Biological Evolution - Final Ideas and Questions

[Erin Nash]

Use the space below to record your final learning about evolution. How has your learning changed? Compare your current understanding of evolution to your original post. What information do you feel you understand better as a result of our class discussions. What do you still not understand? 

Your first step today will be examining your notes - look through the packet to make sure you thoroughly understand the information in the packet.

Next you will want to include your question you had researched for today's class period. What was your question? What did you learn from this question? What resources did you use to answer this?

Think about your learning from our class notes, as well as the videos and audio excerpts you listened to in class. How has your view of evolution changed?

If you are still finding you are not understanding some concepts regarding evolution, this site is very helpful in regard to providing information regarding this scientific theory.

[Erin Nash]

Coleman,
You will want to look back to see what intelligent design actually means. Is this something that can be paired with evolution, or is it a different set of ideas?

[Erin Nash]

Here is a neat little vodcast about different types of sexual selection. However, in most of these cases, the selection if female choice which is different from what a lot of you are researching. This came from "Creature Cast" at Brown University.

CreatureCast - Picky Females from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.

[james d green]

at the begining of this section, and before i thought there were absolutely NO similarities between us and like a bat! I mean now im not sayin i think we evolved from the bat or vise verse. I now know that it is a break down from many different geno-types and pheno-types, I am not even slightly convinced as to the fact that we came from the apes or monkeys. I am honestly telling you i have minimal intrest as to where we DID come from. Its nothing against any of the theories or ideas. (like so)

For sake of the post though ill tell you what it is you taught us..
1) Where did it start??
FOSSILS! fossil layering and fossil thickness and such variables show us many different things about an animal, mamal or other 'past' living things. I put past in quotes because with in the past 10 years we've been able to find 5 or more of those so called extinct organisms.
2) Why do we just believe it??
Now i KNOW im not the smartest fella in the world (not even close to even this class) but i know that there is only like 1/10 of our population that does their own research and experiments. Why dont more people go look for thier own hands on info? For one it would give more input that could be valuable. For two it would also decrease the fact that we the people believe anything on the internet. I know everyone has their own jobs and such, im just saying.

I'm also going to say that Im SORRY that i don't believe everything crammed into my head from books and movies and sorry but class. I wish i had the time and determination to find out my own info hands on with this topic, due to all the argumentative points that is stacked on top of the one word ..........................>EVOLUTION!<.........................

[Marcy Withrow]

If I explained to you all I've learned from this topic "evolution" I would be going on for pages and pages. On the original discussion between our group, I think I had most of it correct; I hit it right on the bull’s eye. Reproduction rate is one of the main keys, because without it generations wouldn't be created and evolution couldn't occur. I remembered what Darwin's theory was, but at first I forgot about Lamarck. My memory was refreshed when we did our first project "Bottom Ocean Trawling". I learned a lot from that activity, like why reproduction rate is so important. It made you understand why Darwin's theory was more advanced than Lamarck's. Although, considering the time period, Lamarck had a good theory.

Evolution is really hard for me to explain. It all just kind of ties together piece by piece. The project about birds helped me understand how species evolve. I didn't think about something as simple as a bird beak making species evolve. But, overtime that would make a huge difference in how the specie lives. When a newbie hears the word evolution they probably think a dramatic change like dinos to birds! But, in reality, evolution is over a HUGE time period. You don't normally think of a simple inch longer beak on a bird to be a start in evolution.

These projects helped me understand evolution clearly, along with Mr. Nash’s slide shows in class. I don't have any trouble with the notes we took. The only problem I did have was understanding what exactly species were and populations. I was really confused there for a while, and still kind of am. But, my table helped clear most of that up. I think I get it a little better, but I sometimes still get messed up. Other than that, it's all good.

I had a lot of questions about evolution. I think this is a really interesting topic that brings up tons of questions. The one I really wanted to know was "Can domestic animals evolve?" In class we talked about how humans may have stopped evolving due to the technology and medicines we have today. If that were true, then why would domestic house pets evolve? We have vets to nurse them back to health. When I researched this question I couldn't find an exact answer. I would assume that they would evolve around the same rate as humans or faster, since they aren't as advanced as humans.

But, I found out something very interesting that I never took into consideration. Domestication is a result of evolution! Crazy right? When I looked up my question I kept finding things that talked about animals having domestication. If you read the first sentence of this article, it explains the definition of domestication. The key word is through "selection". This relates it back to evolution. I've found that when timid, more shy species reproduce their offspring are also timid and shy. This makes it easy for them to have domestication so they can interact nicely with humans. For some reason I think this is really cool and different. We talked about what traits animals can have when they evolve, but never domestication.

Here is a picture of a wolf and domestic Dog. This is an example of domestication created through evolution. The wolf evolved into a Dog we can keep in our home (: photo by: http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/domestication-2.jpg


The world frowns upon the evolution theory. But, as we learned from the video we watched in class, a theory is made up of facts and truly isn't that what evolution is? A bunch of facts found by people that were interested in the topic like Darwin, Lamarck, and Weisman. When I took this topic back home, no one in my family was really interested in it (although this could be, because I'm the only one in the house that enjoys learning about science). When I brought it up to my mom she rejected it, she said she didn't believe in evolution. Our family is Christian. I know in the Bible it talks about Adam and Eve and the World being created in 7 days. It may seem impossible, but maybe the bible and evolution can be related. I would have to go back and read Genesis again, but maybe when God created this world it wasn't perfect. Maybe humans didn't look absolutely perfect, or maybe the human mind of perfect is different than God's. There is a wide range of possibilities. Also, I don't think evolution is something you believe or not, like Santa Claus. Evolution is change of populations over time. It shouldn’t be something you believe or not, it’s life. But, this is all my opinion.

Overall, my view of evolution hasn't changed. During this whole year I've learned that science is mainly theories, facts people have found. Nothing is ever proven, so you have to have an open mind. Also, everyone has a different opinion on every topic. So, evolution is a broad topic to study. It definitely shouldn't be abandoned from schools and should be taught. It opens up your mind, makes you think, and makes you want to ask a thousand questions. It’s Biology…It’s Life.

[Marcy Withrow]

Okay, so i may have made a mistake on my picture description. I don't think dogs evolved from wolves, but they came from a common ancestor. Maybe dogs are a more timid species from the wolf and that's why they domesticate easier. I found out that dogs and wolves are two different species. So, maybe the dog is easier to domesticate.

[Erin Nash]

A couple of other things to consider Marcy. A theory isn't really a bunch of facts - it is supported by evidence. In many cases, this evidence came from experimental science. This isn't always the case though (think astronomy - that evidence isn't really gathered from experimentation). Saying that a theory is a collection of facts reinforces what we don't want people to think about science - that it's just a bunch of boring facts. If you look one of the quotes on my board - "Facts are not science, as the dictionary is not literature" - Martin H. Fischer

:)

[Marcy Withrow]

Yeah, that's what I meant. Every theory has to have scientific evidence, if not then it would only be someone's opinion. I forgot facts are proven, but evidence helps shows why a theory could be true. So, evidence is the best word to use to describe a theory. (:

[Erin Nash]

Marcy,
A species is a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce offspring that are fertile.
A population is a species that lives in the same geographical area at the same time. They tend to interbreed.

Hope this helps with those two little points!

[Terra Younger]

I've learned a great deal about evolution compared to my original post. "I don't know much about evolution, honestly..." I took my previous knowledge from freshmen biology, marine, and zoology to come up with "I've heard that people think we came from monkeys, which is horse ----... Anyways, I remember that in Zoology Mrs. Nash just said that, species change over time genetically. Which I believe is true... Things adapt."

Participating in the Wise activities helped me understand how and why species evolve. In the first activity, "Fish Trawling, what a Drag" I learned about the extremely negative affects trawling has on the ocean ecosystem and how it can affect a species like the clown fish. The clown fish is a fish with very little defense. If trawling gets ruins the anemone, the clown fishes home, it has no protection and therefore needs to adapt/evolve to it's new environment... In the second Wise activity I learned about birds how how they can to develop feathers and ultimately inherited the trait of flight.... The Wise activities also helped me understand the different theories of evolution people have developed such as Darwin.

Looking at the diagram of the field that were sprayed with a pesticide to get rid of bugs was really like a light bulb moment for me. That helped me understand that mutations can be a good thing although they usually aren't, they can be.

Studying fossils portion and having the actual evidence that evolution happens was a nice reassurance. I mean sure, people have theories and what not but the bones don't lie. One that home particularly was when we looked at the change in horses. It was kind of funny how forever ago they looked similar to dogs and Native Americans used to call them "big dogs". It was interesting to find that horses use to have "toes" and now have hooves.

The theme of biological evolution that I found most interesting was the sexual selection. I liked studying how different species behave when it comes to impressing the opposite sex and passing down the "best" genes.

One of our eyes-past-print''s, "Survival of the Sneakiest" was particularity interesting. It's funny how different species pick a mate based on things like their song or colorful feathers when those are actual disadvantages to survival. Anyways, the "sneaker male" like the one mentioned in "Survival of the Sneakiest" really interested me. One male cricket had a beautiful song that helps him attract mates and pass his genes on to the next generation while another didn't have such a beautiful voice but still got the girl by simply being well, sneaky. That made me understand that it's not always survival of the fittest it's also survival of the most clever. Which makes me happy I'm a human :)....

Which leads me into the question that I asked. "Do humans need to evolve anymore, or have me become the 'ultimate' species with nothing left to accomplish?" I understand that we have big brains, in comparison to our bodies and we have thumbs. Which both allow us to out smart the competition and create tools to do so.... I researched this further and although I got this quote from Yahoo answers it was interesting to me "With all the technology we have today. I don't see us evolving any further because we can change or environment so we don't have to adapt to it anymore." Hmmm, it's a true statement if you think about it.... But after I researched this question it became more and more evident that we're unaware if we'll evolve further. Guess we're not so smart after all.

[Laci Shoemaker]

I agree the Wise activities helped me a lot too. :) I liked them. =D

[Shandis Cruz]

I forgot about "Survival of the Sneakiest!!!!" That reading was very interesting from me too, I thought everything was based on survival of the fittest as well. :)

[Marcy Withrow]

"Anyways, I remember that in Zoology Mrs. Nash just said that, species change over time genetically. " I never thought about this before. Species most likely do change genetically over time, because of their adaptation. This quote makes me want to take Zoology class, because it seems very interesting. I think we talked about this too in Freshman Biology, but I don't think we brought it up during class this year, or did we?

I also like your quote off of yahoo answers. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it! Humans can change their environment, and we also have doctors and medicines. So, why would we evolve? Unless we evolve with a physical trait like an extra toe :) But, I don't think that would die out the other human populations