What is biology education like without evolution?

[Heretical Rants]

Curiosity has overcome me.  This whole "evolution" buisiness seems to be rather fundamental to the field of biology.

How do you explain things without admiting that species change over time?

How does heredity work out?  How do you explain diversity of life?  How about applied biology related to antibiotic/pesticide/herbicide resistance?  Hell, even molecular biology could be tricky...

[Squid]

I went through high school without mention of evolution in biology class.  We talked about things such as basic chemistry and touched ever so slightly on ecology.  When we talked genetics it was all Mendelian and we did exercises like pairing up with someone and seeing who had dominant traits - brown eyes, dark hair as opposed to blue eyes, blonde hair and we had to make a "offspring" and draw what they would look like.  That was the culmination of the genetics portion.  Our class ended with looking at birds outside in the trees.  I went to high school in the early 90s in rural Texas so that should clue you in as to what the curriculum was like.

[LoneMateria]

Biology without evolution is like ordering a hamburger and only getting the buns.

[Heretical Rants]

When we talked genetics it was all Mendelian

That even points in the direction of evolution!
 

...just be glad it wasn't Lamarkian, eh?

[Squid]

When we talked genetics it was all Mendelian

That even points in the direction of evolution!
 

...just be glad it wasn't Lamarkian, eh?

Our genetics consisted of dominant and recessive genes, Punnett squares and that's about it.  We only had about two minutes on Mendel and his peas.

[skwurll]

Well, I'm taking biology class in my sophomore year of high school, so I can tell you. I feel as if we're missing out on some crucial parts in class. In my class we barely even mentioned evolution, the furthest we went was to study Mendel and his experiments on pea plants. We completely skated over how species evolved.

But it's okay, I watch the discovery channel.

[Achaios]

Evolution is indeed one huge part of biology. In Greece up to last year it was left to our discretion if we were to start teaching evolution to students,i.e., there was a question like "why is this similar to that?" and I started chattering on the aspect of evolution. From this year onwards we have started teaching evolution, mind you not on a full blown scale. just the basics of the darwinian theory and a small comparison to Lamark's theory.
At least it takes out the frustration of hearing people saying we are the descendants of monkeys :bananacolor:

[SSY]

We had a brief talk on evolution, then my teachers eyes flicked to the Christian student in the front row, who's parents were apt to complain to the school, and quickly added "If that is what you believe of course". I was miffed at the time, scientific theories are not dependent on your opinions.

[curiosityandthecat]

Curiosity has overcome me.

Sorry, sometimes I can't control myself.  

[Killa_Kron]

Curiosity has overcome me.  This whole "evolution" buisiness seems to be rather fundamental to the field of biology.

How do you explain things without admiting that species change over time?

How does heredity work out?  How do you explain diversity of life?  How about applied biology related to antibiotic/pesticide/herbicide resistance?  Hell, even molecular biology could be tricky...

On a slight side note...does biology have fundamentality?  Can there be a fundamental aspect to a subject where there is only (in my opinion) one logical answer or reason for something?  I guess that because it is the only reason it could be counted as fundamental, but I don't see how that works.

 :bananacolor:  :bananacolor:  :bananacolor:

[Achaios]

I got confused about evolution being fundamental to biology now.. Do you mean in the sense of being the foundation of biological sciences? I think of evolution as an underlying aspect, like a web tying things together. sorry for my english..

[Ellainix]

I guess it's like the Eiffel Tower without metal?

[Tank]

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution

"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" is a 1973 essay  by the evolutionary biologist and Russian Orthodox Christian  Theodosius Dobzhansky, criticising anti-evolution  creationism  and espousing theistic evolution. The essay was first published in the American Biology Teacher, volume 35, pages 125-129.

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This is the quote most often cited and interesting as it was made by a Christian supporting Theistic Evolution.

[Tank]

Well, I'm taking biology class in my sophomore year of high school, so I can tell you. I feel as if we're missing out on some crucial parts in class. In my class we barely even mentioned evolution, the furthest we went was to study Mendel and his experiments on pea plants. We completely skated over how species evolved.

But it's okay, I watch the discovery channel. :eek:   :verysad:

[Logikos]

I guess it's like the Eiffel Tower without metal?

It's more like the Eiffel Tower without construction.  Biologists can study the "metal" (biological structures) of organisms without evolution, but understanding why the metal is the way it is requires knowledge of "construction" (the evolutionary process).