Common Misconceptions about Evolution

Hello, my name is Abby Clemmons and i am a junior at Olathe North High School. My seventh hour is student naturalist, with Mr. Thompson. I am 16 years old, although my birthday is in a week. I am Highly involved with band. Music is my passion, and i hope someday to teach it. I play many instruments, primarily the trumpet. My trumpet's name is Mac Daddy. Yes, I name inanimate objects. I am also highly involved in theatre. I have been in every school production since seventh grade, and do community theatre to the side. I love to read, and write, and will be taking part in Mindburst staff this year. My favorite color is green, and my favorite food is Thai and Indian. I love animals, and nature. I like to paint and draw, although i am not very good at it. This is starting to sound really cliche and cheesy, and i really don't think a handful of words in a blog post can describe someone, so i suppose ill end with something important. I enjoy spending time with friends.


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Diversity: [di-vur-si-tee, dahy-]: –noun, the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness. Living in America today, we are blessed to have such diverse culture. As humans, we must learn to accept the differences in people, and explore options in life. People must be open minded to different ideas, theories, and questions that others might ask. Living in such a diverse culture presents many different views on all sorts of things. Topics are vigorously debated, discussed, and even argued over. Unfortunately, people often overlook information, and do not always know fully the topic they are exploring. Weather it is from ignorance or a simple lack of information, people have many different misconceptions over many different things. One of the most debated topics in our society is evolution.

Some misconceptions about evolution come from simple misunderstandings that come from school experiences, or other media. Other misconceptions are caused from lies, purposely directed to the misinformed reader’s mind, to compromise their view on the topic. What are some of these common misconceptions? There are many different arguments. The following are but a few of them:

Many People claim that evolution has not been observed. If evolution in is a change in the gene pool of a population over time. This is proven to be true by many obvious visual things today, like bird’s beaks changing over time to adapt to their surroundings. Scientist over the years have looked at fossil records and put time in studying the changes taking place in them. To say evolution has not been observed would be very incorrect and an insult to all their hard work. Many claim that there is no way evolution could be observed because the changes must take place over thousands of years. As humans we can not see everything with out eyes. Just because we can not see air, does not believe that it is not there. In the same way, we do not have to see the changes in the earth over time, to know that they have taken place.

Another misconception about evolution has to do with transitional fossils. Transitional fossils are fossils that look like the form of an organism in its “in between” stage, meaning it would have characteristics ranging from both the organism before it had evolved and after, and even some of its own. There is nothing in the theory of evolution that says that these fossils can only have one line of descendents, or that the fossils can not go extinct once the new forms evolve. Saying there are no transitional fossils is a complete false statement. The book Origin of Species, although hard to make out completely because of erosion over time, shows thousands of these fossils.
Some say that the theory of evolution says that life originated and evolution proceeds by random chance. This statement is far from true, and shows how misinformed so many people are. Although chance is relevant in evolution, this statement contradicts with the idea of natural selection. Natural selection is the process in nature by which, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to become extinct. Therefore, natural selection in itself rules out that everything is random chance. By showing how harmful mutations only die out quickly in order for an organism to adapt and survive to its best ability, shows that it is not chance, but just the logical way things adapt.

Many try and counter evolution by saying that it is only a theory and not a fact. What these people do not understand is that evolution has more than one meaning. Its strict definition is “a change in allele frequencies over time.” This definition is pure fact, showing that evolution is not only a theory. Now, what people could argue is that the theory of evolution is not a fact. This is true, but just goes to show how the idea of a theory is conveyed completely wrong. A theory is “a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena.” Now, you might be saying “huh?” This definition basically means that the word theory does not have anything to do with lack of certainty. This shows how claiming that evolution is only a theory does not undermine it at all.
One reason that a lot of people do not agree with evolution, is that they feel it contradicts their religious beliefs. This just goes to show how misunderstood evolution actually is. As mentioned before, evolution is an observed fact. This does not mean is undermines creationism. It only means that through studies, scientist have observed changes and put a name to them. No many can look outside their window and say that there are not changes in nature taking place before their eyes. Change is everywhere: with the seasons, in the weather, and in the way animals are changing to survive over time. Evolution is simply how things happen in nature.
By Abby Clemmons













Just For laughs:

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http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-misconceptions.html

http://darwinsbu.org/downloads/evolution_misconceptions.pdf

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/misconceptions_faq.php#a5

http://daltonator.net/durandal/creationism/misconceptions.shtml

http://www.utm.edu/departments/cens/biology/rirwin/391/391lecMisconc.htm

My name is Dijon

Hi my name is Dijon Hamilton and i am in student naturalist at olathe north my hobbies are football and track some things i like to do out side of school is hang out with friends,go to the movies,and play video games pretty much like a normal teen would do. my favorite food is pizza and spaggetii not together. my favorite video game is madden 08 until next year when madden 09 comes out in so on.


Essay. I am going to talk about evolution from a scientist prospective "im not athiest" but talking about it from religious point of view takes so long so here we go.

Every organism must struggle to survive.One reason that not all organisms survive is that there are not enough resources things that they need to go around. Organisms must struggle to get what they need to survive, competing against other organisms that want the same things they do. They also have to struggle to get away from predators and to overcome disease. For example, a fox struggling to catch a rabbit,which struggles to escape. not all of them make it. There is variation within a species.Not all of the individuals in a species are exactly the same. There are variations differences, among members of a species. If you look at the spots on several different ladybugs or the stripes on zebras you will notice that they don't all have the same number or arrangement of spots or stripes. In addition to these easily visible variations, there are differences in skill and behavior, such as differences in how fast the zebras can run. If organisms were all the same none would be better suited than any other and selection could not occur and we would have to many animals to populate the earth. Some variations allow members of a species to survive and reproduce better than others.If an organism has a trait that helps it survive or reproduce, it is more likely to survive and be able to reproduce. A faster cheetah is more likely to catch a gazelle and survive, and a faster gazelle is more likely to escape the cheetah and survive. A showier flower is more likely to be noticed by a bee, which enables it to reproduce. A thornier cactus is more likely than other cactuses to be left alone by animals, rather than be eaten and die see where im going with this.Organisms that survive and reproduce pass their traits to their offspring, and the helpful traits gradually appear in more and more of the population.Most of an organism's traits are passed on to its offspring. If more of the organisms with the helpful trait survive, then in the following generations, more and more of the population have that trait. If there are some faster cheetahs and some slower cheetahs, the faster cheetahs will be better able to catch food and survive. With more of the slower ones dying before they can reproduce, and more of the faster ones surviving and reproducing, over generations the population on the whole will gradually become made up of faster cheetahs.this is where we get on enviormental change and its role in evolution.Environmental change and isolation of groups of organisms play an important role in evolution. Environmental change is any change in an environment to which an organism must adapt. Change can be gradual, such as when mountains or deserts form, other species die out, or new species evolve. These things can take millions of years. Change to an environment can also be quick, such as floods, volcanoes, or earthquakes. It can also be caused not by change to the environment itself, but by the organism's movement to a different environment.Change in an organism's environment forces the organism to adapt to fit the new environment, eventually causing it to evolve into a new species. For example, if a species of animal is mostly limited to eating one kind of leaf, and a change occurs: a fungus attacks and kills most of that kind of plant, the animal has to evolve either to fight the fungus or to eat something else.


Environmental change is any change in an environment to which an organism must adapt. Change can be gradual, such as when mountains or deserts form, other species die out, or new species evolve. These things can take millions of years. Change to an environment can also be quick, such as floods, volcanoes, or earthquakes. It can also be caused not by change to the environment itself, but by the organism's movement to a different environment.



This is where we get in to natural selection To me, the meaning of the term natural selection is most simply illustrated by an example. About one in 400 black people worldwide have sickle-cell anemia which is caused by inheriting two copies of a recessive gene that makes those with one copy of it about 1 in 12 black people worldwide resistant to malaria According to Endler in the seventeenth century, Dutch slave traders introduced people from a single area of West Africa at random into two regions: Curacao which had no malaria and Surinam which had malaria. Today, the descendants in Surinam have a significantly higher sickle-cell frequency than do those in Curacao. Natural selection occurs in animal to


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-US&q=black+person

What We're Here For

Main Entry: evo·lu·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌe-və-ˈlü-shən, ˌē-və-\
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin evolution-, evolutio unrolling, from evolvere


2 a: a process of change in a certain direction : (1): a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state : d: something evolved
4 a: the historical development of a biological group (as a race or species) : b: a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations; also : the process described by this theory

I'm A Stranger Here Myself

My name is Brian Buese. I'm what's called a nerd. I like videogames, books, television, sci-fi, fantasy, tasteful humor, useless triva, useful trivia, ambiguous trivia, dictionaries, quiet, schedules, and hotdogs. Not necessarily in that order.

Artificial Selection In Corn Snakes

Hi, My name is Hannah Hunt and im a junior at Olathe North. Im involved with Student Naturlist and im in two 21st century programs. I am currently in Geoscience and Ecomm. However I am dropping out of geoscience because it's lame. Alot of people know me because i do the daily announcements almost every morning and it makes me feel like a celebrity. My passion is animals and theatre which is why I want to be a wildlife documentrist and/or a wildlife technician.

Artificial Selection is when living organisms whether it be plants or animals, are breed for specicfic traits. For example in corn snakes they could be artificially selected for breeding to grasp a certain trait like color, length, markings, or any other trait. Artificial selection has been around for a long time. One suprinsgly quite common part of artificial selection is inbreeding. Sometimes when people are trying to get a certain trait they will inbreed the animal; in other words breed an animal with a sibling or blood relative. The problem with this is that it then creates health issues, although you don't have to inbreed just to get health issues with artificial selection; let's say you were breeding a dog of some sort and you wanted it to have a short, flat, squared in snout. Sure the dog may look how you want it to but it may not be able to smell because of its deformity! Artificial Selection is a science and an art. In order for the best results it takes scientific work and research.


Can You Tell The difference from the two on the top and the on below?
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The top picture is two corn snakes, while the bottom picture is a texas rat snake.
The corn snakes have been artificially selected to look just like this snake. It is one example of artificial selection for color and markings in snakes.




This snake right above was artificially selected to show no color pigments therefore leaving the snake completely white.
This is quite common in captivity they are typically reffered to as "Snow Corns" because of there snow white resemblance to the white fluffy weather.



This snake shows the beautiful art of artificial selection. When done right it can create some of the most gorgeous animals. This snake is being called the "Candy Cane Corn" and with the different colors its breathless.




All in all corn are beautiful snakes and artificial selection can be seen in any kind of animal.

Just a Note

Behave.

-Brian

Misconceptions about Evolution

Biography: My name is Zach Chase. I love listening to music. When I have free time I like to hang out with friends, go to parties, and do crossword puzzles.

Essay:
Evolution has not been observed- The correct definition of evolution is a change in the gene pool of a population over time. An example of this is insects developing a resistance to pesticides over the period of a few years. Evidence isn't limited to seeing something happen before your eyes. Evolution makes predictions about what we would expect to see in the fossil record, genetic sequences, or geographical distribution of species. These predictions have been verified many times over. The number of observations supporting evolution is overwhelming.

Evolution violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics- The second law of thermodynamics says that no process is possible in which the sole result is the transfer of energy from a cooler to a hotter body. Entropy is an indication of unusable energy and often corresponds to intuitive notions of disorder or randomness. Creationists misinterpret the 2nd law to say that things invariably progress from order to disorder. But, they neglect the fact that life is not a closed system. The sun provides more than enough energy to drive things. However, not only is life irrelevant to the 2nd law, but order from disorder is common in nonliving systems, too. Snowflakes, sand dunes, tornadoes, stalactites, graded river beds, and lightning are just a few examples of order coming from disorder in nature; none require an intelligent program to achieve that order. If order from disorder is supposed to violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics, why is it being present everywhere in nature?

Evolution says that organisms reproduce with only small changes between generations.For example, animals might have appendages which are longer or shorter, thicker or flatter, lighter or darker than their parents. Occasionally, a change might be on the order of having four or six fingers instead of five. Once the differences appear, the theory of evolution calls for differential reproductive success. For example, maybe the animals with longer appendages survive to have more offspring than short-appendaged ones. All of these processes can be observed today. They obviously don't violate any physical laws.


The theory of evolution says that life originated, and evolution proceeds, by random chance- There is probably no other statement which is a better indication that the arguer doesn't understand evolution. Chance plays a large part in evolution, but this argument completely ignores the fundamental role of natural selection, and selection is the very opposite of chance. Chance, in the form of mutations, provides genetic variation, which is the raw material that natural selection has to work with. Harmful mutations usually die out quickly, so they don't interfere with the process of beneficial mutations accumulating. Atoms and molecules arrange themselves not purely randomly, but according to their chemical properties. In the case of carbon atoms especially, this means complex molecules are sure to form spontaneously, and these complex molecules can influence each other to create even more complex molecules.


Evolution is only a theory; it hasn't been proved- evolution means a change in allele frequencies over time. Evolution is an indisputable fact. Most people seem to associate the word "evolution" mainly with common descent, the theory that all life arose from one common ancestor. Many people believe that there is enough evidence to call this a fact, too. However, common descent is still not the theory of evolution, but just a fraction of many different theories. The theory of evolution not only says that life evolved, it also includes mechanisms, like mutations, natural selection, and genetic drift, which go a long way towards explaining how life evolved. Calling the theory of evolution "only a theory" is, strictly speaking, true, but the idea it tries to convey is completely wrong. The argument rests on a confusion between what "theory" means in informal usage and in a scientific context. A theory, in the scientific sense, is a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena. Generally speaking, scientific theories differ from scientific laws only in that laws can be expressed more concisely. Being a theory implies self-consistency, agreement with observations, and usefulness. Proof, in the mathematical sense, is possible only if you have the luxury of defining the universe you're operating in. In the real world, we must deal with levels of certainty based on observed evidence. The more and better evidence we have for something, the more certainty we assign to it; when there is enough evidence, we label the something a fact, even though it still isn't 100% certain.