Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts by biology educators, misconceptions persist about the evolution. Pop science nonsense has led people to believe that biologists don't believe evolution.

This site, which is a companion to the PBS series It provides teachers with materials which support evolution education and avoid the kinds of misconceptions that hinder it. It's laid out in a "bread crumb" format to aid in navigation and orientation.

Definitions

It is difficult to effectively teach evolution. It is often misunderstood by non-scientists and even some 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 that are used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a simple and efficient way. The site is both a companion for the 2001 series, and it is also a resource on its own. The material is presented in a nested manner which aids navigation and orientation.

The site defines terms such as common ancestor and the gradual process. These terms help define the nature of evolution and its relationship to evolution to other scientific concepts. The site gives a comprehensive overview of the ways that evolution has been tested. This information can help dispel the myths that are created by the creationists.

It is also possible to find a glossary of terms that are used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:

Adaptation: The tendency for heritable traits to become better suited to a particular environment. This is the result of natural selection. Organisms with more adaptable traits are more likely than those with less-adapted characteristics to survive and reproduce.

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

Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A massive biological molecular containing the information needed for cell replication. The information is contained in nucleotides arranged in sequences that are strung together to form long chains, referred to as chromosomes. Mutations are responsible for the creation of new genetic information inside 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 interbreed) develop through a series of natural changes in the traits of their offspring. The changes can be caused by a variety of causes such as natural selection, genetic drift and mixing of gene pools. The evolution of new species can take thousands of years. Environmental circumstances, such as changes in the climate or competition for food resources and habitat, can slow or accelerate the process.

The Evolution site traces through time the evolution of different species of plants and animals with a focus on major changes in each group's history. It also examines the evolutionary history of humans and humans, a subject that is especially important for students to comprehend.

When Darwin wrote the Origin, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been found. The famous skullcap, along 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. It is highly unlikely that Darwin was aware of the skullcap, which was published in 1858, which was a year following the initial edition of The Origin. Origin.

The site is primarily an online biology resource, but it also contains many details on geology and paleontology. One of the most appealing features on the site are a timeline of events which show the way in which climatic and geological conditions have changed over time, and an interactive map of the distribution of some of the fossil groups featured on the site.

Although the site is a companion to the PBS television series but it also stands on its own as an excellent resource for teachers and students. The site is well-organized and offers clear links between the introductory content in Understanding Evolution (developed with support from the National Science Foundation) and the more specific elements of the museum's web site. These hyperlinks make it easier 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 that illustrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.

Diversity

The evolution of life has led to a variety of plants, animals and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures within their natural environment and has a number of advantages over the modern observational and research methods for analyzing evolutionary phenomena. In addition to studying the processes and events that happen regularly or over a long period of time, paleobiology allows to analyze the relative abundance of various kinds of organisms as well as their distribution throughout geological time.

The site is divided into various routes that can be taken to study the subject of evolution. One of these paths, "Evolution 101," takes the viewer through the nature and evidence of evolution. The path also explores common misconceptions about evolution and the history of evolutionary thought.

Each of the other major sections of the Evolution site is equally well developed, with materials that can support a variety of different pedagogical levels and curriculum levels. The site offers a wide array of multimedia and interactive resources that include animations, video clips and virtual laboratories, in addition to its general textual content. The content is organized in a nested, bread crumb fashion that aids navigation and orientation within the large 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 on a single clam, which is able communicate with its neighbors and respond 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 material includes a discussion on the role of natural selectivity and the concept phylogenetics analysis which is a crucial tool to understand evolutionary changes.

Evolutionary Theory

Evolution is an underlying thread that is found throughout all branches of biology. A rich 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 outstanding example of a Web site that provides depth and breadth in its educational resources. The site features a wide range of interactive learning modules. It also features a "bread crumb structure" that allows students to move away from the cartoon-like style used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements on this large website more closely linked to the realms of research science. For instance an animation that introduces the idea of genetic inheritance connects to a page that highlights John Endler's experiments with artificial selection with guppies from the native ponds of Trinidad.

The Evolution Library on this website is a vast multimedia library of materials that deal with evolution. The content is organized according to curricula-based paths that correspond to the learning objectives set out in biology standards. It includes seven short videos designed specifically for use in classrooms, and can be streamed at no cost or purchased on DVD.

A variety of crucial questions remain at the heart of evolutionary biology, including the factors that trigger evolution and how fast it occurs. This is particularly applicable to human evolution where it's been difficult to reconcile the idea that the innate physical characteristics of humans evolved from apes, and the religious beliefs that claim that humanity is unique among living things and holds a an exclusive place in the creation, with a soul.

There are also a number of other ways evolution could occur including natural selection, which is the most widely accepted theory. However scientists also study other kinds of evolution like mutation, genetic drift, and sexual selection, among other things.

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. Some religions have reconciled their beliefs with evolutionary biology, 에볼루션바카라 while others haven't.