Week 10 Post

1. What did you learn this week?

This week, we talked about natural selection. We did a lab titled the "Bean Lab" which was where each member of the group was a predator and given a utensil to catch our "prey" the beans. It demonstrated how dominant traits are passed down to their offspring, ie spoons were more effective in catching our "prey" so it was better when more and more predators had the better utensil

2. How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future?

I did not find this lab the most beneficial for our understanding but understood the point that it was trying to get across. If I were to do this with my students, I would have to simplify it quite a bit as my group was quite confused throughout the entire activity. ll of the different parts while also having to do calculations for the lab were a lot of different components to keep track of, even with knowing the information being taught, let alone it being brand new information for our future students. 

3. What are new or remaining questions? 

A question that I still have is, what would be a good way to display and show children natural selection? 

Week 8 Blog Post

 

1. What did you learn this week?

We filled out a worksheet looking at the three different types of DNA mutations; substitution, insertion, and deletion. Finally, we did two different online simulations to explain and demonstrate DNA mutation. We utilized the an amino acid chart to see what was being formed.

2. Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew?

I have previously talked about mRNA and DNA in biology classes in high school but we went into deeper the conversation and into topic. It was also relating to genotype and phenotype which we had talked about in the previous weeks. 

3. How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future?

The use of online simulations is definitely something that will be utilizing in my future classroom because they are able to demonstrate topics and concepts which are hard to imagine otherwise in another scale. 

Week 7 Blog Post

1. What did you learn this week?

This week I learned all about DNA and RNA. We also learned that DNA has four base nucleotide base pairs. These include guanine, cytosine, adenine, and thymine. We also learned the genetic traits that a child will get through dominant and recessive traits. 

2. Which parts did you find clear and which were confusing?

Throughout lab I found creating DNA strands as well as learning about base pairs quite clear. Something I thought was confusing for myself was the baby project as some of the traits you had to flip more than once. This made some of the traits unclear on how to complete. 

3. How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future?

I can apply the projects that we did in lab this week to help students understand the process of DNA, RNA, dominant genes, and recessive genes.