UNIT
OBJECTIVES
¨ DEFINE CORE TERMINOLOGY.
¨ EXPLAIN DARWIN’S OBSERVATIONS AND THEIR
RELATIONSHIP TO EVOLUTION.
¨ COMPARE DARWIN’S PRINCIPLES OF FITNESS AND
ADAPTATION.
¨ COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE TWO METHODS USED
TO DETERMINE THE AGE OF THE EARTH.
¨ EXPLAIN SOME OF THE PROBLEMS WITH THE
FOSSIL RECORD.
¨ EXPLAIN WHY, IN FACT, WE KNOW THAT
EVOLUTION HAS OCCURRED.
¨ EXPLAIN WHAT SIMILARITIES OF ORGANISMS TELL
US ABOUT EVOLUTION AND RELATIONSHIP AMONG ORGANISMS.
¨ COMPARE AND CONTRAST DARWIN AND LAMARCK’S
THEORIES OF EVOLUTION.
¨ EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF STANLEY
MILLER’S EXPERIMENTS.
¨ GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF NATURAL SELECTION.
¨ EXPLAIN HOW HUMANS ARE CURRENTLY ACTING AS
“AGENTS” OF SELECTION ON OTHER SPECIES.
¨ DESCRIBE HOW GENETICS PLAYS AN IMPORTANT
ROLE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS.
¨ EXPLAIN HOW AN EXISTING SPECIES CAN LEAD TO
THE EVOLUTION OF A NEW SPECIES.
¨ COMPARE DIVERGENT AND CONVERGENT EVOLUTION.
¨ LIST THE BASIC FACTS ABOUT HUMAN ORIGINS ON
WHICH ALL RESEARCHERS AGREE.
¨ EXPLAIN HOW PRIMATES EVOLVED.
¨ LIST AND DESCRIBE VARIOUS HOMINID SPECIES.
¨ TRACE THE EVOLUTION OF HOMINIDS TO MODERN
HUMANS.
¨ CREATE AN EXPERIMENT (S), USING THE
SCIENTIFIC METHOD TO SUPPORT OR DISPROVE A THEORY OF EVOLUTION. WRITE A
POSITION STATEMENT REGARDING YOUR CONCLUSION.
TEXT RESOURCES: CHAPTERS FORTEEN, FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN AND SEVENTEEN