Week 8 Blog Post

 Olivia Langosch

This week I learned about DNA mutations. We did two simulations, the pictures shown above are from the first one. In the first simulation gave me an understanding about how one change in the codon can make the chain stop so suddenly. In the first picture it shows the whole chain of amino acids, and the second picture shows a mutation. 

We also did a "Let's make a superhero!" where we got to look at each type of mutation, substitution, deletion, and insertion. Substitution is where a codon can change but the amino acid does not change. Insertion is when a phosphate base is inserted into the chain. Deletion is when a phosphate base is taken out of the chain. 

I can relate this to what I already know because when I was growing up, in school we did a lot of activities like this in middle school like figuring out the mutations. We did a lot of activities like the superhero one in school, so me and my partner knew what to do pretty fast. 

In my future teaching career, I will add more activities like these into my classroom because I think this gives students a better understanding of the topic in general because they are doing a fun and interactive activity to do independently or collaboratively with peers in the classroom.