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asterixx:
I've neglected to make a post here for a few weeks however, I have had a zerobot running for quite some time, and not a whole lot has happened (although I was really happy when the first replicator emerged   ).

My question is about a project that my younger brother has to do for high school, and I was wondering if anyone had any pedagogical advice. Each class member was given a topic to discuss with the class and my brother has been tasked with explaining evolution in the space of an hour or so. I told him that exploring evolution in an hour is very hard as there is clearly a mountain if really important, intriguing information on the subject. I did tell him to mention Alife simulators though, as they are becoming an important tool in our understanding. Anyway, so far he has good historical information on the development of Darwin's ideas (Malthus, Erasmus Darwin, and Lyell) and he has some good opening points. Does anyone here have any advice on this?

Thankyou in advance,

Asterixx

Numsgil:
It's very simple really.  Evolution is when God decides that He was wrong before, and tweaks His design.  No idea how you'll stretch that in to a full hour though

No, but seriously, a good conceptual way to think of evolution is a game of hot and cold.  Played with an Alzheimers patient.  Evolution sort of bumbles around trying different combinations of genes and gets messages of "hot" and "cold" back from the environment.  Because evolution can't remember anything long term, it isn't really directed, and the progress can look a bit random to an outside observer.

EricL:
There's a good hour-long presentation by Dan Dennett he did at the University of WA titled "Evolution as a Natural Algorithm" that I recommend.  A link to it on-line has been posted here before but I can't find it at present.

asterixx:
I gave him my copy of Darwin's Dangerous Idea which he said he found helpful, so yeah, Dennett's ideas will most definitely get worked into his presentation. And I like that Alzheimer's analogy, although I'm not sure that would go over so well in a presentation  

shvarz:
If it's for school, then it should be very general. I probably would not go into Alife sims for that, since he'll spend too much time explaining what Alife sims are and how they work. There are several much more important things that have to be pointed out when beginning to talk about evolution (it's crazy that kids are not exposed to it until high school!):
1. Distinguish evolution from origin of life. Many-many-many people confuse the two.
2. Show the tree of life and explain what it means. Many people misinterpret the tree of life and don't really understand what it represents. "If humans came from monkeys, then how come monkeys are still around?"
3. Explain that evolution does not always mean that we have to look at fossils. Fast-replicating organisms evolve very quickly, literally in front of our eyes. Bring up evolution of viruses and bacteria as examples of evolution that we see happening from day to day - appearance of drug-resistant strains.
4. Use some model to demonstrate the principle of natural selection acting on random mutations.

Take any three of these points, you can easily spend 20 minutes explaining each - that will give you the needed hour.

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