Week 10

 What did you learn this week? 

This week in lab we learned about evolution. I specifically learned more about genetic drift and migration in relation to evolution. Genetic drift is random fluctuations in the frequency of alleles within a population due to chance events. Migration has to do with advantages like food availability, safety from predators and mating opportunities. Migration also effects gene flow, meaning that when one population migrates to another location, they introduce new genetic variation into the existing population in that area. 


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

I am able to relate parts of what I learned to what I already knew. For example, I learned that one aspect of evolution is natural selection. We learned about natural selection a couple of weeks ago in lab and lecture, so this was one instance this week that I was able to relate what I learned about Evolution to what I already knew about natural selection. 


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

I plan on applying what I learned this week to my teaching in the future by utilizing the same or a similar activity with my future class. This week we did an activity with beans and used forks, spoons, and popsicle sticks to try to gather beans. This activity helps students grow their understanding about competition and how environmental factors effect the rate of survival, as well as the relationship between a predator and prey. 



Comments

  1. Megan SimonApril 2, 2025 at 11:34 AM

    Hi Morgan,
    I also said that I would love to use this activity in my classroom. I always struggled with this topic, but this simulation was very beneficial for my own learning. I can only imagine how much this would help young students. I always knew what natural selection was, but never felt I could explain it.

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  2. Madison NiemiecApril 2, 2025 at 12:52 PM

    Great blog post, Morgan! I agree with you that I was able to relate past lectures and previous knowledge to this weeks topics in lab. I forgot to include how I learned more in depth the factors of migration and genetic drift. In my blog post I also included how important it is for hands-on learning and this activity is a great example of this. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Olivia SchanbacherApril 2, 2025 at 1:55 PM

    Hi Morgan! The concept of natural selection can be difficult to understand, especially for younger students. I agree that this activity would be great for students to learn about and I plan on using this in the future. This taught so many important concepts and was very engaging. Great job!

    ReplyDelete

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