Skip to main content

Blog week 7

 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 are decided. When a dominant gene is present, this trait overpowers the recessive trait. However, if no dominant trait is shown, and only recessive, then the offspring will retain the recessive gene. Our child mainly received dominant traits from this activity.


Applying to the future:
I did an activity like the baby lab when I was in middle school and it really helped me understand how dominant and recessive traits work in our bodies. I can see myself using this activity to help my students understand traits/genes. This activity is fun, engaging, and has a deeper level of thinking. 

Remaining questions:
I am very curious about how green eyes take place in Punnett square. If blue eyes are recessive(b) and brown eyes are dominant(B), where does the green come from? Does that mean green eyes are Bb instead of brown overruling? 

Comments

  1. Ali McDermottMarch 3, 2023 at 9:12 AM

    Hi Amber! It was so fun creating our child's traits by the flip of a penny. I can also see myself applying both of these activities in my future teaching. When I was younger I always loved doing edible projects.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lily ProchaskaMarch 5, 2023 at 7:16 PM

    Hi Amber! My plant is also dying which was pretty upsetting to me. I hope everyone's plants will be better by next week! I really liked our activity with the DNA double helix model because I think it provided a great visual of DNA. I also like how each of the bases have a different color, so it is easy to differentiate between them and see how they pair together. I also like how you mentioned punnett squares, I remember doing these! I also think your question about green eyes is very interesting, and I don't know how that would manifest itself as a genotype. Traits that have more than two options are confusing when it comes to dominant vs recessive traits.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog week 8

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...
3 comments
Read more

Blog week 14

What is melting? Melting is a phase change between a solid to a liquid that happens when applying heat.  Why does the ice melt faster on metal than wood? The reason why an ice cube melts after on metal than it does on wood is because metal is a conductor while wood is an insulator. This matters because of energy. Energy provides heat which causes an object to melt.  Why do cold drinks get water droplets on the outside? When a cold can is brought out of the fridge the hot air outside hits the can. This causes a temperature change to happen on the can making it "sweat." The can begins to condensate from hot air hitting the cold can. Just like clouds, when water vapor hits pockets of air, they begin to form.  Why does the plunger stick to the table? The plunger acts like a vacuum to the table, it suctions down to the table by collapsing down onto the table. It releases all the particles out of the plunger when it is pressed down.  The best part of the class: We met a ne...
2 comments
Read more

Blog week 10

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...
3 comments
Read more