AGENDA

• Review Unit 7 Rubric• College Advice• Evolution Survey and Discussion• Intro to Evolution• Isabella tells us about the

Galapagos

THINGS TO POINT OUT

• Textbook as a resource• Find other resources• Use Ac Lab

• Colleges want to hear about improvement, growth and the process

• Focus on improvement, not where you are at

COLLEGE SCIENCE CLASSES

• 2-3 1 hour lectures a week• Professor / TA Office Hours• Labs• ½ midterms and a Final

You need to take responsability for your own success

Kinesthetic Evolution Survey

& Discussion

Evolution is as much a fact as the fact that planets go around the

Sun.

Evolution is a process that explains the origin of life.

According to evolution, people came from chimpanzees a long

time ago.

Evolution is when individuals adapt to their environment.

Evolution is a random process.

Evolution argues against the idea of a creator.

There is equal evidence for AND against evolution.

Evolution is just a theory and its study has no practical benefits.

Evolution is just a theory and its study has no practical benefits.

INTRO TO EVOLUTIONThe unifying theme of biology

EVOLUTION DOES NOT ADDRESS

• Presence of higher powers• How life began• Morality• Whether species are “better” or

“higher order”• The meaning of life or

significance of “being human”• Religion

THERE IS VERY LITTLE SCIENTIFIC DEBATE

• Scientists debate the details of evolution but there is overwhelming consensus that evolution does occur

• There is a lot of evidence (C.O. 7.3)

BUT EVOLUTION IS A THEORY…

• A “theory” in science is a well-supported argument that matches all experimental evidence and is widely accepted – like gravity

• Scientists never say we “prove” or we “know”. We say “the data suggests or supports”

CREATIONISM

• Started long before the Christian Church existed

• Ancient Greek philosophers thought the Earth and its species were fixed, perfect and designed for specific habitats

• Fit well with theology

ENLIGHTENMENT

• Dawning of new ideas, new explanations and questioning traditional thoughts

THE FIRST PERSON TO SUGGEST EVOLUTION WAS…• NOT Charles Darwin, but

• Jean Baptiste Lamarck revived an idea that existed for thousands of years

• Suggested species change over time and can become new species

• BUT he had no evidence, and his hypothesis did not properly explain how evolution could occur

LAMARCK’S VIEW

• Organisms acquired characteristics over their lifetime and then passed these on to offspring

• Use/disuse explained changes (e.g. a blacksmith’s arm)

BUT THE EVIDENCE DIDN’T REALLY HOLD UP

• Generally traits that are acquired aren’t passed on**

• ** But epigenetics is complicating this matter!!!

ANOTHER BIG CHANGE

• Geological gradualism began to take hold• Idea that mountains formed over a very long

time and the Earth was older than 6,000 years

DARWIN WAS FAR FROM THE ONLY PERSON TO CONTRIBUTE TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

DARWIN

• Didn’t want to go to Med School, so he did what any aspiring scientist did.

• He tried to become a priest

• Didn’t work out, but a priest friend got him a job sailing the oceans as a naturalist

DARWIN’S VOYAGE

• Visited the Galapagos Islands

• Upon careful observations (the beginning of the scientific method!) he began to realize species are related

• Let’s see what he saw, courtesy of Mr. Reineke

FINCHES

TORTOISES

*

BLUE FOOTED BOOBIES RED FOOTED BOOBIES

*

LAND IGUANA MARINE IGUANA

*

PETRIFIED IGUANA

FRIGATE MALE FRIGATE FEMALE(WITH BABY)

ALSO SERVES AS A PILLOW

EGGS LAID IN A CACTUS

DARWIN EVENTUALLY INFERS:

1. ancestral species arrived on the islands from the mainland

2. Spread from island to island. 3. Each island species evolved over time into

separate species based on the specific environment of each island.

Which led to…

…CHARLES DARWIN:

• Proposed a well-thought out, coherent, well-researched hypothesis that quickly caught on

• Alfred Wallace published at the same time but gets less credit ☹

SO… WHAT DID DARWIN PROPOSE? 2 THINGSDescent with Modification

• Species change over time and become new species

• Infers: All species came from one common ancestor

• (species evolve)

Natural Selection • The environment

selects which traits become more common

• Causes species to change over time

• this is the HOW (mechanism) evolution occurs

Decent with modification implies a UNIVERSAL common ancestor.

BUT does not try to tell us how that/those 1st organisms appeared.

THE “RULES” OF NATURAL SELECTION

• We will explore the “rules” of natural selection by running the PhET Natural Selection simulation