Mr. Byerly's Wi-Sci World

Life on Earth Section 1

We are going to view several segments of the fantastic BBC documentary by Sir David Attenborough.

There are some four million kinds of animals and plants in the world - four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive. This is the story of how a few of them came to be as they are.

Life on Earth, the result of a three-year, 1.3 million mile odyssey to all seven continents, is the story of how a few of those life forms came to be as they are, not as isolated oddities but as elements in a long and continuous story that began billions of years ago.

BYERLY'S NOTES
Section One: The Infinite Variety - Nature's secret found in ancient places.  (21 minutes)

Download Section1.doc

1.1 Introduction

• Nearly 400 species of Hummingbirds with multiple genera. They have their own family there are so many.
• Need for scientific names.
• Interrelation of kingdom & species.

1.2 Darwin’s Discoveries

• Which came first? Why the wide variety?
• 69 different species of beetle in one day
• “”doubts and puzzles about the creation of species”
• Galapagos Islands - cormorants, iguanas and tortoises
• Species were not fixed forever.
• “descended from common ancestors, but changed to suit their islands”
• Darwin notices the “little changes” over a short time, wonders at the possibility of huge change over thousands of years.
  •     Amphibians that develop water tight skin = reptiles
  •     Retiles that develop feather like scales = birds
• Darwin’s theories are not new, he adds in natural selection and starts a revolution.
• If God created species, would they not all be identical?

1.3 The Beginning of Life

• A bacteria like organism - compound carbon life forms that could reproduce and cause the formation of proteins.
• Produced oxygen as a waste byproduct and helped create an atmosphere.

1.4 The First Complex Cells

• The organized movement of cilia.

1.5 The First Cell Colonies

• Size is achieved by cell colonization.

1.6 Jellyfish

• Volvox
• Daughter Colonies
• Sponges
• Medusa
• Sexual reproduction greatly increases the variation in offspring and the potential for new species. With asexual reproduction, the variation of characteristics and traits in offspring is not so dramatic.

1.7 Corals

Classification Exam

Friday, April 28, 2006
Monday, May 1, 2006
Tuesday, May 2 2006

Classification Lab and Written Assessment

    The performance assessment is taking a bit longer than I thought it might. I am content with this phenomena because classification is one of the core scientific processes that our students can develop.
   

    Classification incorporates the science process skills that we have been working on since kindergarten: observing, communicating, comparing, and organizing. This work on classification (and our upcoming work on adaptations) is also an excellent measure as to how well students are on the path of developing the formal operations of inferring and applying the knowledge base they are constructing.
    Yippeee! This is good stuff.

    Lizzie wants me to say, "Thank goodness for (regular flavored) Jelly Bellys!"
    I think that was a reaction to the Bernie Bott's lab last week.