Childrens Misconceptions In Primary Science

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Learning Science 101: Misconceptions

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Mock, Cary. Historical synoptic climatology, climate change, historical and Quaternary environments; paleoclimatology;. Kim, Kawon Kathy. Service marketing: Social and interpersonal influence, social support, influence of other customers, service failure and recovery; Organizational behavior: Leadership, employee training. Barbeau, Jr. Benitez-Nelson, Claudia.

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Sklaroff, Lauren. Fillo, Jennifer. Work in the lab focuses on examining the reciprocal relations among close relationships e. Using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods, studies in the lab build upon existing knowledge of interpersonal processes and social influences on health behavior, and work toward the development of new measures and ways of leveraging these close relationship influences to improve health e. Smith, Mark. The Old South, slavery, sensory history a vibrant area of historical inquiry dedicated to examining the roles played by olfaction, hearing, touch, and taste as well as vision in shaping the past ; reconstruction; history of mixed martial arts; southern studies.

Sullivan, Patricia. History; race relations; reform and politics in the U. Weyeneth, Robert. American Social and Environmental History; Historic Preservation; Public History; African American heritage preservation; issues of race and space; historical memory and the problematic past; Historic secrets and controversial history. Ye, Tan. Asia and China; Chinese drama and film; Chinese; comparative theater; Asian and Chinese studies; comparative literature; Chinese cinema theater.

Beck, Mark. Greek language and literature; leadership, sport and combat in the Ancient World; classics; psychology. Garane, Jeanne. Smith, Kathleen. Persels, Jeff. France; early modern French prose and verse polemic; European Studies; French language, culture, literature, and theatre. Ducate, Lara. Goblirsch, Kurt. Germanic linguistics; history of linguistics; medieval literature of Germany, Scandinavia, England, and the Low Countries; language typology; comparative study of sound change, word forms, and word origins. Ivory, Yvonne. Mueller, Agnes. Germany; German-American relations; multicultural studies; gender issues in contemporary literature; German-Jewish studies, Jewish Studies; contemporary German literature.

Baba, Junko. Japanese; expressions of linguistic affect in socio-pragmatics; semiotics of food in Japanese modern literature about WWII; the effects of Japanese cinematic techniques on mimetics in story manga. Kalb, Judith. Ogden, Alexander. Russian literature and culture; Russian regionalism; concepts of stylization in Russian literature; the interactions of folklore and literature; comparative literature. Camacho, Jorge. Sanchez, Francisco. Holt, D. Latin America; Hispanic linguistics; phonological theory; historical linguistics; dialectology; language variation and change; Hispanic sociolinguistics; language acquisition; Spanish language, composition, stylistics and culture; Structure, sound, history and dialects of Spanish; Spanish in a socio-historic-cultural context; Spanish in the US; Spanish as a world language.

Mott, David. Understanding how synaptic transmission between excitatory and inhibitory nerve cells in the brain is modified as a result of experience; neurons in the limbic system; changes in synaptic transmission in hippocampus in temporal lobe epilepsy; defining alterations in dopamine receptor modulation of synaptic transmission in temporal lobe epilepsy; inhibitory synaptic transmission in epilepsy; Glutamate receptors in epileptogenesis; Functional properties of GABAA and glutamate receptors; Anxiety-related changes in seizure disorders; Novel GABAA receptor modulators. Boylan, Matthew. Dilworth, Stephen. Banach space theory; greedy algorithms and compressed sensing; nonlinear functional analysis; metric embeddings; transportation cost spaces.

Dix, Daniel. Filaseta, Michael. Number Theory; Analytic Classical Algebraic; lattice points close to a curve; distribution of special sequences of integers in short intervals; irreducibility of polynomials over the rationals; applications of Pade approximations to Number Theory. Girardi, Maria. Howard, Ralph. Differential and integral geometry and its applications to other fields; mathematical relativity; convexity; number theory. Ju, Lili. Kustin, Andrew. Lu, Linyuan Lincoln. McNulty, George. Meade, Douglas. Miller, Matthew. Nyikos, Peter. Carter, June. Latino literature and culture; Romance Languages and Literature. Caster, Peter. Petrushev, Pencho. Approximation Theory; Harmonic analysis; Numerical methods; Function spaces; Nonlinear approximation from rational functions, splines, frames, ridge functions and more general dictionaries; approximation by ridge functions and neural networks; image processing;.

Knight, Marilyn. Schep, Anton. Coberly, David. Spanish higher education, romance linguistics, language acquisition, comparative language teaching methodology. Godfrey, Esther. Graph Theory; combinatorics and its applications; discrete geometry; graphs drawn on surfaces; reconstruction of phylogenetic trees from genetic sequences; combinatorial geometry; phylogeny reconstruction; discrete probability; design and analysis of algorithms; combinatorial optimization; extremal problems graphs and set systems ; network science.

Temlyakov, Vladimir. Trifonov, Ognian. Analytic Number Theory and Approximation Theory; use of finite differences to determine information about lattice points close to a curve or surface; application of results to gap problems in Number Theory. Vraciu, Adela. Wang, Hong. Wu, Xian. Bezuidenhout, Anne. Cai, Chao. Survival analysis, mediation analysis, clinical trials, statistical design, and analysis in health science. Martin, Pamela. African American church-based health interventions from prevention to linkage to care with church members and community members using church outreach services.

Burke, Thomas. American pragmatism; Contemporary philosophy; logic; cognitive science; mathematical logic. Dickson, Michael. Khushf, George. Kisner, Matthew. Seventeenth-century philosophy; Moral philosophy; Spinoza; Descartes; British moralist; Environmental ethics; Business ethics; Ethical issues surrounding food. Martin-Stuart, Lisa. Sefrin-Weis, Heike. Tollefsen, Christopher. Natural law ethics; Foundations of ethics; Action theory; Medical ethics; Ethics of lying and truth telling; Ethics of killing; Human rights.

Fairchild, Amanda. Intersection of mediation and moderation models; effect size measures for mediation; measurement and evaluation of programs and outcomes; statistical pedagogy; quantitative psychology; statistical mediation analysis; prevention; developmental trajectories of substance use; prevention of child maltreatment; methodology. Avignone III, Frank. Crawford, Thomas. Creswick, Richard. Datta, Timir. Gothe, Ralf. Gudkov, Vladimir. Kulkarni, Varsha.

Kunchur, Milind. Mazur, Pawel. Quantum Field Theory; foundations of Quantum Theory; gravitational phenomena; cosmology; Gauge theories of gravity; theoretical physics; quantum mechanics of black holes; black hole thermodynamics. Myhrer, Fred. Nuclear Theory; experimental nuclear physics; supernova; matter-antimatter interactions; hadron and light nuclei structures; experimental nuclear physics; annihilation of matter and antimatter; electromagnetic theory. Rosenfeld, Carl. Strauch, Steffen. Baryon spectroscopy; nucleon electromagnetic form factors; medium modifications of hadronic properties; few-body physics; polarization experiments; fundamental symmetries; physics of hadrons and nuclei; perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics pQCD , Chrial Perturbation Theory ChPT ; experimental nuclear physics.

Tedeschi, David. Wilson, Jeffery. Barbieri, Katherine. Middle East, Asia; International; International Relations and Political Economy; Impact of globalization on conflict; Civil and interstate war; military disputes; terrorism; state repression; International trade. Cox, Robert. Public policy issues in advanced industrialized societies; Politics of welfare reform in European countries; European Union in promoting sustainability programs among its member states. Drolc, Cody. Intersection of public administration; Public policy; American politics; Government oversight; Enhancing accountability and administrative performance; Challenges and consequences of program implementation in an intergovernmental context with specific focus on Social Security Disability and Veterans' health programs.

Darmofal, David. Hsieh, John. Asian studies; international studies; East Asia; rational choice theory; constitutional choice; electoral systems; electoral behavior; political parties; democratization; foreign policy; East Asian politics; comparative politics; political methodology; China; Taiwan. Oldendick, Robert. Shaw, Todd. Political, sociological, and ideological ramifications of changes in the late 20th and early 21st century African American community; Class, gender, age, and other social factors effect on African American interest groups; Black activism;.

Woods, Neal. Public policy; Environmental policy; Regulation; Bureaucratic politics; federalism; Intergovernmental relations; State politics. Armstead, Cheryl. Relationships between racism and cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stress; hostility and stress reactivity; socioeconomic status and cardiovascular disease; health promotion. Flory, Kate. Kloos, Bret. Recovery from serious mental illness; meaning-making after major life disruptions; promotion of social inclusion; community responses to homelessness; mutual support and self-help; collaboration with community-based resources e. Prinz, Ron. Mental health; clinical psychology; children; adolescents; Prevention Science and Child Clinical Psychology; child and family; empirically based approaches to assessment and intervention; prevention of child maltreatment.

Schatz, Jeffrey. Developmental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience; Pediatric psychology; neuropsychology; sickle cell disease; Abnormal Psychology; child development; biopsychosocial factors in sickle cell disease; understanding cognitive development and promoting educational success; impact of sickle cell disease on child development. Swan, Suzanne.

Interpersonal violence and aggression; interventions to prevent violence; college populations; women's use of violence and aggression in intimate relationships; women's studies; relationship violence; men and masculinity; women and their bodies in health and disease; social psychology; drugging. Booze, Rosemarie. Shustova, Natalia. Sustainable energy conversion, sensing, switches, artificial biomimetic systems; morphology control of the active layer of a bulk heterojunction solar cell; ight harvesting and energy transfer in well-defined self-assemblies; design of artificial scaffolds mimicking protein behavior. Klein, Brent. Development of antisocial behavior; Aggression and violence; Situations of crime and violence; Life course theory; Decision making; Crime events; Crime prevention; Rare event methodologies.

Kornbluh, Mariah. Mactutus, Charles. In utero cocaine exposure; addiction; NueroAIDS; drug abuse neurotoxicity; addictive processes; sensitization; cognitive processes and their dysfunction in disease and addiction; pediatric AIDS; HIV-1 cognitive impairments; potential neuroprotective agents. Harrod, Steven. Experimental psychology; Neuroscience; factors that influence the vulnerability for drug abuse; how prenatal nicotine exposure alters drug motivated behavior in offspring; if novel drugs have the ability to decrease drug taking behaviors; whether the sex of the animal influences various drug effects; maternal tobacco smoking.

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Chruszcz, Maksymilian. Vendemia, Jennifer. Cognitive Neuroscience; neurophysiological processes; pain perception; deceptive behaviors; executive functions; memory; emotional processes; relationship of stress to brain activation during cognitive performance. Beasley, Fred. Dennis, Bryan. Business ethics; corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, and corporate philanthropy; business management. Huebner, Scott.

Child and adolescent personality assessment; children's positive psychological well-being; school psychologists' stress and well-being; school psychology and health promotion; student engagement in school; school climate. Mitchem, Stephanie. Hein, Laura. Deflem, Mathieu. Sociology of law, crime and social control, popular culture, and theory; global diffusion of terrorist anti-police violence; history and contemporary conditions of international police cooperation; theoretical issues in sociology. Fuente, David. Infrastructure planning; Environmental policy; International development; Provision of water and sanitation services; Climate change; Society, policy, and environment; Sustainability; Water resources; Hydrology.

Simpson, Brent. Viparelli, Enrica. Grego, John. Robust Parameter Design; Mixture Models; Statistical Consulting; Environmental Statistics; Bayesian calibration for deterministic flood hydraulics models; spatiotemporal modelling of wildland fires. Habing, Brian. Hitchcock, David. Mathematical Statistics; Semi-Non-parametric Statistics; Survival analysis; Reliability theory; Applied probability; biomedical statistics. Tebbs, Joshua. Categorical data; group testing; order-restricted inference; multiple comparisons; epidemiology; public health; probability; theory of statistical inference; forecasting and time series; linear statistical models.

Huang, Xianzheng. Measurement error; Latent variables; Model misspecification; Nonparametric statistics. Barker, Sarah. Tobolski, Erica. Hunt, Robyn. Pearson, Steven. Ularu, Nic. Hunter, Jim. Addison, John. Cardinal, Laura. Management; coordination of new product development teams and product commercialization. Bass, Janice. Rasso, Jason. Crockett, David. Johnson, Jared.

Cecchini, Mark. Nagel, Caroline. Janzen, Rebecca. Grasser, Robert. Fiedler, Kirk. Flicker, Blair. Behavioral operations management, judgmental forecasting, human-computer interaction and machine learning. Fry, Timothy. Ahire, Sanjay. Empirical evaluation of operations improvement strategies; practical application of operations improvement techniques; application of operations strategy and supply chain management. Branner, Katrice. Jiang, Chao. Jackson, Scott. Jayachandran, Satish. Jayaram, Jayanth. Korsgaard, Audrey. Kostova, Tatiana. International management, macro-organizational behavior and organization theory, institutional and cultural embeddedness of multinational corporations.

Kwok, Chuck. Lane-Cordova, Abbi. Understanding the processes underlying the increased long-term heart disease risk in women who have had certain complications in pregnancy, such as preterm birth, high blood pressure in pregnancy, or preeclampsia. McDermott, John. Ozturk, Ayse. Miao, Chun-hui. Niehaus, Gregory. Corporate finance, the economics of insurance, corporate pension plans, and corporate risk management. Powers, Eric. Souther, Matthew. Ravlin, Elizabeth. Sharma, Luv. Information systems in patient-centric healthcare delivery systems, knowledge management and organizational learning issues, the role of analytics in influencing organizational competitiveness.

Rolfe, Robert. Foreign investment in Africa; business conditions in Africa; international taxation; Competitive strategies in developing countries; micro-finance; foreign investment in Africa. Summers, Christopher. Roth, Kendall. Institutional and sociocultural approaches to understanding organization practices and routines within multinational enterprises; cultural frameworks. Stefaniak, Chad. Sandberg, William. Lessner, Susan. Vascular biology and biomechanics of atherosclerosis, with an emphasis on intraplaque angiogenesis new blood vessel growth and mechanical failure plaque rupture ; methods to reduce the incidence of plaque rupture; intraplaque angiogenesis, or new blood vessel growth, as a destabilizing factor in plaque progression; relationships between mechanical loading environment, matrix organization, and mechano-sensitive gene expression; micromechanics of arterial tissue failure in plaque rupture and arterial dissection; methods to identify patients at elevated risk of acute cardiovascular syndromes where material failure plays a major role.

Spicer, Andrew. Southworth, Ginny. Tsyplakov, Sergey. Vandervelde, Scott. Whitcomb, Kathleen. Armstrong, Alissa. Homeostasis and damage repair; stem cell supported tissues; obesity; nutritional sensing; Drosophila melanogaster; nutrient sensing pathways; Stem Cell and Development; Cellular Stress. Woodward, Douglas. Wei, Jingkai. Woodworth, Lindsay. Canino, Catherine. Shakespeare and the English Renaissance; English; Italian studies; study abroad experience; Greek immigration and assimilation in Spartanburg, S. Stoeltzner, Michael. Zhang, Donghang. Gatzke, Edward. Process modeling, control, and optimization; parallel programming efforts for mixed-integer optimization, including parallel nonconvex nonseparable mixed-integer outer approximation and parallel nonconvex branch-and-reduce methods; particulate processing, bio-processes, and large scale systems.

Jabbari, Esmaiel. Tissue engineering, biomaterials and drug delivery; nanotechnology; bio-inspired nanocomposites; biologically inspired nanocomposites for bone regeneration; targeted tumor delivery with peptidomimetic self-assembled nanoparticles; stem cells morphogenesis on biomimetic substrates; fabrication of bioresorbable scaffolds with well-defined pore geometry by rapid-prototyping. Matthews, Michael. Principles of thermodynamics, transport phenomena, and kinetics with a view toward more green and sustainable methods of chemical and material manufacturing; development of novel technology for sterilization and disinfection of synthetic and natural biomaterials; abatement of indoor allergenic proteins and other respiratory hazards; utilization of chemical hydrides as a hydrogen storage medium, with application in PEM fuel cells; the role of deliquescence in the reaction between water vapor and sodium borohydride; applications of supercritical carbon dioxide for biomedical applications.

Moss, Melissa. Sadati, Monirosadat. Popov, Branko. Ritter, James. White, Ralph. Williams, Christoper. Flora, Joseph. Human resources management, school finance, leadership and school improvement, educational reform. Brown, William. DiStefano, Christine. Drasgow, Erik. Gold, Joshua. Johnson, Robert. Scoring of performance assessments; Classroom assessment, Survey design, Scoring of performance assessments, Implementation of collaborative evaluations; collaborative program evaluation.

Liu, Xiaofeng Steven. Marshall, Kathleen. Seaman, Michael. Yell, Mitchell. IEP development; legal issues in special education; classroom management; progress monitoring; evidence-based practices in special education. Yankovsky, Alexander. Carnes, Nathan. Duffy, Melissa. Jeffries, Rhonda. Understanding the educational experiences of marginalized people, and her work often examines educational phenomena through a performance theory lens.

Fetterolf, Monty. Raman Spectroscopy of Mixed Solvent Systems, Solvatachromism of dyes using electronic absorption spectroscopy, chemical education. Long, Susi. Humanizing, decolonizing, and culturally relevant equity pedagogies in preservice teacher education and early childhood literacy education. McAdoo, Terrance. Schramm-Pate, Susan. Curriculum studies revolving around women's studies, Historiography, Cultural studies, Integrated curriculum, gender theory, critical multicultural education; diversity; equity;. Styslinger, Mary. Interweave literacy into the secondary English curriculum and across the disciplines; attention on marginalized and at-risk youth including those incarcerated and those on the autism spectrum.

Thompson, Stephen. Elementary Science Education; Instruction and Teacher Education; science education methods; teacher professional development; scientist and engineer collaborations with K schools; nature-based inquiry. Mitchell, Murray. Doutis, Panayiotis. Monsma, Eva. Nilges-Charles, Lynda. McAnally, A. Walker Institute; water and wastewater treatment, particularly appropriate technology applications for developing communities; optimization studies for potable water production using low-cost portable water treatment units; water treatment for heavy metals removal and corrosion control, industrial waste minimization, constructed wetland applications for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment and education reform in civil and environmental engineering.

Gassman, Sarah. Pierce, Charles. Caicedo, Juan. Rizos, Dimitris. Ziehl, Paul. Chaudhry, Hanif. Chen, Yuche. Imran, Jasim. Meadows, Michael. Buell, Duncan. Digital humanities; Electronic voting systems; Nonnumeric computations; Computational number theory; Parallel computing; Information retrieval. Rodriguez, Linda. Poulain, Fabienne.

Neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative disorders; neuronal connections; neuroscience; signaling factors in axon pathfinding and developmental degeneration; intracellular mechanisms of axon pathfinding and degeneration; modeling neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Eastman, Caroline. Algorithms for information retrieval, Efficient file organizations, Search interfaces and user interactions, problems in database security.

Farkas, Csilla. Fenner, Stephen. Huang, Chin-Tser. Huhns, Michael. It is unlikely that anyone would have thought to test the snails for their ability to survive for prolonged periods in salt water. Even if they had, such an experiment would have had little meaning or impact. Organisms ranging from yeast to humans use an enzyme known as cytochrome C to produce high-energy molecules as part of their metabolism. The gene that codes for cytochrome C gradually has changed over the course of evolution.

The greater the differences in the DNA bases that code for the enzyme, the longer the time since two organisms shared a common ancestor. This DNA evidence for evolution has confirmed evolutionary relationships derived from other observations. By publishing his ideas, Darwin subjected his hypothesis to the tests of others. This process of public scrutiny is an essential part of science. It works to eliminate individual bias and subjectivity, because others must also be able to determine whether a proposed explanation is consistent with the available evidence. It also leads to further observations or to experiments designed to test hypotheses, which has the effect of advancing science. Many of the hypotheses advanced by scientists turn out to be incorrect when tested by further observations or experiments.

But skillful scientists like Darwin tend to have good ideas that end up increasing the amount of knowledge in the world. For this reason, the ideas of scientists have been—over the long run—central to much of human progress. At the time of Darwin, there were many unsolved puzzles, including missing links in the fossil record between major groups of animals.

Guided by the central idea of evolution, thousands of scientists have spent their lives searching for evidence that either supports or conflicts with the idea. For example, since Darwin's time, paleontologists have discovered many ancient organisms that connect major groups—such as Archaeopteryx between ancient reptiles and birds, and Ichthyostega between ancient fish and amphibians. By now, so much evidence has been found that supports the fundamental idea of biological evolution that its occurrence is no longer questioned in science.

Even more striking has been the information obtained during the 20th century from studies on the molecular basis of life. This evidence can be found in the DNA sequences of living organisms. Before a cell can divide to produce two daughter cells, it must make a new copy of its DNA. In copying its DNA nucleotides, however, cells inevitably make a small number of mistakes.

For this reason, a few nucleotides are changed through random error each time that a cell divides. For example, an A in the DNA sequence of a gene in a chromosome may be replaced with a G in the new copy made as the cell divides. Therefore, the larger number of cell divisions that have elapsed between the time that two organisms diverged from their common ancestor, the more differences there will be in their DNA sequences due to chance errors.

This molecular divergence allows researchers to track evolutionary events by sequencing the DNA of different organisms. For example, the lineage that led to humans and to chimpanzees diverged about 5 million years ago—whereas one needs to look back in time about 80 million years to find the last common ancestor shared by mice and. The theory of plate tectonics demonstrates that revolutions in science are not just a thing of the past, thus suggesting that more revolutions can be expected in the future. World maps have long indicated a curious "jigsaw puzzle fit" of the continents. This is especially apparent between the facing coastlines of South America and Africa. Alfred Wegener to , a German meteorologist who was dissatisfied with explanations that relied on expanding and contracting crust to account for mountain building and the formation of the ocean floor, pursued other lines of reasoning.

Wegener suggested that all of earth's continents used to be assembled in a single ancient super-continent he called Pangea. He hypothesized that Pangea began to break up approximately million years ago, with South America and Africa slowly drifting apart to their present positions, leaving the southern Atlantic Ocean between them. This was an astonishing hypothesis: could huge continents really move? Wegener cited both geological and biological evidence in support of his explanation. Similar plant and animal fossils are found in rock layers more than million years old in those regions where he claimed that different continents were once aligned.

Wegener attributed this to the migration of plants and animals freely throughout these broad regions. If million years ago Africa and South America had been separated by the Atlantic Ocean as they are today, their climates, environments, and life forms should have been very different from each other—but they were not. Despite Wegener's use of evidence and logic to develop his explanations, other scientists found it difficult to imagine how solid, brittle continents could plow through the equally solid and brittle rock material of the ocean floor. Wegener did not have an explanation for how the continents moved. Since there was no plausible mechanism for continental drift, the idea did not take hold.

The hypothesis of continental drift was equivalent to the hypothesis of evolution in the decades before Darwin, when evolution lacked the idea of variation followed by natural selection as an explanatory mechanism. The argument essentially lay dormant until improved technologies allowed scientists to gather previously unobtainable data. From the mid s through the early s, new evidence for a mechanism to explain continental drift became available that the scientific community could accept. Sonar mapping of the ocean floor revealed the presence of a winding, continuous ridge system around the globe. These ridges were places where molten material was welling up from the earth's interior and pushing apart the plates that form the earth's surface.

In a relatively short time, these new observations, measurements, and interpretations provoked a complete shift in the thinking of the scientific community. Geologists now accept the idea that the surface of the earth is broken up into about a dozen large pieces, as well as a number of smaller ones, called tectonic plates. On a time scale of millions of years, these plates shift about on the planet's surface, changing the relative positions of the continents. The plate tectonic model provides explanations that are widely accepted for the evolution of crustal features such as folded mountain chains, zones of active volcanoes and earthquakes, and deep ocean floor trenches. Direct measurements using the satellite-based global positioning system GPS to measure absolute longitude and latitude verify that the plates collide, move apart, and slide past one another in different areas along their adjacent boundaries at speeds comparable to the growth rate of a human fingernail.

As a result, there is a much smaller difference between human and chimpanzee DNA than between human or chimpanzee and mouse DNA. In fact, scientists today routinely use the differences they can measure between the DNA sequences of organisms as "molecular clocks" to decipher the relationships between living things. The same comparisons among organisms can be made using the proteins encoded by DNA. For example, every living cell uses a protein called cytochrome c in its energy metabolism. The cytochrome c proteins from humans and chimpanzees are identical. But there is only an 86 percent overlap in the molecules between humans and rattlesnakes, and only a 58 percent overlap between us and brewer's years.

This is explained by the evolutionary proposition that we shared a common ancestor with chimps relatively recently, whereas the common ancestor that we, as vertebrates, shared with rattlesnakes is much more ancient. Still farther in the past, we and yeast shared a common ancestor—and the molecular data reflect this pattern. In the past few decades, new methods have been developed that are allowing us to. The Human Genome Project, for example, will produce when completed the entire sequence of the 3 billion nucleotides that make up our genetic inheritance. The complete sequence of the yeast genome 12 million nucleotides is already known, as are the genomes for numerous species of bacteria from 0.

Similar sequencing efforts will soon yield the complete sequences for hundreds of bacteria and other organisms with small genomes. These molecular studies are powerful evidence for evolution. The exact order of the genes on our chromosomes can be used to predict the order on monkey or even mouse chromosomes, since long stretches of the chromosomes of mammalian species are so similar. Even the parts of our DNA that do not code for proteins and at this point have no known function are similar to the comparable parts of DNA in related organisms. The confirmation of Darwin's ideas about "descent with modification" by this recent molecular evidence has been one of the most exciting developments in biology in this century.

In fact, as the chromosomes of more and more organisms are sequenced over the next few decades, these data will be used to reconstruct much of the missing history of life on earth—thereby compensating for many of the gaps that still remain in the fossil record. One goal of science is to understand nature. Thus, scientists develop explanations for the changing of the seasons, the movements of heavenly bodies, the structure of matter, the shaping of mountains and valleys, the changes in the positions of continents over time, and the diversity of living things.

The statements of science must invoke only natural things and processes. The statements of science are those that emerge from the application of human intelligence to data obtained from observation and experiment. These fundamental characteristics of science have demonstrated remarkable power in allowing us to describe the natural world accurately and to identify the underlying causes of natural phenomena. This understanding has great practical value, in part because it allows us to better predict future events that rely on natural processes. Progress in science consists of the development of better explanations for the causes of natural phenomena. Scientists can never be sure that a given explanation is complete and final.

Yet many scientific explanations have been so thoroughly tested and confirmed that they are held with great confidence. The theory of evolution is one of these explanations. An enormous amount of scientific investigation has converted what was initially a hypothesis into a theory that is no longer questioned in science. At the same time, evolution remains an extremely active field of research, with an abundance of new discoveries that are continually increasing our understanding of exactly how the evolution of living organisms actually occurred.

It has been said that the scientist searches for truth, but many people who are not scientists claim the same. The world and all that is in it are the sphere of interest not only of scientists but also of theologians, philosophers, poets, and politicians. How can one make a demarcation between their concerns and those of the scientist? The demarcation between science and theology is perhaps easiest, because scientists do not invoke the supernatural to explain how the natural world works, and they do not rely on divine revelation to understand it.

When early humans tried to give explanations for natural phenomena, particularly for disasters, invariably they invoked supernatural beings and forces, and even today divine revelation is as legitimate a source of truth for many pious Christians as is science. Virtually all scientists known to me personally have religion in the best sense of this word, but scientists do not invoke supernatural causation or divine revelation.

Another feature of science that distinguishes it from theology is its openness. Religions are characterized by their relative inviolability; in revealed religions, a difference in the interpretation of even a single word in the revealed founding document may lead to the origin of a new religion. This contrasts dramatically with the situation in any active field of science, where one finds different versions of almost any theory. New conjectures are made continuously, earlier ones are refuted, and at all times considerable intellectual diversity exists. Indeed, it is by a Darwinian process of variation and selection in the formation and testing of hypotheses that science advances. Despite the openness of science to new facts and hypotheses, it must be said that virtually all scientists—somewhat like theologians—bring a set of what we might call "first principles" with them to the study of the natural world.

One of these axiomatic assumptions is that there is a real world independent of human perceptions. This might be called the principle of objectivity as opposed to subjectivity or common-sense realism. This principle does not mean that individual scientists are always "objective" or even that objectivity among human beings is possible in any absolute sense.

What it does mean is that an objective world exists outside of the influence of subjective human perception. Most scientists—though not all—believe in this axiom. Second, scientists assume that this world is not chaotic but is structured in some way, and that most, if not all, aspects of this structure will yield to the tools of scientific investigation. A primary tool used in all scientific activity is testing.

Every new fact and every new explanation must be tested again and again, preferably by different investigators using different methods. Every confirmation strengthens the probability of the "truth" of a fact or explanation, and every falsification or refutation strengthens the probability that an opposing theory is correct. One of the most characteristic features of science is this openness to challenge. The willingness to abandon a currently accepted belief when a new, better one is proposed is an important demarcation between science and religious dogma.

The method used to test for "truth" in science will vary depending on whether one is testing a fact or an explanation. The existence of a continent of Atlantis between Europe and America became doubtful when no such continent was discovered during the first few Atlantic crossings in the period of discoveries during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. After complete oceanographic surveys of the Atlantic Ocean were made and, even more convincingly, after photographs from satellites were taken in this century, the new evidence conclusively proved that no such continent exists.

Often, in science, the absolute truth of a fact can be established. The absolute truth of an explanation or theory is much harder, and usually takes much longer, to gain acceptance. The "theory" of evolution through natural selection was not fully accepted as valid by scientists for over years; and even today, in some religious sects, there are people who do not believe it. Third, most scientists assume that there is historical and causal continuity among all phenomena in the material universe, and they include within the domain of legitimate scientific study everything known to exist or to happen in this universe. But they do not go beyond the material world. Theologians may also be interested in the physical world, but in addition they usually believe in a metaphysical or supernatural realm inhabited by souls, spirits, angels, or gods, and this heaven or nirvana is often believed to be the future resting place of all believers after death.

Such supernatural constructions are beyond the scope of science. The following dialogue demonstrates a way of teaching about evolution using inquiry-based learning. High school students are often interested in fossils and in what fossils indicate about organisms and their habitats. In the investigation described here, the students conduct an inquiry to answer an apparently simple question: What influence has evolution had on two slightly different species of fossils?

The investigation begins with a straightforward task—describing the characteristics of two species of brachiopods. She gives the students a set of calipers and two plastic sheets that each contain about replicas of carefully selected fossil brachiopods. Let's begin with some observations of what they look like. The students quickly conclude that the fossils have different sizes but that they cannot really tell any other difference.

Here's what I want you to do. Break into groups of four and decide among yourselves which of those two characteristics of the fossils you want to measure. Then graph your measurements for each of the two different populations. For the rest of the class period, the students investigate the fossils. They soon realize that the number of ribs is related to the size of the fossils, so the groups focus on measuring the lengths and widths of the fossils. They enter the data on the two different populations into a computer data.

We see from one set of graphs that the fossils in the second group tend to be both wider and longer than those in the other group. What could that mean? As I mentioned last week, these fossils are from marine animals known as brachiopods. When they die their shells are often buried in sediments and fossilized. What I know about the fossils you have is that they were taken from sediments that are about million years old. But the two sets of fossils were separated in time by about 10 million years. Here are some of the questions you can consider as you're writing up your arguments. What differences in structure and function might be represented in the length and width of the brachiopods?

Could efficiency in burrowing or protection against predators have influenced their shapes? The following week, Karen holds small conferences at which the students' papers are presented and discussed. She focuses students on their ability to ask skeptical questions, evaluate the use of evidence, assess the understanding of geological and biological concepts, and review aspects of scientific inquiries. During the discussions, students are directed to address the following questions: What evidence would you look for that might indicate these brachiopods were the same or different species?

How could changes in their shapes have affected their ability to reproduce successfully? What would be the likely effects of other changes in the environment on the species? The materials needed to carry out this investigation are available from Carolina Biological Supply Company, York Rd. Phone: Today many school students are shielded from one of the most important concepts in modern science: evolution. In engaging and conversational style, Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science provides a well-structured framework for understanding and teaching evolution. Written for teachers, parents, and community officials as well as scientists and educators, this book describes how evolution reveals both the great diversity and similarity among the Earth's organisms; it explores how scientists approach the question of evolution; and it illustrates the nature of science as a way of knowing about the natural world.

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