Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution
Despite the best efforts of biology educators, misinformation about evolution persist. People who have been exposed to popular science myths often assume that biologists don't believe in evolution.
This rich website - companion to the PBS series - provides teachers with materials which support evolution education and avoids the kinds of myths that hinder it. It's organized in a "bread crumb" format to aid in navigation and orientation.
Definitions
Evolution is a complicated and difficult subject to teach well. Non-scientists often misunderstand the subject, and some scientists even use a definition which confuses it. This is particularly true when it comes to debates about the nature of the word.
It is therefore crucial to define the terms that are used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution KR, does this in a simple and efficient manner. The site is both a companion for the 2001 series, but also a resource of its own. The content is presented in a nested manner which aids navigation and orientation.
The site defines terms like common ancestor (or common ancestor), gradual process and adaptation. These terms help to frame the nature of evolution and its relationship to other scientific concepts. The site also provides an overview of how the concept of evolution has been vetted and verified. This information will help to dispel the myths created by creationists.
It is also possible to get the glossary of terms used in evolutionary biology. These terms include:
Adaptation: The tendency for heritable traits to become better suited to a particular environment. This is a result of natural selection, which happens when organisms that have better adapted traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than those with less adaptable traits.
Common ancestor (also called common ancestor) is the most recent ancestral ancestor shared by two or more species. By analyzing the DNA from these species it is possible to determine the common ancestor.
Deoxyribonucleic acid: A massive biological molecule that holds the information required for cell replication. The information is contained in sequences of nucleotides that are strung together into long chains, also known as chromosomes. Mutations are the reason behind the creation of new genetic information within cells.
Coevolution is the relationship between two species where evolution of one species are influenced evolutionary changes of the other. Examples of coevolution include the interactions between predator and prey, or parasite and host.
Origins
Species (groups of individuals who can interbreed) change through an array of natural changes in the traits of their offspring. These changes can be caused by various factors, including natural selection, gene drift, and mixing of the gene pool. The evolution of new species could take thousands of years. Environmental conditions, like climate change or competition for food resources and habitat, can slow or accelerate the process.
The Evolution site tracks through time the emergence of various species of plants and animals, focusing on major transitions in each group's past. It also examines the evolution of humans as a subject that is particularly important for students.
When Darwin wrote the Origin in 1859, only a handful of antediluvian human fossils had been found. The most famous among them was the skullcap and associated bones found in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto in Germany which is now believed to be an early Homo neanderthalensis. It is highly unlikely that Darwin knew about the skullcap, which was first published in 1858, a year after the publication of the first edition of The Origin. Origin.
The site is primarily one of biology however, it also has lots of information about paleontology and geology. The most impressive features on the site are a series of timelines that illustrate how geological and climatic conditions have changed over time, and an interactive map of the distribution of some fossil groups that are featured on the site.
While the site is a companion piece to a PBS television show but it also stands on its own as a valuable source for teachers and students. The site is well-organized and provides easy links to the introductory material of Understanding Evolution (developed under the National Science Foundation's assistance) as well as the more specialized features of the museum's website. These hyperlinks make it easy to move from the cartoon style of Understanding Evolution pages into the more sophisticated worlds of research science. Particularly there are hyperlinks to John Endler's experiments using guppies that illustrate the importance of ecology in evolutionary theory.
Diversity
The evolution of life on Earth has produced a diversity of animals, plants, and insects. Paleobiology, the study of these creatures in their geological environment offers many advantages over the current observational or experimental methods of studying evolutionary phenomena. Paleobiology is able to study not only processes and events that happen regularly or over time but also the relative abundance and distribution of different groups of animals across geological time.
The website is divided into various routes that can be taken to gain knowledge about evolution. One of the paths, "Evolution 101," walks the reader through the complexities and evidence of evolution. The course also focuses on common misconceptions about evolution as well as the evolution of thought.
Each of the other sections of the Evolution site is equally well created, with resources that can support a variety of different pedagogical levels and curriculum levels. 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 breadcrumb-like arrangement of the content assists with navigation and orientation on the large web site.
The page "Coral Reef Connections", for example, provides a comprehensive overview of the relationships between corals, their interaction with other organisms and zooms in on a single clam, which can communicate with its neighbors and react to changes in the water conditions that occur on the reef level. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary, multimedia and interactive pages on the site, provide an excellent introduction to a wide range of topics in evolutionary biology. The material includes a discussion on the role of natural selectivity and the concept of phylogenetics, an important tool to understand evolutionary change.
Evolutionary Theory
Evolution is an underlying thread that connects all branches of biology. A rich collection of resources supports teaching about evolution across the life sciences.
One resource, the companion to PBS's television series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of a Web page that offers both the depth and the broadness in terms of educational resources. The site offers a range of interactive learning modules. It also has 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 world of research science. An animation that introduces the concept of genetics, which links to a page that highlights John Endler's experiments with artificial selection using Guppies in native ponds in Trinidad.
Another resource that is worth mentioning is the Evolution Library on this Web site, which has an extensive collection of multimedia items related to evolution. The content is organized into courses that are based on curriculum and follow the learning goals established in the biology standards. It contains seven short videos specifically designed for use in classrooms. They can be streamed or purchased as DVDs.
Evolutionary biology is a field of study that has many important questions, including what causes evolution and the speed at which it happens. This is particularly relevant for humans' evolution which was a challenge to reconcile religious beliefs that held that humanity has a special position in the universe and a soul with the notion that our physical traits were derived from the apes.
There are also a number of other ways evolution can take place including natural selection, which is the most well-known theory. However scientists also study different kinds of evolution like mutation, genetic drift and sexual selection, among others.
While many scientific fields of study have a conflict with the literal interpretations of religious texts, evolution biology has been a subject of intense debate and resistance from religious fundamentalists. Some religions have reconciled their beliefs with evolutionary biology, but others haven't.