Unit 8 Reflection

Unit 8 was about the constant change of species. We started this unit learning about artificial selection, the process in which humans choose the best traits from the gene pool of a species, and purposely mate them with others with the same traits to produce individuals with the best traits for their tasks. This is used livestock by creating the hugest turkey or cattle so that it can produce the most meat and food. The next vodcast was about Charles Darwin's discoveries and theory of evolution. He traveled to the Galapagos islands and recorded four major observations. The first was that sexually reproducing species tend to have higher genetic variation. The second observation was that traits are inherited from parent to offspring. The third observation was that all species are capable of growing exponentially, beyond their carrying capacity. The last observation was that competition is stiff and not all offspring survive because of limited food and other resources. He concluded that individuals who inherited traits that help them survive better and reproduce more tend to leave more offspring than other individuals. The second conclusion was that the unequal ability of individuals to survive and reproduce will result in the better traits becoming more common in the population over generations. He came up with the idea of natural selection, the process of weeding out traits in a population that don't help individuals survive leaving trait that are neutral or do help survive. We next learned of the gene pool, the collection of all alleles in a population. Allele frequency is the frequency of an allele in the gene pool when compared to the other alleles. Speciation in when one species becomes two new species. This means neither can reproduce with the other one. This is caused by behavioral, geographical, and temporal isolation. We then learned of the structural evidence that evolution has occurred such as vestigial structures, remnants from our ancestors that we inherited and do not use anymore, as well as other techniques scientists use in trying to find evidence for evolution. We then learned of three ways populations tend change in allele frequency: directional selection, stabilizing selection, and disruptive selection. We also learned of genetic drift and other ways evolution occurs. We finally learned of the history of life according to evolution. We of the eras and periods the history of life is divided into and theories in how life started.
I want to learn more about the Precambrian era because I still have a lot of information I want to know about it. It is the largest era in terms of time and is when life emerged which is vitally important if we want to understand how life came to be, yet we know the least about this era. This unit has been successful in completing my beginning of the year goals because I have been more on time with my assignments and doing the CFU's more regularly. I need to work on being assertive and haven't worked on it because I haven't seen many opportunities where it is essential to be assertive. I will try to be more assertive in the next unit. You can look at my Unit 7 Reflection here.