For our groups evolution book we read Undeniable by Bill Nye. This books main idea is Bill Nye’s view on evolution and the way it impacts our lives and how it leads to more curiosity. It also is spreading awareness of evolution and how important it is. The main ideas in this book is that creationism is inane, biodiversity comes where you live, humans are driven by sexual selection, and the fear of death drives every species to survive.
Bill excellently covers controversial topics such as creationism, Noah’s Ark, theories that disprove evolution, and many more. I found it interesting to know that in order for Noah’s ark to be real, eleven new species had to be discovered everyday. As well as the Second Law of Thermodynamics.The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that things cannot become more complex; only lose complexity.
The theory of evolution goes completely against that idea. How can organisms start from a single cell and evolve and become more intricate?
Bill Nye talks about how often people classify things by patterns that have no relation at all. Some relationships you can tell by physical appearance, but you also need to know more about the origin of the animal in order to see the true pattern. Nye states, “Making sense of evolution really requires both ways of analyzing and classifying living things.”(pg.146; Chapter 19)
Bill Nye also gives a great explanation on the development of a new species through genetics. On page 128 he states, “The reason you and your sister have different colored hair was understood to be genetic…” relating the difference in hair to the separation to a new species. He calls it “modern synthesis” as the process that every feature of an individual is expressed in their genes. As the genes mutate through many generations, some individuals are no longer able to reproduce with each other, thus they become an either separate or new species.
When we discussed this book I could definitely see that this book expanded our views on evolution and the different theories explained such as the Darwin theory which is named “artificial selection”. This book was very well written and my group and I highly recommend this book to other high school students or people who wanted to get a better view on evolution. It is an especially easy and helpful read for those who haven’t been introduced to evolution and specifically natural selection. He describes theories using relatable situations for a stronger understanding.
Comparative Anatomy
Intro During this unit and my group studied different organisms and learned about evolution over time. We studied and dissected sponges, worms, frogs, squids, fish, and jellyfish. The purpose of this project was to gain knowledge on traits and characteristics that animals have evolved through over time. It was also to observe and learn from dissecting different animals. I learned a lot about different mutations and environmental factors that help species evolve and grow.
Reflection I feel like over all my group and I did very good in this unit. We did the dissections pretty correctly and I understood what I was told and what I learned. The only main problem we had was knowing exactly what to do in the dissections(not following directions completely) and where to cut but other then that we did every thing accurately. Also in the dissections I didn't exactly know where every organ or structure was. Our cuts were sometimes messy and we couldn't see specific parts. The things that we did correctly(aka our peaks) was we communicated really well and divided the work equally. I also feel like we helped each other learn and understand the concepts. I really enjoyed this project because we were able to actually touch and observe these amazing animals and feel my knowledge of different species was widely expanded.
Reflection on Entire Unit
During this whole unit I think we communicated well and we all helped each other understand the information we were learning a lot. Two things I think that we could improve on is going more into depth when we were told to research and we also should have written more notes down for the future. I really liked the dissecting in this unit because it gave me a much better understanding of the animals we were learning about. I also enjoyed working in our groups and making posters and videos. I didn't like watching the movies because I feel like it took up precious time we could have been working on projects. I also didn't like the amount of time we had for dissections.
Socratic Seminar reflection
In our Socratic Seminar we had a really good discussion but I do feel like there were some things we could improve on. Some people weren't given enough time to speak and others had too much. Also some people felt the need to fight what they felt was correct and it had a negative impact on the discussion. I learned a lot about creationism and the way people believe the earth was created which I thought was very interesting. I didn't really want to say anything because other people were covering the way I felt about the subject but I did want to ask some questions about creationism. Overall I feel like it was a really good discussion and I learned a lot from it