Brenna Hunt

Today we reviewed our learning on evolution. Then, we began our discussion on technology in learning science. We talked about how we use technology currently and what kinds of technology could be helpful in our future classrooms. I think that I rely mostly on my phone and laptop when I use technology in my learning, but in a future classroom I think I would like my students to have access to iPads to have access to the internet and online applications like Canvas, Google Drive, and PearDeck as well as desktop computers on occasion to practice their typing skills and basic online presence skills. When we finished this discussion, we began working on making a picture book on evolution.  I have spent lot of time in my other classes talking about technology and how it is utilized in the classroom, so I am very familiar with this topic. Classes like Foundations of Special Education and Teaching and Learning Technologies gave me a lot of ideas about the benefits of technology in the clas...

This week we discussed evolution and natural selection. We talked about how mutations influence natural selection by differentiation of traits and demonstrated this with a bean prey activity, where we had different "traits" (utensils) to gather prey (beans) to see which traits allowed us to survive.  The most clear part of this activity was that certain traits may allow organisms to survive over others, and some may cause an organism to die off, which leads to certain traits becoming less prominent. One unclear part was trying to record the percentages in our table. It was confusing to me what values we were supposed to record and what the showed from our simulation, even though I knew we were trying to evaluate the cause and effect between the type of utensil and the number of beans collected.  One question I have is, would it be more influential to do this activity with a baseline of beans required to survive rather than "killing off" the person with the least amo...

This week in lab we did a lot of review over DNA. We began discussing mutations that can occur within DNA or RNA and their impacts on proteins. A mutation is when the specific pattern of a DNA or RNA strand is changed through deletion, insertion, or substitution. We went through 2 simulations to show the impacts a mutation can have on a protein structure which can therefore impact the structure or function of an organism.  I am able to tie this learning into my previous learning because I studied DNA and gene mutations in my biology class last year. We talked about the most common gene mutations and what kinds of impacts they can have on humans during development. Some mutations have no impact on the type of protein that is created, some can change the protein but not have a negative impact, and some can greatly impact the function or structure of an organism negatively.  One question that I still have is, can a mutation occur in translation or just in transcription? 

 This week we focused on genetic material, specifically DNA and RNA and how they are used to make proteins through a process called central dogma. DNA is found in the nucleus and contains the molecular blueprint for all living things. A copy of one strand of DNA is made and this is called RNA. RNA moves into the cytoplasm and uses Ribosomes to help create amino acids. These amino acids build proteins, which can go on to build or repair cells. This is central dogma.  I can relate this to what I learned in my biology class last year because we spent a lot of time learning about DNA and the process in which cells are created, so this was not as difficult for me to understand since I had a lot of background context on this topic.  One thing I still wonder about is how scientists/researchers can see the tiny details of DNA such as the bases and how they pair, how RNA is transcribed, etc. because everything is so small and happens very quickly.