Natural Selection How does the series of events (1-4) depicted in the image to the show the progression of natural selection? As noted in your simulation packet, there are three conditions for evolution being demonstrated... can you identify all three? We will discuss these driving forces in further detail tomorrow during class - your job is to identify them before class!
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Natural Selection
R.I.P. Reat Underwood Today was certainly a long and emotional day for for all those in the Blue Valley High School family as we coped with the loss of one of our outstanding students - Reat Underwood, The stories I have heard from students and fellow teachers about this young man have been nothing short of amazing. He clearly touched the lives of many, many people during his time with us. Hopefully you all will continue to remember his smile and energy for life as well as all of your positive, happy memories! What has amazed me the most in this situation is the response by the students and the Blue Valley community as a whole. The strength, maturity, and unity by this student body and district has been truly uplifting. Blue Valley High School truly is a family! Thank you to the many schools in the KC Metro area that extended their
support for Reat's family, friends, and school! What Darwin Never Knew... In 1859, Darwin published his theory of natural selection in On the Origin of Species. This was ground breaking work that theorized that organisms have and always will continually change based upon responses to their environments. Now, 150 years later, scientists and researchers have been able to confirm many of Darwin's findings through genetic research. When Darwin made his first initial observations, he did so only using his eyes... not knowing the depth and complexity of our genetic identity. Now, we have the ability to study the DNA sequences and its many genes to see the evolutionary changes at the genetic level! What's important to remember is these evolutionary changes - such as developing limbs or the change in human height - occur over many generations based upon the survival of the "most fit" individual in the environment. TO DO:
Unit 8: Evolution Today, we had the opportunity to voice our current opinions and level of understanding of evolution through a free write... What does "survival of the fittest" mean to you? As scientists... all we can do is observe the observable and reach conclusions based on those observations. Our goal is not to determine the basis of humanity, but rather to openly discuss the observable evolutionary changes experienced by all living and extinct organisms that have occurred throughout time - whether through environmental stress, selective mating, or mutations.
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!
How are proteins produced in our cells? If you remember, the purpose of our DNA is to provide the instructions for synthesizing - or creating - proteins... The process in which this occurs involves two major steps - transcription and translation. Transcription - forming an mRNA copy of the original DNA template strand Translation - forming chains of Amino Acids that match the codons of an mRNA strand In order to practice the process of protein synthesis... we created group models! (See pictures below) Can you track the path your genetic information travels from DNA strand to Protein? Unit 6: DNA, RNA, and Protein Synthesis Celebration of Learning Feb 28th! (Review below) NOTE: Honors Work #2 for Honors Biology is due February 28th!
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?
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Mr. Hulse
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