Module 7

 


Going into this class I was expecting to learn about the typical evolution that you get a glimpse of in other biology courses: Darwin's finches, decent with modification, passing traits down, etc. etc. However this class has taught me a lot more than just that. One of the biggest breakthroughs of this course for me has been showing myself that I can do coding. My brother is a software engineer and my dad is the kind of guy who can fix anything, learn anything, and do it all relatively easy. Now me...? I am the complete opposite. Problem solving is not my strong suit and that is in large part what coding is. I can sit down and study for hours. Drawing diagrams, making flashcards, reading/highlighting text is something that college has got me to be VERY good at. But problem solving? Not really. The first few R exercises for me were incredibly frustrating because I had never done anything like it and feel very stupid around technology. As the weeks have progressed, I have become a lot better about using my resources and taking time to brainstorm reasons why something may not be working. My patience with technology is improving and so are my problem solving skills. 

On my original blog post I defined "evolution to be genetic change over time that is influenced by the environment around the organism." There is not much to change to this original statement because I made it quite vague. I would probably add that the genetic change does not necessarily need to come from the environment around the organism but could just come from problems during transcription and translation. I still do not have what I think is a full grasp on the huge topic of what evolution really is but this is a good start. 

Sometimes I struggle with interpreting the graphs we do in R. I am to the point where I can typically figure out the coding portion but I do not necessarily understand what the graph is saying. I feel like I am just given an immense amount of data and am lost as to what it means. I think I just need to be better about staying up on my reading though to fix this problem because I often get behind. 

What interests me most is how evolution can influence medicine and healthcare. We discussed in class today how we will do this a little later on. So I am very excited for when we get there. 

Comments

  1. Lauren LeikerOctober 14, 2021 at 1:17 PM

    Hi there Kate! First I just want to say how amazing it is to include pictures of your family! Absolutely love that! But I completely agree with you on not being the best R exercise coder out there, I still struggle with them to this day. Slowly, but surely improving! I am also very excited to learn more about evolutions influence on medicine and healthcare. Are you wanting to work in healthcare after college?

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  2. Tatum GlaserOctober 15, 2021 at 11:03 AM

    Hi Kate! I share your same struggles with interpreting the graphs in R. You mentioned trying to keep up on the reading to help you with that and I think that is good because that is usually where I am able to get my understanding from! Problem solving is also rough for me. I tend to get frustrated when I can't figure something out so that had been a challenge this semester haha

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