A valid literacy in science entails knowing what science CAN do, what science CANNOT do, and HOW science is actually done in the real world of scientists. Science should be understood as a very useful and reliable way of knowing how the natural world works. One of the best examples one could use to help illustrate the nature of modern science is the theory of evolution. This concept is fundamental to all of biological and medical science today, as well as many other scientific disciplines. Evolutionary theory, as it is understood and used in science today, is also widely misinterpreted, misapplied and misunderstood by most people.
Clearly, any biology course today which does not fully and accurately present and use the theory of evolution is a woefully incomplete biology course. Just as importantly, because a clear and accurate understanding of evolutionary thinking rests on a clear and accurate understanding of science, learning about the nature of modern science should precede learning about evolution. Both of these topics are probably most effective and useful when presented very early in the biology course.
The following 32 concepts include SOME of the key ideas used in the ENSI/SENSI program.
2. Understanding science enables one to differentiate it from pseudoscience and non- science.
3. Scientific knowledge is uncertain, tentative and subject to revision.
4. Scientific explanations and interpretations can neither be proven nor disproven with certainty.
5. Scientists use a variety of criteria to compare explanations and select the better ones.
6. Human values deeply influence science (its terminology, the questions asked, and the criteria used for choosing among theories).
7. Several independent lines of evidence confirm that the earth is billions of years old.
8. The Second Law of Thermodynamics applies to whole systems rather than to their parts.
9. The scientific view of the origin of life on earth is that it did not involve supernatural processes.
10. Currently scientists assume that life will originate under appropriate geochemical conditions.
11. The origins of DNA and the genetic code remains a puzzle.
12. The fossil record shows a pattern of increasing diversity and large-scale changes through time.
13. Transitional forms are generally mosaic; that is, some traits evolve more rapidly than others.
14.The groups-within-groups hierarchical pattern of Linnaean classification is a result of both extinction and branching from common descent.
15. Different classification schemes (such as phenetics and cladistics) produce contrasting classifications of the same organism because they utilize different criteria and values.
16. The five-kingdom scheme represents a compromise between more accurate descriptions of biological reality and other scientific values.
18. Modern apes and humans evolved from a common ancestor.
19. Many features of modern organisms reflect the structure of their ancestors in ways that are not adaptive.
20. Many lineages may have become extinct for reasons other than interspecific competition.
21. The production of genetic variation is random with regard to the adaptive requirements of the organism.
22. Natural selection alone can account for most of the adaptive features of organisms
23. Traits are usually favored by natural selection only when they result in more reproductively successful offspring.
24. In many cases, increases in individual fitness are obtained in ways that reduce individual life span.
25. In many cases, increases in individual fitness are obtained in ways that reduce the number of offspring per parent.
26. Most traits exist for the benefit of the individual rather than for the good of the species.
27. While natural selection explains evolutionary modifications within lineages, speciation explains evolutionary branching and diversification.
28. Speciation involves genetic differentiation, ecological differentiation (niche separation) and reproductive isolation.
29. Some evolutionary change is rapid and discontinuous (not a result of the incremental accumulation of minor genetic modifications).
30. Speciation can occur in only a single generation.
31. Evolutionary theory is central to modern biological science.
32. Biological evolution is one of the strongest scientific theories known.