Last week in class, we modeled Darwin’s theory of natural selection, where the environment selects individuals with the best adaptation. When Darwin was observing finches and tortoises in the Galapagos Islands, scientists still had not discovered that DNA was the hereditary material. Darwin proposed a mechanism for evolution without understanding how that mechanism worked. The following PBS NOVA documentary discusses Darwin’s observations and explores “What Darwin Never Knew” – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/darwin-never-knew.html. (Here is a link to a version on youtube.
Below are two additional videos or animations that may help clarify the concept of evolution:
How do we know evolution happens?
Isn’t evolution just a theory?
To receive extra credit if you watch any of the videos, write up a brief summary, explain what you learned, and write out any questions you still have.
To review this topic for the regents, see page 11 (“Topic 5”) and page 20 (“Beaks of Finches Lab”) in the Living Environment Bootcamp notes.
Finally, here is a link if you have any questions or still want to explore the topic of evolution: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/faq/cat02.html
