Charles Darwin, Ardi, and Creationism

The year 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species."

Darwin's work has led to the fundamental theory of evolution which continues to be validated each year from living examples and the fossil records from many archaeological digs. Recently, scientists have discovered "Ardi" the remains of most of the skeleton of a 4.4 million-year-old woman, who may have been a descendant of the modern-day ape and human. Ardi, found in Ethiopia, would predate "Lucy," a 3.2 million-year-old fossil also found in Africa.

Paleontologist Tim White of UCLA Berkley, who led the team that assembled the skeletal remains of Ardi over the last 15 years made this statement: "It was a sort of a time capsule from 4.4. million years ago with contents that nobody had ever seen before."

Despite the increasing numbers of fossil evidence being found, combined with current examples of species evolving, both Creationists and proponents of a more sophisticated version called "Intelligent Design," continue to find major fault with Darwin's theory of evolution. Each of these opponents to the theory of evolution is based on biblical information and empirical evidence and not on any real world evidence.

ProQuest has created a BookCart (details) learning activity for your students to use: "Evolution and Intelligent Design."

It includes four models of essential questions for critical thinking that you can assign to your students. You can easily create or substitute others if you wish. Here are the instructions for copying this BookCart and almost 100 others for eLibrary Science:

• Logon to the eLibrary Science TEACHER EDITION to access BOOKCART EDITOR.
• Click the BOOKCART ADMIN link below the Search Box.
• Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab.
• Review the list of Folders on the left margin and click:
  ELS eLibrary Science—BookCarts
• Scroll down and find "Evolution and Intelligent Design."
• Click the COPY icon in the ACTIONS column to the right of this title.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

This BookCart can easily be edited for most effective use by your students:

• Click the new BookCart Title with the prefix "COPY OF."
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your first and last name in the AUTHOR boxes.
• Type your email address in the EMAIL box next to Author boxes.
• Edit the sample of STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Option: type call numbers for PRINT RESOURCES related to this topic.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click MY LOCAL CARTS tab to see your newly edited and ready to use learning activity.

Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.

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