Morgans blog

What did you learn this week?  This week we began learning about natural selection. Some of the big ideas I learned in regard to natural selection was how we can make predictions about how populations can change overtime, there are variations in traits that can result in organisms ability to reproduce, and natural selection leads to predominance of particular traits in given populations. I also learned about the causes for natural selection such as mutation, adaptation, competition, chance events, and other environmental factors like temperature, water availability and geological conditions. Likewise, I learned that the basic idea of natural selection is that organisms with advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing those traits to their offspring.  How can you apply what you learned to your teaching in the future?  I plan on applying what I learned to my teaching in the future by utilizing some of the activities we did in class. I think these a...

 What did you learn this week?  This week in lab I learned more about DNA, genotypes and phenotypes. We did an activity in class where we made our "own" DNA out of candy, and also participated in an activity where we made our own "child" by flipping a coin. These activities really aided in my understanding of how genotypes and phenotypes are different, and what role they play in humans. I think these activities helped me visually understand how genotype differs from phenotype, because in the baby activity, the phenotype was the observable characteristic in the baby, while the genotype was what caused the trait to be observed.  How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future?  I plan on using both of these activities in my future classroom because I think it makes learning fun and engaging. The DNA strand activity would be perfect for elementary school aged kids because they get to make their own model and see how DNA looks. It would also be ...