Evolution - OkState 2020

 Evolution-opoly An educational board game to help teach some of the concepts of evolution. The game is played similarly to the original Monopoly game. Players (also known as students in this game) can pick from one of 6 pieces: a textbook, a beetle, a globe, a school bus, a pencil, or a backpack, to use as their pawn on the board.  The player will place their selected piece on the research square, and the game would proceed at normal. When a student lands on an evolution topic they can elect to purchase it. If they purchase the topic they are given a student care for that topic.  In the original monopoly, players can buy houses once they have purchased all of the same color properties. Then, once they have purchased 4 houses on each property of the same color they can purchase a hotel.  In evolution-opoly this is a little different. Students can purchase degrees for their evolution topics. To purchase an associate's degree they must briefly description their topic. ...

Something that consistently makes me feel happy is my dog, Ryder. He absolutely loves to cuddle and is always ready for a new adventure. I always look forward to coming him from a long day of work to cuddle him while doing homework, and for us to try to take on new hiking adventures on Saturdays. My mental health has seriously improved since adopting my little man!    

  When I started my undergraduate career there were a few things I had misconceptions about. One was regarding inheritance/genetics. I for some reason always thought that when a baby was conceived that the chromosomes mixed together (like swirling together two paint colors making a new color) which ultimately created the appearance (genotype & phenotype) of the child. During genetics class in Spring of 2020 is when I realized this idea was incorrect. During that class I realized that while the zygote will get on copy of alleles from each parent the alleles don’t exactly mix, more so the combination of the alleles determines what phenotype is shown. However, they can be a little “mixing” through crossing over and recombination but that is shown in the zygote if that is the allele that get by chance. I would day that this understanding was gradual throughout the class. Another misconception I had was about mutations. I always assumed that mutations where bad, and this idea was ...

  Is kin selection altruism? To answer this question I feel we should start with defining what each of these terms mean. Kin selection is technically a strategy in evolution. It is where reproductive success on an organism’s relatives is favored even if it decreases the individual survival or reproduction of the organism. Altruism is defined as “the principle and moral practice of concern for happiness of other human beings or other animals, resulting in a quality of life” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism ). With that in mind, I feel like kin selection could be viewed as altruism. I see this viewpoint because kin selection as a strategy is selfless and has more concern for the wellbeing of the relatives of the organism rather than the individual. Wellbeing is also often correlated with happiness, if kin selection is an evolutionary practice, then the end result is the quality of lives for the long run.