Genetics
When I began college I had so many misconceptions about science in general. Mostly I thought I knew a lot of the details about different scientific events and boy was I wrong. It was not until that I took Genetics last semester that I really learned about mutations. I did not know that there were so many different types of mutations that can happen in the body and I was surprised to learn that mutations can be silent as well. I also thought I knew everything about the central dogma. I also learned in genetics just how complicated that each step of the central dogma gets.
Through college it has mostly been very gradual learning and connecting different scientific ideas for me. I feel like I do not have that many "AH-HA" moments. Each class that I continue to take adds onto ideas that I have learned previously and concepts start to increasingly make more sense in my head. Genetic drift is always something that I have never really fully grasped but listening to the lecture the other day about it made the concept so much more clear to me!
There are still some concepts that are kind of confusing to me. I know we talked about it the other day but I still get confused when talking about the Hardy Weinberg Equation because I am still not sure when it is appropriate to be using it.
Hi Aubree,
ReplyDeleteI had the same misconceptions as you, I also never knew all the things about mutations and I am just as surprised as you. I also took Dr.Wiggins genetics class last semester and that was when I became able to grasp genetics.
For help on the thing that is confusing you, I found this Khan Academy video and hope it can help you. There are actually more videos before this one as well and going through each of them in order may be beneficial.
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/natural-selection/hardy-weinberg-equilibrium/v/applying-hardy-weinberg
Hi Aubree!
ReplyDeleteI also never really had any "AH-HA" moments, but after taking many classes the concepts began to link together. That is my favorite thing about science, it is a lot like finding the missing puzzle piece and once you do you are able to see the whole picture!!
Hardy Weinburg is confusing on what it is exactly used for. I like to think of it as a base line to compare another allele and gene frequencies to.
Here is a video I found really helpful about it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhFKPaRnTdQ
I really related to the fact that you haven't really had any of those (AH-HA) moments. So much in college, it feels like everyone (professors) expect things to just click all the sudden. But more often than not, that doesn't happen. Sometimes it just never clicks. Glad there is someone else out there. HWE will probably be one of the never ah-ha moments for me as well. But, guess we will see.
ReplyDeleteHey Aubree!
ReplyDeleteAh ha moments are rare in college so it does not surprise me you don't have them much because neither do I, we are expected to learn so much in a short period of time so I suppose it makes sense. I also agree knowing when to use HWE can be confusing but I think in the next few lectures, maybe the material will allow us to get a better grasp on it. Great Blog!!
Hi Aubree,
ReplyDeleteI also haven’t had very many Ah ha moments so far in college because as you said everything builds on each other so it is gradual. I used to get confused on genetic drift before taking genetics and this class too. I used to think for some reason its like Noah’s ark animals would be different then the animals on the land. Idk how i came to this but that’s just what my mind made a connection with for genetic drift. I found a website that has examples of genetic drift that could be applied to the real world. https://www.softschools.com/examples/science/genetic_drift_examples/123/ Hope to see more of your blog later on!