School Without Walls Biology

Labs and Field Trips

• Evolution Lab and Video
  • Here is the butterfly evolution lab. Credit to Kim Foglia.
  • Here is the “How Evolution Really Works” video we watched in class
• AP Biology Population Genetics Lab
  • Here is the pre-lab from Lab Bench. You will use this site for the pre-lab qs!
• Field Trip to Sant Ocean Hall
  • Here is the Ocean Hall Assignment that we will use at the museum.
• Virtual Field Trip: The Voyage of the Beagle
  • Here is what we viewed in class.
    • View the field trip on Google Earth. You will need Google Earth and this program. Download both!
  • Here’s the low-tech version.

Supplementary Reading

• Evolution Gems from Nature.
• “In Ducks, War of the Sexes Plays Out in Evolution” article from the NY Times.

Videos Watched in Class

• Video

Unit Objective

• Explain how theories of gradualism and uniformitarianism influenced Darwin’s ideas about evolution.
• Describe Lamarck’s explanation of how adaptations evolve and compare it to Darwin’s.
• Explain the tenets of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, using Darwin’s and modern examples.
• Explain evolution by natural selection through a series of simulations and labs (butterflies and strawfish).
• Use the Hardy-Weinberg theorem to calculate allele, genotype, and phenotype frequencies in a population at equilibrium, and describe and explain the conditions that violate this equilibrium through a lab. Describe the usefulness and limitations of the HW model.
• Explain how genetic drift, gene flow, mutation, nonrandom mating, and natural selection lead to evolution within a species as well as speciation. Explain and give examples of the three types of selection.
• Explain the causes of genetic variation – mutation, recombination (delayed until genetics units), sexual reproduction – within a population and the prevalence of sexual reproduction as a way of providing variation through a reading, video, discussion, and simulation. Explain how sexual selection contributes to evolution.
• Define, compare/contrast, and give examples of adaptive radiation, convergent and divergent evolution; allopatric, sympatric and parapatric speciation; gradualism and punctuated equilibrium.
• Describe how the following gives evidence of evolution: embryology, fossils, homology, vestigial organs, and biochemistry.
• Define the biological species concept and describe the limitations of the concept.
• Distinguish between prezygotic and postzygotic isolation mechanisms.