During this project my group and I were assigned an endangered species and asked to research them about their...ancestors, species history, and so on, then present our information while answering these 71 questions.
1. How have humans affected your species survival?
2. What specific resources does your species require and how do they get those resources? What resources are most limited for your species? How does this affect their survival?
3. How is your species dependent on other species? How are other species dependent on your species?
4. Why does biodiversity matter in order for your species to survive?
5. How is your species designed to ensure successful reproduction? How is reproductive success threatened for your species?
6. What is the ancestral history of your species? How has your species changed over time?
7. Predict if your species will survive or become extinct. In other words, what direction is the species heading and why?
The steps we took to finish this project was choose an endangered animal off a selected list, research this animal, answer our essential 7 questions, and create a presentation about that animal that explains the information in the most epic way possible. My group and I selected the African Penguin as our endangered animal. We researched almost all you could think of about the animal and choose the idea of an online jeopardy game that corresponds to the research we found. A problem that arose for my group was that we could not decide on how we should conduct the game (ie how to divide it into teams). We ended up going with my idea of separating the table groups into teams corresponding with the graphic that we displayed. We made a gantt chart, which we also used as a DOcument to store all of our links and bibliography.
Gantt Chart And Bibliography
1. How have humans affected your species survival?
2. What specific resources does your species require and how do they get those resources? What resources are most limited for your species? How does this affect their survival?
3. How is your species dependent on other species? How are other species dependent on your species?
4. Why does biodiversity matter in order for your species to survive?
5. How is your species designed to ensure successful reproduction? How is reproductive success threatened for your species?
6. What is the ancestral history of your species? How has your species changed over time?
7. Predict if your species will survive or become extinct. In other words, what direction is the species heading and why?
The steps we took to finish this project was choose an endangered animal off a selected list, research this animal, answer our essential 7 questions, and create a presentation about that animal that explains the information in the most epic way possible. My group and I selected the African Penguin as our endangered animal. We researched almost all you could think of about the animal and choose the idea of an online jeopardy game that corresponds to the research we found. A problem that arose for my group was that we could not decide on how we should conduct the game (ie how to divide it into teams). We ended up going with my idea of separating the table groups into teams corresponding with the graphic that we displayed. We made a gantt chart, which we also used as a DOcument to store all of our links and bibliography.
Gantt Chart And Bibliography
We kept all of our information in a document and we answered all of the questions that we were requested to resolve. In the doc there are also facts about the African Penguins biodiversity, habitat, and much much more. We presented our project, as a power point and an interactive game.
Heres our Doc -----------------------------------------------------> Evolution has five main factors. They are adaptations, shrinking population, non-random mating, mutations, and gene flow.
1. Adaptations are the process of changes in which a species becomes better suited for their environment. The African Penguin adapted to its environment by becoming more diligent at swimming. 2. Shrinking Population causes evolution because that species will have a lack of gene variation ( the amount of gene difference in a species). 3. Non-Random Mating ensures that the most desirable and healthy traits are passed down to future generations. 4. Mutations are when there is a change in the gene pool which can be either detrimental to the species or beneficial, and will affect future generations. 5. Gene Flow is the migration of gene variation from one population to another and in turn leads to changes in the gene pool of the receiving population. Heres our gannt chart that helped keep everything organized / / / / /
Reflection: Two skills that I utilized for this project were compliance or compromise and communication. The first skill that I did well in was compliance, because I was the finalizing vote in what our project would be based off and I also was willing to change my opinion easily so the hole group would be able to agree on what we were doing. An example of when I used this skill was on our first day my group had to choose what to research. The other skill that I did well in was communication because I kept my group on track knowing what we all should have been doing and how to stay on track. This skill helped keep us on the right path.
Two skills that I still need to work on for the next project are leadership and problem solving. I really hope to strive to become the final say on many decisions in the group but at the moment i'm not that persuasive. My whole group needs help on problem solving. Our jeopardy presentation was a disaster and a half. In the future i'm going to be more bossy and persuasive, and step up my problem solving skills by humor hopefully. Thanks overall this project was fun asf. |
Questions to keep in mind / fun facts / other stuff
Slide presentation To Better Understand for you normies here are some terms Extinction is when a species is gone forever, and has no more organisms in it that can reproduce. This is relative to the project we did because a major question we wanted to answer was will our species go extinct. My group decided the African Penguin will go extinct. Biodiversity is the difference of biological organisms or species in a environment. This relates to our project because one of the points that we researched was the African Penguins biodiversity. We discovered that that the organisms and species that share an environment with the penguin are few making the environment more inhospitable. Evolution is the change in species over time positively impacting them for better conditions. It's used in our project to show the way they came from ancestors. For example the African Penguin survives in warmer climates. Speciation is the formation of a new species, or when a new species is formed. This comes back to our project because we found out how and why the African Penguin adapted due to location. This type of speciation can be categorized as Geographic Isolation where a population evolves separately from the rest of the species based on a geographic barrier. This caused them to evolve to their different environments. different penguins in different locations have different features. This relates back to the concept of speciation because two different species were created since they came from different environments. Artificial Selection is when any humans mess with stuff and change the outcome of what would have happened. This is shown in lots of experiments where we change something or choose the trait or feature that is the most advantageous. This term relates to our project because humans are using artificial selection now, to save the African Penguin species from going extinct. Natural Selection is when the organisms that are best equipped for a certain environment will survive and pass their traits down to future generations, whereas the undesirable traits die off. Regarding thee spectacular African Penguin, we found that their small size was caused by natural selection. They didn't need to be big and scary so they weren't. They needed to be able to hide so they had to be small. Survival of the Fittest is how it sounds. Organisms within a species that have adaptations are better suited and will reproduce to make a better suited species. Like how being a smaller penguin is advantageous in the environment they live in. Gene Pools are the amount of genetic info there is of a species in an environment. This relates to our project because we deduced that the gene pool of our species is quite small due to their near endangerment status. |