Going against the grain... Lets Re-Program, not re-FORMAT!

Conceptual change... how do i start off this one? Well dealing with it in BioEd was kind of fast and painless, if had to sum it up. We basically just dealt with ways in dealing with misconceptions i.e. getting the correct concept behind whichever theory, or fact you need to teach and by extension understand for yourself of course. I'm sure you've come across the saying "the blind cant lead the blind" and "its always best to get your facts straight."

Well to get our "ducks in a row" since we are scientists, we used evolution and the survival of the fittest. We watched a excerpt of the Multi-drug resistant form of TB and how it has spread within a Russian Prison. Inmates already find it hard to take medication for the normal TB strain and because of this, strains of TB evolve resistance to the drugs that worked on them previously at a greater rate. *see video

We were then handed a questionnaire, that seem to have basic questions pertaining evolution. The first question was about 5 lions and the amount of lionesses they mated, the number of offspring they fathered, and the general circumstances the lived through up until their death. we then had to determine which lion was the fittest when taking the information given to us in consideration.

The second questioned pertained to blind cave fish and their loss of sight, and whether we agreed that it was due to isolation in the dark.

The third regarding bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and why antibiotic resistance could be a concern.

The last question pertained to the resistance of pests to pesticides, and why we think they have adapted resistance.

Although we all were very aware of Darwin's principle of survival of the fittest and we understood why these changes manifested in the examples given above, we all still leaned towards Lamarck's Explanation of purpose and drive. As in "the cave fish did not need eye sight, thus over generations they became blind as sight was wasted energy in a dark place."

Whereas Darwin's principle of survival of the fittest was the most logical, it just seemed to simple of an answer. Thus it was simply not given much of thought. But the principle of individuals having useful traits enabling them to outlast, out compete or out live their competitors suited much better because of the process of elimination. Elimination of the weakest and the survival of the strongest/best suited (fittest), allowed these stronger individuals with stronger or better traits to reproduce and pass on these traits to their offspring. In turn, allowing the next generation to be better suited. better able to survive and outlast those not that well suited.

This helped change our previous concept, and miss conception regarding evolution as a process of purpose to a process of natural selection.