Mallory Lange- Elementary Science Methods I

    This week we learned about natural selection and evolution. The drivers for evolution are- natural selection, gene drift, migration, and mutation. Natural selection is  s a process by which certain traits become more or less common in a population over time. When learning about natural selection, we went through it a couple of different ways. We looked at standards as a class and broke them down to begin with. Following that, we completed an activity with beans (which are shown below) that displayed evolution. We all started out with different silverware to pick up the beans with- fork, spoon, knife. We then did three different rounds of 30 seconds and each time someone lost they got to pick a new utensil to use, representing evolution. The fork was the best one to have. At the end of class, we did a simulation about moths and how they camouflage themselves.       I have learned about evolution and natural selection before, so learning that in...

       This week, I learned about mutations and was introduced to the topic of codons. Codon is involved in both DNA and RNA. Within that, codons are a  sequence of three nucleotides that encode a particular amino acid. To the right of this paragraph is a codon chart that shows all of the different elements, start and stop motions, and all of the DNA and RNA strands. I found this chart to be extremely helpful, along with examples that were given in class. Mutations is a topic that I have been familiar with, but not a master at. I did not realize how many effects that mutations can have:  The majority mutations are neutral!  There are beneficial or harmful mutations.  New Versions of proteins help organisms adapt to their environment increasing an organism’s chances of surviving or reproducing (example: bacteria mutations in the presence of antibiotic drugs). A genetic disease syndrome, or other abnormal condition caused by a mutation in one o...