Superhero Life Science Project Blog 2/9

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Summary:

The Punnett square is a diagram that is used to predict an outcome of how a pairs offspring will look. Every person has two alleles, and as they have a kid they pass down one of their two alleles. Depending whether or not you inherit two dominant, two recessive, or one of both, you will have a noticeable phenotype resembling one of your parents. For example if your mom is homozygous for her green eyes, and your dad is heterozygous for his brown eyes, there is a chance that you will get either brown or green eyes. We use Punnett squares to easily the possible combinations that the eye color will be.Your health is not only determined on what your mother does, but what you do after you are born. Your mom decided to eat very healthy while pregnant with you. The result is a perfectly healthy baby, but if after birth you have an unhealthy diet and only eat junk food, you will become obese and have other health issues in your life. A mutation is a change in genetic material, to be more specific a nucleic acid. They are completely random and can be helpful, harmful, or neutral. Gene mutations can be caused by insertion, substitution, or deletion. When creating a GMO you need to insert a new piece of DNA. A new gene can be placed in a bacteria called a plasmid. The plasmid is cut with a restriction enzyme and after the DNA is placed it is stitched up with a DNA ligase.

Backward-Looking: How much did you know about the subject before we started?

Before we started this project I knew little to nothing about genetics. One thing I did know however was that children inherit their biological parents genes and that those genes express traits. I also did know about the body systems section. We not only completed a unit about body systems in fifth grade, we did one earlier this year. When it came to that part, I only needed the textbook for pictures.

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 particularly proud about this piece of work for many reasons. One reason is just because of how nicely it turned out. I enjoyed creating this piece because I had a chance to improve my artistic abilities. Even though there was a lot of art involved, I learned so much about genetics that I will remember because of this project. One thing that I disliked about this project was how long it took. We began before the Christmas break and are only completing it now. In the end though, I extremely enjoyed this project and how everything came together.

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?

There were definitely some ways in which I did my work similar to others and some ways that I did it differently. Only one other person in my class had a superhero that had the powers of the mantis shrimp. All through the superhero, mate, child and villain there were similarities and differences like gender and powers. Also, my epigenetics child was completely healthy while others ranged from there all the way to six different diseases. When working on the villain we had to create a nefarious mode for four different body systems. During that process there was a vary of which body systems were chosen. I chose the eyes, skin, muscular system, and nervous system. Lastly, some chose to put their work on a trifold and others used chart paper.

Forward-Looking: What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again?

If I had a chance to redo this project I probably would. Even though I liked the way this project turned out there are some things I would like to make better. One main thing I would like to improve upon is my time management. Although, all my work was completed on time I rushed some of it and did it late at night. It was hard to do all the work last minute due to my procrastination. This would make my work more detailed and my drawing much, much neater. Another thing I would change would be small things like the and powers of my superhero, villain, and child. There are some things I would change if I got to redo my project, but I am still happy with the result.