10 Evolution Site Tricks All Experts Recommend

Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts of biology teachers, misinformation about evolution persist. People who have absorbed popular science myths often assume that biologists are saying they do not believe in evolution.

This rich Web site, which is a complement to the PBS program that provides teachers with resources that support the evolution of education while avoiding the types of misconceptions that can undermine it. It's laid out in a nested "bread crumb" format to facilitate navigation and orientation.

Definitions

It is difficult to teach evolution well. It is often misunderstood by non-scientists, and even scientists use definitions that confuse the issue. This is particularly relevant when it comes to the meaning 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 is both a companion for the 2001 series, but also a resource of its own. The content is presented in a nested manner which aids navigation and orientation.

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

You can also access a glossary which contains terms that are used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:

Adaptation: The tendency for 에볼루션바카라 (visit Instructure here >>) heritable traits to become better suited to a particular environment. This is a result of natural selection, which happens when organisms with better-adapted traits are more likely survive and reproduce than those with less adapted characteristics.

Common ancestor (also known as common ancestor): The most recent ancestor shared by two or more species. By analyzing the DNA from these species it is possible to determine the common ancestor.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A massive biological molecular that contains the information needed for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotides arranged in sequences that are strung together into long chains, also known as chromosomes. Mutations are the reason behind the creation of new genetic information within cells.

Coevolution: A relationship between two species where evolutionary changes in one species are influenced by evolutionary changes in the other. Coevolution is evident in the interaction of predator and prey, or parasites and hosts.

Origins

Species (groups of individuals that can interbreed) evolve through natural changes in the characteristics of their offspring. The causes of these changes are various factors, including natural selection, gene drift and mixing of the gene pool. The development of a new species may take thousands of years, and the process can be slowed or increased due to environmental conditions, such as climate change or competition for food or habitat.

The Evolution site tracks the evolution of a variety of animal and plant groups through time and focuses on the most significant changes that took place in the history of each group. It also examines the evolutionary history of humans which is crucial for students to comprehend.

When Darwin wrote the Origin of Species, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been found. Among them was the famous skullcap and associated bones found in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany that is now thought as an early Homo neanderthalensis. Although the skullcap was not published until 1858, which was a year before the first edition of the Origin was published, it is extremely unlikely that Darwin had ever heard of it.

While the site is focused on biology, it also offers a lot of information about geology as well as paleontology. Among the best features on the site are a series of timelines which show how climatic and geological conditions changed over time, and a map of the distribution of a few of the fossil groups featured on the site.

While the site is a companion to a PBS television show, it also stands on its own as a valuable resource for teachers and students. The site is extremely well-organized and offers clear links between the introductory material in Understanding Evolution (developed with support from the National Science Foundation) and the more specific elements of the museum's web site. These links facilitate the transition from the engaging cartoon style of the Understanding Evolution pages to the more sophisticated world of research science. There are links to John Endler’s experiments with guppies. They illustrate the importance ecology in evolutionary theory.

Diversity

The evolution of life has resulted in a variety of animals, plants and insects. Paleobiology, the study of these creatures in their geological context, has many advantages over modern observational or experimental methods for exploring evolutionary processes. Paleobiology focuses on not only the process and 에볼루션 슬롯게임 events that take place frequently or over time, but also the relative abundance and distribution of different species of animals in space throughout the geological time.

The Web site is divided into several optional paths to learning evolution which include "Evolution 101," which takes the viewer on a line 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 main sections of the Evolution website is equally well-developed, with materials that can be used to support a variety of levels of curriculum and teaching methods. In addition to the standard textual content, the site offers an extensive selection of multimedia and interactive resources like video clips, animations, and virtual labs. The content is presented in a nested bread crumb-like fashion that helps with navigation and orientation on the Web site.

The page "Coral Reef Connections", 에볼루션 바카라 for example, provides an overview of the relationships between corals and interactions with other organisms and then is enlarged to show a single clam, which can communicate with its neighbours and respond to changes in conditions of the water that occur at the reef level. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary, multimedia and interactive pages on the site, offer an excellent introduction to the broad spectrum of topics in evolutionary biology. The content includes an explanation of the importance of natural selection and the concept of phylogenetics analysis, an important method for understanding the evolution of changes.

Evolutionary Theory

Evolution is a common thread that connects all branches of biology. A rich collection of resources helps teachers teach about evolution across the life sciences.

One resource, the companion to PBS's TV series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of an Web site that provides depth as well as broadness in terms of educational resources. The site offers a variety of interactive learning modules. It also features a "bread crumb structure" that allows students to move away from the cartoon style that is used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements on this site that are more closely linked to the worlds of research science. Animation that introduces the concept of genetics, which links to a page about John Endler's experiments in artificial selection using Guppies living in ponds native to Trinidad.

Another resource that is worth mentioning is the Evolution Library on this Web site, which has an extensive multimedia library of items related to evolution. The content is organized into courses that are based on curriculum and follow the learning objectives outlined in biology standards. It contains seven videos specifically designed for use in the classroom, and can be streamed for no cost or purchased on DVD.

A variety of crucial questions remain in the midst of evolutionary biology, such as what causes evolution to occur and the speed at which it occurs. This is particularly true for humans' evolution where it was a challenge to reconcile religious beliefs that held that humanity has a special position in the universe and a soul with the notion that human beings have innate physical traits originated from apes.

There are also a number of other ways in which evolution could occur, with natural selection as the most widely accepted theory. However, scientists also study other types of evolution such as mutation, genetic drift and sexual selection, among others.

While many scientific fields of study have a conflict with the literal interpretations of religious texts, the concept of evolution biology has been a source of intense debate and resistance from religious fundamentalists. Certain religions have reconciled their beliefs with evolutionary biology, while others haven't.