All-Inclusive Guide To Evolution Site

Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts by biology educators, misconceptions persist about evolution. People who have taken in popular science myths often assume that biologists are saying they don't believe in 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 misinformation that can undermine it. It's arranged in a nested "bread crumb" format to make it easy for navigation and orientation.

Definitions

It's difficult to teach evolution well. It is often misunderstood by non-scientists, and even some scientists have been guilty of using definitions that confuse the issue. This is especially relevant to debates about the meaning of the word itself.

It is therefore important to define the terms used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a clear and useful way. The site serves as a companion for the 2001 series, but also a resource of its own. The content is presented in a nested fashion that assists in navigation and orientation.

The site defines terms such as common ancestor, gradual process and adaptation. These terms help frame the nature of evolution and its relation to other concepts in science. The site then offers an overview of how the concept of evolution has been tested and verified. This information will help to dispel the myths created by creationists.

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

Adaptation: The tendency of heritable characteristics to become more adaptable to a specific environment. This is due to natural selection, 에볼루션 룰렛 (page) which occurs when organisms that are better adapted characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce than those with less adapted characteristics.

Common ancestor (also called common ancestor): The most recent ancestor that is shared by two or more species. The common ancestor 에볼루션 바카라사이트 can be identified by analyzing the DNA of those species.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A large biological molecular containing the necessary information for cell replication. The information is stored in a sequence of nucleotides that are strung together to form long chains, called chromosomes. Mutations are the reason behind the creation of new genetic information inside 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 interactions between predator and prey, or parasite and host.

Origins

Species (groups which 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 that include natural selection, genetic drift and mixing of genes. The evolution of new species can take thousands of years. Environmental circumstances, such as climate change or competition for food or habitat can slow or speed up the process.

The Evolution site tracks the development of various species of plants and animals over time, focusing on the major shifts that occurred throughout the evolution of each group's history. It also examines the evolutionary origin of humans which is especially important for students to comprehend.

When Darwin wrote the Origin in 1859, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been found. Among them was the famous skullcap and the associated bones discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany, which is now known as an early Homo neanderthalensis. While the skullcap wasn't published until 1858, one year after the first edition of the Origin was published, it is very unlikely that Darwin had ever heard of it.

While the site focuses on biology, it also offers a lot of information about geology as well as paleontology. The site offers several features that are especially impressive, including the timeline of how geological and climate conditions have changed over the course of time. It also features an interactive map that shows the location of fossil groups.

The site is a companion to the PBS television series, but it can also be used as an educational resource for teachers and 에볼루션바카라사이트 students. The site is well-organized and provides clear links to the introduction content of Understanding Evolution (developed under the National Science Foundation's assistance) and the more specific features on the museum's website. These hyperlinks make it easier to transition from the cartoon-style Understanding Evolution pages into the more sophisticated worlds of research science. In particular there are links to John Endler's experiments using Guppies, which demonstrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.

Diversity

The evolution of life has resulted in a variety of plants, animals and insects. Paleobiology, the study of these creatures in their geological environment offers many advantages over the current observational or experimental methods for exploring evolutionary phenomena. In addition to studying the processes and events that happen frequently or over a long period of time, paleobiology can be used to analyze the relative abundance of different kinds of organisms as well as their distribution across geological time.

The site is divided into a variety of paths to learning evolution that include "Evolution 101," which takes the user on a linear path through the science of nature and the evidence supporting the theory of evolution. The path also explores misconceptions about evolution, as well as the history of evolutionary thought.

Each of the other sections of the Evolution site is similarly created, with resources that can support a variety of educational levels and pedagogical styles. The site includes a variety of multimedia and interactive resources that include animations, video clips and virtual labs in addition to general textual content. The content is laid out in a nested bread crumb-like fashion that helps with navigation and orientation within the large web site.

For instance, the page "Coral Reef Connections" gives a brief overview of the relationships between corals and their interaction with other organisms. It then zooms in on a single clam that is able to communicate with its neighbors and react to changes in the water conditions that occur at the reef level. This page, 에볼루션 바카라 along with the other multidisciplinary interactive and multimedia pages, provides an excellent introduction to a variety of topics in evolutionary biology. The content also includes an overview of the importance of natural selection as well as the concept of phylogenetic analysis which is a crucial method to understand evolutionary changes.

Evolutionary Theory

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

One resource, the companion to PBS's television series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of an Web site that provides the depth and the broadness in terms of educational resources. The site features a wealth of interactive learning modules. It also features an embedded "bread crumb" structure that helps students transition from the cartoon style of Understanding Evolution to elements on this large Web site more closely tied to the field of research science. For example an animation that introduces the notion of genetic inheritance leads to a page that focuses on John Endler's experiments with artificial selection using guppies in the ponds of his native country of Trinidad.

The Evolution Library on this website is a vast multimedia library of resources that are associated with evolution. The content is organized according to curricula-based paths that correspond to the learning objectives outlined in the standards for biology. It contains seven short videos that are intended for use in the classroom. They can be viewed online or purchased as DVDs.

Many important questions remain in the midst of evolutionary biology, such as the factors that trigger evolution and how fast it occurs. This is particularly applicable to human evolution which has made it difficult to reconcile that the physical characteristics of humans evolved from apes and religions that believe that humanity is unique in the universe and has an enviable place in creation, with a soul.

There are a variety of other ways in which evolution can occur, with natural selection as the most widely accepted theory. However, scientists also study other kinds of evolution, such as mutation, genetic drift, and sexual selection, among others.

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