BIO 2102: Evolution
Mode of Delivery
1. Rationale
This module trains you to develop a scientific way of thinking about biological diversity rather than attempting to memorize facts about the history and diversity of living things. As the course proceeds you will acquire an evolutionary way of thinking about the remarkable diversity of life on the planet earth. The course will take you through the process of evolution step by step and make you understand how the fossil record accounts for the history of life, what evidence there is to support the idea of evolution, how changes in organisms take place to bring about species and finally how patterns of life, which we refer to as biodiversity, come about. One of the patterns of evolution of life is exemplified by the evolution of human beings. Key to understanding evolution is the mechanism of evolution, which explains species diversity through variation. Ultimately, you will be able to account intelligently for the extinction of dinosaurs and the eventual radiative evolution of the primates culminating into the human beings. You will also be able to explain how some of the insects came to resemble so much and yet fail to interbreed or in other instances why organisms may look so different from one another and yet interbreed and give rise to fertile offspring.
2. Prerequisite or knowledge
This is a course developed for students who are going to do evolution for the first time. Therefore you should have a working knowledge of the chromosome theory and the nature of meiosis with particular reference to recombination and its advantages in the process of reproduction. You should also be conversant with the principles and concepts of Mendelian and post Mendelian genetics to be able to describe the terms such as genotype, phenotype and variation. This will require you to know that a gene is the unit of heredity and that it is located on the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule. You should understand the structure and role of DNA, as the universal molecule that specifies the amino acid sequence of proteins in cells of organisms. This knowledge should be of an elementary type as described in an Advanced level textbook of Biology.
- Online
- Blended mode online and face to face
- Face-to-face
1. Rationale
This module trains you to develop a scientific way of thinking about biological diversity rather than attempting to memorize facts about the history and diversity of living things. As the course proceeds you will acquire an evolutionary way of thinking about the remarkable diversity of life on the planet earth. The course will take you through the process of evolution step by step and make you understand how the fossil record accounts for the history of life, what evidence there is to support the idea of evolution, how changes in organisms take place to bring about species and finally how patterns of life, which we refer to as biodiversity, come about. One of the patterns of evolution of life is exemplified by the evolution of human beings. Key to understanding evolution is the mechanism of evolution, which explains species diversity through variation. Ultimately, you will be able to account intelligently for the extinction of dinosaurs and the eventual radiative evolution of the primates culminating into the human beings. You will also be able to explain how some of the insects came to resemble so much and yet fail to interbreed or in other instances why organisms may look so different from one another and yet interbreed and give rise to fertile offspring.
2. Prerequisite or knowledge
This is a course developed for students who are going to do evolution for the first time. Therefore you should have a working knowledge of the chromosome theory and the nature of meiosis with particular reference to recombination and its advantages in the process of reproduction. You should also be conversant with the principles and concepts of Mendelian and post Mendelian genetics to be able to describe the terms such as genotype, phenotype and variation. This will require you to know that a gene is the unit of heredity and that it is located on the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule. You should understand the structure and role of DNA, as the universal molecule that specifies the amino acid sequence of proteins in cells of organisms. This knowledge should be of an elementary type as described in an Advanced level textbook of Biology.
Knowledge of basic ecology will help you to understand that the species is the fundamental unit of a population and that populations constitute a community. These organisms have specific areas of preference called habitats where a set of environmental conditions in terms of both climate and food favour their existence. Outside these conditions a species fails to cope with life and may get eliminated. Each species in a habitat plays a specific role.
It will also be useful for you to have a working knowledge of biostatistics or elementary
algebra for working out probabilities and doing binomial expansions as this knowledge
is of fundamental importance when considering change in a population with time.
3. General objectives
At the end of the course you should be able to;
- Understand the theories of evolution.
- Discuss the evidence for the process of evolution.
- Explain the mechanisms involved in the process of evolution.
- State the sources of variation in organisms.
- Explain how variation leads to biodiversity.
- Understand the concepts of speciation in natural populations.
- Discuss specific examples of coevolution.
- Discuss the conditions under which the Hardy-Weinberg principle operates.
- Understand the major trends in the process of human evolution.
- Apply methodologies used to study evolutionary biology
4. Time
This module will take you 120 hours at most to cover all the contents
5. Material
To complete this module successfully the following items are necessary; access to a personal computer; access to internet facilities, CD-Rom and capacity to undertake field studies. Permission must be sought from relevant authorities to visit fossil sites such as those in Kenya, South Africa and Zambia. And to undertake study visits of Museums that have historic commentaries on the evolution of man. One such Museum is the one based in Livingstone the tourist Capital of Zambia.
Programs and Courses
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