Understanding Evolution

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Understanding Evolution

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Found 43 resources for:
Teach about applications of evolution

¿Decisiones de conservación difíciles? Pregúntale a la evolución

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

¿Si tu casa se incendiara, que es lo que te llevarías cuando estés huyendo? La decisión puede ser difícil entre juguetes de niños, álbumes de fotos y documentos importantes compitiendo por tu atención. Desafortunadamente, nos enfrentamos con una decisión difícil cuando tenemos que definir nuestros esfuerzos de conservación. Las actividades humanas podrían estar desencadenado la sexta extinción masiva de la Tierra...

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Ancient fossils and modern climate change: The work of Jennifer McElwain

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Research profile

Time: 40 minutes

Overview

Wondering how global warming will affect our planet? Scientist Jennifer McElwain studies the fossil record in order to learn more about how global warming has affected life on Earth in the past and how it might affect life on Earth in the future.

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Angling for evolutionary answers: The work of David O. Conover

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Research profile

Time: 30 minutes

Overview

Human activity has certainly affected our physical environment - but it is also changing the course of evolution. This research profile follows scientist David O. Conover as he investigates the impact of our fishing practices on fish evolution and discovers what happened to the big ones that got away.

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Battling bacterial evolution: The work of Carl Bergstrom

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Research profile

Time: 30-40 minutes

Overview

This research profile examines how the scientist Carl Bergstrom uses computer modeling to understand and control the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria in hospitals.

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Dr. Bergstrom

Breeding Bunnies

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16

Source:

  • WGBH

Resource type:

  • Classroom activity

Time: One class period

Overview

Students simulate breeding bunnies to show the impact that genetics can have on the evolution of a population of organisms.

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Evo in the news: “Superweed” discovered in Britain?

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 10 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from October of 2005, describes the discovery of an herbicide resistant weed in Britain and illustrates the relationship between genetic engineering and evolution.

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Evo in the news: A chink in HIV’s evolutionary armor

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

Medical researchers have spent billions of dollars and many decades trying to develop an HIV vaccine but have, thus far, failed. Why is an HIV vaccine so elusive? This news brief from March 2007 explains how HIV's rapid rate of evolution challenges medicine and describes a new discovery that may allow vaccine developers to sidestep that evolution.

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Evo in the news: A species’ unwelcome inheritance – extinction risk

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16
  • Advanced
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 30 minutes

Overview

Even as the world loses species at an unprecedented rate, conservationists are struggling to save them. But where should they focus their efforts? This news brief from September 2009 describes new research suggesting that evolutionary history is an important factor in determining which species are at the gravest risk of extinction.

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Evo in the news: An antibiotic that exploits evolutionary history

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

In October 2011, the World Health Organization announced that tuberculosis cases are on the decline for the first time in at least 20 years. Our battle against this ancient disease has been fought, in part, through the use of antibiotics like streptomycin. This news brief describes the 1.8 billion year evolutionary history behind these drugs.

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Evo in the news: Another perspective on cancer

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from October of 2007, describes the evolutionary underpinnings of cancer. Recognizing cancer as a form of cellular evolution helps explain why a cure remains elusive and points the way toward new treatments.

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Evo in the news: Bed bugs bite back thanks to evolution

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

This news brief of September 2010 examines the resurgence of bed bugs throughout the country, and the real bad news is that those bed bugs have evolved resistance to the chemicals most commonly used for eradication.

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Evo in the news: Better biofuels through evolution

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

This news brief from April 2009 describes how synthetic biologists are using the process of directed evolution to improve the efficiency of biofuel production.

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Evo in the news: Cheating cheetahs prosper

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

Biologists have discovered that female cheetahs consistently seek out multiple mates. This news brief, from July 2007, explains how the evolutionary implications of this behavior may help conservation efforts targeting these endangered animals.

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Evo in the news: Conserving the kakapo

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from April 2006, chronicles how researchers are using evolutionary theory to guide their strategies for conserving a critically endangered parrot - with some impressive results!

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Evo in the news: Evolution and the avian flu

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 10 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from November of 2005, describes the threat of avian flu. The stage is set for this virus to evolve into a strain that could cause a deadly global pandemic.

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Evo in the news: Evolution at the scene of the crime

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from March 2006, describes how DNA fingerprinting is being used to prosecute and exonerate the accused. DNA fingerprinting relies on the processes of mutation and genome evolution.

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Evo in the news: Evolution from a virus’s view

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

This news brief from December 2007 describes a new virulent strain of the common cold and examines how and why virulence evolves.

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Evo in the news: Evolutionary evidence takes the stand

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from January of 2007, describes the role of phylogenetic evidence in a Libyan court case. Six medical workers have been convicted of injecting children with HIV-tainted blood - but the evolutionary history of the virus paints a different picture.

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Evo in the news: Evolving conservation strategies

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from June 2007, explains how biologists are using evolutionary theory to protect the biodiversity that exists today and that may evolve tomorrow.

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Evo in the news: Fighting the evolution of malaria in Cambodia

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 30 minutes

Overview

This news brief from December 2009 focuses on one of the world's most deadly infectious diseases: malaria. Malaria is normally treatable, but now some strains are evolving resistance to our most effective drug. Find out how researchers and doctors are trying to control the evolution of the disease.

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Evo in the news: Genealogy enthusiasts mine DNA for clues to evolutionary history

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • Advanced
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from November 2007, turns an evolutionary lens on businesses that use DNA for genealogy research and, in the process, illuminates what their genetic tests really track.

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Evo in the news: Genetic variation helps rescue endangered panthers

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 10 minutes

Overview

In the 1990s, scientists predicted that the Florida panther would be extinct within 20 years and, in 1995, formulated a bold plan to save them. This news brief of December 2010 reports on the success of that plan which gave the panther a second lease on life by the infusion of genetic variation.

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Evo in the news: Ghosts of epidemics past

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

HIV and malaria both constitute global health threats, respectively affecting more than 30 million and 200 million people worldwide. This news brief from October 2008 describes new research that reveals an unexpected evolutionary link between the two.

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Evo in the news: HIV’s not-so-ancient history

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • Advanced
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

First described in 1981, HIV is a distinctly modern disease. But for how long before its discovery did HIV lurk unnoticed in human populations? This news brief from November 2008 describes new research offering insight into when (and how) HIV got its start.

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Evo in the news: Influenza, an ever-evolving target for vaccine development

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

Some vaccines provide lifelong protection with one or a few doses, but the flu requires a new shot every year. And in some years, the flu shot is hardly effective at all. Why is the flu vaccine different from so many other vaccines? This news brief from February 2013 provides the evolutionary explanation.

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Evo in the news: Superbug, super-fast evolution

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

Methicillin-resistant staph infections now contribute to more US deaths than does HIV. This news brief from April of 2008 explains the quirks of bacterial evolution that make them such a threat.

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Evo in the news: The evolutionary history of jogging

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 30 minutes

Overview

This news brief from March 2010 describes a new fitness trend: barefoot running. Though it might sound like just another fitness fad, soon to go the way of hula-hoops or jazzercise, this trend has a surprising connection to evolution.

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Evo in the news: The other green (r)evolution

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

Though corn is "all-natural" in some ways, in others it is entirely manmade. This news brief from February 2007 explains the evolutionary tools that ancient humans used to engineer modern corn and the tools that scientists are using today to reconstruct corn's evolutionary history.

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Evo in the news: The recent roots of dental disease

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

This news brief from March 2013 describes new research suggesting that human dietary changes associated with the invention of agriculture and the Industrial Evolution caused an epidemic of tooth decay and gum disease. This link between diet and oral health is an example of a mismatch to modernity, a case in which a disease results from a modern lifestyle feature that our lineage has not experienced during the course of its evolutionary history.

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Evo in the news: Tough conservation choices? Ask evolution

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

The earth is facing a biodiversity crisis. Nearly 50% of animal and plant species could disappear within our lifetime. To stem this rapid loss of biodiversity, we'll need to act quickly — but where should we begin? This news brief, from December 2008, explains how evolutionary history can help us set conservation priorities.

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Evo in the news: Toxic river means rapid evolution for one fish species

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 10 minutes

Overview

This news brief from March 2011 examines the genetic basis for the evolution of resistance to PCBs in the Hudson River tomcod. Though this is great for the tomcod, what might it mean for other organisms in the ecosystem?

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Evo in the news: Tracking SARS back to its source

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from January of 2006, traces the source of the SARS virus. Using phylogenetics, biologists have come up with a plausible path of transmission which may help us prevent future outbreaks of diseases such as HIV, SARS, and West Nile virus.

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Evo in the News: When fighting leukemia, evolutionary history matters

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16
  • Advanced

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 30 minutes

Overview

This news brief, from December 2011, describes how evolutionary history can factor into the success of a bone marrow transplant.

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Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16

Source:

  • WGBH

Resource type:

  • Classroom activity

Time: One to three class periods

Overview

Students learn why evolution is at the heart of a world health threat by investigating the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance in such menacing diseases as tuberculosis.

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Evolution connection: DNA replication

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo Connection slide set

Time: 5 minutes

Overview

This short slide set explains the fidelity of DNA replication in evolutionary terms. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.

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Evolution connection: Ribosomes

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo Connection slide set

Time: 5 minutes

Overview

This short slide set explains how some antibiotics target the bacterial ribosome and don't attack the ribosomes in our own cells through a quirk of evolutionary history. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.

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Extinction vulnerability with Shan Huang, David Jablonski, and Stewart Edie

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Article
  • Classroom activity

Time: 1.5 hrs

Overview

In this article (and the linked assignments and student readings), students examine and interpret data that Shan, David, and Stewart used to investigate whether the mollusk species that humans eat are inherently vulnerable to extinction. Use the tabs at the bottom of the feature to find related videos, assignments, and lessons to build this example into a lesson sequence on extinction.

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Young Asian woman with mollusk shells

Fire ants invade and evolve

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • Advanced
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Article

Time: 40 minutes

Overview

Understanding the evolution of fire ants may help scientists control the spread of these pests, which have already taken over much of the U.S.

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From the origin of life to the future of biotech: The work of Andy Ellington

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Research profile

Time: 30-40 minutes

Overview

This research profile examines how scientist Andy Ellington has co-opted the power of artificial selection to construct new, useful molecules in his lab. The results of his work could help protect us from terrorist attacks and fight HIV and cancer.

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How to survive a mass extinction: The work of David Jablonski

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Research profile

Time: 40 minutes

Overview

Through detailed analysis of patterns in the fossil record, scientist David Jablonski reconstructs the rules that helped dictate who lived and died in past mass extinctions. This research profile describes his surprising discoveries and their disturbing implications for the biodiversity crisis today.

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La herencia inoportuna de una especie: riesgo de extinción

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16
  • Advanced
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 30 minutes

Overview

El tema de septiembre, biodiversidad y conservación, en celebración del Año de la Ciencia, la historia de este mes esta basada en el enemigo de la diversidad: la extinción. El mundo se enfrenta a lo que podría ser la sexta extinción masiva. Estamos perdiendo especies a un ritmo sin precedentes — 100 a 1000 veces más alto que a lo largo de la mayor parte de la historia de la tierra...

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Las chinches de cama pican de nuevo gracias a la evolución

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 15 minutes

Overview

Las chinches de cama puede parecer un viejo problema pasado de moda, sin embargo ahora están de vuelta — y con venganza. Hace cincuenta años, estas plagas chupadoras de sangre estaban casi erradicadas en los Estados Unidos gracias, en parte, al uso de pesticidas como el DDT. Hoy, se arrastran entre las sabanas — y atormentan a los desgraciados soñadores — en todo el país...

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Mejores biocombustibles gracias a la evolución

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

Actualmente, la mayoría de nosotros llenamos nuestro tanque de gasolina con combustibles fósiles, es decir, restos de plantas y animales que murieron muchos millones de años atrás y eventualmente se convirtieron en petróleo — pero, por supuesto, esto no puede perdurar para siempre. El petróleo es un recurso limitado y en algún momento se va a terminar. Para ayudar a solucionar este problema, muchos científicos, políticos, gente de negocios y ciudadanos preocupados han puesto sus esperanzas en los biocombustibles...

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