Five Evolution Site Projects For Any Budget

Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts of biology teachers, misinformation about evolution remain. People who have taken in pop science nonsense often assume that biologists claim they 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 misinformation that can make it difficult to understand. It's laid out in a nested "bread crumb" format to facilitate navigation and orientation.

Definitions

Evolution is a complicated and challenging subject to teach well. It is often misunderstood by non-scientists, and even scientists have been guilty of using a definition that confuses the issue. This is especially true when discussing the definition of the words.

As such, it is important to define terms used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a clear and helpful way. The site serves as an accompaniment to the 2001 series, and it is also a resource on its own. The material is organized in a manner that makes it simpler to navigate and comprehend.

The site defines terms like common ancestor and gradual process. These terms help frame the nature of evolution as well as its relationship to other scientific concepts. The site provides an overview of the way the concept of evolution has been examined. This information can be used to dispel myths that have been engendered by the creationists.

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

The process of adaptation is the tendency of hereditary traits to become more suitable to their environment. This is a result of natural selection. Organisms with better-adapted traits are more likely than those with less-adapted characteristics to survive and reproduce.

Common ancestor: The most recent common ancestor of two or more species. By analyzing the DNA from these species it is possible to identify the common ancestor.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A large biological molecular containing the information required for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotide sequences that are strung into long chains, referred to as chromosomes. Mutations are the reason behind the creation of new genetic information within cells.

Coevolution: A relationship between two species in which evolutionary changes in one species are dependent on evolutionary changes in the other. Examples of coevolution include the interaction between predator and prey or parasite and host.

Origins

Species (groups of individuals that can interbreed) change 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 evolution of a new species can 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 through time the evolution of various groups of animals and plants with a focus on major changes in each group's past. It also examines the evolutionary history of humans and humans, a subject that is particularly important for students to comprehend.

Darwin's Origin was written in 1859, when just a few antediluvian fossils of humans were discovered. Among them was the famous skullcap and the associated bones discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany which is now believed as an early Homo neanderthalensis. It is unlikely that Darwin was aware of the skullcap when it was published in 1858, one year following the initial edition of The Origin.

The site is primarily an online biology resource, but it also contains many details on paleontology and geology. One of the most appealing features of the Web site are a series of timelines that show how climatic and geological conditions changed over time, and an interactive map of the distribution of a few fossil groups listed on the site.

Although the site is a companion to a PBS television series however, it can stand on its own as an excellent source for teachers and students. The site is well-organized and provides easy links to the introductory information of Understanding Evolution (developed under the National Science Foundation's funding) and the more specialized features of the museum website. These hyperlinks make it easy to transition from the cartoon style of Understanding Evolution pages into the more sophisticated worlds of research science. There are links to John Endler's experiments with guppies, which illustrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.

Diversity

The evolution of life has produced an array of plants, 에볼루션 에볼루션 게이밍 (click here!) animals and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures in their natural environment and has a number of advantages over modern observational and experimental methods of examining evolutionary processes. Paleobiology is able to study not only processes and 에볼루션 바카라 무료체험 (Medikamente.swica.Ch) events that take place regularly or over time, but also the distribution and frequency of various animal groups in space over the course of the geological time.

The site is divided into several paths that can be chosen to gain knowledge about evolution. One of these paths, "Evolution 101," guides the user through the evolution of nature and the evidence of evolution. The path also explores misconceptions about evolution, as well as the history of evolutionary thought.

Each of the other major sections of the Evolution site is equally developed, with materials that can support a variety of curriculum levels and pedagogical styles. In addition to the general textual content, the site also has an array of multimedia and interactive resources, such as videos, animations and virtual labs. The content is organized in a nested, bread crumb style that facilitates navigation and orientation within the vast web site.

The page "Coral Reef Connections", for example, gives a brief overview of the relationships between corals, their interaction with other organisms and then zooms in on one clam that is able to communicate with its neighbors and react to changes in conditions of the water at the reef level. This page, as well as the other multidisciplinary multimedia and interactive pages, offers a great introduction to many topics in evolutionary biology. The material also provides a discussion of the role of natural selection as well as the concept of phylogenetic analysis, which is a crucial tool for understanding the evolution of change.

Evolutionary Theory

Evolution is an underlying thread that is found throughout all branches of biology. A rich collection of resources supports teaching about evolution across the life sciences.

One resource, which is the companion to PBS's television show Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of a Web page that provides the depth and the wide range of educational resources. The site features a wealth of interactive learning modules. It also features an embedded "bread crumb" structure that helps students move from the cartoon style of Understanding Evolution to elements on this massive website that are closer to the field of research science. For example an animation that explains the concept of genetic inheritance links to a page highlighting John Endler's experiments with 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 has an extensive multimedia library of assets connected 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 free or purchased on DVD.

Evolutionary biology remains a field of study that has many important questions, including the causes of evolution and the speed at which it happens. This is especially true in the case of human evolution, where it was difficult to reconcile religious beliefs that held that humanity has a unique place in the creation and a soul, with the idea that innate physical traits were derived from Apes.

There are a myriad of other ways evolution can occur including natural selection, which is the most widely accepted theory. However scientists also study different types of evolution such as mutation, genetic drift and sexual selection, among other things.

Although many scientific fields of study conflict with the literal interpretations of religious texts, the concept of evolution biology has been a source of intense debate and opposition from religious fundamentalists. While certain religions have been able to reconcile their beliefs with the ideas of evolution, others have not.