Assignment – write a few paragraphs to discuss the question “Is natural selection a good theory?”. Your answer should include the two big ideas of natural selection (as discussed in the video below) and the theory of natural selection as having characteristics of a good theory. These are:
explains observed phenomena,
makes predictions,
and is testable using proper scientific testing conditions.
You are encouraged to use a variety of resources. The video below might be helpful in formulating your answer (the actual lecture starts about 7 minutes into the video).
Since all living things are made from cells and cell products (you recognize that from cell theory, right?), we need to understand cells in order to understand life. Complete the cell anatomy assignment and you will be one step closer to understanding life.
Isolation is a factor in the evolution of a new species from an existing species. An interesting case of isolation involves changes in migration patterns for some of the Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) which have changed their migration pattern. Observations of this group show some signs of natural selection occurring and possibly even the formation of a new species.
There are some new links in the right sidebar. I’ve put some links in to the Biology 20 wiki, Communication Production Technology wiki and the Theory of Knowledge portal. For descriptions of assignments, links to resources and other helpful things for a subject you can take a look there. I’ll put announcements for courses on this blog. For other stuff, check out those subject links.
After a long period of inactivity, the World of Wall is back up and runnuing. Once again I’ll be posting assignments, thoughts and media links for my classes at NBCHS throughout the year.
The World of Wall wiki is up and available at http://worldofwall.wikispaces.com. I’ll be putting links for classes and general resources up there. New links and resources will also be posted here, but the archived list including links from times long past will always be kept on the wiki.
“What is a wiki?” you may be asking. Try looking at the Wikipedia article on wikis (hey! – wikipedia is itself a wiki. Wikis must therefore be very cool!)
Here’s a short video from the very clever folks at Common Craft on the topic of web search strategies:
There are many other good search strategies. Here’s a video of Patrick Norton interviewing Google Engineer Matt Cuts, who describes various Google search strategies.
A topic that we keep dancing with in ToK is the definition of knowledge. I’ve said a few times that knowledge is justified true belief (JTB). We’re all pretty much agreed that justification and belief are two necessary elements but there continues to be some discussion about truth. So here’s another way to think about it:
If I claim to know something, I must be justified (we all agree on this point) and I must believe it. By believing, I mean that I could not see any other possible proposition. If I know that I have never been to Disneyland, then there’s no way I could believe its opposite – that I have been to Disneyland. Or I could state that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. As soon as someone shows me otherwise, however, I would say that I did believe that heavier objects fall faster than light ones but now I know that they fall at the same rate. I may have believed things in the past that I now know are not true.
Here’s a demonstration of that principle, by the way.
That brings up the whole problem of truth. There’s a different problem, but for now let’s just say that something is true when we believe it without any reasonable doubt. There are some other details that are worth noting when we talk about truth, but that’s a good enough understanding of it for now.
It is the start of the 2008 -09 school year at NBCHS so I thought I would collect all the blog posts/updates/news for my face to face classes up here for students and all the world to see. Drop by often to see what I’m up to.
If you have many blogs that you like to read, I would suggest an RSS aggregator to keep track of them all. If you don’t know what that is, this video might help:
I like to use a aggregator called Google Reader, but others are available. Here’s a video about Google Reader.
