Alyssa B's- Blog on Science Methods

  What did you learn this week? Today we learned about natural selection. One of the main ideas was that natural selection leads to the predominance of particular traits in a given population. This means that some traits are suppressed as well. Natural selection is a sub-category of the NGSS Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity.  Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? I can relate what we learned to what I already knew. I have learned about natural selection a few different times throughout my life. In class, we talked about Charles Darwin very briefly. We used to talk about him in my classes prior to this. I remember "survival of the fittest," which was Charles Darwin's idea on natural selection.   How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future? I can apply what I learned to my future classroom. In the lab, we did an activity where there were different colored beans on the table and each group member had a differ...

  What did you learn this week? This week we learned about codons. Codons are a DNA or RNA sequence of three nucleotides that encode a particular amino acid. Genetic codes are made up of the letters U, A, G, and C.  Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? I could relate genotype and phenotype to what I have already known. We reviewed it last week but discussed it a lot more this week. We learned that phenotype is an observable trait. I always thought of it as a physical trait which is the same thing. We also learned that genotype is the genetic constitution of an individual or the makeup of alleles to create a trait.  What are new or remaining questions?  I don't have any remaining questions I did however want to comment on the fact that this week was our last week for checking our fast plants. Our plant had seeds on it but they were green instead of brown. They looked like peas. 

  What did you learn this week? This week in lab we learned about DNA. We know that DNA is a blueprint of life. DNA has 4 parts to it. C, T, A, and G go together to form a double helix that looks like a ladder and then twists. Above is a picture of what DNA looks like but in candy form. This would be a good way to teach children because candy peaks their interest.  Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? I can relate what I learned to what I already know somewhat. When I first started at the university I was a Physical Therapy major so I had taken biology as a class. We learned a lot about DNA in that class and what we talked about today made me think of what I learned in that biology course. An example of something I learned about in both this class and in biology is messenger RNA.  Which parts did you find clear and which were confusing? I found the structure of DNA a little confusing. I understood the visual, how it is known as a double helix,...