Introduction to Evolution

After the test on Tuesday I let Wednesday be a make up day.  Today though we started in to our LAST chapter of the year!!!!   Evolution and natural selection.  You did learn a little about this in 8th grade environmental science but we are going to move a step farther and look at the GENETICS behind it.  You saw today that this chapter is going to be a good way to put together ALL we have learned this semester.  The daily questions today acted as a "pre-test."  These were sample keystone exam questions.  After the daily questions we started into the beginning of the notes giving a background on who Charles Darwin was and what his discoveries were.  There was a little clip that i had you watch below

When the crazy bird was talking - THAT was when it started to bring the last chapter into play.  He mentioned that there must be some "copying" mechanism that can have "errors" in it for new traits to arise.  We discussed that the "copying' mechanisms would be mitosis and meiosis followed by fertilization and the "errors"would be mutations then. 

  So.........how are we going to put this into action?!?!?  We will be looking at why using SOOOOOO much hand sanitizer  and the over use of antibiotics are creating "super bugs" that are resistant to EVERYthing!!!!  So lay off the hand sanitizer guys :)

Here were your daily questions - please check Edline for the notes!!
1. Which population of organisms would be in greatest danger of becoming extinct?
***A population of organisms having few variations living in an unstable environment.
*Having little variation is not a good thing when a major environmental change occurs.


2. In order for a new species to develop, there must be a change in the
**Genetic makeup of a population. (This can be DUE to a change in the temperature or migration patterns, but ultimately it comes down to a change in the allele frequencies of a population)


3. Which statement is NOT part of the concept of natural selection?
A. Individuals that possess the most favorable variations will have the best chance of reproducing.
B. Variation occurs among individuals in a population
C. More individuals are produced than will survive
D. Genes of an individual adapt to a changing environment***GENES do not adapt - individuals adapt and populations adapt - but genes do not. They may "change" due to random mutations though.

** 2 - a decrease in the advantage of having white fur. Since over a 10 year period the presence of ANY white rabbits was eliminated, that most likely means that having white fur was no longer a good thing.