Chapter 14 and 15 Presentations
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Genetic and Anatomical Variation among species
UPDATE - STUDY GUIDE POSTED AT BOTTOM NOVA - Cracking Your Genetic Code If you could create a Utopia, what would it look like? How would people interact? Would there be a political structure? What about societal classes? Often times, when young students are asked to create their Utopia, they limit themselves to the geographical landscape and societal interactions or economy. Often overlooked,however, is medicine - would there be diseases? Would cancer still be as prevalent as it is in our society? What about other genetic disorders? Please watch the following brief clip from a 1997 movie titled GATTACA... The future of genetic research is an extremely interesting, yet extremely slippery slope. The legal and ethical discussions that are sure to unfold over the next 50-100 years will be extremely interesting. Just because science has the ability to do something, should it? For example - what if we could create the "perfect" human as alluded to in the scene from GATTACA... Is it ethical to pre-create someone through predetermined and preselected genetics? As we continue through Unit 7 - Genetics, we had discussions as we watched a NOVA special titled "Cracking Your Genetic Code". This documentary is extremely interesting and brings to light many positive and negative aspects of genetic research ranging from early detection of genetic disorders to helping find advanced treatment options for cancer. Your Unit 7 Celebration of Learning will be on Monday, April 5th! Please take advantage of the many resources available to you to best prepare for this assessment Also, use the information in the Extra Help tab to help aid in your studying! Unit 7 Presentation Slides (Click to view) Below are a couple extra practice worksheets that you can try as well...
Welcome back from Spring Break! When we left for break, we had finished discussing monohybrid cross punnett squares... there we were looking at one specific trait. Now, we will begin to dive into dihybrid cross punnet squares. What genotypes and phenotypes are possible when we begin to look at multiple alleles? HW: Please read 10.3-10.5 and look over questions 5, 10, 11, 14, and 18 from the Chapter Summary Bozeman Science - Beginners Guide to Punnet Squares (click to view video)
What is an allele? How can they be passed on to future generations?
Also, for those that enjoyed today's video over pollinators - see the link below!
Really amazing videography to get these shots... TED Talk - The Hidden Beauty of Pollination Welcome to Unit 7 - Genetics!
3-D DNA Double Helix Models are Complete! The students submitted their final DNA models today! They all looked great and it is clear the students spent a lot of time and effort assembling their models. After showing off the models, we then entered a discussion of DNA sequencing and genetic engineering - is it good or is it bad? What are the ethics involved?
After watching the above video segments, we discussed the implications of genetic engineering. Maybe learning about the probability of someone experiencing heart disease or diabetes could come in handy as a means of proactive and preventative health care. Maybe genetically engineering the "perfect" child could cause a huge societal rift and be deemed unethical. We also discussed the now famous BRCA gene (view link) as well as P53 (view link) and their connections to cancer research and treatment. Either way you looked at it, there was always an argument of - just because we can do something... does that necessarily mean we should do something?
What makes you different from everyone else on this planet? More specifically, what makes you different than your siblings and/or parents? Here's a little math demonstrating genetic variation to boggle your mind... Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. This means, as they randomly arrange themselves in new gametes, there are 2^23 different possible combinations of chromosomes.
Thus... the possible amount of chromosomal arrangements is as follows:
The craziest fact about those mind boggling combinations? That doesn't even take into account crossing over!
There are virtually infinite combinations in which your chromosomes and the DNA contained within it could be organized - so be glad that you are unique!
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Mr. Hulse
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