Day 16: Mating (and the awkward atmosphere that came with it)

Warning number 2: This class contained uncomfortably awkward music and actions. If you do not wish the cringe at teenage awkwardness, well that sucks because adults are just as awkward, so get over it. 

Today's class consisted off two things that I do not do under any circumstances. Taste an unknown chemical, and "mingle".

But we'll get to that later. 

Before I nearly lost my life (or well, I could have), we reviewed what we had learned in class earlier and were introduced to new things. (I'm being vague because I don't want to give it away!)

Mind maps!!! 

So we have physics traits. No duh, everyone does. But there are two kinds of traits, dominant and recessive. These traits are determined by our genotype, which is a set of genes that an organism carries. Our genes can either be homozygous dominant, homozygous recessive, or heterozygous. These genes are determined by the population. The physical traits that show because of the genotype are called phenotypes. Phenotypes are also dominant or recessive. These traits have many different variations that prove natural selection, "survival of the fittest", and evolution. The variations in traits can be found in proteins, DNA, and genes, and are the biochemical evidence of natural selection. In order to find the frequency of the gene and the percent population, two people Godfrey H. Hardy and Wilhelm Weinberg created a formula to solve that, creatively named the Hardy-Weinberg Principle.

Hardy and Weinberg looked at the dominant and recessive alleles in genes and created an equation that had an uncanny resemblance to the Pythagorean Theorem. (Come on you guys. The Pythagorean Theorem is so three thousand years ago.)

By using this theorem, one can find the frequency of the gene and percent population of the gene in a population. ( I would give examples, but blogger won't let me up equations in...)

Now here's the awkward part. In order to test genetic frequency and percent populations, the class was given four flash cards each, two with a capital 'A' and two with a lower case 'a'. We were then told to exchange two card each to create an offspring, thus "mating" with one another. 

To make things worse, there was mood music playing. The music fell into the same category of songs like "Let's Get it On", "Careless Whisper", and "Business Time". 

I learned three things from that.

1. I'm an awkward dancer
2. "Mating" is not my thing.
3. Evolution occurs when there is change in the genotype of a population. 

To go further into depth on number three, as we continued "mating" and such, there were less and less people with the 'aa' or recessive gene and more and more people with either the 'AA' or 'Aa' dominant gene. The species were slowly adapting to the environment that surrounded them so that more can live. 

And that my friends, is evolution in a nutshell.

So I've got a test next class and I know I said last time that next time I'll start studying before the night before the test...but a nasty AP U.S. History test and a dreadful AP Lang essay got in the way of that. So, yay cramming!!

Until next time.