Reflection Time!

  • What have you learned so far? Not in the sense of what did we cover in class, but where have you personally have had some real breakthroughs or changes in your understanding?
- As far as breakthroughs go, I definitely am more confident in my coding skills and overall computer skills now that I've been introduced to R-Studio. Beyond that, I think my understanding what evolution is and how is behaves have definitely changed for the better. Before this semester began, I had a very limited understanding of what evolution truly is, and I think that's how it is for a lot of people, especially those outside the science community. That's probably where a lot misconceptions about evolution stem from. 
  • If you go back to your original blog post where you defined evolution, how would you change it? How has your understanding of evolution changed since then?
- In my original blog post, I defined evolution as "...a concept that proposes all life forms diverged from one common ancestor. It is the history of all things living." Now I would define evolution as: inheritable changes within the genome of a population from generation to generation. I had a vague idea of what evolution was beginning of the semester, but now that we're mid-way through the semester, I feel much more comfortable about what evolution is, what it's measured by, and what forces drive it. 
  • What concepts are you still struggling with? Where do you think you need additional help and clarification?
-  One concept that I struggled with so far was the origins of variation: summary of different mutation types worksheet. There were a lot of terms and processes that related back to modern genetics and it took some extra time to remember or search for what certain mechanisms pertained to because a lot of these concepts are were not fresh on my mind to say the least. 
  • Now that you have studied some of the basic concepts, what are you curious about? What are the things you are wanting to learn more about?
- I am most curious about the affects significant mutations can have on populations and the origins of SARS-CoV-2. I am wanting to learn more about evolutionary epidemiology because as we all know, we're in a global pandemic and I like/want to learn more information about how/why this is happening. How can we prevent/treat viruses like this in the future? What are some misconceptions about viruses? I really enjoyed this last R-exercise which answered some of these questions. 

Comments

  1. Ian Groom20 October 2021 at 13:50

    Hey Shaun,

    I like the changes you made to your original definition of evolution. Your new one seems to be spot on as far as I can tell. Looking at other people's blogs as well as my own, it seems that mutations are a common concept that people are struggling with. I hope we go over that more in detail later on in the class.

    ReplyDelete

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