Did reading this book help you understand some of the concepts we discussed in class? Please explain.
I just watched a Cosmos episode that you would like about many of the concepts we discussed when finishing the book last week. Here's a description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_of_the_Things_That_Molecules_Do
You can watch Cosmos on Netflix if you have access. Otherwise, it looks like National Geographic channel will rebroadcast them.
The Evolution book helped me understand some of the topics a little bit better but I found that talking about it in class was a lot more helpful. I sometimes found the book confusing and hard to understand. I felt like we spent a lot of time talking about the theory of evolution in this class and contrasting it with the creation theory. Personally, I found the Cosmos videos on space and time way more interesting and would have preferred to spend a lot more time discussing those topics instead of spending so much time on evolution.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Allison, as much as the book was helpful it was also very challenging to read. The class discussions really helped to answer questions and pinpoint the most important topics in the reading. I had a hard time keeping the theorists straight as we moved from chapter to chapter.
DeleteI agree with Allison 100%! While the book was helpful in some areas, it was also very challenging in others. I often got confused in many chapters of the evolution book. I often found myself just literally reading the words of the book, but not actually taking any of it in. If that makes sense? Talking about in class really helped though. And I LOVED the Cosmos videos. I could and would (if I had time) watch them all day. I found those to be so interesting! I easily followed the videos and understood what was going on. They were very helpful. I guess when it comes to science for me, I am a very visual person--so the videos were very helpful!
DeleteI think the Evolution book helped a lot in understanding what we were talking about in class. It contained many elements of the class that we talked about and flowed well with the class. I found it easy to follow and enriching with what knowledge I have already been exposed to in my time here at Thomas More. I think there could have been some chapters skipped in the book in order to allow more time to go into more details with other subjects that people find interesting in this class.
ReplyDeleteThe Evolution book helped me understand the discovery process of evolution. It helped me understand that evolution is more than Darwin's theory of natural selection, it is a collection of scientific discovery and knowledge that was put together by scientist looking to find the "truth." It also explained the history of science and how/ why behind the scientist discoveries.
ReplyDeleteIt was also easy to read, the author or authors did a good job of explaining the theories and also giving you enough background information on the topic so that the reader could fully understand what is written.
When discussing evolution in previous years of high school, I would agree with Will that the focus was on Darwin. To be honest, I had no previous knowledge of any of the other theorists involved in evolution. I had thought it was more of one solid theory as opposed to many that contrasted with each other. The process of finding the "truth" of evolution is very challenging, in which we must find the scientists to be objective as opposed to going off of their opinions or religious and social beliefs.
DeleteI agree with Will here. I really enjoyed the Evolution book that we read throughout the semester. Will makes a great point about the discovery process of evolution. This book really helped me gain a better understanding about the process of evolution as a whole. What I liked a lot was how each of us were assigned a chapter in the book and we had to present it to the class. Having these outlines that the other students made from their chapter helped me understand the book even better.
DeleteReading the evolution book helped me but also confused me at somepoints. Sometimes i felt like the book was hard to follow and jumped all over the place and other times it helped me alot to understand what we were talking about in class. then the discussions helped even more.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Larson's Evolution was helpful in the fact that it tried to help non-philosophers and / or non-scientists understand the ideas in it. It was kind of like a book for dummies, but I also had some problems with the book. It jumped around a lot, and it felt like tangents were common. Also, some explanations were hard to follow. But, I feel that with class discussion the book is easier to grasp. The book is easer to use in conjunction with a class. I don't think I could ever read it by myself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ran also. He says that the Evolution book was helpful more to non-philosophers and non-scientists to help grasp a better understanding of it. I think he is absolutely right because for me, obviously I am not a philosopher or a scientist but this book was intended for an audience like me and I really enjoyed that. In my opinion, this book made the class go smoother and made it easier for me to understand and grasp my head around all of the fascinating things that we discussed over the course.
DeleteI agree that some of the vocabulary would be hard to understand for a non-science major and also the in-depth detail of some of the processes may have been uninteresting to others.
DeleteI think this text was very beneficial. It allowed people of different majors and interests to come together in this class and have intelligent conversations about the concepts we covered in class. Also the class and the text flowed very well together and together they were really able to drive the information home. It was presented in more than one way allowing for a wider audience to understand the information at hand.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this text was very philosophical and was able to peak the interest of people coming from many different backgrounds
DeleteReading this book definitely helped me to understand the concepts we discussed in class because it gave us many examples of the terms we spoke of. This book allowed us to not only see the history of evolution but gave us the various arguments of this subject in which brought us to the definition we have today. The book "Evolution" also showed us the disapproval that some creationist had and still have today on the idea of evolution.
ReplyDeleteReading this book did help clear up some of the concepts that we learned in class. It helped me realize a whole different part of science existed and that they is a reason to why evolution it the way it is or other concepts. I was amazed at the fact that Darwin did have some type of religious faith and that he did not only believe evolution was the only answer. I had been told throughout my other classes that he was completely against the ideas that God had anything to do with evolution.
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