Chapter 1 Lecture Enrichment Ideas
Read job descriptons for biologists (e.g., molecular geneticist, population ecologist, etc.) and ask students what level of organization the scientist studies.
List organisms with which students should be familiar; ask them to place the organisms into the correct kingdom based on their known characteristics. List unfamiliar organisms and their characteristics; ask students to determine the kingdom to which they belong.
Discuss the evolutionary relatedness of mammals. Ask students to consider Australian marsupials that fit into the various niches filled by other mammals in other parts of the world. Note how marsupials are more closely related to one another but have diversified to fill many niches. This results in other unrelated mammals resembling them.
Demonstrate use of a dichotomous key to key out an unknown organism.
This may be the first day of classes where students have not had an opportunity to read the assigned text. Still they can be led through a common sense query of "what is life?" List the common traits of living things: growth, reproduction, response to the environment, metabolism, etc. Ask whether there is any one of these aspects that alone distinguishes a living organism from nonliving organism. Is it necessary for an individual organism to reproduce, for example? Give examples of quartz that can "grow" and respond to light, or tardigrades that completely suspend metabolism, etc. What is required for us to know for sure that the recent meteorite remains are evidence of life on Mars?
Discuss how the unity of all life is a result of the development from unicellular ancestors with the same basic chemical structures and metabolism.
Discuss how organisms diversify due to the effects of mutation and selection by the nature of the environment.
Ask students to design an experiment to test a particular hypothesis.
Ask students for examples of scientific method in their everyday lives, such as fixing dinner, determining how to dress for the day's weather or activities, or handling problems with a car that doesn't work.
Have students search a week's newspapers for examples of using the scientific method in the news—such as testing consumer goods or reports on medical research—and discuss them in class; bring in a tabloid newspaper making fabulous claims and discuss why it does not meet science standards.
Discuss the difference between scientific observations of the natural world and superstitions such as those associated with Friday the thirteenth and black cats. Examples involving water dousing, spontaneous human combustion, crop circles and other modern misbeliefs are given in the Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer magazines.
Discuss why it is possible to prove a hypothesis or theory false but not prove it true.
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