Unit 4 Intro

I hope you survived the exam.

Unit 4 is my favourite unit of work in the entire Victorian High School curriculum. This unit covers evolution, the evidence for this and the mechanisms by which this occurs. Once you have got a handle on this human evolution is covered.

You start examining DNA, which you were introduced to in Unit 3. The relationship between DNA, RNA and protein synthesis is studied in detail. Your knowledge of transcription and translation is extended and forms the basis of one of your SACs.  This then leads to where DNA is found, organised and packaged within a cell (chromosomes) and how discrete units of DNA that code for certain proteins, genes, are located on chromosomes. The concept of variation within a population is introduced whereby members of a population may have different versions of the same gene (alleles), which you are later shown to be at the very core of evolution. Mitosis and meiosis and the stages of these are also studied to establish a foundation from which Mendelian genetics and heredity are examined: Punnet Squares, monohybrid crosses, dihybrid crosses, the relationship between genotype and phenotype and patterns in the expression of traits through pedigrees are all studied. Somewhere in amongst this you will also cover the tools, techniques and ethics of genetic engineering.

Once this area of study is complete you leap into evolution. Evolution is made to sound complex but all evolution is is the change in allele frequency in a population over time. Evolution is placed in a historical context with an examination of the work of Lamarck and Darwin/Wallace. How evolution occurs is covered from random matings through to bottle-necks in a population and mutations. The evidence for evolution is also presented (as there are always people out there who place belief over fact and would prefer a flat world that is orbited by the Sun). This evidence is varied and irrefutable and forms the basis of all modern Biology and Medicine.

Finally, you will get an introduction to human evolution and look at the path we believe our ancestors took, by pure chance and with no implied direction, from ape-like ancestors to the magnificent example of modern human best encapsulated by looking in the mirror. I truly love evolution, the process and the implications, the subtle nuances... Please, if early posts in this blog bore you, come back and read my (factual but bias) rants on evolution later in the course. 

This blog is not a substitute for your teacher or your textbook. I won’t be covering the course in detail. I’ll be covering the material in generalities and talking about things that I find interesting.

Until then let me start with DNA, which I shall soon post. But I’ll give you  a little time to recover from the exam first!

Funny but wrong look at evolution