Episode 5, The Evolutionary Epic

  Assignments

• Watch Crash Course Big History #5, The Evolutionary Epic

• At the bottom of our Cosmic Calendar page. I added a table of geological periods. Try to estimate the Cosmic Calendar dates for various periods in the table. For example, the Hadean Period (4.6 billion years ago), falls roughly in the middle of August.

• At How Scientists Know About Evolution, watch the first two videos to get a brief overview of the ideas of mutation and natural selection. Other videos there are about evidence for this model of evolution. Watch any that look interesting. 

• The most powerful and detailed evidence for evolution and evolutionary relationships comes from comparing DNA sequences among species At How Scientists Know About Genes, watch the last video, How We Know Evolutionary Relationships. 

• Before each class, check the appropriate episode page(s) for Assignments, things To Think About, More Resources, and the day before class, check Your Questions. To be sure that your own question or comment is considered for the upcoming Monday class, submit it at least 24 hours beforehand (Sunday morning).

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To Think About

• Read this poem. Think about connections between the poem and this Episode 5 of Crash Course Big History.

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More Resources

• Sequencing DNA from Dirt: https://www.sciencealert.com/for-the-first-time-dna-has-been-sequenced-from-ancient-soil-samples

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Your Questions

On every page of this web site is a form where you can contribute questions, comments, or suggestions. Any contributions that pertain to this page will appear HERE. Shortly before each class, check Your Questions for the episode(s) assigned.

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