the museum's website. These hyperlinks help users move from the engaging cartoon style of the Understanding Evolution pages to the more sophisticated world of research science. Particularly, there are links to John Endler's research with guppies that illustrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.

Diversity

The evolution of life on Earth has produced a diversity of plants, animals, and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures in their geographical context and offers numerous advantages over the current observational and experimental methods for analyzing evolutionary processes. In addition to examining processes and events that occur regularly or over a lengthy period of time, paleobiology can be used to analyze the relative abundance of various kinds of organisms as well as their distribution throughout the geological time.

The Web site is divided into various paths to learning evolution, including "Evolution 101," which takes the user on a linear path through the scientific process and the evidence to support the theory of evolution. The course also focuses on misconceptions about evolution and the background of evolutionary thought.

Each of the other main sections of the Evolution site is equally well 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 which include animations, video clips and virtual labs as well as general textual content. 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 instance, the page "Coral Reef Connections" provides an overview of the relationships between corals, their interaction with other organisms, and then zooms in to a single clam, which is able to communicate with its neighbors and react to changes in the water conditions that occur on the reef level. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary interactive and multimedia pages gives a good introduction to a variety of topics in evolutionary biology. The information also includes an overview of the importance of natural selection and the concept of phylogenetic analysis which is an important tool 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 wide range of resources supports teaching about evolution across all life sciences.

One resource, which is the companion to PBS's TV series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of a Web page that provides depth and wide range of educational resources. The site features a wide range of interactive learning modules. It also features an encased "bread crumb" structure that allows students to move from the cartoon style of Understanding Evolution to elements on this large Web site more closely tied to the field of research science. For instance, an animation introducing the idea of genetic inheritance connects to a page that highlights John Endler's experiments in artificial selection using guppies in the ponds of his native country of Trinidad.

Another helpful resource is the Evolution Library on this Web site, which contains an extensive multimedia library of items connected to evolution. The content is organized in curricula-based paths that correspond to the learning objectives set out in the standards for biology. It contains seven videos specifically designed for use in the classroom, and can be streamed at no cost or purchased on DVD.

Evolutionary biology remains an area of study that has many important questions to answer, such as what triggers evolution and the speed at which it happens. This is particularly applicable to human evolution which has made it difficult to reconcile that the physical traits of humans derived from apes, and the religious beliefs that claim that humans are unique among living things and has an exclusive place in the creation, with soul.

Additionally there are a variety of ways that evolution could occur, with natural selection being the most widely accepted theory. However scientists also study other kinds of evolution, such as mutation, genetic drift and sexual selection, among others.

While many scientific fields of inquiry conflict with the literal interpretations of religious texts Evolutionary biology has been the subject of particularly fierce debate and opposition from religious fundamentalists. While certain religions have managed to reconcile their beliefs with the theories of evolution, other religions aren't.