Weekly blog 1/27/17

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Image link: https://www.nap.edu/read/5923/chapter/14

Summary: This week we needed to write a story about our superhero's origin. I learned about how people combine DNA of animals by adding and maybe even shooting a metal pellet at an animal. There are many more but for my superhero I added letters into the letter code of the animal. My superheros original letter code was FF but then it changed into FFHW because if my superhero was originally a fox and human and weasel DNA got into my superhero that's what the code would be (FFHW). Then as for the metal pellet that's how the DNA got into my superhero. Scientists put weasel DNA on a metal pellet and the metal pellet would penetrate my superhero which makes the weasel DNA rub off into the DNA strands of my superhero. 

SP1: Asking questions and defining problems

A basic practice of the scientist is the ability to formulate empirically answerable questions about phenomena to establish what is already known, and to determine what questions have yet to be satisfactorily answered.

Did you ask a scientific question?

Yes because when we had to create our origin story for our superheros there were requirements so I had to wonder or ask myself how and what would happen to my superhero and what process would it take for them to become a superhero. Such as adding into the letter code and penetrating an animals skin to combine DNA.

Weekly blog 1/15/17

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image link: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Punnett_Square.svg/2000px-Punnett_Square.svg.png

Summary: This week I learned about what a homozygous is, what a heterozygous is, and how to make a punnett square. Homozygous means that when 2 alleles in 1 pair are the same such as AA or aa. Then heterozygous is when 2 alleles in 1 pair are different. Some pairs that are heterozygous can be Aa, Bb, or Cc. Then a punnett square is when you have a square and you break it into 4 sections. Then on the 2 sections on the top you put the alleles of  the dad and on the left side you put the alleles of the mom. An example is if the dad's genes are DD and the moms genes are dd. Then the combinations in each square would be Dd. The reason is because a child doesn't just get 1 gene from 1 parent, the child get's both genes but depending on whether the gene is dominant or recessive the child will most likely have the dominant trait.

SP2: Developing and using models

Models make it possible to go beyond things you observe and simulate a world not yet seen. Models enable predictions of the form “if…then… therefore” to be made in order to test hypothetical explanations.

Did you build a model, draw a picture, created a concept map, etc?

Answer: In class we did a few punnet squares in our notebooks and we had to do one for our superhero's child. To determine what genes the child would have.

Weekly blog 1/8/17

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Image link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics

Summary: This week I learned what a genotype, an allele, and a phenotype are. A genotype is a pair of alleles. A phenotype is a characteristic such as personality, hair color, eye color, how tall or short you are, etc. This also applies to animals and plants as well. Then an allele is the traits that you might have before you're born. I also learned about dominant traits and recessive traits. Dominant traits are when you're most likely to get because they occur more often in your family. Then a recessive trait is when your less likely to get a trait because it's unique or it doesn't occur much in your family.

SP1:Asking questions and defining problems
A basic practice of the scientist is the ability to formulate empirically answerable questions about phenomena to establish what is already known, and to determine what questions have yet to be satisfactorily answered.

Did you ask a scientific question?
Yes we answered questions about genetics and DNA on a google doc. Some questions were what are genes, what's a phenotype, what's an allele, and what's a genotype.