Goodbye Option D: Evolution

When I first started teaching the Diploma, my Head of Science at the time, enthused about Option D – Evolution unit as THE biology unit that best embodies the philosophy of the IBO (and I believe him to be right), encapsulating the notion of commonality of all, sharing the same common ancestors.

I continued to teach option D for 18 years, and was therefore disappointed to find that the unit has now been broken up and sections removed. No more Human evolution, no more Hardy-Weinberg equation.

I therefore thought I would use this entry to share my resources on the Option

D1 Origin of life on Earth

Video that runs through a plausible theory for the origin of the genetic code

Video on Hydrothermal Vents –

[youtube id=”D69hGvCsWgA”] or try this from David Attenborough

Video – Origin of life made easy

Video Miller -Urey summary But remember this was later discredited as the Earth was shown to contain CO2 in its early years, which was absent from the Miller-Urey experiment

D2 Species and Speciation

Video Natural selection made easy

[youtube id=”R_RXX7pntr8″]

Online simulation on Evolution and a second simulation from Phet

Video on the finches of the Galapagos

[youtube id=”l25MBq8T77w”]

Sex and the gubby simulation from the PBS

Peppered Moth simulation website

D3 Human evolution

Lets start with a neat simulation which I have used to teach radioactive dating.

And regarding HUman evolution, I will leave you with the following;

[youtube id=”Mm-IxK1GrYE”]