Charles Darwin

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Charles Darwin Natural Selection Scientific
Ways of Knowing

• Dr. Paul Narguizian
• Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
• California State University, Los Angeles
• Email pnargui_at_calstatela.edu
• Web Page http//www.calstatela.edu/faculty/pnargu
  i/

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What is a Scientific Explanation?
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The Sciences

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Earth and Space Science

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What is a Scientific Explanation?

• In common usage, an explanation is a statement
  made to clarify something and make it
  understandable. In science, explanation means
  something more concrete. Scientific explanations
  consist of three specific parts claims,
  evidence, and reasoning.

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What is a Scientific Explanation?

• A claim is an assertion or conclusion that
  answers the original question.
• Evidence is scientific data that supports the
  students/scientists claim. It must be
  appropriate and sufficient. It can come from an
  investigation or other source, such as
  observations, reading material, or archived data.

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What is a Scientific Explanation?

• Reasoning is the justification that links the
  claim and evidence. It shows why the data counts
  as evidence to support the claim, using
  appropriate scientific principles.

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Scientific Hypothesis, Law, and Theory

• What is a Hypothesis?
• What is a Law?
• What is a Theory?

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Scientific Fact

• Fact In science, an observation that has been
  repeatedly confirmed (NRC, 1998).

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Scientific Hypothesis

• Hypothesis A testable statement about the
  natural world that can be used to build more
  complex inferences and explanations (NRC, 1998).
• A hypothesis in the classroom setting usually
  involves a prediction followed by an explanation.

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Scientific Law vs. Theory

• In the language of science, laws and theories are
  related but distinct kinds of scientific
  knowledge.

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Scientific Law

• Law A descriptive generalization about how some
  aspect of the natural world behaves under stated
  circumstances (NRC, 1998). Laws include
  predictions made about natural phenomena.

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Scientific Theory

• Theory A well-substantiated explanation/mechanism
  of some aspect of the natural world that can
  incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested
  hypotheses (NRC, 1998). Theories explain how the
  law works (McComas, 2003). Scientific theories
  are explanations that are based on lines of
  evidence, enable valid predictions, and have been
  scientifically tested in many ways.

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Scientific Law vs. Theory

• Sonleitner, (1989) makes the point that theory
  and law, are qualitatively different in what they
  are and what they do. He states that laws are
  generalizations about phenomena while theories
  are explanations of phenomena.
• Theory and law are not distinguished by their
  degree of verification.

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Laws and Theories

• The Law of Biological Evolution
• The Theory of Natural Selection

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Biological Evolution Defined

• Biological Evolution is defined as the change in
  allele frequencies (where alleles are versions of
  the same gene that differ in their base sequence)
  within populations (Freeman and Herron, 2004).

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Biological Evolution Defined

• Biological Evolution the changes in the genetic
  composition of a population with the passage of
  each generation (Volpe Rosenbaum, 2000).

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Natural Selection Defined

• Natural Selection is defined as the process in
  nature that causes evolution through differential
  reproductive success among members of a
  population that success depends on genetically
  based and heritable variation in characteristics
  that confer relative advantage or disadvantage to
  the bearer (Price, 1996).

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Natural Selection Defined

• Natural Selection is defined as those individuals
  in a population that (genetically) are better
  able to survive and reproduce in a particular
  environment leave more offspring, which in turn
  carry a higher frequency of genes promoting
  adaptation to that environment (Scott, 2005).

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Laws and Theories

• The Law of Biological Evolution
• The Theory of Natural Selection

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Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
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Physics and the Looming Crisis of String TheoryI
Mean String Hypothesis???
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The Origin of Life vs. The Origin of Species and
Other Misconceptions
Alfred R. Wallace
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Mechanisms of Biological Evolution

• The main but certainly not the only mechanism
  of biological evolution is natural selection
  (Scott, 2005).
• Others include
• Mutation and Genetic Variation
• Mendelian Population Genetics
• Selection and mutation
• Mendelian Population Genetics
• Migration, Drift, Non-random Mating/Inbreeding
• Evolution at Multiple Loci
• Linkage, sex, and quantitative genetics

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Laws and Theories

• Laws consist primarily as statements or
  generalizations made about natural phenomena.
• Theories, however, consist of the explanation/
  mechanism for how the law works (McComas, 2003).
  Scientific theories are explanations that are
  based on lines of evidence, enable valid
  predictions, and have been scientifically tested
  in many ways.
• Examples? Cell Theory?

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James Watsons Definition

• Let us not beat around the bush the common
  assumption that evolution through natural
  selection is a theory in the same way as string
  theory is a theory, is wrong. Evolution is a Law
  that is well substantiated as any other natural
  law, whether the Law of Gravity, the Laws of
  Motion or Avogadros Law. Evolution is a fact,
  disputed only by those who choose to ignore the
  evidence, put their common sense on hold, and
  believe instead that unchanging knowledge and
  wisdom can be reached only by revelation.
• James D. Watson (2005). Darwin the Indelible
  Stamp
• The Evolution Of An Idea.

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Evolution Websites

• Evolution and the Nature of Science
• http//www.indiana.edu/ensiweb/
• The main objective of ENSI is to improve the
  teaching of evolution in High School Biology
  courses by encouraging teachers to teach
  evolutionary thinking in the context of a more
  complete understanding of modern scientific
  thinking.

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Evolution Websites

• University of California Museum of Paleontology
  at UC Berkeley and the National Center for
  Science Education
• http//evolution.berkeley.edu/
• This is a good website for topics that explore
  evolution content and the NOS.

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Evolution Websites

• University of California Museum of Paleontology
  at UC Berkeley and the National Center for
  Science Education
• http//undsci.berkeley.edu/
• This is a good website for topics that explore
  lassroom activities, teaching tools, a K-16
  conceptual framework, tips, and strategies for
  integrating the process of science into your
  teaching, and more.

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A Responsibility

• These and numerous other questions regarding
  scientific ways of knowing can serve as an ideal
  tool for students and teachers of science alike
  within courses such as biology, chemistry,
  physics, and the earth sciences to unite the
  sciences and reveal the fact that all of the
  aforementioned sciences use a similar
  methodology.  

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References

• Allen, G. and J. Baker. 2001. Biology Scientific
  Process and Social Issues. Bethesda, Md.
  Fitzgerald Science Press, Inc.
• Bybee, R. W. (Ed.) 2004. Evolution in
  Perspective The Science Teachers Compendium.
  Arlington, VA NSTA Press.
• Campbell, N.A., Reece, J.B., and Mitchell, L.G.
  1999. Biology (5th ed.). Menlo Park, CA Benjamin
  Cummings.
• Darwin, C. 1964. On the Origin of Species
  (Facsimile 1st ed.). Cambridge, MA Harvard
  University Press.
• Freeman, S. Herron, J.C. 2004. Evolutionary
  analysis (3rd. Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ
  Pearson/Prentice Hall.
• Gould, J.A. 1992. Classical Philosophical
  Questions. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.
  Prentice Hall.
• Miller, K.R. 2006. Presentation. NSTA Conference.
  Anaheim, CA.
• Miller, K. R. 1999. Finding Darwins God. New
  York, NY Harper Collins.
• Narguizian, P. 2004. Understanding the nature of
  science through evolution. The Science Teacher
  71(9) 40-45.
• National Academy of Sciences. (2004). Evolution
  in Hawaii A Supplement to Teaching About
  Evolution and the Nature of Science, by Steve
  Olson. Washington, DC The National Academies
  Press.
• National Research Council. 1996. National Science
  Education Standards. Washington, DC National
  Academy Press.
• Pennock, R.T. (2005). On teaching evolution and
  the nature of science. In J. Cracraft R.W.
  Bybee (Eds.), Evolutionary science and society
  Educating a new generation (pp.7-12). Washington,
  DC AIBS/BSCS.
• Peterson, G. R. 2002. The intelligent design
  movement Science or ideology? Zygon 37(1) 7-23.
• Price, P.W. (1996). Biological evolution. New
  York Saunders College Publishing.
• Scott, E.C. (2005). Evolution vs. creationism.
  Berkeley, CA University of California Press.
• University of California Museum of Paleontology
  at UC Berkeley and the National Center for
  Science Education evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/
  evohome.html
• Volpe, E.P. Rosenbaum, P.A. (2000).
  Understanding evolution. New York McGraw Hill.