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Strengths and Limitations of different teaching methods
Strengths and Limitations of different teaching methods
Importance of teaching strategies
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Instructors in public schools all over the country currently teach macroevolution (the change of one species to another through natural selection over a long period of time)as the leading theory for the variety of species on Earth, including human life. Everyone who has ever sat in a high school biology class has heard that humans have evolved over time from a single cell to more complex organisms such as apes to our current state of humans. There is much controversy on the validity of the macroevolution theory which has numerous evidentiary shortcomings. Unlike microevolution (successive changes within a species due to natural selection) which has been easily proven through examinations of bacteria, macroevolution is a best-guess science. …show more content…
Judges concluded in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that intelligent design was in violation of the establishment of religion clause in the first amendment. Intelligent design supposedly violates “centuries-old science ground rules by invoking and permitting supernatural causation”. Frank Turek and Norman Geisler disagree stating that everything either has a natural cause or intelligent cause and since a natural cause for macroevolution is not supported by the scientific evidence an intelligent cause is the only other option. Researchers have also found that students examining multiple perspectives of an argument and making a conclusion from their research enhance the learning process in classrooms. The Illinois Science Standards agree with this thought and ensure students are able to “construct an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources”. The literature reviewed seems to suggest that both students should examine both theories (intelligent design and macroevolution) in order to construct an explanation to how the variety of organisms have
Macropoland, a natural gas and oil importer, has a natural rate of unemployment of about 4.5% and a long run average rate of inflation of about 2%. However, there are two specific time periods where these rates fell below their potential. During the period between 1973-1974, the country had an inflation rate of about 15%, with an unemployment rate of nearly 13%. And now, they are experiencing an unemployment rate of 9% and an inflation rate of 0.4%. As their new economic advisor, it is my job to explain these two time periods.
The Dover Area School District of Dover, Pennsylvania is seeking approval from the General Assembly of Pennsylvania House to include the theory of intelligent design in the instruction of biology. Intelligent design, also known as I.D., is a theory that seeks to refute the widely-accepted and scientifically-supported evolution theory. It proposes that the complexity of living things and all of their functioning parts hints at the role of an unspecified source of intelligence in their creation (Orr). For all intents and purposes, the evidence cited by I.D. supporters consists only of the holes or missing links in evolutionary theory; it is a widely-debate proposal, not because ?of the significant weight of its evidence,? but because ?of the implications of its evidence? (IDnet).
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee vs. Scopes but given the nickname “The Monkey Trial”, has been credited as starting the popular legal dispute between evolution and creationism in the court, and its impact in the 20’s was immeasurable. The interpretation of the case is just as popular, if not more, than the actual result of the case. The worldwide attention and media coverage the case received produced many opinions. Scholar’s opinions range from describing the case as an irrelevancy and a good show to describing it as a “Watershed in American religious history” (Ronald L. Numbers, 1998, p. 76).
The documentary begins with Stein speaking before an audience, addressing the principle of freedom in America. He then advances to discourse of the loss of academic freedom in the scientific community through interviews of scientific figures such as Richard Sternberg, Caroline Crocker, Michael Ignore, Robert Marks, and Guillermo Gonzalez. These interviews are contrasted with clips of scientists who refute the idea and validness of intelligent design. To get a perspective about the credibility and thoughts of Darwinism and intelligent design in the scientific community, Stein is referred to talk to other figures of science such as Bruce Chapman, Paul Nelson, William Dembski, Stephen Meyer, and Jonathan Wells. Stein then begins his in depth investigation interviewing Richard Dawkins, David Berlinski, and Michael Ruse, looking to determine how Darwin theory applies to the cr...
An argument is defined as presenting reasons for a conclusion in order to convince an audience of a certain point of view and an explanation as a clarification of why something has happened. An argument contains some form of an opinion while an explanation holds only facts, this does not mean that a well-constructed argument is not without facts. The second piece, Lisa Fullam’s, Of God and the Case for Unintelligent Design is evidently the argument. The title itself, “unintelligent design” proves this reasoning, she provides facts/reasoning for her audience to believe that the notion of intelligent design is unintelligent in and of itself because nature has too many flaws. Fullam provides facts about rabbit digestion, horse digestion, mammalian testicles, and human back ache followed by her opinions. First, to Elizabeth Bumiller, who doesn’t take a side while providing facts for each side, Fullam feelings strong about her opinions, her sarcastic questions help the audience tap
The argument of whether or not humans evolved from monkeys is constantly tossed around in our society with the emergence of more and more scientific discoveries. Evolution across such a broad spectrum is known as macroevolution, or changes that happen at or above the species level. Both popular and academic discourses debate the religious and moral issues associated with macroevolution and its propositions. The main person behind the idea of evolution was Charles Darwin who theorized that everything comes from a common ancestor. In the magazine article “Was Darwin Wrong?” featured in a 2004 issue of National Geographic, David Quammen discusses whether or not Darwin’s findings in evolution theory were correct. This article was targeted for
Justice Felix Frankfurter stated in his opinion in McCollum v. Board of Education, "We have staked the very existence of our country on the faith that complete separation between the state and religion is best for the state and best for religion. If nowhere else, in the relation between Church and State, good fences make good neighbors." (Moore 1) For the last century in America and ideological war has been fought in our legislatures, courts, and schools. Some parts of the fundamentalist Christian movement have tried repeatedly to prevent the teaching of the Darwinian theory of evolution in public schools because they see it as a threat to their religious beliefs. Darwin's theory posits that species evolve over eons of time, changing in ancestor-descendant relationships from one species to another. This is often perceived as standing in direct conflict with the Bible account of the creation of the world as told in Genesis, which states that the world is only a few millennia old and that god created man and all of the species of animals in a single epoch. The latest battle in this conflict is over the theory of Intelligent Design (ID). Robert Weitzel states that "IDers maintain that life is too complex to have developed solely by evolutionary mechanisms. They believe this complexity could only have been engineered by an intelligent designer. Strategically, they refrain from identifying the nature of the designer. This tactic is designed to give their notion of creation a patina of scientific credibility and protection from First Amendment challenges" (1). Intelligent Design advocates have pushed forward on many fronts to try and introduce it into school curricula all over the country and they are meeting with a measure of success and a good deal of popular support. While the ID movement enjoys wide support from the populace, especially in traditionally conservative areas, it is imperative that the teaching of Intelligent Design is kept out of public school curricula because of the separation that must be maintained between religion and state.
Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.
Among the great debate of religion lies the question in the theory of evolution. Evolution is not questionable, it is fact, but are we still evolving? The answer lies within the last few thousand years. Henry Harpending from the University of Utah says, "We aren't the same as people even 1,000 or 2,000 years ago." Due to the rapid evolution in technology, it is easy to see humans are evolving socially, but humans are mostly experiencing changes within their genetic makeup. Using limited data, Professor Harpending and seven other universities found over 3.9 million point mutations. The fact is, 7% of the human genes are rapidly evolving. On average, seventy new mutations appear per generation. The mutations are fueling the rapid evolution in
Since the beginning of the human race there has been a lingering question as to the origins of man and how all living things acquired their characteristics. The two main theories that arose over time were Creationism and Evolution, both of which provided very distinct answers to this question. Creationism based its answer on the idea of a supernatural power or being that created the entire universe, man and the numerous other organisms that live within it. While, Evolution theorizes that all living things have the potential to change and grow over time into something new and different. So in other words, one theory suggests that humans and all the organisms on Earth are the result of divine design, while the other indicates that they are only the result of environmental adaption and growth. However, as neither theory is without flaw and it is only through close examination that a true understanding of man’s origins can be obtained.
A third student interjects with the secular country like our own does and should treat each argument as valid. However, only the third student’s argument cites scientific evidence. Is it fair that we are denying that intelligent design is taught as an alternative to evolution in our science classes? When a belief has no legitimate scientific backing, it is not science, but rather a philosophy, whereas biology is in fact science, which is why intelligent design does not belong in science classes in public schools. Since the time that teaching evolution in public schools was banned as heresy and taboo for contradicting the Bible, most public school systems today take an opposite approach in which creationism is seldom taught – the controversy, however, never diminished.
Talking on both sides of the debate, each side feels as though the other has no scientific reasoning come up with their theory. In reading the article written by Shipman, the evolutionists believe that intelligent design has no concrete evidence on how the world was crea...
In a scientific aspect, the existence of an intelligent designer cannot be denied, due to the lack of evidence that contradicts otherwise. On the other hand, creationists cannot prove the existence of an intelligent designer but indefinitely believe through a concept called faith. In addition, both concepts agree that microevolution occurs. For example, since the arrival of sparrows to North America, mutations have occurred from different locations.
The issue shall discuss the various differences between science and other types of knowledge and discuss the argument whether the science can rely without the separate theories posted by non-scientific educational bodies. ...
Without evolution, and the constant ever changing environment, the complexity of living organisms would not be as it is. Evolution is defined as a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations (8).Scientists believe in the theory of evolution. This belief is based on scientific evidence that corroborates the theory of evolution. In Figure 1 the pictures of the skulls depict the sequence of the evolution of Homo-sapiens. As the figure shows, man has evolved from our common ancestor that is shared by homo-sapiens. The change of diet of homo-sapiens over time has thought to contribute to the change in jaw structure and overall skull shape.