Evolution Site Tips From The Most Successful In The Industry

Evolution Site - Teaching About Evolution

Despite the best efforts of biology educators, misconceptions about evolution remain. People who have taken in pop science nonsense often assume that biologists do not believe in evolution.

This rich website - companion to the PBS series It provides teachers with materials that support evolution education and avoid the kinds of misinformation that can make it difficult to understand. It's laid out in the "bread crumb" format to facilitate navigation and orientation.

Definitions

Evolution is a complex and difficult subject to teach well. Non-scientists often misunderstand the subject and some scientists use a definition which confuses it. This is particularly applicable to discussions on the nature of the word.

Therefore, it is important to define terms used in evolutionary biology. The website for the PBS show, Understanding Evolution, does this in a simple and efficient way.  에볼루션 바카라  serves as an accompanying site for the 2001 series, but also a resource on its own. The information is presented in a structured manner that makes it simpler to navigate and understand.

The site defines terms like common ancestor, the gradual process, and adaptation. These terms help frame the nature of evolution as well as its relationship to other scientific concepts. The website provides a summary of the way the concept of evolution has been examined. This information can be used to dispel misconceptions that have been engendered by the creationists.

You can also consult a glossary that includes 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 due to natural selection, which occurs when organisms that have more adaptable traits are more likely survive and reproduce than those with less adaptable characteristics.

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

Deoxyribonucleic Acid: A huge biological molecular that holds the necessary information for cell replication. The information is stored in nucleotide sequences which are strung into long chains called chromosomes. Mutations are the cause of new genetic information in cells.

Coevolution: A relationship between two species where evolutionary changes in one species are affected by changes in evolutionary processes in the other. Coevolution can be seen through the interaction between predator and prey, or parasite and hosts.

Origins

Species (groups that can crossbreed) develop through a series natural changes in the traits of their offspring. The changes can be caused by a variety of factors such as natural selection, genetic drift and mixing of genes. The development of new species can take thousands of years. Environmental conditions, such as climate changes or competition for food resources and habitat can slow or speed up the process.

The Evolution site follows the evolution of various animal and plant groups, focusing on major transitions in each group's past. It also examines the evolution of humans, which is a topic that is particularly important to students.

Darwin's Origin was written in 1859, when only a few antediluvian fossils of humans had been found. The skullcap that is famous, along with the bones associated with it, was discovered in 1856 in the Little Feldhofer Grotto of Germany. It is now known as an early Homo neanderthalensis. Although the skullcap was not published until 1858, just one year before the first edition of the Origin was published, it is extremely unlikely that Darwin had seen or heard of it.

While the site is focused on biology, it contains a wealth of information about geology and paleontology. One of the most appealing features on the site are a timeline of events that illustrate the way in which climatic and geological conditions have changed over time and a map of the geographical distribution of some fossil groups listed on the site.

The site is a companion to the PBS television series, but it can also be used as an educational resource for teachers and students. The site is very well organized and provides clear links between the introduction content in Understanding Evolution (developed with support from the National Science Foundation) and the more specialized elements of the museum Web site. These hyperlinks help users move from the engaging cartoon style of the Understanding Evolution pages to the more sophisticated world of research science. Particularly 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 many species of animals, plants and insects. Paleobiology is the study of these creatures within their natural environment and has a number of advantages over the current observational and experimental methods in its exploration of evolutionary processes. In addition to examining processes and events that take place regularly or over a lengthy period of time, paleobiology is able to study the relative abundance of various groups of organisms and their distribution throughout the course of 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 nature of science and the evidence to support the theory of evolution. The course also focuses on common misconceptions about evolution as well as the evolution of thought.

Each of the main sections on the Evolution website is equally well-developed, with materials that can be used to support a variety of educational levels and teaching styles. In addition to the standard textual content, the site offers an array of multimedia and interactive resources including videos, animations and virtual labs. The content is laid out in a nested bread crumb style that facilitates navigation and orientation within the large Web site.

For example, the page "Coral Reef Connections" provides a comprehensive overview of coral relationships and their interaction with other organisms, then zooms in on a single clam that can communicate with its neighbours and respond to changes in water conditions at the reef level. This page, along with the other multidisciplinary multimedia and interactive pages, provides an excellent introduction to the many areas of evolutionary biology. The information also includes 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 an underlying thread that runs through all branches of biology. A vast collection of books helps in teaching evolution across the life science disciplines.

One resource, which is the companion to PBS's TV series Understanding Evolution is an excellent example of an Web site that provides the depth and the breadth in terms of its educational resources. The site has a wide array of interactive learning modules. It also has an embedded "bread crumb" structure that allows students to move from the cartoon-like style of Understanding Evolution to elements on this massive website that are more closely linked to the field of research science. For example an animation that introduces the concept of genetic inheritance links to a page highlighting John Endler's artificial selection experiments with guppies from the native ponds of Trinidad.

Another useful resource is the Evolution Library on this site, which contains an extensive multimedia library of assets that are related to evolution. The content is organized according to curricula-based pathways that correspond to the learning goals established in the biology standards. It contains seven videos designed for classroom use. They can be streamed or purchased as DVDs.

Many important questions remain at the heart of evolutionary biology, including the factors that trigger evolution and how fast it happens. This is particularly true for human evolution, where it has been difficult to reconcile the idea that the innate physical characteristics of humans were derived from apes with religious beliefs that claim that humanity is unique among living things and has a special place in creation. It is a soul.

In addition, there are a number of ways that evolution can be triggered, with natural selection being the most widely accepted theory. Scientists also study other types such as mutation, genetic drift and sexual selection.

While many fields of scientific study conflict with the literal interpretations of religious texts, evolution biology has been a source of intense controversy and opposition from religious fundamentalists. While some religions have been able to reconcile their beliefs with the theories of evolution, others have not.