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Natural Selection, Evolution, and Rethinking Biology
Breanna Simmons
Walden University
BIOL-1001
Shawn Willis
10-05-2025
Natural Selection, Evolution, and Rethinking Biology
Reflecting on my time in this biology class, the most memorable topic I have studied has
been natural selection and evolution. It's the cornerstone of biology, the thread that ties so many
of the different pieces together, from genetics to ecosystems. Before this course, I had a general
idea of what natural selection was, basically the "survival of the fittest" type of thing we've all
learned about, but getting into the details made it feel more real and less like a slogan. Natural
selection is about tiny things happening in populations over long periods of time, and adding up
to something huge (OpenStax, 2021a). I think it's the most important topic because it helps to
explain to us why life is the way it is today. The variety of plants, animals, and even humans can
all be traced back to this process of adaptation and modification. Without that knowledge,
biology would appear to be a list of random facts instead of a connected story.
Natural Selection, Evolution, and Rethinking Biology
Breanna Simmons
Walden University
BIOL-1001
Shawn Willis
10-05-2025
Natural Selection, Evolution, and Rethinking Biology
Reflecting on my time in this biology class, the most memorable topic I have studied has
been natural selection and evolution. It's the cornerstone of biology, the thread that ties so many
of the different pieces together, from genetics to ecosystems. Before this course, I had a general
idea of what natural selection was, basically the "survival of the fittest" type of thing we've all
learned about, but getting into the details made it feel more real and less like a slogan. Natural
selection is about tiny things happening in populations over long periods of time, and adding up
to something huge (OpenStax, 2021a). I think it's the most important topic because it helps to
explain to us why life is the way it is today. The variety of plants, animals, and even humans can
all be traced back to this process of adaptation and modification. Without that knowledge,
biology would appear to be a list of random facts instead of a connected story.
