10 Unexpected Evolution Site Tips

Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts of biology educators, misconceptions about evolution persist. Pop science nonsense has led many people to believe that biologists aren't believers in evolution.

This rich Web site - companion to the PBS series offers teachers with resources that promote evolution education and 에볼루션바카라사이트 help avoid the kinds of misconceptions that make it difficult to understand. It's organized in a "bread crumb" format to make navigation and orientation easier.

Definitions

It is difficult to teach evolution well. It is often misunderstood by non-scientists, and even some scientists use an interpretation that is confusing the issue. This is particularly relevant when discussing the meaning of the words themselves.

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 is a companion site to the series that first aired in 2001, but also functions as an independent resource. The material is presented in a structured way that makes it easy to navigate and understand.

The site defines terms such as common ancestor and gradual process. These terms help to frame the nature of evolution and its relation to other scientific concepts. The website then provides an overview of how the concept of evolution has been vetted and validated. This information can be used to dispel the myths that have been engendered by the creationists.

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

Adaptation: The tendency for heritable characteristics to become more suitable to a particular setting. This is a result of natural selection. Organisms with more adaptable traits are more likely than those with less adaptable characteristics to survive and reproduce.

Common ancestor: The latest common ancestor of two or more different species. The common ancestor can be identified through analyzing the DNA of those species.

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

Coevolution is a relation between two species in which the evolution of one species are influenced evolutionary changes in the other. Examples of coevolution include the interaction between predator and prey or the parasite and the host.

Origins

Species (groups of individuals that can interbreed) evolve through a series of natural changes in the characteristics of their offspring. The changes can be caused by a variety, including natural selection, genetic drift, and mixing of genes. The evolution of new species could take thousands of years. Environmental conditions, like climate change or competition for food or habitat, can slow or accelerate the process.

The Evolution site tracks the development of a number of different species of plants and animals over time and 에볼루션 코리아 focuses on the most significant shifts that occurred throughout the history of each group. It also explores the human evolutionary roots which is particularly important for students to know.

Darwin's Origin was published in 1859, when just a handful of antediluvian fossils of humans had been found. The famous skullcap, along with the associated bones, was discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto of Germany. It is now regarded as an early Homo neanderthalensis. While the skullcap wasn't published until 1858, just one year after the first edition of the Origin was published, it is highly unlikely that Darwin had seen or heard of it.

The site is mostly one of biology, but it also contains lots of information about paleontology and geology. Among the best features of the Web site are a set of timelines which show how climatic and geological conditions have changed over time and an outline of the distribution of some of the fossil groups featured on the site.

Although the site is a companion to a PBS television series, it also stands on its own as a great resource for teachers and 에볼루션 코리아코리아 (Our Site) students. The site is well-organized and provides clear links to the introduction information of Understanding Evolution (developed under the National Science Foundation's assistance) and the more specific features of the museum's website. These hyperlinks help users move from the cartoon-like style of the Understanding Evolution pages to the more sophisticated world of research science. In particular, there are links to John Endler's research with guppies that illustrate 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 geographical context and offers a number of advantages over the current observational and experimental methods of examining evolutionary processes. In addition to examining processes and events that occur regularly or over a lengthy period of time, paleobiology can be used to study the relative abundance of different species of organisms and their distribution throughout geological time.

The website is divided into different 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 course also focuses on misconceptions about evolution and also the history of evolutionary thought.

Each of the main sections on the Evolution website is equally well-developed, with materials that are suited to a variety of levels of curriculum and teaching methods. The site offers a wide array of interactive and multimedia content which include video clips, animations and virtual laboratories as well as general textual content. The breadcrumb-like arrangement of the content aids in navigation and orientation on the large website.

For instance, the page "Coral Reef Connections" gives a brief overview of the relationships between corals and their interaction with other organisms, then narrows down to a single clam that can communicate with its neighbours and respond to changes in water conditions that occur at the level of the reef. 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 content also includes a discussion on the importance of natural selection and the concept phylogenetics analysis, an important tool to understand evolutionary changes.

Evolutionary Theory

For biology students, evolution is a key thread that connects all branches of the field. A vast collection of books helps in teaching evolution across the disciplines of life science.

One resource, the companion to PBS's television show Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of a Web page that provides depth as well as breadth in terms of its educational resources. The site has a variety of interactive learning modules. It also features an "bread crumb structure" that assists students in moving away from the cartoon style that is used in Understanding Evolution and onto elements of this vast website that are closely linked to the fields of research science. An animation that introduces the concept of genetics, which links to a page about John Endler's experiments in artificial selection using Guppies in native ponds in Trinidad.

Another helpful resource is the Evolution Library on this web site, which contains an extensive multimedia library of items that are related to evolution. The content is organized according to the form of curriculum-based pathways that are in line with the learning objectives outlined in biology standards. It contains seven videos specifically designed for use in classrooms, and can be streamed for no cost or purchased on DVD.

Evolutionary biology is an area of study with a lot of important questions to answer, such as what causes evolution and how fast it occurs. This is especially true in the case of human evolution, where it was difficult to reconcile religious beliefs that humanity has a special place in creation and a soul with the notion that our physical traits evolved from Apes.

There are a variety of other ways in which evolution can occur and natural selection being the most popular theory. Scientists also study other kinds such as mutation, genetic drift, and sexual selection.

Many fields of inquiry conflict with the literal interpretations of religious texts evolutionary biology has been the subject of intense controversy and resistance from religious fundamentalists. Some religions have reconciled their beliefs to evolution but others haven't.