Who Wants to Live a Million Years- Jacob

1. How many generations did it take for you to finally win a game? Like 3+. Why do you think it took this long? Because they had to change to their environment. 
     What do you think this means/suggests for most real species on Earth in terms of their species's chances of long-term survival? We had to adaptation to our environment and are surroundings like they did.
2. Which initial phenotypes/phenotype combinations did you select and why? The camouflaged, long hair, and tall because long hair if it gets cold, tall incase of a predator and camouflage in case it gets cold.
    Which starting/initial combinations seemed to allow you to continue/survive the longest (win the most games)? The camouflaged, long hair, and tall. Why do you think this was so? Because long hair if it gets cold, tall incase of a predator and camouflage in case it gets cold.
3. Do you think this population of theoretical creatures would be greatly affected by genetic drift? The population does matter in the game 
   What evidence of drift did you see as you played the game (simulation)? predators came and when, fruit grow, volcanos exploded, disease spread, cold wether, hot wether.
4. Which alleles/phenotypes seemed to be dominant and which seemed to be recessive? How could you tell? Tall, hair and non camouflage because when in put one of those factors in it usually replace the short, no hair, and camouflage ones.
5. Match the environments/situations/conditions below with their corresponding adaptations

(a) cold conditions; more hair, short, and fat (b) hot conditions; tall, no hair and skinny  (c) new large predator on the scene; fast, camouflaged  (d) new tall food source taller

6. How would you improve this simulation to more realistically represent natural selection and biological evolution? Discuss at least three improvements. I would have added different environments, more than one species and different able they provide.

Who Wants to Live a Million Years?: Analysis of a Natural Selection Simulation- Sayra

1. How many generations did it take for you to finally win a game? Why do you think it took this  long? What do you think this means/suggests for most real species on Earth in terms of their species's chances of long-term survival?

-It took me about three generations before I could actually win this game but probably because I had to figure out what was suitable for each event. It is similar as the real world because we have to adapt to the changes in things like the weather.

2. Which initial phenotypes/phenotype combinations did you select and why?Which starting/initial combinations seemed to allow you to continue/survive the longest (win the most games)? Why do you think this was so?

-At first I selected any random combinations because I did not know what to do. Then I picked the ones that were furry and had long necks because they seemed to be working. Their necks allowed them to get food while the fur kept them warm in certain situations.

3. Do you think this population of theoretical creatures would be greatly affected by genetic drift? What evidence of drift did you see as you played the game (simulation)?

-Yes because they had a change in the frequency of a gene variant. I saw how the weather went from hot to cold and learned what it took to keep them alive.

4. Which alleles/phenotypes seemed to be dominant and which seemed to be recessive? How could you tell?

-The dominant ones seemed to be the fur and brown skin. The recessive ones seemed to be the stripes and red skin. I could tell because the dominant ones appeared more than the traits that are recessive.

5. Match the environments/situations/conditions below with their corresponding adaptations:

(a) cold conditions; Furry,fat, and short (b) hot conditions; Tall with no fur (c) new large predator on the scene; Long legs and stripes (d) new tall food source; Long legs and long necks

6. How would you improve this simulation to more realistically represent natural selection and biological evolution? Discuss at least three improvements.

- I would add human interactions but I’ll have them in different regions and have less natural disasters happen in order to improve this stimulation and represent natural selection and biological evolution.

Who Wants to Live a Million Years: Analysis of a Natural Selection Simulation- Jenny

       In the game, Who Wants to Live a Million Years, it takes many generations to survive. After two tries, my animals survived for a million years.  As more obstacles and challenges appear, the animals must mate with animals that have desirable qualities that will help them survive. In this game, about 4-7 generations pass by, each with a new obstacle. The animals will survive if they have adaptations that will help conquer these challenges. In real life, when challenges appear it is difficult to mate with someone with desirable qualities because of Natural Selection.

       When you chose your specimen in the beginning of the game, you had to be careful. I had originally just chosen simple animals with little diversity. I mostly had short animals with stripes. To have your species survive, you have to chose animals that have adaptations that will survive through everything. When I chose my specimen, I chose animals that had all the characteristics that would help them survive. The animals had to be able to keep warm, cool, to reach tall plants for food, to be camouflage, and to be agile. 

       Fake animals, like the ones in this game, are susceptible to genetic drift. Genetic drift is a shift in allele frequencies population due to random events or chance. These animals go through genetic drift such as weather. When the temperature dropped to freezing temperatures, the animals had to adapt quickly or they would die. In this situation, they adapted by growing longer fur. 

       It was difficult to tell which genes were recessive or dominant. The longer and fuzzier fur appeared very often, which would lead to it being most likely a dominant gene. The stripes that were used as camouflage, would most likely be a recessive gene because it didn't appear as often as the other traits. 

       The different obstacles each had their own trait that would help the animals adapt. When the weather got cold, the animals had to adapt by growing long fur. The animals had to have short hair or no hair at all when it got hot; and when a predator appeared, they had to be able to camouflage and run fast (stripes and long legs). When a new tall food source appeared, the animals had to have long necks and legs to be able to reach it. 

       To make this situation more realistic, I would have had more situations. I would also have more than one situation happening at the same time. More situations that you could add could be humans, predation, and lack of water or resources. There could also be more types of animals. Instead of being limited to the certain animals, there should more options. They should also get rid of the life preservers that you could use if you were dying. In real life, you don't have the option of using "life preservers," you have to make do with what you have. 

Blog Post #8 "Matthew's Seed Story"- Jacob

I interviewed Matthew from another Story of the Seed team. 

What have you learned from this project?
Matt learned planting is a fun experiment.

What surprised or amazed you?
Matt was surprised by the how the plant actually grew.

What made you laugh during this semester's work on the project?
Matt laughed about how it took him forever to make the blog posts.

What made you pause and think deeper?
Matt paused and thought deeper during blog post number four.

What was your favorite part of the project?
Matt liked watching the plants grow.

What was your least favorite part of the project?
Matt HATED making the blog posts.

Blog Post #8 "Jenny's Seed Story" - Sayra

I interviewed Jenny to ask about her experience with The Story of the Seed Project.

-What have you learned?

She learned that it takes a lot of maintenance to make sure the plant does not die.

-What surprised you or amazed you?

How quickly the plants revived after they were almost dead.

-What made you laugh?

“Our teammates were funny.”

-What made you pause and think a little deeper?

“How the experiments would be set up, like I didn’t know how to work that out in the beginning of the year.”

My Questions:

-Did you like doing the project? Why or why not?

She liked and didn’t like it because it was fun to do it but the time that was given for everything was too short.

-How was it like working in the garden?

On the days it did not rain, she said it was fun. She liked how she got to see how the plant changed throughout the weeks.

Blog Post #8 "Sayra's Seed Story- Jenny

I am interviewing Sayra, one of my teammates, about her experience with the Story of the Seed Project.

What have you learned from this project?
I learned how to take care of plants and how difficult it is to take care of a garden.

What surprised or amazed you?
I think what surprised me was how small our plant actually was. I expected it to be bigger.

What made you laugh during this semester's work on the project?
When we went to go check on our plants in the garden, the other teams would throw things at each other and just do stupid things. I don't know why but the other teams made me laugh.

What made you pause and think deeper?
 When we put the plants back in the garden after they had died, they miraculously survived. This made me think about how that happens. How did the plant "come back to life" after it had died?

What was your favorite part of the project?
My favorite part was checking in on the plants in the garden. I liked seeing how much the plant had grown and changed.

What was your least favorite part of the project?
Having to write on the blog was the hardest. It was hard to find time to complete all of the blogposts.

Blog Post #7 - Jacob

Me and the team/ squad are experimenting with a plant call Brassica Oleracea. "Brassica oleracea is the species of plant that includes many common foods as cultivars, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, collard greens, savoy, kohlrabi and Chinese kale. Forming a stout rosette of large leaves in the first year, the leaves being fleshier and thicker than those of other species of Brassica, adaptations to store water and nutrients in its difficult growing environment. In its second year, the stored nutrients are used to produce a flower spike 1 to 2 meters (3–7 ft) tall bearing numerous yellow flowers. Canary Islands where the frost is minimal and plants are thus freed from seasonality." I could predict it's chance of different offspring if I know their parents gene or traits. Kinda, because are plant isn't a flower.

 

How will your plant pass its genetic information on to the next generation? ^ Answer 

      Picture creds to Jenny
The big quote was for Wiki.