This Week in Biology Dec. 9-13

Dear Parents,

This week we dove into the history of evolutionary thought and modern scientific evidence for and against Darwinian evolution.  Your students are learning how to tackle scientific research.  Unfortunately many articles are written with inadequate or antiquated examples.  Students are encouraged to dig deep to find legitimate examples of evidence and data to support various theories and hypothesis.

Next week we will have our semester final and begin our research papers for the science fair and STEM festival.  Check out our science fair website for due dates, important links, and templates:

https://sites.google.com/view/science-fair-stem-festival/home

As promised,  here is the schedule for the coming week:

Monday
Semester FINAL REVIEW

Tuesday
Semester FINAL

Wednesday
Science Fair Research Papers

Thursday
Science Fair Research Papers

Friday
5.18  Population Genetics
5.19  Hardy-Weinberg
In 100 words or more:  why are populations, rather than individuals, the units of evolution?
What is a gene pool?
Assume that a population of 50 individuals has the following numbers of genotypes for a gene with two alleles, B and b: BB = 30, Bb = 10, and bb = 10. Calculate the frequencies of the two alleles in the population’s gene pool.

ONLINE Textbook and practice:
https://flexbooks.ck12.org/cbook/ck-12-biology-flexbook-2.0/

Just as a reminder, students cannot make up labs if they are absent, but they can take detailed notes and complete the practice sets for full credit.

I would love to hear any feedback or questions you or your student may have as we move forward in the year.  Feel free to contact me via email at any time. Thank you again for sharing your wonderful student with us this year,

Chris Newton
Biology and Physics
San Tan Charter High School
cnewton@santancs.com