The Peppered Moth (10/23 - 10/27)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/HVMaUY

Summary: 

               The peppered moth is a great example of survival of the fittest at its finest. The time where natural selection is demonstrated with these species of moths dates back to the pre to post Industrial revolution. During the pre-industrial revolution, there were two types of peppered moths, white peppered moths and dark peppered moths. However, due to the fact that the trees that they inhabited were white, the white moths were able to blend from predators which meant that they were able to survive long enough to mate and pass on the white body trait to future generations. However, during the Industrial revolutions, coal emissions became much more common, making the once white trees now dark. This allowed the dark moths that used to be less prevalent than the white moths blend in with the environment more and hide more effectively from predators. This change made white moths less prevalent while making dark moths more prevalent. By the end of the Industrial Revolution, the rate of coal consumed died down making the trees turn back to white and making the white moth population recover.

SP4 - Analyzing and Interpreting Data:

               This week I graphed out the populations of both white and dark moths in the span of 10 years twice. Each data set was a representation of a time before, during, or after the Industrial Revolution. The first data set showed the population of dark and light moths in the span of 10 years during the pre and mid Industrial Revolution. While graphing the data, I noticed that the once prevalent white moths slowly declined in population while the black moths thrived and increased in population. From this, I inferred that this must've taken place before to during the Industrial Revolution since this was before any of the pollution started. The second set of data showed a clear contrast to the first one. I saw that the thriving dark moth population slowly started to decrease just as the white moths did and the white moths slowly recovering. Since the dark moths were once thriving in the first data set, I concluded that this takes place during and after the Industrial Revolution since the population of dark moths was initially at its peak at that time and decreased over time, which alludes to when coal emissions decreased and the trees became whiter which gave the white moths opportunity to recover in population. 

               

Natural Selection (10/16 - 10/20)

https://goo.gl/PdhSo1

Summary: 

          Natural selection is the process of elimination for traits in nature. Any negative trait for a species is discarded due to the fact that the species with that specific trait cannot maintain a long enough life to reproduce and allow their offspring to evolve. The traits that allow animals to thrive in their environment are kept and the animals with that trait continue to evolve. For example, there are a species of frogs. Due to mutation, the species is split into two traits; type A which has poisonous skin, and type B which has non-poisonous skin. Both types have a common predator. However, since type A is poisonous to predators, the predators can no longer eat that type. This focuses all the predator's' attention towards type B, the non-poisonous animal. Type B eventually goes extinct due to simply not being able to live long enough to reproduce while type A is allowed to reproduce, evolve and progress.

SP3: Planning/Carrying out Investigations: 

          This week I investigated, along with my table, how natural selection works. The first part of investigation was to have three different variants of predators. Due to the fact that live predators are rather dangerous in a school environment, we substituted them with a spoon, fork and a knife and for prey, we substituted them for an assortment of beans and buttons. In our table, each table mate had a utensil and for 20 seconds, we were allowed to scoop as many beans and buttons as we could. At the end of each hunting period, we had to count how much beans and buttons we collected and anyone that had a utensil that collected less than 20 beans collected had their utensil eliminated. By the end of four rounds, only the spoons remained. This is mainly because spoons were fit to survive in that environment. Forks had gaps in between each blade and knives are too thin to scoop things up. This activity/investigation helped me understand how natural selection works by discarding the negative traits and keeping the positive ones. 

Mutation (10/9 - 10/13)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/zwBHDy

Summary:

          Evolution is the process of change and diversity in organisms over a span of thousands to millions of years. This process is due to a slight change in genes of organisms known as mutations. Mutations occur from an imperfect copies of gene heritage from parent to offspring. Although mutations are rare and usually do nothing, over the span of millions of years, many insignificant mutations can contribute to creating a brand new trait that changes the organism in a major way. Mutations aren't the only way that organisms change. Natural selection is when animals are, from the name, naturally selected to survive based on environment. It ties in with survival of the fittest in that the organisms that can't live long enough to reproduce eventually die off while the organisms that do survive will be able to live on and evolve.

SP8 - Obtain and Communicate Information: 

          This week I gathered information in order to gain a  better understanding of how evolution works and the main factors that go into it's never ending factor. There were 4 factors that me and my table of 5 had to split the research on: Mutation, Natural Selection, Gene Flow and Genetic Mutation. In this activity, I assigned myself the duty to research about Natural Selection through given resources. While I was researching about my given topic, I took some notes, including what natural selection was and an example of it. I then communicated this information with my team and obtained other information about their topics of mutation, gene flow or genetic drift.

The Geological Time Scale - Project Blog | (10/2 - 10/6)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/Y2rup2

Backwards Looking: 

     What process did you go through to produce this piece? To produce the Geological Time Scale book, my team and I gathered information on our specific eras. We focused on information that contained the periods, major climate, geological events, and life. Following our research and the era report which lasted in its entirety a week, we spent the day planning out the format of the piece of the project we were soon going to present. In this part, I must admit that my team was rather creative in planning the concept of what we were going to present. We decided to present the information that we researched through a book. In the remainder of the week and the first half of the other, we worked on our eras and actively trying to finish the final product.

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 feel that this project is one that I put more effort in than my other projects. In projects where I have to present a visual product, the inevitable deadline that is to come hangs over me, thus putting pressure on me and me rushing the project, which makes the project look unattractive or unorganized. However, during this project, I was granted the opportunity to work on it over the weekend, which gave me time to put all my effort into adding color into my piece, the Paleozoic era. During this project I also feel that my team put their effort in, despite them not having the time to add any color into it. 

  

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? I think that the most common work process among everyone was to split the eras among each of the four members of the group and then each team member would individually work on their era. At the end of the project, everyone would put together what they worked on to create the final product. That is exactly what my team and many others did during this project. Each of the concepts for the project and the way it was done, however, was different. Some teams decided to present their work on a tri-fold or poster board, while one made a book shelves with each era having their own one. Nonetheless, the one common thing that I saw in all the teams was creativity, whether it was the art displayed, the interactives, or the concept of the project.

 

Forward Looking:

     What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again? Something that I learned from this project and would apply if I were to do this all over again is to have better communication with my team. During this project, I feel that the communication between each teammate was limited, thus any ability to share ideas with each other. This lead to the format for each specific page being different, due to our differing ideas on how to tackle it. As a result, some eras might have had some missing or excessive elaboration on specific parts of that era. From that experience, I now know how much communication is important in order to coordinate and complete a project.