These video programs that I watched under the "for students" tab, were well produced and once again reminded me of what a good teaching tool video can be. The medium can be very powerful and effective for educational purposes, especially with today's media savvy audiences who are used to visual imagery. Personally, I learn best this way as well.
The first show, discussed whether evolution was just a 'theory' -or- not. We learn that what 'theory' means in science (basically a working postulate, based on rigorous scientific inquiry) is different from the common way the we use the word. However, I felt that this whole discussion excluded the point about how the perspective of the observer effects the outcome of a given experiment and I would also think a given postulate. All in all, it explained how the accepted scientific approach makes certain assumptions based on the information that is available at the time...which can and does change over time whenever new data becomes available. It seemed to present the process as very intellectually driven/left brain dominant, devoid of intuition and somewhat stilted.
The Darwin piece I found very interesting. It's fascinating to watch how someone's thought processes develop and to observe the path they travel during their process of inquiry and discovery. Imagine having 5 years of your life, in that day and age, to travel the seas and experience new territories and specires. Also, you could very clearly see how intuition and hunches played a role in developing his ideas for Darwin. I was most impressed that he spent 23 years researching, thinking about and developing his ideas before he published! Talk about commitment to your process and ideals. I realize that there were professional concerns as well, since Darwin didn't want to be ridiculed by his peers, or be outcast from society by challenging the biblically based, genesis of the species held as truth at the time. In any case, compared to 23 years, it makes the number of years we have to spend studying Acupuncture, sound more feasible.
The last video I watched had to do with how we know that evolution actually happened by examining ancient skeletons of the land-based ancestors of whales. I thought that it's amazing that people are able to do this kind of work. To find the skeletons and then gently remove them for posterity and carbon-date them is like trying to put together an amazing evolutionary jig-saw puzzle! At the same time, I'm not sure the I agree with some of the links they make between species. Seems like there are alot of liberties taken in the process.
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Despite Darwin's professional concerns and hence, not publishing for 23 years, I think it's actually a concept that could be useful in today's society for so many things! I feel that scientists today (I believe someone brought this up in class) have such a knee-jerk reaction to research and other medical/healthcare issues without thinking of more long term consequences. What immediately comes to mind is the vaccine that just came out for Hep C. I personally don't believe it has been thoroughly researched enough to be released to the public, and to such young girls. eek!! Who knows what will side effects will occur in 5, 10, 15+ years as a result of the vaccine. If Darwin was in charge, maybe there would be no vaccine because after 20 years of research, he might have discovered that the side effects are NOT worth the vaccination!
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