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Get this puzzling activity from your teacher and have fun coloring. cutting and gluing :)

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After watching the video come up with 3 questions you have about what you learned in the video

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After watching the video come up with 3 connections you have about what you learned in the video and about what you have learned in class.

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Created using PowToon -- Free sign up at http://www.powtoon.com/youtube/ -- Create animated videos and animated presentations for free. PowToon is a free tool that allows you to develop cool animated clips and animated presentations for your website, office meeting, sales pitch, nonprofit fundraiser, product launch, video resume, or anything else you could use an animated explainer video.

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Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut.

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That's the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week.

For generations the appendix has been dismissed as superfluous. Doctors figured it had no function. Surgeons removed them routinely. People live fine without them.

And when infected the appendix can turn deadly. It gets inflamed quickly and some people die if it isn't removed in time. Two years ago, 321,000 Americans were hospitalized with appendicitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most of it is good and helps digest food.

'A good safe house'
But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix's job is to reboot the digestive system in that case.

The appendix "acts as a good safe house for bacteria," said Duke surgery professor Bill Parker, a study co-author. The location of the appendix - just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine in a sort of gut cul-de-sac - helps support the theory, he said.

Also, the worm-shaped organ outgrowth acts like a bacteria factory, cultivating the good germs, Parker said.

That use is not needed in a modern industrialized society, Parker said. If a person's gut flora dies, they can usually repopulate it easily with germs they pick up from other people, he said. But before dense populations in modern times and during epidemics of cholera that affected a whole region, it wasn't as easy to grow back that bacteria and the appendix came in handy.

In less developed countries, where the appendix may be still useful, the rate of appendicitis is lower than in the U.S., other studies have shown, Parker said.

The appendix, which is about two to four inches long, may be another case of an overly hygienic society triggering an overreaction by the body's immune system, he said.

Even though the appendix seems to have a function, people should still have them removed when they are inflamed because it could turn deadly, Parker said. About 300 to 400 Americans die of appendicitis each year, according to the CDC.

Five scientists not connected with the research said that the Duke theory makes sense and raises interesting questions.

The idea "seems by far the most likely" explanation for the function of the appendix, said Brandeis University biochemistry professor Douglas Theobald. "It makes evolutionary sense."

The theory led Gary Huffnagle, a University of Michigan internal medicine and microbiology professor, to wonder about the value of another body part that is often yanked: "I'll bet eventually we'll find the same sort of thing with the tonsils."

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centers for disease control and prevention

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Scientists may have found appendix's purpose

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Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut. Don't miss these Health stories More women opting for preventive mastectomy - but should they be?

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http://www.ck12.org/life-science/Structural-Evidence-for-Evolution-in-Life-Science/lesson/Structural-Evidence-for-Evolution-MS-LS/
Once students have completed readings students are required to answer the following questions:

1.  What is a vestigial structure?  Give an example.

2.  How does embryology provide evidence for evolution?

3.  Given an example of a structure that is present in human embryos, but has disappeared by birth?

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As students watch the video, they answer the following questions:

1.  According to the video, one out of thirteen people can do what just like chimps?

2.  What does vestigial mean?

3.  List four examples of vestigial structures.

4.  What is lanugo, why is it considered a vestigial structure/behavior?

5.  What was the purpose of having a third eyelid?

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NOVA | Common Past, Different Paths

Time-lapse color microphotography by Lennart Nilsson shows four embryos during development. This video from NOVA: Odyssey of Life, captures the shared ancestry of animals with backbones. Viewers watch as each embryo passes through early stages that look very similar.

This video is available in both English and Spanish with closed captions.

For more information visit .

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Time-lapse color microphotography by Lennart Nilsson shows four embryos during development. This video from NOVA: Odyssey of Life, captures the shared ancestry of animals with backbones. Viewers watch as each embryo passes through early stages that look very similar. This video is available in both English and Spanish with closed captions.

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Watch the following video and answer the questions
in the passport
Video is below the questions or cut and paste the youtube link
Questions for video

Evolution of the feather
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPLgfGX1I5Y&authuser=0

1.  What's an anatomical detail that some dinosaurs share with birds (that no other animal does)?

a.  scales

b.  beaks

c.  wishbones

d.  eggs

2.  Dinosaurs used feathers to fly.

a.  True, flying dinosaurs sometime reached the size of small airplanes.

b.  False, dinosaurs weren't coordinated enough to fly.

c.  True, feathers are delicate but supported dinosaurs at heights up to 1,000 feet.

d. False, dinosaur arms were too short to support flight.

3.  What's the use of a peacock's tail feathers?

a.  To attract a mate.

b.  They help it fly longer distances.

c.  Peacocks use their tails to swim.

d.  They sweep small bugs into piles, making it easier to eat.

4.  What does Zimmer mean by accident of physics?

a.  Feathered dinosaur arms may have allowed dinosaurs to run faster uphill and glide short    distances after jumping.

b.  The advantages dinosaurs with feathered arms could have led to a natural selection of longer, feathered dinosaur arms.

c.  The intention of the feathers most likely started as one thing and shifted to a completely different thing (the lift created from the feathers was an accident of physics).

d.  All of the above.

5.  Approximately how long did it take from the time the first feather evolved until the first animal took flight?

a.  1 million years

b.  100,000 years

c.  50 million years

d.  500 years

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The Clarification of Homologous versus Analogous Traits and how they connect to Evolution.

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NOVA Online/Odyssey of Life/Morphing Embryos

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Homologous Structures vs Analogous Structures (1:53)

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Homologous Structures vs Analogous Structures (1:53)

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Homologous Structures vs Analogous Structures | Key Differences

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Get the copy from the teacher to complete the activity

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What is the Evidence for Evolution? (11:21)

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What is the Evidence for Evolution? (11:21)

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Comparative Anatomy: What Makes Us Animals - Crash Course Biology #21

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Darwin’s Theory- Homologous, Analogous, Vestigial Features

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Please read the following article

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Discusses how evidence from living species provides clues about evolution.

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(3:33)