From One Thing to Another

There is a saying that life is just one thing after another, implying that things just keep piling up, keep happening, and never slows down to let you catch your breath.  This may be true to some extent, but what you do with yourself as those things occur is what makes the difference in how you handle life.  
Are you going to let it overrun you? Just let life keep going while you complain about the pace and the growing complexity of things as all of it passes you by?

Or are you going to be the change? Be the person that evolves into something that has adapted to their surroundings and has the capability to thrive in a variety of systems?  

There is more opportunity available today than ever before to become whatever you want to be.  If you are not taking that opportunity, then you are the organism that felt this whole walking thing and breathing air thing was just a passing fad.  You are an unevolved life-form that is destined to lose its viability and become an afterthought of time.

You can study whatever you want today, whether you go to college or not.  If you don't or can't attend college, so what? Go online and learn for free from a MOOC, teach yourself how to code, just do something to keep yourself learning, to keep yourself changing, and evolve into your next existence.  

I get questions all the time from students who snicker and ask about the TweetChats I participate in and the one I created.  This is something that I do to keep learning from a community of people who I have a shared experience of teaching and coaching.  I am learning something new by reading their thoughts and interacting with them to understand what they do that makes their existence and their contribution to this world amazing.  And by taking in what they say and applying the ideas that I feel will be rewarding to you and to me I am evolving.  I am becoming the teacher, the coach, and the person I want to be.  I am becoming more than what I was.

That is the definition of evolution.  Going from one thing to another.


Evolution is the theme that we are following as we go from one organism to the next.  We will examine how each animal adapted and where those adaptations came from.  This is something I have never done before with my classes, but I believe this is where we need to go.  These are higher level connections that I am asking you to make with the material, and I hope I do a good job of guiding you through it.  I believe the connections we make this way will help you understand more about life on earth, and also help prepare you to make connections with whatever subject matter you study in the future.  

Your group essay is a first step.  You will show how much you know about one question and then share it with your group.  Together you will critique and edit each other's response to form your group's perfect response.  Create the document on Google Docs, share it with your group and when you are complete, share it with me.  Use the resources I have given you to produce your essay.

Worm Phyla

Sponges

Cnidarians (Jellyfish and Anemones)