Thursday, November 19, 2015

Unit 4 Reflection

   The essential question for this unit was "Why is Sex so Great?"  In this unit, we learned about the different types of sex, how gametes are formed, how chromosomes are inherited, laws of inheritance, and genetic complications. We learned about each of these in detail.
   We first learned about the cell cycle. We learned how the life cycle of a cell. Next, we learned about asexual vs sexual reproduction. They both have costs and benefits. We then learned about how gametes are made. They are made through a process called meiosis. We also learned some important terminology.
  In the following vodcasts, we learned about the work of Gregor Mendel. He was the father of genetics. He crossed pea plants together and observed the results. His results are the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment. The law of segregation states that the gene pairs for a trait separate independently of each other during meiosis. The law of independent assortment states that gene pairs separate independently of each other.
  We then learned about how sex leaves you stuck. We learned about genetic diseases. We also learned about the different types of ways a gene can be expressed. These are incomplete dominance, codominance, epistasis, gene linkage, and polygenetics. Finally, we did a bunch of crosses.
   I have grow a lot during this unit. We had a big infographic project. We got a little bit of class time to do it, but not a lot. I had to time manage it I ended up doing a little each day. A lot of the content we learned was from middle school, but in more detail. It was kind of hard to remember every detail, but the big ideas were clear.
   I did a VARK questionnaire and found out that I am slightly Kinesthetic  learning preference. This means that I prefer to experience things and read things. To learn best, I need real world examples, trial and error, and labs and field trips. To study for tests, I need to role play and write practical examples and paragraphs. I should take brief notes with case studies and real world examples.
  All in all, I really liked this unit. It was really interesting. I had fun learning the content. Genetics really explains a lot of things in life. 

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Coin Sex Lab Relate and Review

     In this lab, we simulated different types of crosses by flipping coins. Coins serve as a good model for determining what alleles get passed on. Each side is one allele, and each side has an equal chance of being chosen. In the lab, we used coins to simulate crosses. First we tried to predict the the sex of an offspring. We labeled the side of one coin with "x" and the other with "y." The other coin had "x" on both sides. We flipped each coin 10 times. The results were 6 boys and 4 girls. The next cross we did was testing whether a child would inherit Bipolar disease. Bipolar disease is inherited through  autosomal inheritance. Autosomal inheritance is where the gene is on one of the 22 chromosomes that do not determine sex. On one side of a coin, I labeled "x," and on the other side, "y." The other coin was labeled "x" on both sides. I flipped each coin 10 times. The result was 5 children with bipolar disease and 5 children without it.
    Next, we looked at colorblindness. Colorblindness is inherited through X-linked inheritance. It is a recessive trait. The "mother" was a carrier and the "father" had normal color vision. One coin was labelled XB and y, and the other was labeled XB Xb. When we flipped the coins, we got 2 boys with normal vision, 4 with colorblindness, and 4 girls with regular vision. The last cross was a Dihybrid cross. A dihybrid cross is where two traits are passed on at the same time. The rest of our crosses were monohybrid crosses. I expected a 9:3:3 ratio. 10 would be homozygous and 6 would be heterozygous. Our results were a 7:4:3:2 ratio. This could have happened because this was only a guess. Probability can only take you so far. It does not tell you exactly what will happen. It is only a guess.
     I can attribute the results that I got in these labs due to meiosis and recombination. These two processes create genetic diversity. Since alleles separate independently of each other, many different combinations can be made.
    This relates to events in my life. When my aunt and uncle wanted to have children, they did a genetic test to make sure that their child would not be prone to any genetic diseases. They knew that because of genetic inheritance, their baby could have genetic diseases. There was a history of genetic disease in their family. Once the results of the genetic test came, they saw that they were not carriers of the disease. because of this, they have healthy children. 

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Genetics Infographic


Because the picture is too small, click on the following link to see it in the website in which I made it, where it is full size. 

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/9061385-genetics-infograph