May 18-22

This week we worked on more about evolution and what causes it.  We talked about mutations which are random occurrences that cause a change in the DNA.  Selective breeding is when people make two things to mate to get a desirable trait.  Natural selection is just when an organism adapts to survive in its environment.  Genetic engineering is when scientists make a mutation forcefully so that the organism can have a desirable trait.  Gene flow is when there is a change in the gene pool in an area because some organisms have come to that area when they are different.  Genetic drift is when a whole trait goes extinct because of a random chance occurrence.  We also learned that there was another person besides Darwin who had some theories about evolution.  This created the Lamarckian theory which states that if work hard enough you can change your genes and pass it on.  Like if a really skinny guy worked out a lot and became muscular then he could pass it on to future generations.  More recently we are learning about hominids which were early humans/apes.  These hominids were the common ancestors of humans and apes.  But only one kind of hominid survived, homo sapiens, which are what we are. 

May 4-9

This week we concluded the cockroach experiment. We concluded that they maybe colorblind, it prefers rough surfaces to climb on with its suction cups. They prefer darker areas, but to walk on it doesn't prefer any surface. Also hissing only occurs with physical provoction not emotional provoction. Smaller roaches run faster. Finally they are able to move two times their own weight. After this we moved into the evolution unit. We did three simulations to understand evolution. One simulation was with a blue jay was trying to eat moths. That we could understand was focusing around how moths were adapting to a dark brown color and not white. If it were white then it would be seen more easily and eatin more often. So more moths were being dark brown like the tree so they could survive and hide in camouflage. It was the basic idea with the other two simulations. After we finished the simulations we talked about how if the organism stays in an enviroment its most suited in it will live and reproduce and prosper. If its not in the right enviroment they will most likely die and not reproduce. But the gene of that organism might be past down to other organisms if the new organism is heterozygous.