Hello everyone, my name is Ashwarya Ashleen Chand.

I’m a fourth year BSCGCED student

In biology the theory of evolution doesn’t tell us exactly how life began on earth, but it helps
us understand how life – once it came into existence – diversified into the many forms we
see now and in the fossil records. It also helps us make sense of the way in which modern
creatures continue to adapt and change today. In biology evolution can be defined as any
change in the heritable traits (which are physical traits like fur colour in mice, spots on the
wings of butterflies) within a population across generations. Today many of you will have
heard of evolution and natural selection but it hasn’t always been this way. In the early 19 th
century, scientists were still very much in the dark as to how living things evolved. While the
idea of evolution had been around for a while the phenomenon went unnamed and was
without a proposed mechanism until two famous scientist named Charles Robert Darwin
and Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, came up with their own theories of evolution. However, their
inference on how evolution occurred is based on conflicting ideas.

Lamarck noted that animals seemed very well suited to their environment and suspected
that throughout their lifetime, animals improved themselves. Lamarck also thought that
these changes caused by the animals struggle to survive were passed on to the next
generation which then continued the evolutionary process. Darwin realized that in any
population of living organisms, there already exists variation in any given characteristic as a
result he argued that nature would favour or select fittest variants. This is natural selection.
By fitness Darwin meant the ability of an individual to survive and to pass on its
characteristics to the next generation over time changes in the characteristics of a species
could occur. He also proposed that the changes within a species occurred very slowly
through a gradual process.

Lamarck’s Theory

 Lamarck believed that an organism adapts itself with the environment. These
adaptations are transferred to the next generation up to the point when no further
adaptations (improvements) are needed.
  He said that the environment plays a crucial role in forming the shape and structure
of an organism.
 Therefore, according to Lamarck, interaction with the environment and use and
disuse of an organ plays a crucial role in evolution.
 He believed that if an organism is bringing any change in its characteristics during its
lifetime to adapt to the environment, these changes will be transferred to the next
generation.
 Lamarck said that these characteristics that are being adopted by organisms with
environmental interactions and use and disuse of organs and are then being
inherited into the next generation are known as acquired characteristics.
 Acquired characters are those changes that are acquired in the body of an organism
during their lifecycle in the somatic cells, mainly in order to adapt to the
environment. He believed that these changes (acquired characters) if displayed by
one or more organisms of a population, will be displayed/transferred in the next
generation of the organisms.

Darwin’s Theory
 Not all individuals of a species are exactly the same. There is variation between
them.
 The individuals who are best adapted to their environment are the most likely to
survive.
 These individuals are more likely to reproduce and pass on their useful adaptation
onto their offspring.
 Individuals that were poorly adapted were less likely to survive.
 Over time, the characteristics that help survival become more common and a
species gradually changes.
 Given enough time, these small changes can add up to the extent that a new species
altogether can evolve.
Examples
The most common way to present Darwin’s theory of evolution in contrast with Lamarck’s
earlier explanation, is to illustrate the difference between views of the evolution of giraffe
neck. Lamarck, suggested that giraffe necks became longer as the animals tried to stretch
their necks to reach food (Law of Use and Disuse). The longer necks acquired in this way
would then be passed on to their offspring (Law of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics).
Continued stretching over the generations led to today’s long-necked giraffes. Darwin, on
the other hand (it is said), proposed that early giraffes had necks of different lengths, some
longer and some shorter (Variation). Limited food supplies meant that not all giraffes could
obtain enough food to survive (Competition). Giraffes with longer necks could survive better
and reproduce, passing their long-necked trait to their offspring, while those with shorter
necks more often died off before being able to reproduce (Natural Selection). Over the
generations the average giraffe neck became longer due to this process.
Recap
Darwin’s Theory Lamarck’s Theory
Theory of natural selection – where the Theory of use and disuse - species lose
organism best adapted to the environment functions and organs they do not need or
will survive use
Inheritance and variation – difference Transmission of acquired traits - tiny
within the species changes in an organism could be triggered
by an environmental event
Extinction No extinction

Activity

Given your understanding of both Lamarck’s and Darwin’s ideas about evolution, determine
whether the statements on the next page are more Lamarckian or more Darwinian.

 The widespread use of DDT in the mid-1900s put pressure on insect populations to
evolve resistance to DDT. As a result, large populations of insects today are
resistant to DDT.
 This is a Lamarckian statement. DDT worked only against insects that had no DDT-
resistance genes. The genes for DDT resistance had to be present for insects to
survive DDT use in the first place.
 According to one theory, the dinosaurs became extinct because they couldn’t
evolve fast enough to deal with climatic changes that affected their food and
water supplies.
 This is a quasi-Lamarckian statement. Organisms do not purposefully evolve.
(Genetic recombination experiments are perhaps an exception.) Once you are
conceived, your genes are not going to change; that is, you are not going to evolve.
The genetic composition of a species population can change over time as certain
genotypes are selected against. Genes determine phenotypes. The environmental
conditions may favour the phenotype produced by one genotype more than that
produced by another.
 Many of the bacterial strains that infect humans today are resistant to a wide
range of antibiotics. These resistant strains were not so numerous or common prior
to the use of antibiotics. These strains must have appeared or evolved in response
to the use of the antibiotics.
 This is a quasi-Lamarckian statement. Although the strains evolved in response to the
use of antibiotics (the antibiotics killed off the strains that did not have genes for
resistance), the strains did not appear in response to the antibiotics. If no resistance
genes were present when antibiotics were applied, all would have died off.
 Life arose in the aquatic environment and later invaded land. Once animals came
onto land, they had to evolve effective methods of support against gravity and
locomotion in order to survive.
 This is a Lamarckian statement. If the animals were not already able to support
themselves and move in gravity, they would not have survived on land.
 A given phenotypic trait—for example, height, speed, tooth structure— (and
therefore the genes that determine it) may have positive survival or selective
value, negative survival or selective value, or neutral (neither positive nor
negative) survival or selective value. Which of these it has depends on the
environmental conditions the organism encounters.
 This statement is Darwinian. Each of the variants we see in phenotype has a specific fitness
and, as a result, a selective value under the existing environmental conditions.
Reflection after conducting a class should be a necessity. Reflective teaching has allowed me
to look back at my teaching practises and find ways in which I could further improve my
teaching strategies for better student learning. For this lesson, I began by preparing a lesson
plan. In this lesson plan, my first task was to outline the learning objectives. This helped me
determine the kind of teaching and learning activities that I could use in class, furthermore it
those activities in turn helped me check whether those learning objectives had been
accomplished. Moreover, I also developed a creative introduction for the topic to stimulate
interest and encourage thinking. My approach to capture student interest and ensure
engagement was to make use of ICT. I used interactive board to present the notes and add
visual aids. Additionally, for the content of the lesson, I did not follow the Textbook notes
for the year 12 Biology, instead I made my own notes. However, I did use it for reference.
Conducting this lesson made me realise that I still need to work on many areas of my
teaching. For instance, I really need to work on my time management skills and ensure that I
properly follow the time given in the lesson plan. I also need to ensure that I conduct class in
a manner that’s is suitable and inclusive of all students.