A. Three main things in BIOL463

Please describe, briefly, the three things that you learned in BIOL463 and that you consider to be the “most important” ones.

1. I learned to much more clearly make the very important distinction between necessary and sufficient when looking at data.

2. I learned the difference between what the data shows, conclusions, and models.

3. You can’t always trust the figure legends or conclusions that papers make

 B. Identify types of knowledge

For each of your three “things”, please try to identify what type of knowledge it represents (Factual, Conceptual, Procedural/Skills, Metacognitive).

1 and 2 are somewhat procedural and conceptual. 3 is metacognitive.

C. What makes “things” stand out for you

For each of your three “things”, please indicate what made it stand out for you.

• This was introduced to me in Biol 200 but it seemed a lot simpler then. In this class looking at data from papers and making necessary/sufficient statements seemed more difficult in the beginning because it was using data that I had not seen before.
• Again, in Biol 200 we had to make a distinction between what the data show and what they mean, but in this class I then had to make the further distinction to a model, where conclusions are combined to explain the data. This step is much more difficult in my mind and I thought we got a lot of practice and feedback in this course.
• There were a couple of instances in class where I was tripped up a bit in my thinking because I took the figure legend at face value and didn’t think through what was actually being presented.

D. Relevance/use

Please describe, briefly, what you expect each of these three “things” to be useful or relevant for.

These three things will be useful in a lot of ways, including thinking about any further research I do, reading papers for interests sake, or solving problems in everyday life.

E. Three main things in your undergraduate education

Please describe, briefly, the three things that you learned during your undergraduate education and that you consider to be the “most important” ones. Why do you find them so important?

1. Be careful to look at where information comes from. Is it from a credible source? From a peer review journal?: This is incredibly important when looking at information on the internet, often statements are made that may not be entirely what was found using credible peer reviewed research or there might not be any research on something that is being stated as fact. It might be a little pessimistic but in today’s society its usually good to be a bit skeptical of information that someone is talking about, writing about, or discussing if they cannot show where they got that information from
2. A lot is known but there are a huge number of unanswered questions that still need to still be addressed and explored: I found that this was, to me at least, the central theme of 2^nd I was shocked by the number of times there was a statement like “we know this is true for this species, but we don’t know for others” in my microbiology textbook. I’ve come to realize that the more I know, the more questions I can come up with because of connections to other topics, classes, and sometimes random things.
3. Teamwork is so important, and may be one of the most important things in science: Collaborative science is able to produce so much more information and ideas than people by themselves and the body of work that makes up what we know about science today was developed by an incredibly large number of people. This is also true in smaller ways in that labs that are able to assist each other and work in a creative and encouraging environment may make more progress than those that are at odds with each other.

A. Factual knowledge

1. Please describe, briefly, two new, distinct pieces of factual knowledge that you acquired or developed since the last learning journal

Parthenogenic embryos do not often survive implantation because of dysregulation of X inactivation.

At the 4 cell stage embryos express paternal Xist, leading to inactivation of the paternal X chromosome.

B. Conceptual knowledge

1. Since connections and models make for conceptual knowledge… please describe any connections (direct or indirect) that you can see between the two pieces of knowledge described in A.

The dysregulation of X inactivation in the parthenogenic embryos is partially due to not having a paternal chromosome. Both maternal Xs have similar histone modifications at Xist so it is more difficult to successfully inactivate one by implantation.

C. Metacognitive knowledge (no skills this time!)

If you are like most students in the class, you probably spent a significant amount of time reading, studying, and dissecting the article assigned for MT2.

1. Please describe, briefly, the strategy that you employed to complete the task.

I read the paper carefully and then discussed all of the figures and the main points with classmates. I also took notes while I was reading the paper by myself and wrote down any points that did not make sense to me so I could bring it up to my classmates.

2. Thinking about your experience with reading and dissecting this article, what was the hardest part?

The hardest part was connecting the authors’ conclusions to the results that they were presenting. Often there seemed to be jumps in logic that were not explained at all that I then had to talk through and figure out step by step.

3. Thinking about your experience with reading and dissecting this article this article, what did you feel most comfortable with/confident about? Why do you think that is?

I think that I was most comfortable with the overall take-home message of the paper. Some of the smaller experiments and details were very confusing but I could see how they came to their overall conclusions.

A. Three things that stood out: Please describe, briefly, three things that you learned so far in BIOL463 and that really stood out to you (either because you enjoyed them, found them surprising, found them difficult – any reason).
B. Identify types of knowledge: For each of your three “things”, please try to identify what type of knowledge it represents (Factual, Conceptual, Procedural/Skills, Metacognitive).
C. What makes “things” stand out for you: For each of your three “things”, please indicate what made it stand out for you.
D. Evidence (of course, we are in a science course … we like evidence!): Imagine that you need to test a group of students on one of your three “things”. Imagine that you need to determine, precisely, whether these students have acquired/developed the same knowledge that you have. How would you test them, and what would you consider as evidence that they have developed/acquired this knowledge?

Factual knowledge

1. Please describe, briefly, one new piece of factual knowledge that you acquired or developed so far in the BIOL463.

The pair rule gene even-skipped has many different enhancers that control the banded expression pattern in only the even segments in the early Drosophila embryo. The eve2 enhancer has binding sites for Giant, Bicoid, Kruppel, and Hunchback.

2. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this piece of factual knowledge, and provide some evidence for it.

I discussed this factual knowledge in class with my peers (especially the first part) and incorporated this knowledge into my answers when we were talking about how eve is expressed in a very specific pattern that is caused by other factors.

Conceptual knowledge

1. Please describe, briefly, one new piece of conceptual knowledge that you acquired or developed so far in BIOL463.

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2. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this piece of conceptual knowledge, and provide some evidence for it.

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Skills

1. Please describe, briefly, one skill that you acquired or developed/are developing so far in BIOL463.

I am developing my ability to differentiate between statements that tell what the data show and statements that tell conclusions that can be drawn from the data and my ability to come up with these statements and state them in a concise manner.

2. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this skill, and provide some evidence for it.

In class discussions it is much easier to be able to make statements that fit into these two categories and to separate them into different sections of my answers to questions.

What is factual knowledge useful for?

Think about a piece of factual knowledge that you developed/acquired. Briefly describe what you think it is useful for.

Understanding the enhancer configuration and makeup of the eve2 gene is useful for understanding how eve is regulated and normally expressed. Changing or knocking out these enhancers through experimentation may be able to show eve’s spatiotemporal effect on other genes important in development.

Factual knowledge

1. Please describe, briefly, one new piece of factual knowledge that you acquired or developed so far in the course.

One piece of factual knowledge that I have learned so far in the course is the terminology for the four basic models of enhancer and gene interaction. These models are looping, tracking, facilitated tracking, and linking.

2. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this piece of factual knowledge, and provide some evidence for it.

Previously I had only heard about (or remember hearing about) the looping model for enhancer/gene interaction. I now understand the tracking is when the proteins travel along the DNA strand to the gene without staying connected to the enhancer, facilitated tracking is the same as tracking except the proteins stay bound to the enhancer sequence and a loop is formed, and linking is when there are changes to the chromatin between the enhancer and the gene.

Conceptual knowledge

1. Please describe, briefly, one new piece of conceptual knowledge that you acquired or developed so far in the course.

Some conceptual knowledge that I have developed so far in the course is the idea that enhancers and silencers are essentially the same thing. These regulatory elements are classified by the affect they have on transcription levels, but the affect is determined by what protein bind to the sequence. If the protein that bind repress transcription, then the sequence is known as a silencer, and if the protein that binds increase transcription, then the sequence is known as an enhancer.

2. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this piece of conceptual knowledge, and provide some evidence for it.

Previously I believed that enhancers and silencers were classified by the sequences that they have that allow transcription factor binding. I knew that the same transcription factor could repress or enhance a gene depending on cell type/gene/other factors, but I did not connect these to ideas until now.

Skills

1. Please describe, briefly, one skill that you acquired or developed/are developing so far in the course.

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2. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this skill, and provide some evidence for it.

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