How would you explain evolution to a child?

Question

this is paragraph length for an answer

Answer 1

you don't explain evolution to a child.
you teach them the truth, and that certiantly isn't evolution. we couldnt just be here from the evolution of mycorrhizae. so i am made form a plant. BS! I am not a monkey either. Tell your kid we are all monkeys then he'll know the truth about evoltuion, its full of ****.

Answer 2

In all forms of life parents pass their features to their children by way of genes. Some times these genes change (mutation) so that child will have features that are not like its parents. If the new features give an advantage to the child it will prosper and pass them on to its children. If the new feature is a disadvantage then the child will be less likely to survive to have children. Over many generations the number of mutations that give advantages build up until the descendants are different from the original parents. We say then that a new species has evolved.

Another way to explain it would be to use an example.

Suppose you had some rabbits living in a warm climate. Most of the rabbits have short fur but every so often a rabbit with long hair is born due to a mutation. These long haired rabbits don't do as well as the short furs because their fur makes them too warm. But then suppose that the climate starts to get colder. Now the long furs do better than the short furs. They are likely to live longer and have more children. In time they become the dominant species of rabbit. The short furs may even go extinct.

The important thing is that the cold weather did not make the rabbit's fur grow longer. The mutation happened by chance and the rabbits took advantage of it.

Answer 3

The vocabulary would change with the age level of the child, but here are some suggestions:

Evolution is the idea that all living things change over time. In short, life evolves continuously. It is an idea that scientists support because of the large amount of evidence.

This idea was originally developed 200 years ago by examining how fossils change through layers of rock. Today, fossil age can be accurately measured with radiocarbon dating.

Another line of evidence supporting the idea of evolution compares the structures of different creatures. So birds are more closely related because they all have wings, feathers, walk on 2 legs, and have a wishbone. Birds in turn evolved from dinosaurs that had feathers to keep them warm, walked on 2 legs, and had a wishbone, but did not have wings.

Scientists also compare how babies develop in different types of animals. The closer they are related by evolution the more similar the babies are as they develop. So human babies when they first begin to grow inside their mother resemble tadpoles because they have a big head and a tail, but no arms or legs. Then, just like a tadpole grows arms and legs as it metamorphizes into a frog, so does the developing human baby.

Today, evolution is studied by examining differences in the molecules that make up living creatures, for example differences in proteins and DNA. Proteins provide the stucture for an animal, and DNA is like a library of information for how to build another copy of that animal.

It doesn't matter if you study fossils or structures or molecules, the evidence all supports the idea that all living things change over time. So, life evolves and it is this beautiful process that creates the diversity of life on Earth. But while life is gloriously diverse, all living things share certain characteristics, such as being made of cells that contain DNA.

Answer 4

I'm not going to give you a paragraph but I'll give you a tip in which you can surely make a suitable explanation from.

Explain to the child that evolution is like the growth of a tadpole to a frog, but over a long period of time.

Answer 5

What age? I mean are we talking 5 or 11? There is a huge difference. i would prob start out by pointing out similarities between humans and monkeys and other mammals. The skeleton, eyebrows, 5 toes, things like that and then tell them that all of us came from other similar animals millions of years ago. That should be a good start.

Answer 6

I would start with combining evolultion with creation.....give me a break, the challenge is to meld the two, to pick one or the other is quite easy. I woud suggest you get the book about Lucy, its a great book with incredible illustrations. Just look up "Lucy" and you should be able to find it.

Answer 7

Once I tried and my kid came to a conclusion that my mother (her granny) once was an ape. No I answered, another granny, that is my mother-in-law, was an ape. The child was satisfied.

Answer 8

good luck, it's difficult for some adults to grasp

I would just say something like "It's been observed that groups of animals slowly change over time.", no need to delve into specifics

Answer 9

Thanks to Pokemon, they know the term, but think it's a sudden directed event. You just have to explain that with real animals it's subtle and takes generations, and you don't know what they will evolve into.

Answer 10

This is a good site for kids it might help ...
http://kids.yahoo.com/