Unit:  Evolution and the Diversity of Life  - Part 1

Topic:   Charles Darwin, Evolutionary Thought and the Evidence for Evolution
Textbook Source:   Biology – A Guide to the Natural World, Krogh, 3^rd edition
Chapter 16, pages 308 -325 

Objectives:  Students will be able to:

1. Describe the two major principles that lie at the core of the theory of evolution.

2. Describe the contributions of Charles Darwin to the understanding of evolution

3. Describe the contributions of the following scientists to the development of the theory of evolution:   Lyell, Lamarck, Cuvier, Darwin

4. Describe evidence for evolution from the following areas: radiometric dating, fossils, comparative morphology and embryology, genetic/DNA modifications, experimental evidence

Topic:   Microevolution
Textbook Source:   Biology – A Guide to the Natural World, Krogh, 3^rd edition
Chapter 17, pages 326 -347.           

Objectives:  Students will be able to:

1. Describe why populations are the smallest biological unit that can evolve.

2. Explain how mutations and recombination create the variations upon which natural selection acts.

3. Distinguish between microevolution and macroevolution.

4. List the five factors that influence allele frequencies in a population and describe how each may influence the equilibrium of a gene pool.   (Hardy – Weinberg)

5. Describe the concept of evolutionary fitness.

6. Compare and contrast natural selection and artificial selection.

Topic:  Macroevolution (Speciation and taxonomy)
Textbook Source:   Biology – A Guide to the Natural World, Krogh, 3^rd edition
Chapter 18, pages 348 -367.                           

Objectives:  Students will be able to:

1. Explain the conditions necessary for organisms to be considered members of the same species.

2. Summarize the two models for speciation:  punctuated equilibrium and gradualism.

3. Describe the reproduction isolation mechanisms that cause speciation to occur.

4. Explain why scientific names are necessary.

5. Define systematics and explain how it helps to classify living beings.

6. Identify the eight classification levels in the correct order from smallest to largest.

7. Describe the basis for the three domain classification scheme including:
   1. differentiation between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells
   2. differentiation between autotrophic and heterotrophic nutritional patterns

8. Name, describe and recognize examples of each of the three domains including members of the four kingdoms in Domain Eukarya.

9. Construct and use a dichotomous key.

Topic:  History of Life on Earth
Textbook Source:   Biology – A Guide to the Natural World, Krogh, 3^rd edition
Chapter 19, pages 368 -399.           

Objectives:  Students will be able to:

1. Describe how the earth formed some 4.6 billion years ago.

2. Describe how life probably arose 3.8 billion years ago most likely in boiling hot oceans.

3. Describe how the first self-replicating cell would be the universal ancestor of all life – giving rise to the three domains.

4. Describe how the emergence of photosynthetic bacteria was a major milestone.

5. Describe how plants evolved from photosynthetic protists.

6. Describe how early plants retained and nourished the young embryo on the mother plant.

7. Describe how seedless vascular plants emerged next; followed by the seed of the gymnosperms and finally by the flowers and fruits of the angiosperms.

8. Describe the probable sequence of evolution of land animals.  (Centipede-like arthropods were first, followed by lobe-finned fish, and then tetrapods.  Reptiles, especially dinosaurs, dominated the land for more than 200 million years.  Mammals emerged as reptilian ancestors.)

9. Describe the probable sequence of primate evolution including the evolution of the Homo sapiens species.

10. Describe the unique characteristics of the Homo sapiens species.

This page was last updated on:09/27/2007