Wk 10, Looking Ahead to Wk 11

Wow - there are only 6 weeks of class left!  I'm excited for summer, but sad to find the year wrapping up and still so much amazing stuff to cover in biology!!

Today in class we examined the looooooong history of the earth, and the relative distances and location of major events along the timeline.  We plotted these events on a 4.6 meter strip, representing the 4.6 billion years of earth's history.  We then began making calculations to correlate the entire course of earth's history into a calendar year.  On what day does the first eukaryote cell appear? On which day do the dinosaurs die out on?  Finish making your calculations to find out!

Week 11 - Evolutionary Mechanisms

So, how did all the change happen? Slowly.  Evolution is a change in the gene pool over time (big changes usually taking much greater lengths of time).  There are 5 main processes that can cause evolution, and evolution can be both small scale (microevolution) and large scale (macroevolution).

Five main processes that can cause evolution

1. small population size
2. non-random mating
3. mutation
4. gene flow
5. natural selection 

All of these process can lead to microevolution - the change in the gene pool over time.  Microevolution looks at evolution from the organisms level down to the genetic level.  Macroevolution looks at major changes above the species level, for example the evolution of birds from dinosaurs.

We have two weeks before we meet again.  I hope your break is filled with fun, and lots of biology! Here are the readings and other resources

Evolution 2 - Mechanisms

Ch. 21 How

LOE Ch 3

CK12 BC 5.12-5.25

CK12 LSC 4.1-4.3 4.7-4.11

Natural Selection and the Bacterial Resistance - transition, Amoeba Sisters use bacterial resistance to antibiotics to illustrate the principle of natural selection Evolution - transition, an overview of evolution by means of natural selection Five Finger of Evolution - both, Paul Anderson (from Bozeman Science) gives a great TedTalk with animation covering the basic principle of evolution and the 5 processes that can cause evolution What is Evolution - scholar, Stated Clearly video overviews evolution What is Natural Selection? - scholar, Stated Clearly video covers natural selection and it's place in the theory of evolution

Remember:

• do the readings and watch the videos
• work on astrobiology project
• keep doing your vocabulary list (I will need to see them to order the sticker prizes by April 28th)
• read and think about Frankenstein or Jekyll/Hyde
• have a great Spring Break