Wednesday, October 18, 2006

More relevance

My BIOL121 classes don't start until January, but teaching is creeping more and more into my mind lately so I'm going to be posting more about it.

This year I'm going to try to make the material (genetics, ecology, evolution) more relevant, by regularly asking "How can we use this information or these methods to help ourselves make better decisions about the things that matter to us?"

Genetics can help us make decisions about health or family.

Understanding ecology can help us preserve and support the parts of the world we value most.

What about evolution? Is it unimportant because it's all in the past? The biggest issue in many people's lives is their belief in a supreme being whose supernatural powers created the world and living things. Understanding evolution shows us that the wonderful sophistication of living things could have arisen without divine intervention.

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