The 'third' station reached

As the week began, we discussed our findings about previous week’s assignment on mutations. Then, we viewed a simple video on mutation which showed basic types of gene mutations and mutations related to chromosomes, with explanation from our mentor wherever required. After this, we were given a task about drawing a Venn Diagram to show the similarities and differences between genetic and chromosomal mutation.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GieZ3pk9YVo&t=16s

Focus on models and illustrations - We began to complete our 2D illustration of layout of genetic material in a living organism from cell to DNA. We also displayed our understanding of the transmission of characteristics across generations through a large Punnett Square, showing combination of alleles for the petal colour in a red and white flower of same species. This helped us to strengthen our understanding about pairing of alleles to give a new colour of the petal in new generation – i.e. pink. This pattern of inheritance is known as Incomplete Dominance. We used rectangular strips of red, white and pink colour for the alleles.

We collaborated to decide the font of our group’s title and discussed how to present our work on the display boards that were present in our room.

Watching the video on mutations set us thinking if genes were only responsible for how a person looked or was there something more to that?

Guest Speaker session – Just as the question crossed our minds, we were lucky to have a session conducted by Ms. Mrinalini Sinha , a learning support teacher. She showed us a MS Power point presentation that included videos of a popular Bollywood movie. The idea was to drive home the point that learning disabilities like Dyslexia have a link to genetic mutation which affects the learning ability of the individual. We wrote a reflection about the video and expressed how a child with this type of learning challenge would feel.

The next day, we watched two videos - one on role of environment in causing mutations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzFGgxd7dfo

We reflected on its content using 321 strategy.

The second video was about antibiotic resistance which explained how micro-organisms become resistant to certain antibiotics by having favourable mutations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnp-Ivj2ek

We created posters on antibiotic resistance as part of our FA2 and 3 based on what we observed in this video.