Geographic Timeline Relfection

Geographic Timeline Reflection

    

    One of three major events that happened during Earth's history was the formation of Earth, when it was a planet entirely made of lava and constantly bombarded with comets and meteorites. Another major event that occurred was when the super-continent called Pangea formed, along with reptiles and other types of animals. A third major event was when a massive asteroid hit the Yucatan peninsula, and most dinosaurs went extinct, which is why they aren't around today.

    Earth's history dates back for forever, and we are only an incredibly tiny smudge compared to the rest of the periods. I was surprised by this because obviously it feels like we've been around forever but we really haven't.

    The impact we've had on Earth in such a short time is pretty frightening, considering that we have been able to damage and manipulate it in this time period. It really makes me wonder about what the future has in store for humans.

Prevention: Alzheimer's Blog Post #3

Alzheimer's: Prevention

         I've learned so much more since my last blog post about Alzheimer's disease and more importantly, how to prevent it. I will definitely include the six pillars of Alzheimer's prevention in my final project. One thing I've learned about myself throughout this project is that I actually work very well under stress or pressure or confusion. Or all of the above. Whenever I found myself in a pit during this project, I would stop and think about my next move before acting on it. I feel like that's helped me through my research a lot. I've only encountered a few setbacks revolving around confusion or what to do next for my project. I was able to get over them by taking breaks and stopping to think about my progress.
        The next step in my process is to begin my final product. I'm going to try and piece my entire differences list together within the next few weeks. The great thing about choosing Alzheimer's disease as my topic for my 20-time project is that now I know the differences between the actual disease and normal aging, I can tell whether or not I will have it once I'm older. Alzheimer's is genetic in my family, so it's something we need to be really aware of. I can apply the prevention techniques I've learned to my routine to help slow down the process if I ever find myself diagnosed.

            

Unit 8 Reflection

Unit 8 Reflection

          In this unit, we learned about artificial selection, natural selection, evolution, speciation, and the geographic timeline. We were taught the difference between artificial selection and natural selection, which to me, sounded as if it'd be nearly nonexistent, but as it turned out they were nearly two completely different types of selection. 

Artificial selection involves breeders picking out which animals to breed for which desired traits.

Natural selection occurs when a species is unable to adapt with the phenotypes it was born with, and thus, dies off.

        http://www.csus.edu/indiv/l/loom/wk%2015/dogs.jpg

  

        

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/images/interviews/naturalselection1.gif

                 We also learned what speciation was. Notice how I said we learned "what" it was and not "about" it. That's because I had absolutely no idea this term even existed before this unit. Apparently, speciation is the rise of two or more species from one existing species. I thought this was simply called evolution but apparently it's more specific than just that. Evolution is just the change in allele frequency over time.

          The geographic timeline is still pretty confusing to me, but I'm sure it won't be once we finish our group project of creating an actual timeline on it. 

   I think it'd be interesting to learn more about the dinosaur's downgraded evolution. I want to know how a giant velociraptor could eventually transform into a chicken after a couple billion years.

         As for the assertiveness, I'm still working on it. I'm not very good at being assertive because I often confuse assertiveness with aggression, and I obviously don't want to be aggressive. One thing I did was when the woman making my sandwich at Subway asked if I wanted my sandwich toasted or not I actually said no this time instead of just awkwardly agreeing to it. Baby steps.