Discover Top Posts Tagged with #andreisalem

"ICE AGE" - SALEM

Part 3/3 of "Out of Africa and Into the Wood"

#outOfAfrica #andreiSalem #groupPortfolio

INDIVIDUAL PORTFOLIO - SALEM

SELF-REFLECTIVE ESSAY - SALEM

Third quarter is a lot more fun than the previous quarters. We have activities, reporting, and documentaries, but we did not have a legit topic discussion this quarter. I had difficulties in finding a good topic for my portfolio because the quarter is full of activities and I don’t have time and resources to replicate the activities and ask my sisters to do them. When ma’am posted the topics, I still have no other choice but to stick with human evolution.

My first topic was about the nine bases of human race and its relation to human migration. It’s a really difficult topic to do and I already used the topic as the overview in our group portfolio last quarter. I will put the basis of human race like the differences in autosomal SNPs, Y chromosome, mitochondrial DNA, and genetic distances in my portfolio and relate it to how first humans migrated to other parts of the world and were isolated from each other forming different human races. When I was doing this, I thought that this might not be considered as a portfolio topic because I “slightly” used this topic in our group portfolio. I shifted my topic to the relationship of languages and human migration. When I was doing this, the Piktochart application underwent server upgrade so I had no choice but to return to Microsoft Publisher. My mom went in my room and told me that my portfolio is so boring to read and it contains maps again. Yes, I’m discouraged to do this and became lazy. I wasted about two hours trying to do this portfolio.

When the servers are up, I can finally do my infographic portfolio. I changed my topic again to the effects of climate to human evolution. This topic was mentioned in the documentary but it only stated that the amount of UV light changed the skin color of humans. When I searched the topic on google, I was shocked that some aspects of human evolution came from climate oscillations. The less stable the climate, the more of the need to adapt and evolve. Also, bipedality and the use of stone tools somehow accelerated the evolution of humans since bipedality enables humans to go to diverse environments and stone tools unlocked more food sources. Humans should adapt to different environments and human teeth should undergo change to diverse food sources.

After doing the infographic, I thought that adding the future of human evolution would be nice since not only nature but also technology shaped humans. The predictions were shocking especially in the part that human feet would only have four toes. I hope that the infographics are clear and a good resource to learn something.

#selfReflectiveEssay #andreiSalem

LEARNING LOGS - SALEM

How the Earth Made Man

Humans learned to throw to become better hunters. In that way, humans can hunt more safely.

Hiccups might came from animals that breathe both air and water ex. Tadpoles.

The ability to do push-ups came from ancient fish that pushes itself out of the water

Goosebumps came from hairy mammalian ancestors.

The involuntary and unexpected jolts that we experience when we’re going to sleep came from monkeys or animals that live in the trees to keep them from falling off a tree.

The open plains calms us because you can see potential dangers even from afar. The jungle scene is not calming because you cannot see anything from a distance.

There’s common phobia of snakes and spiders because they are the deadly threats in the African forest.

Enhanced color and 3D vision enables us to see camouflaged animals

Sweating while we are in fear makes us slippery and harder to grab by predators.

The noise made by scratching the nails on a board has the same frequency of the cry of a female macaque monkey when it is giving birth and piercing warning cries.

We see faces in things like electric plugs and cabinets as a method of safety and survival in a chaotic environment

Humans are violent like chimpanzees

Déjà vu is a “bug” in brain’s circuitry

Disgust and gut feeling is a way to prevent disease and danger

Jelly Bean Taste Test

We perceive taste using both the sense of taste and the sense of smell

What Color Do You See - A Color Sorting Activity

Our accuracy to get a certain colored object depends on the color of the light.

Bridges to Human Language

Humans are unique because they just don’t do grunts and cries to communicate, they spontaneously make new words.

A newly-introduced language will be spontaneously changed by non-native speaker turning them to pidgins and later, creoles.

Animal Origins of Art

Art doesn’t help in survival, and is usually seen in captive animals.

Agriculture’s two-edged sword

The advantage of agriculture against hunting is a misconception. Hunter-gatherers have more leisure time and work no harder than farmers, have more diverse diet, and no famines.

Why do we smoke, drink, do drugs?

Smoking, drinking, or taking drugs is bad for the health, a strong motive explains why we do such dangerous things

Example in animals: handicaps

Real Eve

Humans came from Africa and migrated to other parts of the world by crossing the Red Sea.

#learningLogs #andreiSalem

SELF-REFLECTIVE ESSAY - SALEM

Second quarter is a bit long and more difficult than the last quarter, but Life Sci for me is a bit short. We had one week of no Life Science classes and I know that we were lagging behind in our lessons. I was so busy that I was not able to do this portfolio two weeks before the deadline. Two days before, I had a problem with my portfolio - I cannot think of a good topic for my portfolio this quarter. Making the portfolio last quarter was easier because it is about evolution, now is about selection. I am not actually a fan of doing human-related topic and I am not comfortable doing topics about attraction and sexual selection. Yes, I am not that comfortable of doing my poster for Life Sci so tried to put “clean and innocent things” instead, making my poster more like an infographic. I am confident that my poster is family-friendly.

Back to my portfolio, I first thought of doing research about Darwin’s finches. I wanted to do selection topics to Darwin’s finches because I read an article before about the directional selection of the finches after a drought. Also, I found out that a specie of finches, also noted by Darwin, lives in an island near the Galapagos Islands. After hours of researching, I found out that I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, and the topics seems unclear to me so I shifted to another topic. Hardy-Weinberg theory is relatively hard for me since it requires math skills so I took the principle of symmetry as my topic.

Symmetry might be a relatively easy topic to do that a portfolio should not be about it. Symmetry is an indication of beauty. A face that has the perfect eyes and the perfect smile cannot be perceived as beautiful if the facial features are not symmetrical. I first researched on symmetry in animals and I found out that animal asymmetry is a good topic. I also read about floral asymmetry and my attention was diverted to it. Could floral symmetry make a flower beautiful?

As we all know, flowers are not meant to please our eyes. They play a vital role in plant reproduction and depends on pollinators to carry their pollen to the stigma of a flower. The importance of symmetry in flowers is to please the eyes of their pollinators. Pollinators do not like asymmetric flowers, just like how people judge other people’s face. There are many varieties of flowers differing in shape, number of petals, arrangement of organs, and complexity. Some flowers have really simple arrangement and some have really complex arrangement that only higher species of pollinators can pollinate them.

Like my last portfolio, I made this as graphical as possible. Although the hypotheses about floral symmetry is a bit confusing at first (I need to google biological terms, and I have to read a part three times to fully understand it), what really matters is the examples because pictures can explain a thousand of words. I’m not a creationist but God really did make a great job on creating all these stunning flowers to beautify the Earth.

#selfReflectiveEssay #andreiSalem

LEARNING LOGS - SALEM

Genetic Variation

// I really don’t remember that we have this as the first lesson of the second quarter, I thought it was Hardy-Weinberg Theory but I’m going to put here my research.

Variations are differences in genetic sequence.

Variations can be seen at every genetic level (DNA, genes, chromosomes, proteins)

Mutations, genetic rearrangements, deletions, insertions, and polymorphisms are the major types of genetic variations

Some variation is positive, it improves survival

Some variations lead to diseases

Variations -> different traits

Discontinuous trait - distinct categories, no “in-betweens”

Continuous trait - no distinct categories

Normal distribution - follows the bell curve, the peak is at the average point

Bimodal distribution - a type of normal distribution with two peaks

Source:

Genetic Variation. (2008 April 25). Retrieved October 28, 2014 from www.genome.gov

/pages/education/modules/geneticvariation.pdf

Exercise on the Hardy-Weinberg Principle

The Hardy-Weinberg Theory is the hardest Life Sci topic ever. First, I’m not really good at Math especially when combined with Bio. Math and Bio for me are not a good combination, I always get low score even it’s just simple math (but I’m very good in Physics, I don’t know why). The process is a bit confusing to me especially when using the equation and doing the table. My answers are a bit off from the correct answer because my Sharp calculator randomly multiplies variables to the answer. Although doing Hardy-Weinberg is difficult, I still help my group mates to answer the activity. I answered the guide questions mainly because the questions are very entertaining to answer (we answered “teenage pregnancy” as one factor).

The Hardy-Weinberg Theory states that given a specific set of alleles and genotype frequencies and keeping the five factors constant, there will be a time that the genotype frequencies will come to its equilibrium. The five factors are: no mutations, no immigration & emigration, population is large, random mating, and all alleles are equally viable.

Investigating the Gene Pool Changes

This activity is actually less confusing and more fun but is very time consuming. What I learn is simple, populations having equal genotype frequencies should have the same genotype frequencies generation after generation. Since selection is random, slight deviations should be observed especially small populations. Small populations have smaller number of alleles therefore, have smaller representation. Also, genotype frequencies could be changed by natural selection. The effect of natural selection is only limited to a trait that has a variation. The effect of natural selection to the genotypes is also simple; it reduces the disadvantageous genotype in the next generation and increases the advantageous genotype.

Curious question: When we pick two beads at a time, we sometimes get three and we favored the homogenous combination. Is there a chance that this can also happen in real life? J

Beauty and the Beast

// Is this an activity? :D

What I learned is that beauty changes with how much time we spent with someone. At first sight, what we only consider is what on the outside like how Beauty reacted when the Beast showed up from the shadow. We consider physical attractiveness only which is what humans only consider when having short-term relationships. The more we spend with someone, the more we can see what is inside him/her. This time, the perception of beauty is not just outside or one view; it’s now what is inside or maybe from all possible views. For me, beauty is an evolution. You may see someone is beautiful but it may change with time.

The Human Face: Episode 3

Humans (and animals according to my portfolio), perceives symmetry as beauty. It has been shown that the ugliest humans have very asymmetrical faces. The symmetry of a human face shows that someone is healthy, and well raised during childhood. People that have symmetrical body parts also perform better in physical activities. Parasites are also a cause of an asymmetrical face. All humans are born with symmetrical faces with rounder and thicker facial features. As we grow up, our faces become a bit asymmetrical and we will have thinner facial features. An idealized beautiful woman is a mixture of a child’s facial features and a grown up woman’s facial features. Make-up was invented to replicate the face of a sexually aroused human. Lipsticks, and blush-on, are commonly red because humans “flush” when they are sexually aroused; bedroom eyes are also connected to sex.

#learningLogs #andreiSalem

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY - SALEM

Doing this portfolio taught me to dig deeper from a seemingly small subtopic of evolution. Thinking about a topic for my portfolio was a mess. I’m not fond of doing genetics because I feel lifeless about this topic. I picked artificial selection as my topic because it is a relatively small topic compared to other topics; it is often used as a comparison to natural selection and I found a confusion between artificial selection and genetic engineering. Artificial selection and genetic engineering were both done by humans and also have a specific goal, so I would like to research what is the difference of the result of artificial selection.

At first, I was not that satisfied with my topic. I consulted my group mate if my work was legit, she said it was ok but asked me what it is about. Artificial selection cannot be explained by just stating the concepts, it is about application. I researched what organism should I use for my portfolio. I saw the artificial selection of cauliflowers and broccoli, and I remembered carrots, corn, and cabbage from the GMO talk. I chose rice as my model organism because it is widely cultivated in Asia and Africa, also the physical appearance of commercial rice plant doesn’t differ from wild rice. It is a challenge for me to find out the effects of artificial selection on rice. I’m not the one who just presents the physical appearance of the wild and cultivated type as an evidence to artificial selection like the one I saw on the internet and from the talk. I want to prove the difference in behavior and the genetics of it by researching the history, spread, and cultivation of some common rice species.

After hours of researching and studying about many rice species, I learned a lot of things about artificial selection and other biology topics. I learned the pros and cons of annual and perennial plants, the effects of geographic isolation, and possible hybrids for rice. I learned that artificial selection could not just change the physical appearance of rice, it could also change the growing season and can give rise to another organism. Evolution by artificial selection can follow a single chain or can branch off. Branching off can be the result of having geographical barriers and change in climate.

I am really satisfied with the outcome of my portfolio. I made it graphical as possible so that readers can read this lightly. Studying a specific topic in Bio is like a carrot, you cannot really understand and appreciate the works of God if you don’t dig the soil around it and pull it from the earth.

#selfReflectionEssay #andreiSalem

LEARNING LOGS - SALEM

Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

This was the first time that I heard of “Intelligent Design.”

I learned about “Irreducible Complexity,” one of the strongest evidence for Intelligent Design.

Irreducible complexity means that some systems are too complex to have evolved from a simpler one.

Venn Diagram

I did not learn much in this activity other than humans and chimpanzees are almost similar physically. This is just based on observations and stock knowledge.

This is about comparing the similarities and differences on the physical appearance of humans and chimpanzees.

Weighing the Evidence

My acceptance did not change because I actually believe that humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor. But my confidence rises because of the fun and interesting activities.

I am 90% sure that humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor. The evidences that were shown in the activities were strong enough to support the claim although, the evidences doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the fact.

I found the Sequence Search Activity the least convincing because it was really confusing at first and after we finish it, I still didn’t get the point of this (well, I know that this is the fusion point between Chromosome 2 and the extra chimp chromosome) and my reaction was “Meh.”

I found the Karyotype Idiograms: Human and Chimpanzee the most convincing because it has the clearer point than Sequence Search and it is enjoyable coloring those chromosomes. Almost all bands on human chromosomes match those of chimpanzees.

Hominidae Family Tree

The most common hypothesis that can be concluded is mutation. Mutation that caused the chromosome that fused the two chromosomes of chimpanzees.

My weird hypothesis is that an ancient alien came and did “medical testing” to chimpanzees and genetically modified them by removing a chromosome and inserting it to their “test aliens”. (I watched a documentary of aliens abducting human and doing painful medical tests to them, some had implants on different parts of the body, and some had their reproductive organs removed to produce a human-alien hybrid)

Karyotype Idiograms

This is the most interesting activity. I really had fun coloring the chromosomes.

This is about the comparison of the chromosomes of humans and chimpanzees.

I noticed that the Chromosome 2 of humans are longer than the chimpanzees. I inferred that the extra chromosome might be the “broken piece” of the chimpanzee chromosome 2.

Why are there floating blobs on C18, C21, and C22?!

The Chromosome Shuffle

I learned that:

The p arm is the shorter arm; the q arm is the longer arm.

There are seven types of mutation

Deletion - a portion of the chromosome is lost. Dangerous.

Duplication - a segment is duplicated in the same chromosome

Fission - breaks apart; Fusion - two chromosomes are joined

Inversion- turned upside down (pericentric) includes centromere; (paracentric) excluding the centromere

Translocation - two chromosomes trade parts.

Comparing Chromosomes

Both C4 and C5 had pericentric inversion type of mutation

Sequence Search

There is a fusion point between chimp 2a and 2b

The fusion point is at 108541

Additional Research

Article 1: Darwin’s Predictions (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/pred-nf.html)

Darwin had many predictions that were proven decades after his death.

Evolution Happens

Evolution Happens through Natural Selection

The Galapagos Finches of Darwin were observed in 1970’s. After the drought, thousands of finches died and plants with small seeds were devastated. The finches with larger beaks survived and the average beak size of finches is higher than the previous generation. Another drought happened in 2003, the finches with smaller beaks survived because of the competition between the large-beaked finches and the larger finch species that had settled in the islands.

Evolution by Natural Selection must have a mechanism

Darwin proposed a mechanism of heredity called pangenesis. He did not know that genetics was already revealed by Gregor Mendel whose works are neglected until 1900 and the DNA was discovered in 1940.

The mechanism is natural not supernatural

One of the reasons why Darwin’s theory was delayed was because he think that the Christians might be shocked at his theory including his wife Emma, who is also a believer of Creationism

Embryology is “the strongest single class of facts in favor of change in forms”

Embryology is crucial in understanding how basic the anatomical parts of animals and plants change over evolutionary time.

Sexual Selection also drives evolution

Darwin question the extravagant tail feathers of peacocks and its function in “the survival of the fittest.” Marion Petrie showed Darwin’s predictions to be true. On average, peacocks have 150 “eyes” on their tails. He cut some “eyes” to lower than 130. The peacock with fewer “eyes” rarely mated compared to the peacocks with 150 “eyes.”

All animals. Including humans, share a common ancestor

Humans evolved from an ape-like ancestor

Modern humans arose in Africa

He wrote, "It is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African continent than elsewhere."

The Earth is several hundred million years old

Gaps in the fossil record will be filled in by key transitional fossils

The orchid with a foot long spur must be pollinated by an existing insect with a foot-long tongue

The orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale) was pollinated by a moth (Xanthopan morganii predicate)

The scientific name of the moth was named in honor of Darwin’s prediction.

#learningLogs #andreiSalem