Week 8- Rocket Pocket Mice

  What question are we investigating?

For the eighth week of Science Methods I, we would look at the questions: “How do organisms get their traits'' and “Why do organisms have so many similarities, and yet so many differences”. We did this through talking in small groups about how an organism gets a specific trait and talking in the whole group to see what everyone thought about it. We also would do an activity with a rock pocket mouse to get a clearer understanding of how something is a trait and how they can be similar yet different in ways like the gene make-up. 

What did we do in lab to investigate this question?

The teacher started this lab by asking everyone to pick a starburst to have the small groups different compared to how it usually is like. That would allow us to start by introducing ourselves to the new group members in small groups for the day. Firstly, the teacher would ask us to individually write down what we thought made something get a specific trait. Then we eventually would talk to are small groups about what we wrote down individually to see how their answers were similar or different compared to their responses.  An example of something my small group talked about genes and how that allows something like an animal is able to get that specific trait. These questions would help my small group to transition into the activity over rock pocket mice. 

What did we figure out?

The main activity for the class period would be an activity over rock pocket mice. We would start out the activity by getting pictures and having to decide which order it would look like. This would allow my small group to talk about the questions we had through the pictures like did something change in the environment to make more dark rock pocket mice like the ground. 

This would be a small group activity and then we would eventually discuss are findings as a whole group to see how the order was similar or different from others. The teacher would show us a video after discussing the findings or questions we had that would explain why there were changes in how the rock pocket mice. It would show how there was a volcano eruption and the rock pocket mice were white at first but animals like hawks or owls were able to see them more clearly with this color on the rock. This would make them have a mutation which is random to change the organism’s genetic information to make them have dark fur. 

What are new or remaining questions after the investigation? 

This lab taught me how to use visuals with the students in the classroom and allow them to use their thinking skills to find out what order they think something like pictures could go in. This would allow the students to use their critical thinking skills over why the rock pocket mice changed gradually in the picture by having more dark furred mice compared to earlier pictures with more white furred mice. That would allow a teacher to have more conversations in the classroom over the science concepts that the students are seeing through the activity.