Unit 4 Reflection

Unit 4 was all about sex and how it is so essential for life on Earth. The themes about this unit was all about the cell cycle and Mendel's laws in genetics. We also learned about genetics and the difference between mitosis and meiosis. Some of my strengths in this unit was predicting the traits of the offspring along with the process of mitosis. The reason that I was strong in mitosis was because I learned about the process in detail last year, One weakness that I had was distinguishing the similarities and the differences of the between mitosis and meiosis. I learned a lot from the infographics because the infographic made me understand the different topics in the infographic, in order to find the appropriate pictures to use for each block. The labs that we did for this unit really helped me understand Mendel's laws of genetics. I am indeed a better student now than before this unit. One unanswered question that I have is, what is the limit for the amount of crosses?(for example, is there a cross that involves 10 alleles? 10-hybrid?). After taking the VARK questionnaire, it showed me that I am a visual learner. My exact scores were visual 10, kinesthetics 8, read and write 7, and coming in last with a score of 6 is aural. The results were as I expected because I realized a year ago that I learn a lot better with visual representations. The things that I can do to prepare me for the upcoming test is to draw out diagrams of the processes of mitosis and meiosis. Also I can draw out Mendel's laws. These learning styles will help me understand the most in order to get ready for the test.

Coin Sex Lab Relate and Review

In this lab, my partner and I flipped coins to figure out the genotype and phenotype of the children. We did four mini experiments to find out if the predictions that we made were somewhat accurate. We tested to see if the offspring were either a male or female, if they had bipolar disorder or not, if they the offspring were colorblind and lastly we tested a dihybrid cross while testing the traits of brown hair, blonde hair, brown eyes and blue eyes. The colorblind experiment was an example of x linked inheritance because colorblindness is a x linked recessive disorder. The experiment that genetically linked through autosomal dominance is bipolar disorder. In this experiment we crossed monohybrids, homozygous recessive and heterozygous traits(bb*Bb), to find the probability of how many children will have bipolar disorder. The coins that we flipped were acting as the genes and alleles for the trait that we were testing. Another way that coins serve as a model for genetic concepts is that the chromosomes randomly split during meiosis which represents Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment. Also, the coins represent recombination or sex. When we did the experiment with the dihybrid cross, we predicted, using probability, we expected to have 9 offspring with brown hair and brown eyes, 3 offspring with blond hair and brown eyes, 3 offspring with brown hair and blue eyes and the last child to have blond hair and blue eyes. We used the punnett square to predict what is the outcomes. We crossed a double heterozygous allele with another double heterozygous allele. Our results matched exactly to the expected results. The reason that we got the results that we predicted was because of the Law of Probability held true. The law of Probability states that the there will be a higher chance of getting the most probable outcome. Some people will not get the expected outcome because of the law of independent assortment. The outcomes will always have the chance to be different, however it will have a less of chance to happen. Even though that punnett squares are very useful, there is a certain point where the results that you get from the punnett square are not reliable. Although punnett squares predict the most probable outcome, it is not always accurate. For example, when I flipped coins to try and find the sex of the offspring, the predicted result was 5 male and 5 female. However, when I flipped the coins, my partner and I got the result of 1 male to 9 females.  This shows that punnett squares are not always accurate. From this lab, I learned how to predict whether or not your offspring will be a male or a female, or for example if they will be colorblind. I can use this in my own life by predicting whether or not my child will be a boy or a girl and if they will have a disease

Genetics Inforgraphic: Bachelors of Science in Genetics

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/9346591-genetics-infographic