1. Common Misconceptions about Evolution

2. Individuals Evolve? Individuals cannot evolve. Only populations can.
Individuals can only acquire adaptations that help them survive in the environment. Evolution does not occur within one individual. It takes several generations to happen.

3. Natural selection is Evolution?
Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations.
Natural selection is a mechanism of evolution. It is just one way that makes evolution occur.
Others are genetic drift, gene flow, and mutation.
We’ll get into what natural selection is another day.

4. Evolution is Random? Evolution is neither random, nor non-random.
Mutations can be completely random, however, natural selection is not.

5. Evolution is a theory?
Comes down to the meaning of theory. Everyday meaning of theory is “hunch” or “speculation”.
Scientific definition of theory is “well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Such fact-supported theories are not "guesses" but reliable accounts of the real world.
In other words, a scientific theory is an explanation that is backed up by many observations and experiments.

6. True or false: Biological evolution explains the origin of life on Earth.

7. True or false: Biological evolution explains the origin of life on Earth.
Evolution only concerns life after origin, and how it has evolved.

8. True or false: Populations and species can evolve, but individual organisms cannot.

9. True or false: Populations and species can evolve, but individual organisms cannot.
Individual organisms can only adapt/mutate, evolution occurs in populations, and over generations. Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations.

10. True or false: New adaptations arise when a species needs them.

11. True or false: New adaptations arise when a species needs them.
New adaptations occur by mutations, which is random.

12. True or false: Evolution’s goal is to make species better suited to their environment. That explains why animals that live in caves have lost their eyes.
True
False

13. True or false: Evolution’s goal is to make species better suited to their environment. That explains why animals that live in caves have lost their eyes.
True
False
Evolution does not have a goal. An organism with beneficial adaptations is more likely to survive and reproduce than an organism lacking those adaptations. Therefore, over multiple generations, a population shifts toward individuals that are well suited to their environment.

14. Evaluate the following statements:
Natural selection is one mechanism of evolution.
Natural selection means the same thing as evolution.
Yes, both statements are accurate.
Only the first statement is accurate.
Only the second statement is accurate.
No, neither statement is accurate.

15. Evaluate the following statements:
Natural selection is one mechanism of evolution.
Natural selection means the same thing as evolution.
Yes, both statements are accurate.
Only the first statement is accurate.
Only the second statement is accurate.
No, neither statement is accurate.
Natural selection is one mechanism of evolution in which individuals that are best suited to an environment are most likely to pass on their genes.