AQA A-Level Biology
The following extracts from this specification are relevant to the teaching of origins:
A2 Module 5 Inheritance, variation and Ecosystems (Biology and Human Biology)
A Variation and the Mechanisms of Inheritance and Evolution
Genetic information is copied and transmitted from generation to generation. Natural selection acting on genetic variation is thought to have led to the enormous diversity of living organisms.
TiS: We welcome the inclusion of the caveat 'is thought' here, though it does raise the question 'by whom?' Not all scientists believe that natural selection, acting on genetic variation, can create new complex, specified information. Students deserve to be able to explore these issues.
14.3
Selection and change in allele frequency
The concept of change in allele frequency due to selection.
Directional, stabilising and disruptive selection.
Examples chosen to illustrate this concept should include a study of the incidence of sickle-cell anaemia in relation to malaria and consideration of the evolution of resistance to pesticides and antibiotics as an example of the effect of human activity.
Speciation
The importance of reproductive isolation in the formation of new species. Allopatric and sympatric speciation.
TiS: For more information on some of these topics, see essays on this website on Sickle-Cell Disease and The Development of Biological Resistance.
14.4
Evolution has resulted in different species of organisms. They are classified into five kingdoms
TiS: This is slightly ambigous: many scientists who are skeptical of the claim that all of life is the result of unguided evolution still believe that at least some evolution has happened in all species of organism, and at least some new species have arisen. In that sense then, this is uncontroversial. However, the combination of the two sentences above would seem to imply that all five kingdoms of life, and the species within them, are the result of evolution alone. This is a controversial claim, and should not be taught as an unquestionable fact.
Quote
Evolution by natural selection...has lately come to function more as an antitheory, called upon to cover up embarrassing experimental shortcomings and legitimize findings that are at best questionable and at worst not even wrong.
Robert B. Laughlin, A Different Universe (New York: Basic Books, 2005)
Robert B. Laughlin, A Different Universe (New York: Basic Books, 2005)
Extras
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