Week 10

4/4/2025


This week I did not necessarily learn anything super new in lab. We did an overview of information and activities that reflected on our learning from the past weeks because of the cumulative exam we took this week. Our in class activity this week incorporated natural selection and evaluation. The activity showed how evaluation is more favorable towards some traits and how it becomes more favorable in organisms over time. 


The overall concept of evaluation makes sense to me, but the activity confused me. It was not clear to me that the utensils each individual in a group were given were the specific traits. After each round the utensil (organism) that picked up the least amount of beans got to pick a different utensil. I did not fully grasp the general concept of this until after the game. Looking back I now understand that natural selection is a driver for evolution because the favorable traits in an organism lead to the traits that are more commonly seen in a population. 


I can use the activity we participated in in my future classroom to include hands-on learning about natural selection and evaluation. It's a really fun way to include all students in deepening their understanding of the concept (as long as the components are specifically explained). At the end of lab we learned about the importance of technology and simulations in the classroom. There are a large number of positive outcomes of both of these and I think it's an engaging way for students to understand concepts that they might not necessarily be able to interact with in the classroom.


(I included pictures from my School of the Wild visit this past week!) 


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