Thursday, February 9, 2017

Genetics Unit Closure - Project Blog - (2/6 - 2/10)

Summary: 

     Genetics is how traits are passed on from parent to offspring. For every trait that someone has, there are two variants of that trait known as alleles. A set of two alleles for one trait is known as a genotype. The trait that is visible is called a phenotype and is based off of the genotype. An allele can be either dominant or recessive. A dominant allele is the allele that shadows the recessive (weaker) allele. If you have at least one dominant allele in your genotype for a trait, you will get that dominant trait as a phenotype. If you have no dominant alleles and both alleles in the genotype are recessive, you get the recessive allele as a phenotype. The contents of the genotypes can be either two things- heterozygous and homozygous. Homozygous genotypes have two dominant or recessive genotypes. Heterozygous genotypes have one dominant and one recessive trait. To determine an offspring's trait from two parents, use a Punnett Square. To use a Punnett Square, take the genotypes of a specific trait from each parent. Both genotypes should go on two different sides of the square that are not parallel to each other. Next, align the letters of the genotype with each outer edge of each grid square. Once you align the genotypes with a square edge, fill in the middle of the square by taking both letters that align with it and putting it in that specific square. Once you fill the Punnett square, you know have a chart showing the probability of a child having a specific trait. For example, if the square has all dominant traits, the child will have a 100% chance of getting that dominant trait. 


Backward Looking - What process did you go through to produce this piece?:

     To produce the Genetics Project, I first had to get information on genetics. Information such as 'how are offspring traits determined?' or terms such as homozygous, heterozygous, alleles, etc. After I had a full understanding on genetics, I started on my superhero project. I first made the concept document and artwork of my superhero, Invisi-Blend showing the basic information such as his superpowers, name, how the superpowers work, etc. Once I had established what my superhero was, I chose a random, female supervillain (I chose Black widow). This is so I can determine what the offspring of Invisi-blend and the villain would look like. I then determined the genotypes of the traits they had, put them into a Punnett square, and found out what my offspring would look like. After I determined the traits of the offspring, I determined his Epi-Genetics, which are the events that occur in the offspring's future depending on what the offspring's mother did while she was pregnant with him/her. If the mother made unhealthy choices and/or had stress, the offspring will too have an unhealthy life. The opposite goes if the mother made healthy choices. Since my offspring's mother had an unhealthy diet and didn't exercise, the offspring would have heart disease and depression in the future. Once I completed the offspring info, I moved on to the superhero origin story. Invisi-Blend was genetically modified as an experiment which made him have traits of a chameleon. Finally, I created the villain. He had both a nefarious and normal mode and I drew and explained four of his normal/nefarious organs. After all this information was gathered, I put it onto a tri-fold as the final piece of my superhero portfolio. 


Inward Looking - How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work?

     I think that this was a really fun project to do with a good outcome. I personally like working on the villain since I had the chance to be creative with the organs and how they turned from normal organs from nefarious organs. I dislike working on the superhero origin story. Although it came out good, it was kind of stressing to work on since I found it hard to get information on how to genetically modify something. I also liked working on the animation box since it was a hands on/arts and crafts activity. Overall, I liked the majority of this project.

Outward Looking - Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar?:

     When I viewed other people's project's I saw that the content was very similar. People had the superhero, offspring, and villain portfolio with the two QR Codes. However, there were some ways that made their projects differ from mine. For example, most people used chart paper/poster paper to put their papers on. However, I used a tri-fold to present my project since it was stable when standing. Also, many people didn't have a background for their animation boxes. Other than those two examples, many of the content that was on their work was similar to mine.

Forward Looking - What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again?

     If I were to revise on this project, I would mainly work on the quality/neatness of the product. One of the things I would like to improve on is the presentation. On exhibition night, I feel as if I had rushed what I was going to say and I also kind of stuttered a bit, so I would like to revise on this part and make the script better. Although small, I would also like to change the titles on my tri-fold. I think these were also rushed and had very low quality, so if I had a chance, I would like to improve upon it and make it much more neater. One more thing I would like to change is the animation box. When looking at it, the cam/cam follower and frame look very sloppy and I would also improve the quality of the animation box.




     

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