Lesson Plan: Darwin + Diversity

Objective: To better understand the diversity we find around ourselves here on campus by looking through the eyes of Darwin

Goals:
- Understand the role that Darwin plays within the idea of diversity and fit that into our daily lives
- To consider once again our relation to nature: Darwin vs. spirituality, our relationship with animals and plants
- To begin our debate on Darwin's theories vs. a spiritual approach to nature
- This is the last discussion of the semester, so I wanted to tie together all the loose ends: starting with natural selection and the origin of species and ending in death.

1. Obviously a diverse atmosphere here on campus. Name weird things seen this past week, the weirdest thing you have seen this semester…

2. Darwin’s ideals of natural selection: Can anyone explain briefly what these are?

o Skaggs: “‘The most vigorous and healthy… must generally gain the victory in their contests’ of survival. This means that there are more factors than simply strength and intelligence that determine the survival and continuance of a certain organism. Their sexual appeal and ability to produce offspring is also important. It doesn’t do an antelope much good to be fast enough to escape the lion only to be so ugly that no one will mate with it…. It is the elegant simplicity of Natural Selection which makes the idea so convincing to me.”
o Saumya: “It makes sense. The strongest (fittest) make it through tough conditions.”
o Kristen: “In Wallace’s paper, published in 1858, “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type,” he attempts to prove ‘that there is a general principle in nature which will cause many varieties to survive the parent species, and to give rise to successive variations departing further and further from the original type.’ But because we do not generally suffer from animal overpopulation, there must be some sort of limiting factor. Those that can survive better do, and those who are less able to survive do not.”

3. Everyone obviously has their own opinions about natural selection, but as Skaggs pointed out, most the conflict comes with Darwin’s theory on evolution and origin. Would anyone like to share their beliefs? Or maybe the beliefs that they were raised with?

o Saumya: “Contrary to Kristen's home, mine was one of full support for the theory of evolution. My dad, the "believer in science" definitely supports Darwinian views. My dad would use the "survival of the fittest" idea to motivate me to do well in all aspects of life.”
o Skaggs: “I’m very much in favor of the idea of Natural Selection and I tend to support Evolution…”
o Kristen: “I believe that God's word is true and that He did create the world we live in. But that is not to say that he did not use evolution as His means to an end… Although Genesis states that God created everything in seven days, Peter states that ‘one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’[2] This statement claims that God’s concept of time is different to ours.”
o Kajal: “Therefore, my little theory constitutes that God controls everything… But in all reality, I know nothing.”

4. How does the idea of diversity play into Darwin’s work? Apply to our surroundings: Austin, UT campus (nature- plants and animals), and the people we find here.

o Survival of the fittest (JUDE) vs. compassion and sympathetic imagination
i. Austyn: “Self-preservation- not in the literal sense, rather in the ideal sense- wewant to be on top, and, when we’re too old and decrepit to maintain that position, we want someone to hold it for us. That someone would be our offspring.”
ii. Jenny: “However, for the homo sapien, a physical impediment does not mean the end of his/her gene contribution in the world. Because we have developed technology,”

o How do we feel about ancestors as animals? (from museum tour)

5. Alice and Diversity: What are some examples of diversity in Alice that we can apply to our lives and to Darwin’s theory?

6. As Saumya discussed, what traits (of those we have studied this semester) do you feel are most important when looking to create the “fittest” person, the “most evolved?”

o Saumya: “Intelligence - the ability to analyze the world around you as well as history. An education is necessary for this (this involves a strong left and right brain).Compassion - the ability to have empathy for others. This may not seem like a vital key to survival but because humans are social animals, it is.Sympathetic imagination - the ability to connect, to other people, to animals, to nature.”
o Austyn: ““We strive to be the best we can, and, translated into our current standards, that means the wealthiest and, though some could argue, the most beautiful. However, why do we do this?”
o Examples of Traits/Ideas we have studied: Compassion, Sympathetic imagination, Left- Right Brain mastery, Unity, Education, Leadership, Meditation

7. How does this fit in with the “new persona” we are trying to create for ourselves?

o Diversity as a virtue

8. As we create our “new persona” we must deal with the idea of death. If we consider evolution we must consider time, and that brings us to the idea of death (or the absence of time in our life)…Go to page X: 1004. Answer the question “Why?”

o Kristen: “The rocks that make up the building around campus contain the “skeletons and ghosts”[5] of those that walked this earth before us. And like Newt, I also find comfort in knowing that death and the fear of death is a common emotion between all of humanity. The idea that dying has been going on for generations and that it is the natural progression of life instead of something to fear holds a certain amount of comfort.”
o Skaggs: “Evolution is not observable on any timeline that we humans are capable of understanding. Given a long enough timeline (say millions to billions of years, a timeframe we cannot even begin to fathom as humans who live mere decades), evolution will begin to seem far more probable and believable.”

The Longhorn

The longhorn is not only a UT tradition; it is a Texas tradition as well. We all have friends and/or family that live outside of this great state (for reasons I do not understand...) that ask us the cliché things about riding to school on horses and living on ranches with cows. I always furiously defend my fellow Texans and explain that we do not in fact live on farms and ranches, that we are civilized. But at the same time there is a portion of me that wants desperately to return to that "uncivilized" time in our history when the livestock roamed free and home was on the range, back to a time when horses were the main source of transportation. Back to the time when the famous cattle drives went up the Chisholm Trail. Every great Texas museum puts a nostalgic air around these rough and wild days of our ancestors. There is something about the longhorn that brings out a certain amount of emotion in Texans. Their power, pride, yet usually gentle ways say a lot about Texans in general. We are all proud of our state, for better or for worse. We think we are the biggest and best (because we are…sorry Dana and Russell). And we are generally laid back and easy going people; where else in the world can you smile at everyone you meet on the street for no particular reason and be sure that they will smile right back?

For the University of Texas, there could be not be a better fitting mascot than the mighty longhorn. As a symbol of the state of Texas for many years, it only made sense for the first public university, funded by the state of Texas, to have the longhorn as its mascot. Since its founding the longhorn has become the totem animal for all things UT. As the Encyclopedia Americana states a totem animal is “an animal… with which a social or religious group feels a special affinity and which is often considered to be the mythical ancestor of the group.”[i] Although all UT fans far and wide definitely feel an affinity for the longhorn I doubt any of us actually believe we are decedents from cows (if only the mascot was a monkey…). There are three basic elements to being a totem animal. First is the social, second is the psychological, and third is the ritual.[ii] UT has all of these. We are adamant fans (a social group) who go crazy while guys in burnt orange uniforms throw a little ball to each other (psychological problems). Before big games with our rival teams we have torch light parades and hex rallies (rituals).

On a more serious note, the power and majesty of the mighty longhorn has long held the respect of Texans, from the days of the cowboys to the present. As Frank Dobie said of the longhorn, “He was a drifter at times; he ranged far and could walk to the end of the world; but the Longhorn was also a home lover and a persistent returner to his querencia, as the vaquero language call the place where an animal is born or to which her shows a strong attachment.”[iii] Longhorns such as Old Whitey “will remain the bedrock on which the history of the cow country of America is founded.”[iv]

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[i] X: 901
[ii] X: 901
[iii] X:258
[iv] X:829

Darwin, Diversity, and Death

Darwin and evolution were bad names in my home. My parents are staunch religious folks. I was taught that God created everything in seven days, and that was that. There was no exploration of the topic, no discussion. But because the topic was forbidden, I was determine to explore it. I remember not telling my parents that I was studying the topic in my biology class for fear of them calling my teacher and demanding she teach creation as well. I also remember being captivated by the foreign topics and ideals and reading everything I could about them; hiding my books under my bed so my parents would not find them. With all this being said, my parents are great people. I have since realized that they would not have cared if I was studying the topic. Since reaching the age of accountability, my parents have never forced their beliefs upon me. They often say, "I taught you right from wrong and expect you to find your own way down that path."

Since this time in my childhood I have somewhat mixed the ideals of creation and evolution together. I believe that God's word is true and that He did create the world we live in. But that is not to say that he did not use evolution as His means to an end. Thousands of years ago, the writers of the Bible could not be expected to understand the concepts and ideas behind evolution, simply stating that “God created”[1] was enough for them. Today's technology allows us to further understand the "how" behind creation. Although Genesis states that God created everything in seven days, Peter states that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."[2] This statement claims that God’s concept of time is different to ours. Our lives are a speck in all of time to a deity that has always existed and will always exist. Who is to say that it did not take thousands of years for God to create this Earth and everything in it? If He is truly omnipotent and omnipresent then He knew from the beginning that science would progress to the point that we would begin to understand the complexities of how this amazing world was created.





Alfred Wallace was the forerunner to the ideas that Darwin was to later make famous in his Origin of Species. In Wallace’s paper, published in 1858, “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type,” he attempts to prove “that there is a general principle in nature which will cause many varieties to survive the parent species, and to give rise to successive variations departing further and further from the original type.”[3] Using this idea as a basis for his research, Darwin further developed it to produce his controversial idea of Natural Selection. In an extract from an unpublished work on species, Darwin begins by discussing how that if each animal reproduced every year and lived the average lifespan, and her offspring reproduced and lived the average lifespan, and so on and so forth, that there would be an extreme overpopulation of animals in that region. But because we do not generally suffer from animal overpopulation, there must be some sort of limiting factor. Those that can survive better do, and those who are less able to survive do not. This is the foundation of natural selection. He states that all non-domesticated animals are in competition with one another for resources, and those who are better suited due to small variances in their design are therefore selected by nature to survive. Because they survive these better suited animals are able to reproduce. Eventually those traits that are more favorable will take over the original less favorable traits or as Darwin state it, “Each new variety or species, when formed, will generally take the place of, and thus exterminate its less well-fitted parent.”[4] Thus, evolution by natural selection.

While studying evolution this year in Plan II Biology, I have finally come to fully understand the ideas that I first began to study in middle school. I have formed my own personal theories and concepts and understand that the diversity of the campus around me can be linked not only to my personal faith in an omnipotent deity but also to the philosophies of generations of scientists who have spent their entire life trying to unravel the mysteries of our existence. The rocks that make up the building around campus contain the “skeletons and ghosts”[5] of those that walked this earth before us. And like Newt, I also find comfort in knowing that death and the fear of death is a common emotion between all of humanity. The idea that dying has been going on for generations and that it is the natural progression of life instead of something to fear holds a certain amount of comfort. There is an all knowing deity in charge of the world and I am beginning to scratch the surface of the “how” behind its complex workings; life, death, and change are all part of the cycle.
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1. KJV Bible, Genesis 1:1
2. KJV Bible, II Peter 3:8.
3. Philip Appleman (editor). Darwin. (Norton: New York, 2001) 62.
4. Philip Appleman (editor). Darwin. (Norton: New York, 2001) 86.
5. X:1004

Horses and Mustangs

Horses. Man, I really love them. They bring out something in me, an emotion that I cannot quite describe. They have this Spirit about them, something free and untamable. They are noble, even in the meanest of positions. When I see them broken and forced about mundane tasks, I get upset. The horses forced to plod around carrying "star-crossed lovers" in carriages about downtown-- forced to breathe in pollution and exhaust because someone thinks they are "cute." I get upset. It goes against the notion that I have in my mind…to explain I must backtrack.

As a child my parents did not allow a television in the house; they felt that we needed to get more out of our childhood than a stories about purple dinosaurs and superheroes could teach us. Instead we played outside and were taken to the local library twice a week. I remember reading all the normal children's books: princesses and princes, cowboys and Indians, fairy tails, fantasy worlds, books that taught morals, books about nonsense, etc, etc. But the books that stand out the most were those about horses. As I grew older and started to read "chapter books," my copy of Black Beauty became worn out. Soon I had read every single one of Louis L'Amour's books. I loved the thrill of the cowboys and their trusty horses, fighting for what was just and right across the wild western landscape. My imagination was further fuel by my mother's numerous accounts of her own childhood growing up on a farm/ranch. As far back as she could remember she and her cousin (who lived with them) had always spent their free moments "roaming the land" atop their own horses. My grandmother teases that my mother could ride before she walked. My mother retold the stories of sneaking out late at night to get a last minute ride through the pastures and of the long afternoons spent somewhere on their land, no one but her and her horse- BJ. I longed to experience these adventures for myself, but growing up in the city left me no chances to fulfill these dreams.

I distinctly remember my first experience atop a horse. When I was still very young, probably five or six, a co-worker and friend of my father invited our family to a bar-b-que at his house. His family owned two horses: Nosey and Prissy. After begging all afternoon, he finally saddled up his horses and allowed all the children to take turns riding. All of this story has been told to me afterwards. The only memory I have of the experience is of sitting in my mother's lap while the horse was moving. I remember my amazement at the horse's mane and strong neck. I was later told that after riding the horse I stood by the fence all afternoon long, refusing to move and staring at the horses. My mom tells me that I spent the entire afternoon (long after all the other children gave up and found other pursuits) trying to coax the horses to eat grass out of my hands. I faintly remember climbing on the coral fence and calling to the horses, trying desperately to my the clucking sound my father's friend had to bring the stubborn horses closer. I remember more than anything the amazement that they brought to my child's mind. They seemed majestic and powerful, yet gentle and friendly. That is the impression I have held ever since.

My second experience with horses was unfortunately not so nice. I was on my morning run through a nearby park and trail and decided to take a different route. I found that it ran alongside the edge of a private field that contained a horse. The horse was actually at the edge of the fence reaching out trying to eat the grass on the other side of his barrier. When I came around the corner and saw him I decided to help him out. I picked a handful of the luscious green grass he was stretching for and held it out for him. Not a good idea. He ate the grass and my hand. I doubt he meant to, but my hand had bruised for weeks. Note to self: do not approach strange horses…

Thankfully my last experience with horses was much better. My mom took my little sister, one of her friends, and me to ride horses at a stable out at the BLORA recreation center close to our home in Temple. There they have horse that have been rescued from abusive owners and nursed back to health. The horses are used to give tours of the Lake Belton area. This is the only time in my adult life that I have actually been able to ride. It was amazing. The horse I rode was named Canyon. He was a desert sand color. The thing that stands out the most is all the different horses' personalities. They were all their own person. Although they allowed you to ride them, the only person they really listened to was their owner, a middle-aged Indian man. He treated them with respect but expected them to mind his every command, and they did-- gladly. Despite the abuse each horse had endured at an earlier point in their life, the Indian gentleman had restored them to their original noble position and given them a position they were proud to carry out.

These experiences are a far cry from how Dobie describes the herds of wild mustangs "leaping and curvetting," [1] running "wild and beautiful," [2] "only fenced by the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghenies." [3] The horses we see today are tame and broken to the will of man. They are rode by those who can afford to have them. The cowboys and mustangs of the past are gone, never again will the stories of those long ago campfires be seen in today's world. A movie depricting this transition in our culture was "Spirit," an animated showing of how a horse may have precieved the events that lead to the capture of almost all wild horses.



Today, some horses have it easy, others are unfortunately mistreated and when dead are sent to the glue factories and slaughterhouses. No longer are horses allowed to make the long journey to their "querencia" to die or to foal in their "place." [4] Horses are now kept in stables, pens, and fields. They are fenced in by man, yet they have retained their Spirit and nobility throughout the years. Do they still have the longing to run free? To run and run without meeting a fence? Do they still have their ancestor's instincts as well as their noble look? If they do, what right do we have to cage them?
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NOTES:
[1] X: 849
[2] X: 852
[3] X: 856
[4] X: 852