Hunger Games Lab

1. In this lab, we experimented on how populations evolves and how allele frequency changes. In the start of the experiment, we had around equal amounts of the three types of birds, and allele frequencies. After a while, the stumpys died off, but eventually came back through the mating of knucklers. This simulates the process of directional selection, as the birds population consisted of more and more pinchers.
2. The pinchers were the best at gathering food, because they could use their fingers to pick up food, which is what humans have the easiest time doing, instead of using knuckles or wrists.
3. The population evolved, because it consisted of more pinchers than it did in the beginning. The "a" allele in the gene pool changes from around 50% to 5%.
4. The process of mating was not random, because everyone wanted to produce more knucklers. The distribution of food was both random and not random. It was random, as the food was spread out evenly in terms of around the circle. It was not spread out evenly in terms of where the food was placed.
5. If the food was larger, the stumpys would have a better time collecting food, and if they were smaller, then the stumpys would have a harder time collecting food. This would affect the survival of the stumpys and the gene pool. This might happen in nature, such as for birds, the beaks would evolve bigger to be able to pick up the big food better, or evolve smaller to be able to pick up the smaller food better.
6. If there was not incomplete dominance, then the "A" allele would be a bigger part of the gene pool, as it wouldn't be selected against as much, as the "Aa" organisms would be pinchers.
7. Natural selection can lead to evolution. Organisms with the traits that are selected against would die off, and the organisms with the traits that are selected for would prosper. The population would then evolve toward being more like the organisms with the food traits.
8. Some people cheated, and used their hands in order to have a better chance of survival. Some stumpys scooped up their food to gather them more efficiently. This would have affected the allele frequency of the population to be more like the ones with more efficient gathering skills. This could happen in nature, if the more fierce and competitive organisms gathered food better.
9. In evolution, the population, and not the individual organisms evolve. Natural selection acts on the phenotype, because the ones with more physical capability can survive better. One example of this is that if heterozygous organisms were pinchers, they would not have a disadvantage towards the homozygous pinchers, and therefore would not be selected against.
10. What happens if the "A" allele dies out completely, and then nature selects against the "a" allele after all the "A" alleles are gone?

    

    Allele Frequency Graph

20 Time Project with Java Post 2

There are many different algorithms in the programming language which can help facilitate the run time of a program, make the program easier to read, or have other benefits. I have been studying Java for the past few weeks, and I have been studying different algorithms with the traits as described above. I have been studying the method called Depth First Search (DFS), which I have already learned in C++, but I am learning to incorporate it into Java. I have some setbacks in mixing up the code for C++ and Java, so I sometimes get confused. The next steps for my 20 Time project is to finish learning about DFS and continue onto BFS. I can apply this to me because I like programming.

Unit 7 Reflection

    This unit was about ecology basics. Some of the big ideas were interdependence in nature, and matter and energy. The first chapter in this unit is the biosphere. In this chapter we talked about the different types of interactions between species, as well as interdependence. We learned about how energy decreases on every trophic level, and how food webs help sustain populations. We learned about different types of cycles, such as the water cycle, and how it impacted people and other organisms. The next chapter is about ecosystems and communities. In this chapter, we talked about different ways that temperature can be changed, as well as biotic and abiotic factors, which are classified mainly by whether they are living or nonliving. There are several interactions between species, including predetation and symbiosis. Symbiosis also includes three subcategories, including mutualism, commesalism, and parasitism. Different types of succession are categorized based on whether the process started with or without soil. The species that start the primary successions are called pioneer species. Biomes are classified by their soil and climate, as well as the plants and animals found in it. Some of the major biomes are the tropical rain forest, desert, temperate grassland, tundra, and northwestern coniferous forest. The next chapter is about populations. We first talked about population growth. In the beginning, species usually go through an exponential growth. Later, when the population starts reaching the carrying capacity of the region, it goes through a more logistic growth curve. Limiting factors cause the population to decrease. Density-dependent factors are factors that are dependent on density, and density-independent factors are factors that are independent on density. These concepts are demonstrated pretty well in the human population growth patterns, also called demography. The next chapter is about humans in the biosphere. In this chapter, it talks about how humans affect the environment. People started to hunt and gather a long time ago. But some time after that, they learned how to grow their own stuff, agriculture. Then came industrial growth and urban development, which brings us to where we are today. There are many different types of resources, and we can classify them into groups such as renewable, nonrenewable, land, forest, fishery, air, and freshwater.

    I'd like to learn more about the different types of biomes, and what types of things are included in them. I wonder about how people are taking over the world, and are approaching carrying capacity. The Conservational Biology Project went decently well. We all worked well together, although we had trouble getting together to record the video. I learned a lot about many different ways of how Madagascar was being threatened, which is also the part that I researched. In this unit, we also worked on 20 Time. We made our first blog posts, which can be found here. After taking the self assessment, I noticed that the numbers in all four categories were the same. Therefore, I do not have a dominant conflict style.