Life Science 6-8 Quarter 4 Evolution from PBS

"Nothing in biology makes sense, except in light of evolution." - Theodosius Dobzhansky, geneticist 

This quote highlights the role of evolution as the most important unifying principle in biology. Living things might, at first, seem very diverse, but closer inspection reveals a surprising unity. This unity, or common ancestry, can be explained by evolutionary theory. With such an important theory at stake, it is essential to understand the evidence upon which it is based.

In this Evolution WebQuest you will investigate a variety of types of evidence for evolution. Your team will be responsible for learning about fossil evidence, structural evidence, and genetic evidence for evolution and presenting this information to the class.

1.	You will be assigned to a group of researchers. You must work together to investigate the topic given.
2.	Each group will have specialists in anatomy and physiology, paleontology, and molecular biology. Anatomists study the structure of organisms, physiologists study the function of organisms, molecular biologists study genetics, and paleontologists study fossils.
3.	Read or watch and take notes on the sites that apply to your specialty.
4.	Find four to five examples of evidence for evolution. Try to find specific examples, so that when you present to the class you will all have different examples to share. Also, try to find the date on which the evidence was discovered.
5.	Work through the sites given. Raise your hand and ask questions if you don't understand something. When you are done taking notes, let the teacher know before moving on to the next step.

Links for each group:

Anatomists

https://www.nap.edu/html/creationism/evidence.html

https://www.thoughtco.com/anatomical-evidence-for-evolution-1224773

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-a-birdits-adinosaur/

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/stories/middle/C7.html

Molecular Biologists

http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~bio336/Bio336/Lectures/Lecture5/Overheads.html

http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_3.htm

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chemical-clues-to-darwins/

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/salvaged-dna-adds-neandertals-mystique

Paleontologists

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/fossil/9to12/intro.html

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/stories/middle/C1.html

http://www.livescience.com/26936-mother-placental-mammals-infographic.html

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fossils-throw-mammalian-family-tree-into-disarray/

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinofossils/Fossildating.html

Meet up with your group. You will be presenting the evidence you found for evolution. Each specialty will describe the evidence they found (examples and pictures) and what it means (significance). You will write it on a poster that looks like this:

Evidence for Evolution Special Areas of Interest Evidence (descriptions or drawings) Significance Anatomy Molecular Biology   Paleontology

This WebQuest was designed to help you locate evidence for evolution from different areas of science. New evidence for evolution is being discovered every day. No evidence has been found which cannot be explained by evolution. If the future continues as in the past, we can look forward to more information about the genomes of earth's creatures, new discoveries in the fossil record, and the finding of new species in places like the ocean depths and the tropical rainforests. One thing is certain, more evidence will be added to support the theory of evolution.

This webquest was adapted almost entirely from:

www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/educators/lessons/lesson3/act2.html

Links were updated and scaffolds added to meet the needs of kids at PEP