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standardized testing in education
standardized testing in education
standardized testing in education
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Among the great debate of religion lies the question in the theory of evolution. Evolution is not questionable, it is fact, but are we still evolving? The answer lies within the last few thousand years. Henry Harpending from the University of Utah says, "We aren't the same as people even 1,000 or 2,000 years ago." Due to the rapid evolution in technology, it is easy to see humans are evolving socially, but humans are mostly experiencing changes within their genetic makeup. Using limited data, Professor Harpending and seven other universities found over 3.9 million point mutations. The fact is, 7% of the human genes are rapidly evolving. On average, seventy new mutations appear per generation. The mutations are fueling the rapid evolution in …show more content…
In the popular “Darwin’s Theory” survival of the fittest was the key role in evolution, but does that include intelligence? Robert Ehrlich discusses the evolution of intelligence in his article “Are People Getting Smarter or Dumber?” Through several standardized testing, it is easy to see the rapid incline of passing students in the past few years. IQ scores have also been on the incline. The rapid inclination of IQ score has become known as the Flynn Effect. The Flynn Effect seems like solid supporting evidence for evolution, but the Flynn Effect has flaws. It is impossible to narrow down why humans are achieving high IQ scores. Many factors could play into the high IQ scores such as test taking skills. The high IQ scores correlate with the amount of standardized testing. Since students are taking several standardized tests a semester, they are becoming test savoy. In actuality, scientists are believing humankind is becoming …show more content…
If the thousands of mutations continued to occur without natural selection, humans would have thousands of subspecies, and resources would be scarce. Natural selection brings diseases that are connected to mutations to create a pathway for evolution, but without natural selection humans are evolving with no direction. Modern medicine has become so advanced, diseases are no longer a threat to the population. When an epidemic breaks out, a cure or vaccination is created within two years. “Medicine can be described as ‘the comprehensive attempt to frustrate the course of nature’” as said by John Harris. When cancer was first introduced to mankind, it was because humans are living too long. Now cancer is being found in children and babies. Cancer is nature’s way of reintroducing natural
Malcolm Gladwell makes many debatable claims in his book “The Outliers”. One of these controversial topics is brought up in chapter three when he talks about a person’s IQ and how that relates to one’s success. Gladwell says, “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.”After reading “Outliers” I believe that this is the greatest controversial topic. I agree with Malcolm Gladwell because there are a high amount of people who are not incredibly smart that are very successful, success can be viewed differently by different people, and from my own experiences on the U-High
Although humans believe they have reached their full intellectual potential, evolution is constant in all creatures. Humans and animals have been in the making for millions of years and continue to be influenced by their environment. Through the use of logos, Nadia Drake successfully explains the basic concepts of human evolution which includes dates, locations, and relations. Using this the audience better understands the process of evolution and the debunked myths that surround
In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell makes the claim that IQ does not have an accurate correlation to success after a certain point. Specifically, he says, “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.” IQ tests and other talent assessments have long been used to enroll students in gifted education initiatives. It has been argued that not only are IQ tests inaccurate, but gifted programs are detrimental to a child’s education. While I concede that IQ tests are not the best way to determine intelligence, I still insist that gifted programs are beneficial for children that show a special aptitude in different school subjects. Without advanced programs to challenge children with unique abilities, these students are unable to reach their full potential.
The evolution of the human species has significantly changed during the course of evolution to what is now the modern day Homo sapiens. Some of the changes that have occurred through the evolution are bipedalism, changes in body features such as brow ridges, and an increase in brain capacity.
In my visit to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), I observed many interesting things concerning the issue on evolution and natural selection. An example of evolutionism I saw in the AMNH was the Hall of Human Biology and Evolution. This hall concentrated on human evolution and how certain traits arose through successful generation—such as the change in the skeletal system as a result of walking upright. Fossils of Australopithecus afarensis, which is believed to be the earliest human relative, are dated back nearly 4 million years.
We as humans are alway changing and growing this idea however is the same for all living things. This idea was develop by the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin. This theory provide insight to how evolution has changed species over time. Which, through this article I will be addressing the mechanisms of evolution as well as how Charles Darwin helps to provide insight to how the mechanisms of evolution works.
The majority of scientific work in genetics and genomic sequencing has been done in the last 155 years. In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species where he proposed evolution by natural selection. Evolution is the change of inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.Yet, the principals of genetics required to explain how characters are ...
Genetic mutations have occurred for several years throughout history and can be considered the basis of evolutionary mechanisms of many organisms, particularly in primates and human beings.
Are we still evolving? How do humans and apes share a common ancestor? Modern human species or Homo sapiens have shown great similarities in the physical and genetic makeup to another group primates species, the apes. Both organisms share a common ancestor dating back eight to six million years ago. Evolution means change over time. Human evolution is the process by which humans have emerged from apelike ancestors. Through sequences of mutations, genetic drift, migration, and natural selection and technology we are able to observe the amazing amount of similarities and diversity of humans to other living organisms. Humans have roamed the earth for about six million years. At least, that is from when the oldest human ancestor was discovered.
Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.
My project question is: has human development disabled the power of genetic mutations and natural selection or enhanced it? My aim is to understand the importance of natural selection and the impact that human development has had on it. According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary(p 334), human development is defined as the process of enlarging people’s freedom and opportunities and overall well being through various resources. I will research the effect that the progression of humans, in terms of their developments, has had on the abnormalities that have come to occur. I chose to do this topic because only in the last 5 to 10 thousand years of humans existence on the planet earth has a distinct difference in the DNA structure of the human begun to arise. These differences are of recent occurrence. A population explosion was intense up until two decades ago (Paul and Anne Ehrlich,1989) and it is a great interest of mine to understand what influence it had on the mutations that have come to occur. I aim to have a better understanding of whether the majority of the mutations that are occurring are beneficial and therefore encouraging the human races survival or harmful and therefore causing its demise.
Evolutionary theory throws humans into a tizzy. Driven by the need to amass knowledge, we find ourselves surging forward into the exploration of a story where the more we know, the less we can feature ourselves. Eminent evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr contends that anthropocentrism and belief in evolution by natural selection are mutually exclusive (Mayr 1972). In other words, the Darwinian story of biological evolution rejects the notion of progress and replaces it with directionless change, thereby subverting the conception of human superiority on a biological scale toward perfection. Evolution by natural selection undermines the idea that humans are the culmination and ultimate beneficiaries of all nature. However, to say that anthropocentrism necessarily dissolves in the rising tide of evolutionary theory is to ignore the ways in which human centered humanness plays an intriguing role in evolution.
Nearly, six million years ago, humans evolved from apelike ancestors. Today, Genetic Engineering has tried to modify the DNA and evolve a superior human race, devoid of disease, increased life span and much more resilient and robust than before.
Evolution is defined as the process in which there is a change in allele frequency within a population over successive generations, in response to evolutionary forces (Ridley, 2004). The rate of evolution is a measure of how quickly these allele frequency changes take to establish within a population. Evolution is a highly complex process, due to the numerous contributing factors that influence it (Hamilton, 2009). Therefore the rate at which it occurs varies greatly, influenced by a combination of factors such as the mutation rate, the type of mutation, population size and life history traits of taxonomic groups (Frean, 2013). The rate at which evolution occurs is an aspect of Evolutionary Biology that remains highly disputed,
Without evolution, and the constant ever changing environment, the complexity of living organisms would not be as it is. Evolution is defined as a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations (8).Scientists believe in the theory of evolution. This belief is based on scientific evidence that corroborates the theory of evolution. In Figure 1 the pictures of the skulls depict the sequence of the evolution of Homo-sapiens. As the figure shows, man has evolved from our common ancestor that is shared by homo-sapiens. The change of diet of homo-sapiens over time has thought to contribute to the change in jaw structure and overall skull shape.