Unit 8 Reflection

        In this unit, we learned about evolution. Variation exists everywhere, and variation leads to evolution. Natural selection is when the better traits in a population dominate, and the population begins to take on those traits. We learned about natural selection in The Hunger Games Lab. Artificial selection is when humans decide which organisms they want to mate in order to try to achieve a certain phenotype. Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, and discovered much of what we know today about evolution and natural selection. He made four observations; Sexual organisms have high genetic variation, traits are passed from F1 to F2, all species can reproduce more offspring than an ecosystem can support, and there is competition for survival because of limited resources. His two conclusions were fittest organisms reproduce more and the concept of survival of the fittest. The gene pool is the total of all alleles in a population for one trait, and allele frequency is essentially how common a trait is within a population. Speciation is the ride of two or more species from one existing species. There are three types of isolation; behavioral, geographic. and temporal. Gradualism is very gradual speciation, whereas punctuated equilibrium is very sudden speciation. Below is an illustration of how populations change and evolve.

The main evidence we have that supports the theory of evolution are developmental evidence in embryos, evo-devo, vegistal structures, fossils, homologous structures, and analogous structures.The Geologic Time Scale of Earth is made up of eras. One example is the Palezoic Era, which is made up of periods; Cambrian, Orodovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian. All of Earth's eras and periods are shown below.

        Although I learned a lot in this unit, I still have many questions. I would like to know more about the process behind the formation of fossils. How are the eras and periods time periods' and names decided? Why has it taken humans so long to evolve, but animals can evolve in just a few years? I wonder about Charles Darwin and more about his experiments. How did he come to the conclusions that he made? Why do some organisms have better traits than others? I wonder mainly about evolution.
         Last unit reflection, I learned about my learning style. You can read more about it here: Unit 7 Reflection. I have tried to be more assertive, and have struggled a little with it, but feel I have grown. I have tried to express my opinion and set boundaries. When someone makes me uncomfortable, I try to express that I will not be told to do something I do not want to do. I am not very assertive naturally, but it is a work in progress. I am slowly but surely becoming more assertive.