Blog Post Module 7: Reflection Prompt

 

• 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?

Writing out what you have learned over a 7 week period is easier said than done. There has been growth in how I approach a question or a problem regarding evolution. Using concepts learned in class or ideas that we have discussed, I can approach a situation differently. I now realize more than before that there are so many different contributing problems to each solution. In evolution there is often not one simple answer, everything affects something else. Mutation rate, gene flow, or other contributing factors will influence a population in so many different ways. Also, I have learned there is a reason for almost everything, a change happened for a particular reason and it's our job to analyze it and understand why. I've had some true breakthroughs in understand and using R. The program is very daunting and there is a reason for everything on there as well. When you read and understand the problems, you can often decipher more of the code than you originally thought. 

• 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?

I still agree with my initial blog post, but I could definitely update it now. There are more factors that we have learned about and my understanding is much wider. Now I could add in more definitions and explain the ideas further. It still revolves around change, but it's more complicated than that. In addition, I would focus less on a strict definition of what it is and focus more on the concepts that apply to it. A definition is not going to explain all aspects, the concepts would do a better job. My understanding has definitely changed, it remains in the same realm of ideas but there is more to contribute. 

• What concepts are you still struggling with? Where do you think you need additional help and clarification?

Each aspect of evolution is unique and each case study is different. When analyzing the case studies, you have to understand the organism because not all species will evolve the same, ideas can be applied to each organism but each situation is different. As far as how that affects learning and concepts that I struggle with, I have issues sometimes interpreting the graphs and understanding why the graph on R was shaped that way, or why one simple change in numbers would affect it so drastically. Sometimes separating each species out and understanding the reason why something happened is a little tough. The discussion questions help but it takes lots of working through the problems. Just additional clarification in some R exercises could help with additional understanding. 

• 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?

There are so many different things that I am curious about! But the one that sticks out to me is human evolution. I am very curious about medicine and evolution and how that all connects. I want to learn how certain diseases mutate and evolve and how our body learns to evolve too. Human evolution is interesting now because we can manipulate so many different aspects of our environment to make us comfortable so I wonder how our bodies have changed in response to our manipulations. But medicine is what I would love to learn more about in terms of evolution.