EVOLUTION

[Sean Nash]

Pre-instruction. Nested discussion. Accessing background knowledge. Characterizing preconceptions. Developing questions. Baseline reflection. All based upon one word scrawled on the whiteboard: "EVOLUTION."

That was today's lesson in a nutshell. To some a serious of eduspeak buzzwords and catch-phrases. To others, a perfectly sensible introductory experience engineered to develop a rich baseline of thought on a tremendously complex and daunting subject: evolution.

The comments here are first thoughts on evolution, pre-instruction. Today was an ordered circus of silent independent reflection mixed with lineups, various pairings for 1:1 discussions, small group discussions, summative sharing of these discussions, followed by reflective "blogging" on preconceptions and questions for our study of biological evolution.

Below is a baseline to work from on the fundamental biological concept of evolution.......

[Zachery Langdon]

First of all I missed most of the class period, so I missed the discussion.
Evolution… I believe that evolution is the change of genetics to better adapt to the environment. I have heard of the big bang theory and of that God created everything, but I am not sure which one I believe in. This might sound different but is there a way to combine the big bang theory and that God created everything? Another question I have would be how long and in depth is the task of a species being able to change there genetics to better mach the environment?
Looks like I have a lot of research to do.

[Zachery Langdon]

Evolution, the changes of something over time to better adapt. You mostly realize this in animals, but it can occur in other things like viruses. Wile reading “10 Genes, Furiously Evolving” I saw that viruses can transfer to different species. Also how viruses can evolve to different forms to transfer from host to host. I may not know how viruses do this or if they could combine with other viruses to make new ones, but I going to find out. Evolution can get confusing.

[Zachery Langdon]

This wed site consists of Parallel vs. Convergent evolution and then more info on Parallel evolution. Parallel evolution is the independent evolution closely related lineages, where several species respond to similar challenges in a similar way. Convergent evolution is the attainment of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages. A good example of Parallel evolution is between the placentals and marsupials. They shared the same ecosystem in South America, in Australia, marsupials survived and in the Old World the placentals won. They had small amount of space until the extinction of the dinosaurs were they now had more land and took on more roles. Some were great at there environment but similar species were found on different continents. So similar traits can be found with similar species.

[Zachery Langdon]

When I first started learning about evolution I heard mostly about Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection, but I wanted to learn if there is any more theories of evolution. Then I was taught of Lamarkes theory of use and disuse, where traits that are used most will pass on, where traits that aren’t used as much will not go on. But I learned that there is also sexual evolution were traits that are chosen by the female will be passed on to another generation.
Some other things I learned was of Comparative Anatomy, this is homologous structures resemble others. An example is the comparison of the human hand, bats wings and whale flipper. We also talked about mutations and that 99% of them are negative, this made me think of what are the good mutations?

[kristen sheehan]

(Prior to instruction) Well I am no evolution nut, but I did think that I knew something about it. I knew the pictures of the ape to human, and I had heard of the big bang theory... but I know nothing about it. I had also heard of Darwin, but didn't know what he did...

The graphic organizer that was given to us made us start to think of other things, and I got really confused, because I really had no idea what a lot of the words had to do with evolution.

My questions were what is the theory of evolution, and what did Charles Darwin do for biological evolution.

[kristen sheehan]

(With instruction) I think that I grasp the concept of evolution better now. In class we have spent a lot of time talking about not only the biological side of evolution, but what evolution really is. It is change over time; but how much time?

That is what puts the brakes on understanding it completely for me. I mean you can't see evolution happening. Or can you? There are some types that you can and some types that you can't.

Another thing that got cleared up for me was that the idea of Social Darwinism didn't come from Charles Darwin, and that Charles Darwin did not say anywhere in his book that we came for monkeys. I mean now that I think about it, and Mr. Nash told us, if we came from monkeys, monkeys wouldn't still be here.

DUH!! :-)

[kristen sheehan]

(Final reflection) I will admit that I had no clue what evolution was before we discussed it in this class. I think that I have a better understanding of what the all around idea of evolution is though.

I now know that there are many different evidences that evolution is a real thing such as fossil evolution, biogeography, embryology, comparative anatomy and molecular biology. Learning about these different evidences made me realize that evolution is real, and that evolution doesn't happen over night.

I really think that the hardest part of understanding evolution for me is that I can't see it happening, but with seeing evidence that it has happened, makes me understand it a little more.

Another big thing that I learned was that Charles Darwin didn't say that we evolved from monkeys, people pretty much made that up.

I really think that I understand evolution a lot more, but there is much more that I could learn.

[Morgan Wacker]

Whoops, forgot to do this. But here is exactly what I had written down on my paper before any instruction.

Some people believe that we evolved from monkeys because we are so closely related or whatever, which is evolution. But I don't believe that to be true. I do believe that species can evolve like to adapt other characteristics to better survive in their environment or whatever, but that's more like bettering the species for survival not so much creating new ones necessarily, which is what the whole we evolved from monkeys thing is. Unless we are monkeys, but according to science or whoever you ask I guess we are humans not monkeys.
But how does evolution take place? How do we know that something has evolved if we don't see it happening throughout the generations? Do we assume that's it's a new species because of that? (If we find a species that is completely different from anything we've ever seen before, but it's really a different species that we have heard of but it's just changed a bit). What determines something as evolution?

Plus if we evolved from monkeys, we wouldn't monkeys have died out? They would have all became humans, leaving no more monkeys in the world. And as far as I know, there are still plenty of monkeys running around. (Not here in st. joe no, but in their natural habitats or zoos)
I think that evolution is just a theory that some scientists came up with, by looking at genes and similarities between different species, like humans and monkeys. But faith would also have an effect on what you think about evolution, whether you believe in it or not. I think that there must be some sort of middle ground in evolution.

[Morgan Wacker]

I saw this site and found it interesting. I mean I never really thought that Hobbits were real. I just thought that it was something that like J.K. Rowling made up for Lord of the Rings. But they found fossils and hobbit bones from way back when on a remote island. They are comparing their bones to the modern human and seeing what things are similar between us. We might have evolved from them in a way.

[Chris Michaels]

okay so i was not here the day we did the first post i was having surgery but i remember what my first thoughts were,

-that humans came from monkeys
-that only the strong survive
-and that the big bang had something to do with evolution

All this concepts were in some way a little off

-Humans did not come from monkey rather might be distant distant reletives through evolution
-Not the strong but the best fit as in color or size for an area
-and the last one is a misconception

this is just minor things i learned from the evolution teaching so far

[Chris Michaels]

my thought about evolution has changed from the beginning to the end and after nash's talk about the above being, i think it is way more clear to me now.. his talk changed my out look that you can believe both acuzations that are made the one about god and the theory by darwin.... i know tons of more stuff now than two weeks ago.

[MIchelle]

so, i never did my first post, so here that goes. . . you wrote evolution on the board, and i thought about a lot of things. one thing really weighed heavily on my heart was religion. I'm a firm believer in christ, and for someone to tell me that i'm wrong in what i believe, or that having faith in something that is made up or fictional, that is a tough thing for me to listen to. I think that is why i don't know a lot about evolution, because freshman year i thought that is what it was going to be, so i chose not to listen.

as of now my ideas of evolutions were monkeys, to cave men to man. I used to think that it was really charles darwin's theory. i knew about a fly experiement where people thought things came from the air, out from the middle of no where. i know that it deals with change in like groups of people or environments and stuff, but i'm not sure what all it entails.