If you decided to do the write up as your final - just a reminder that is due on Friday. If you are doing the write up only as a discussion on evolution and natural selection it is now due on THURSDAY (not tomorrow as originally stated)!!!
You received a review packet yesterday in class and continued to work through it today. Please take time looking at each section using it as a reminder of what we have learned so far. I also put last years bio 1 final on edline for your referance. Take a look at this to help you prepare for yours!!
A little background on the guppies. MALE guppies are the ones that are usually "pretty" or "Flashy" as they are trying to impress the females who are usually very "drab". There needs to be a balance though between being flashy to impress the ladies - but not TOOO flashy that all the predators are able to see you and therefore eat you. We ran through a couple scenarios for many generations to see what happened to the population. What we found was that in certain scenarios, the types of predators did not affect the population at all. Other times the brightest fish died off and only the drab survived. I encourage you to run through these scenarios and look at the results and the analysis which speaks of why
So far we have continued through the notes on Evolution/natural selection. I printed out the major forms of micro and macroevolution for you to give us some time to start into a project. I mentioned in class today that if I can get REAL creative, I will have your final be a paper based off the chapter I assigned you and how you can relate all that we have learned this semester with your chapter. The two books the chapters are taken from are below.
You have also received a "packet".... oh dreaded packet..... with questions based on this chapter. I encourage you to work through this at your own pace as this will mostly likely take the place of a test on this topic. I really would like you to work on showing how everything we have learned this semester molds so perfectly together!!! I will give you a detailed rubric to the project as soon as I get it typed!!!!
This week we started in to our LAST chapter :) :) :) on Evolution and Natural Selection. The daily questions we received Tuesday, Wednesday and Today are below. I know that you covered basics of evolution and natural selection last year but this year we will be applying our understanding of Genetics and gene expression to get a better understanding of how exactly allele frequencies change over time. Tuesday:
1. Which population of organisms would be in greatest danger of becoming extinct? ***A population of organisms having few variations living in an unstable environment. *Having little variation is not a good thing when a major environmental change occurs.
2. In order for a new species to develop, there must be a change in the **Genetic makeup of a population. (This can be DUE to a change in the temperature or migration patterns, but ultimately it comes down to a change in the allele frequencies of a population)
3. Which statement is NOT part of the concept of natural selection?
A. Individuals that possess the most favorable variations will have the best chance of reproducing.
B. Variation occurs among individuals in a population
C. More individuals are produced than will survive D. Genes of an individual adapt to a changing environment***GENES do not adapt - individuals adapt and populations adapt - but genes do not. They may "change" due to random mutations though.
** 2 - a decrease in the advantage of having white fur. Since over a 10 year period the presence of ANY white rabbits was eliminated, that most likely means that having white fur was no longer a good thing.
Which statement best describes a current understanding of natural selection? A. Natural Selection influences the frequency of an adaptation in a population.
We then started into the notes on Evolution and natural selection. Please check edline for these
Wednesday May 2nd
The
scientist who traveled to the Galapagos island’s was……… Charles Darwin
He
specifically looked at what type of organisms? Finches (along with many other interesting creatures!!)
True
or False: All Mutations are Bad FALSE!!! Mutations simply mean a change in DNA This can sometimes have an advantage, sometimes be bad, or other times have no affect on the phenotype. For instance, i showed you the clip about a child that was born with 6 fully functional fingers and toes (see Below)
True
or False: Not all mutations are
passed on to our offspring. TRUE - Only mutations that occur in germ line cells (those that will go through meiosis to become our gametes) will be passed on to our offpsring.
Thursday May 3rd
*What
did Darwin notice about the finches and what did that lead him to believe about
the “evolution” of them? He noticed that their beak shapes directly corresponded to the type of food they ate. What he theorized was that the finches has migrated from the main land of South America and overtime adapted to different food sources. He called this "Descent with modification"
*With
our understanding of genetics, these different “variations” are known as what? Alleles
*What
do you think caused these different variations? Mutations
*What
two types of variations do you believe would provide an “advantage” to a
species? Any allele that would allow them to survive (eat and not be eaten) and reproduce.
Today we continued with the notes and will next move into some chapters from the book Survival of the Sickest.
