Why Evolution Site Might Be Your Next Big Obsession

Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts of biology teachers, misinformation about evolution remain. People who have taken in the nonsense of pop science often believe that biologists claim they do not believe in evolution.

This rich website - companion to the PBS series offers teachers with resources that support evolution education and avoid the kinds of misinformation that can undermine it. It's organized in the "bread crumb" format to facilitate navigation and orientation.

Definitions

It's not easy to properly teach evolution. People who are not scientists often have a difficult time understanding the subject, and some scientists even employ a definition that confuses it. This is especially relevant 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 simple and efficient way. It is a companion for the 2001 series, and also a resource of its own. The content is presented in an organized manner that makes it simpler to navigate and understand.

The site defines terms such as common ancestor, 에볼루션 코리아 the gradual process, and adaptation. These terms help define the nature of evolution and 바카라 에볼루션 its relationship to 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 myths that have been created by creationists.

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

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

Common ancestor (also known as common ancestor): The most recent ancestral ancestor shared by two or more species. The common ancestor can be identified by studying the DNA of these species.

Deoxyribonucleic acid: A massive biological molecule that holds the information needed for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotide sequences which are strung into long chains, referred to as chromosomes. Mutations are the reason behind the creation of new genetic information within cells.

Coevolution is a relationship between two species, where the evolutionary changes of one species are influenced evolutionary changes of the other. Examples of coevolution include the interactions between predator and prey, or the parasite and the host.

Origins

Species (groups that can interbreed) change by a series of natural variations in the traits of their offspring. These changes can be caused by numerous factors, like 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 or increased due to environmental conditions, such as climate change or the competition for food or habitat.

The Evolution site traces the emergence of a variety of groups of animals and 에볼루션 카지노 plants over time and focuses on the most significant changes that took place in the history of each group. It also focuses on human evolution, which is a topic that is of particular interest for students.

Darwin's Origin was written in 1859, when just a handful of antediluvian fossils of humans had been found. The most famous among them was the skullcap and the associated bones discovered in 1856 at the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany that is now thought as an early Homo neanderthalensis. Although the skullcap was not published until 1858, just one year before the first edition of the Origin appeared, it is extremely unlikely that Darwin had ever heard of it.

While the site is focused on biology, it offers a lot of information on geology and paleontology. The website has numerous features that are especially impressive, including 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.

Although the site is a companion piece to a PBS television series, it also stands on its own as an excellent source for teachers and students. The site is well-organized and offers clear links between the introduction information 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 cartoon-like style of the Understanding Evolution pages to the more sophisticated world of research science. There are links to John Endler’s experiments with guppies that demonstrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.

Diversity

The evolution of life has resulted in a variety of animals, plants and 에볼루션 룰렛 insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures in their geological context is a superior method of study over modern observational or research methods of studying evolutionary processes. In addition to exploring processes and events that occur frequently or over a long period of time, paleobiology is able to examine the diversity of kinds of organisms as well as their distribution across the course of 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 scientific process and the evidence that supports the theory of evolution. The path also reveals 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. The site has a range of interactive and multimedia content that include video clips, animations and virtual labs, in addition to its general textual content. The breadcrumb-like structure of the content assists with navigation and orientation on the massive Web site.

The page "Coral Reef Connections" For instance, it provides an overview of the coral's relationships and interactions with other organisms and is enlarged to show a single clam, which can communicate with its neighbours and 에볼루션 코리아 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 a broad spectrum of topics in evolutionary biology. The information also includes a discussion of the role of natural selection as well as the concept of phylogenetic analysis, which is a key tool for understanding the evolution of change.

Evolutionary Theory

For biology students the concept of evolution is a major thread that binds all the branches of the field. A vast collection of resources can help teachers teach about evolution across the life sciences.

One resource, a companion to the PBS television series Understanding Evolution, is an excellent example of an Web site that provides the depth and breadth of its educational resources. The site has a wide array of interactive learning modules. It also features an "bread crumb structure" that assists students in moving away from the cartoon-like style used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements on this site that are more closely connected to the worlds of research science. For instance an animation that explains the idea of genetic inheritance connects to a page that focuses on John Endler's experiments in artificial selection with guppies in native ponds of Trinidad.

Another useful resource is the Evolution Library on this Web site, which has an extensive multimedia library of resources related to evolution. The content is organized according to curriculum-based pathways that correspond to the learning goals set forth in the standards for biology. It includes seven short 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 that poses many important questions, such as the causes of evolution and how fast it occurs. This is particularly true for the evolution of humans where it was a challenge to reconcile religious beliefs that humans have a distinct position in the universe and a soul, with the notion that our physical traits evolved from Apes.

In addition, there are a number of ways that evolution could be triggered, with natural selection being the most popular theory. Scientists also study different types like mutation, genetic drift and sexual selection.

While many fields of scientific study are in conflict with literal interpretations found in religious texts, evolution biology has been a subject of intense debate and resistance from religious fundamentalists. While certain religions have been able to reconcile their beliefs with the ideas of evolution, other religions have not.