Amber Embrock Science Methods 1

This week in lab we made a story about evolution. My group members and I made a story called "The Little Rhino that Grew." In this story, we described how a rhino grew during evolution from having no horns back thousands of years ago compared to now, which have horns. Evolution can be a hard topic to explain to younger children so putting this complex idea into a children's story may be beneficial for students to be able to understand better.  Parts of our book: I found this activity very fun and engaging. We were able to pick what type of evolution we wanted to describe in our story. We were given the option of animals, plants, or humans. Groups were allowed to design their book with colors, and images, and create their own unique story.  I can see myself using a technique like this in my future classroom. This activity is creative for students to make fun stories about science while learning about the subject at the same time. Creating stories about a certain concept ca...

What did you learn? This week in the lab, we did an activity called: Preying on Beans. The point of this game is to demonstrate the process of adaptation and selection. During the game, we acted like predators searching for the prey (beans) with three different traits. We were offered a spoon, a fork, and a stick. Once the person had the least amount of beans, their trait (utensil) was changed. I had a fork and I made it to the second round before I died off. The fork was not helpful for me compared to the spoon, so once I died I switched over to a spoon. This is showing how evolution and adaptation occur during natural selection. I tied this to the NGSS standard of cross-cutting concepts to realize that this is cause and effect, as well as stability and change. Because the predator got less food than the others, the effect was changing how they hunted their prey. Applying to the future: This is a great activity for kids to be able to understand how evolution and adaptation occur. It i...

This week in lab was our last week to look at our fast-growing plants. Our plants are beginning to grow seeds/beans on them. That way if we wanted to, we could use those seeds to grow a new plant.  In lab, I learned about mutations. There are three types of mutations: Point mutation : a change to a single nucleotide base  Insertion mutation : a genetic change that involves the addition of a segment of DNA (adding one or more DNA bases) Deletion mutation : a type of genetic change that involves the absence of a segment of DNA  This is something new I have learned. To help us learn/understand this we did a superhero lab activity.  How to relate to what you already know?  In class, we talked about how there can be beneficial/harmful mutations. I can relate this to what I notice are harmful mutations. I did not realize that cancer was a mutation, although after thinking about it long I realized how it was. I realized this was a mutation because it is a permanent cha...

 This week in the lab, we looked at our fast-growing plants again. Our plants sadly look like they are dying. I wonder how much longer our plants are going to live? In lab, we also made a candy structure DNA model. The DNA model is a double helix, which is represented by Twizzlers. Then in the model, we have the four building blocks, Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and cytosine. These are represented by the gumdrops. Each color is designated to a certain building block. Cytosine pairs with guanine (red and orange) while adenine pairs with thymine (green and yellow). We talked more in lab about the Central dogma. This is the genetic flow of DNA turning into RNA and then into proteins.   Next in lab, we made a baby face with our partners. Doing this activity, helped me learn more about genes and how the genetic process works. There are two types of genes dominant and recessive. These two genes are placed into a punnet square. With this Punnett square, the genes of your offspring...