Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts by biology educators, there are still a lot of misconceptions regarding evolution. Pop science nonsense has led many people to think that biologists don't believe in evolution.
This site, which is a complement to the PBS program that provides teachers with resources which support evolution education while avoiding the types of misconceptions which make it difficult to understand. It's organized in a nested "bread crumb" format to make it easy for navigation and orientation.
Definitions
Evolution is a complex and difficult subject matter to teach well. People who are not scientists often have a difficult time understanding the subject and some scientists use a definition which confuses it. This is especially relevant when discussing the nature of the words themselves.
It is crucial to define the terms used in evolutionary biology. Understanding Evolution's website provides this in a straightforward and useful manner. The site is a companion to the series that first aired in 2001, but also functions as an independent resource. The content is presented in a structured manner that makes it easier to navigate and understand.
The site defines terms like common ancestor, the gradual process, and adaptation. 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 examined. This information can be used to dispel the myths that have been propagated by the creationists.
It is also possible to access the glossary of terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:
The process of adaptation is the tendency of heritable traits to become more suited to the environment. This is the result of natural selection. Organisms with better-adapted characteristics are more likely than those with less-adapted characteristics to survive and reproduce.
Common ancestor: The most recent common ancestor of two or more distinct species. The common ancestor can be identified through analyzing the DNA of the species.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A huge biological molecular that holds the necessary information for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotides arranged in sequences that are strung together to form long chains, referred to as chromosomes. Mutations are the source of new genetic information in cells.
Coevolution is a relation between two species where evolution of one species are influenced evolutionary changes in the other. Examples of coevolution include the interactions between predator and prey, or the parasite and the host.
Origins
Species (groups which can interbreed) change through a series natural changes in the traits of their offspring. The changes can be caused by a variety that include natural selection, genetic drift and gene pool mixing. The evolution of a new species could take thousands of years and the process can be slowed or increased by environmental factors like climate change or the competition for food or habitat.
The Evolution site tracks the development of a variety of species of plants and animals over time, focusing on the major changes that took place in the history of each group. It also focuses on human evolution and is a subject that is particularly important to students.
When Darwin wrote the Origin of Species, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been found. Among them was the famous skullcap and the associated bones discovered in 1856 at the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany that is now thought to be an early Homo neanderthalensis. Although the skullcap was not published until 1858, a year before the first edition of the Origin was published, it's extremely unlikely that Darwin had heard or seen of it.
The site is primarily a biology site, but it also contains a lot of information on paleontology and geology. The Web site has a number of features that are particularly impressive, including the timeline of how geological and climate conditions have changed over the course of time. 에볼루션사이트 features an interactive map that shows the location of fossil groups.
Although the site is a companion piece to a PBS television show, it also stands on its own as a great source for teachers and students. The site is well-organized and provides clear links to the introduction content of Understanding Evolution (developed under the National Science Foundation's funding) as well as the more specialized features of the museum website. These hyperlinks make it easy to move from the cartoon-style Understanding Evolution pages into the more sophisticated realms of research science. Particularly, there are links to John Endler's research with Guppies, which demonstrate 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 within their geological context and has numerous advantages over modern observational and experimental methods of examining evolutionary processes. Paleobiology is able to study not only the process and events that take place regularly or over time, but also the relative abundance and distribution of various animal groups in space throughout the geological time.
The Web site is divided into several optional pathways to understanding evolution, including "Evolution 101," which takes the viewer on a liner path through the science of nature and the evidence supporting the theory of evolution. The path also explores common misconceptions about evolution as well as the evolution of thought.
Each of the other main sections of the Evolution site is similarly constructed, with materials that can support a variety of different pedagogical levels and curriculum levels. In addition to the standard textual content, the site offers an extensive selection of multimedia and interactive resources including video clips, animations, and virtual laboratories. The breadcrumb-like organization of the content aids in navigation and orientation on the large Web site.
For example the page "Coral Reef Connections" provides an overview of the relationships between corals and their interactions with other organisms, then zooms in on a single clam that can communicate with its neighbours and respond to changes in the water conditions that occur at the level of the reef. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary, multimedia, and interactive pages on the site, provide an excellent introduction to a wide variety of topics in evolutionary biology. The material also provides an overview of the importance of natural selection and the concept of phylogenetic analysis which is a key method to understand evolutionary changes.
Evolutionary Theory
Evolution is a common thread that connects all branches of biology. A rich collection supports teaching evolution across all disciplines of life sciences.
One resource, a companion to the PBS television series Understanding Evolution, is an exceptional example of an Web site that provides depth and breadth in its educational resources. The site has a wide array of interactive learning modules. It also has an "bread crumb structure" that assists students in moving away from the cartoon-like style that is used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements on this large website more closely related to the realms of research science. For instance an animation that explains the notion of genetic inheritance leads to a page highlighting John Endler's experiments in artificial selection with guppies from the native ponds of Trinidad.
The Evolution Library on this website contains a large multimedia library of resources that are associated to evolution. The content is organized according to curricula-based paths that correspond to the learning objectives outlined in the biology standards. It contains seven videos designed specifically for classroom use, which can be streamed for free or purchased on DVD.
Many important 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 in the case of human evolution, where it was difficult to reconcile religious beliefs that humanity has a unique position in the universe and a soul, with the notion that human beings have innate physical traits originated from Apes.
There are a variety of other ways evolution could occur, with natural selection as the most widely accepted theory. However scientists also study other kinds of evolution like 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 have not.