The question in question was about the proposed use of the herb pau d’arco as a prophylactic against MRSA: Evaluate the claims of the therapist, then use your biological knowledge to discuss the advice given. What are the possible evolutionary & ecological outcomes of the proposed treatment?
Continue readingTag: critical thinking
did dinosaurs have lungs like those of birds?
If you studied animal form & function in year 12, you may well have looked at gas exchange systems. Most first-year bio courses will build on that, & at Waikato we introduce a whole range: skin surface, external & internal gills, the tracheal system in insects, & lungs. Including bird lungs. Now, bird lungs are […]
Continue readingthinking carefully about the question
We spend quite a bit of time on critical thinking during the Schol preparation days. This is because of the need – identified by the examiner’s report every year – for candidates to think critically about both the question (just what is the examiner asking me to do?) and their response to it (what, of all […]
Continue readinganswers to wells’ questions – all in one place
Cedric’s suggested that I should collate all my answers to Wells’ "10 questions to ask your biology teacher" all in one place. It hadn’t even occurred to me, so – thanks, Cedric, & here you are 🙂
Continue readinga pile of brown stuff
I was eating my muesli & idly flicking through the ‘lifestyle’ insert that comes with the morning paper when I happened on a page of ways to get oneself healthy for summer. Since at the moment my preparation for summer consists of walking the dog every morning & pedalling madly on the exercycle in the […]
Continue readinghas human evolution stopped?
The other day I mentioned I was reading Steve Jones’ book, Coral. He’s a good writer & I’ve enjoyed Coral, just as I’ve enjoyed most of his other books (although The single helix didn’t quite work so well for me). Anyway, yesterday a friend sent me a link to a report about a talk Jones had given – […]
Continue readingdeconstructing ‘processes & patterns of evolution’
A while ago my friend Heather, who’s a biology teacher, asked if I would write something on answering questions in the ‘processes & patterns of evolution’ paper (AS90717). Here you are, Heather – I finally got around to it 🙂
Continue readingso what’s that 10th question?
For the last of his ’10 questions to ask your biology teacher’, Jonathan Wells offers: EVOLUTION A FACT? Why are we told that Darwin’s theory of evolution is a scientific fact — even though many of its claims are based on misrepresentations of the facts?
Continue readingarrowheads revisited
Yesterday I spent some time with year 13 students from Otumoetai High School, over in Tauranga. We were talking about human evolution & at the end of the session one of the students asked me a question about arrowheads. I wasn’t able to answer it then, but I’ve had a bit of time since to […]
Continue readingcaptain cook & global warming – who’d have thought?
This one comes directly from the pages of Ben Goldacre’s BadScience blog – an excellent example of why media reports on science need to be read (listened to?) carefully and with your critical thinking antennae twitching: Here is a cautionary tale for anyone working in research. “Captain Cook and Lord Nelson seem unlikely figureheads in […]
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