Welcome back ! Field Study Safety Consent Form and Omicron Safety Poster

Dear Students,

As I welcome you back to school in the midst of our 5th wave of Covid-19, I would like to review our safety rules in class:  Community prevelance of Covid is extremely high right now, so you  must assume you will be exposed to Omicron when you return to school. There is no vaccine mandate at school so there is no way of knowing who is at higher or lower risk. Further there is no more contact tracing so we have no idea who is infected and who is not.  

 

The following safety precautions will be made to mitigate the risk from this exposure:

1.  Windows open at all times in my class while I supervise the class. Dress warmly! 

2.  Outdoor activities are  being planned for the remainder of the semester.

3.  Students are NOT to attend school sick. There will be NO ACADEMIC CONSEQUENCES for absence in my class. If you email me to say you are not feeling well and will be home, I will mark you absent, and will excuse your absence. Further if you feel more comfortable learning from home, please contact me and I will be flexible for you.

4.  I STRONGLY RECOMMEND NO EATING INDOORS as this is where the exposure is most likely to occur. If you eat  OUTDOORS, it is much safer and will help reduce the chance of getting sick and missing school. 

5. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND upgrading your mask to N95 if possible. The black VSB masks given out were washable K95s.  These masks need to be tightly fitted on your face 

6. While students of any vaccine status is very welcome in my class,  I STRONGLY RECOMMEND making sure you are fully vaccinated and you access the booster shot as soon as possible. This step will enhance safety at our school. 

I am commited to airborne precautions in my class.   This means walks to Trout Lake, to the forest in Central Park, to the Renfrew Ravine to do ecological activities.  It means doing in class labs in cold wintry conditions .  We can try our best to  beat Omicron and have fun doing it!  

ASSIGNMENTS 

 We will be spending some time on LOCAL FIELD STUDY in the month of January to end the semester!  Please have a look at the field study form which you will need to hand in SIGNED by your parent or guardian. this form is due on Tuesday for 5 marks.  

I would also like you to design a safety poster (can be digital or on paper) which summarizes the main points of this important paper written by academics and doctors.  TRY TO ILLUSTRATE THIS with as FEW WORDS as possible.  It can be in a variety of creative formats such as A COMIC, a POSTER, a RAP or POEM, illustrated, a PODCAST or recording of a public safety announcement.

The best of these assignments will be shared with professionals with credit to you.  If they use it as part of a pandemic safety campaign, you may put that on your resume or portfolio!  20 marks

20 - This stands out in its effort and creativity. 
18-19. This is done in ink and colour and includes all the details above and the details are all correct.  This is excellent

15-17. This is very good work with effort and correct details.  Some details are not there but most are there and there is excellent quality of drawing and presentation.

10-14. This is a very good start and your work shows creativity.  It is not in colour or ink and looks like a very nice draft

5-9.  This is incomplete but a decent start.

Gastrula, Blastula and the blastopore

 Embryonic development involves a zygote undergoing stages of development, making blastula and gastrula.  Have a look at these under the microscope and upload a pic of your drawing and photo of the following specimens:  blastula, gastrula, whitefish mitosis, human sperm specimen

Co-Dominance and human blood groups

 What if the heterozygous trait exhibited codominance?  in this case, two alleles can code for co-dominant traits.  That is, neither is dominant over the other.  Blood type is an example of this:

A is codominant to B
A is dominant over O
B is dominant over O

Possible genotypes:

heterozygous AB blood gives both type A protein and type  B protein on the erythrocytes.

homozygous AA gives blood type A  protein on the erythrocytes
homozygous BB is blood type B protein on the erythrocytes

Heterozygous AO is gives blood type A
Heterozygous BO is blood type B

homozygous recessive OO gives blood type O .

There is  neither A or B on erythrocytes.

You have heard that blood type is important for blood transfusions. That is because the immune system will always attack an unknown protein.  Thus

type A person can receive  type A blood, and will reject type B blood

type B person can receive type B blood and will reject type A blood.

type AB person can receive type A blood and Type B blood

Type O person can receive nobody's blood except from another type O

Everyone can receive type O, No-one can receive type AB

Blood type is heritable and that means you can sometimes deduce genotype by looking at phenotype. Here is a sample question:

What Colour is this Dress?

 

There is a very interesting dress. It has caused major arguments!  This dress causes your cells in your retinas to perceive it to be certain colours depending on the state of your retinas. Of course your genes determine what your retinas are like...but also your retinas change over time too!  

Your perception is also based on whether you think this dress is in shadow or light...Try this, 

 I would like you to ask  20 people you know "What colours do you see on this dress:  Is it :  

A. GOLD AND WHITE 

B.  BLACK AND BLUE

C.  GOLD AND BLUE

D.  NONE OF THE ABOVE...THEN what colour is it?  

What are the characteristics of the people who are more likely to say that it is any of the choices above?   

Remember you can poll people without meeting face to face. Ask a variety of people including old, young, male, female...put your results on a table and hypothesize why people see different colours

  

 

SEX LINKED ALLELES

 SEX LINKED GENES

The sex chromosomes are XX and XY in humans. Some alleles are located on the X chromosome. But very few on the Y chromosome.  Remember that people who are  females have the genotype XX and people who are males have XY.

The Y chromosome carries very little information, only enough to influence the embryo on the path towards male primary and secondary characteristics.

Meanwhile, many RECESSIVE ALLELES are located on the X chromosome, including
1. hemophilia, the inability to clot blood
2. colourblindness inability to tell the difference between red and green colour
3.  baldness

These characteristics are far more common in malea than females because males have only one X. And if that X contains the recessive allele, they will show the phenotype.  Meanwhile, females may have the recessive and their dominant genes on their other X will protect them.  For example

An example of using a punnet square to calculate probability is here:

Some things to note about sex linkage:  Signs of sex linked alleles are:
1. more males get the phenotype, but females can be carriers
2.  males can inherit from mother but not father (because males get their X from mom)
3.  females have an extra X and this protects them.  Females must be homozygous to show the sex linked phenotype.
Further reading on sex linkage here http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/pigeons/sexlinkage/

FYI if you were born a male and you want to know if you're colourblind:  Test yourself here: But careful, if you are a genetically male, you might find out you are colour blind!  Apparently most people find out they are colourblind from their science teacher !  
http://colorvisiontesting.com/home.html

Basic practice worksheet going over main concepts

Worksheet B

Vulcan Mating ritual

 

Vulcan Mating Ritual

Mating Lab: 

Purpose:  To have hypothetical offspring with at least 4 other individuals

In the class and calculate the probability of certain traits using a punnet

Square.  Next, you will perform a Vulcan mating ritual (pon farr) where

you randomly pick an allele from the other person and they randomly pick

one of your alleles.  Then observe the traits of your offspring.  Have 8 kids per mate

Keep track of the genotype of each kid.  By the end of the activity, you will have 32 kids

Method:

Write down your phenotype for the following characteristics:

Earlobe attachment or unattached.   E.   e

Tongue rolling or not                       T       t

Cleft chin or smooth chin.                C     c

Widow’s peak or not                          W  w

Natural curl or straight hair         N  n

Dimples or not       D    d

Righty or Lefty       R   r

Freckles or not       F  f

biologically female  XX or biologically male XY

For each trait, make the genotype as alleles on two small pieces of paper.

 Write your phenotypes now:

For each mate you have draw nine punnet squares  representing

 each trait and

calculate the Probability of each trait.

Mate 1’s  genotype:_Ff WW tt nn rr dd cc  Ee__XX_________________

Punnet squares: indicate probability

Actual genotypes of the offspring. Draw a cartoon of your kids. Name them

Offspring :

1.ff Ww Tt  Dd Cc EE rr

2.

3.

4.

Clover Genetic Variation

 We know that plants are important to the ecosystem because they photosynthesize. Did you know that some plants are legumes and these are special because they have ROOT NODULES which are nitrogen fixers.  These root nodules are little rooms where Rhizobium bacteria convert nitrogen gas into ammonium and then Nitrobacter bacterium in the soil  converts ammonium into nitrates. Plants can absorb nitrates to make plant protein.  When those plants are eaten by animals, then animals use the nitrogen to make animal protein.  You can say that all the protein on your body (muscles, enzymes, hair, fingernail etc) was built from nitrogen which was fixed by Rhizobium at some point in time.  

ASSIGNMENT:  10 points

Only certain plants contain these root nodules...amongst them are  bean plants and clover plants.   Look at the morphology of clover plants below.  Look on our school grounds  and find AS MANY DIFFERENT GENETIC VARIETIES as you can.  Upload your clover pic with Frog on a doc or ppt and hand in. 

This picture is from research done by Tashiro et al on the genetics of clover plants.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250119450_Leaf_Trait_Coloration_in_White_Clover_and_Molecular_Mapping_of_the_Red_Midrib_and_Leaflet_Number_Traits

CREATE A CHART SHOWING

1. Your pictures of the clovers or clover patch

2.  The numbers of EACH TYPE of clover 

3.   Why is it important to keep a species inventory of plants such as clover in an ecosystem?