Spring 2008 Discussion Area & Photos

Jonathan Dayton High School, Springfield New Jersey

Hello my fellow genetic geeks of the world,

We are from Jonathon Dayton, which is in Springfield, New Jersey. Springfield is a small community, with our “moments of fame” being when the PGA tour comes to Baltusrol, and when we shot a commercial for the Simpson’s Movie. Our address is, 139 Mountain Avenue. The coordinates of our town are 40 degrees 42’ 6” N 74 degrees 19’20”W. A little interesting fact about Springfield is that the reason we are free today is because we held the British back from advancing towards Morristown, to capture George Washington. Had we not won that battle, our freedom and liberties today would be very constricted.

Our school has many sports and activities, including varsity football, cheerleading, soccer, baseball, hockey, basketball and track and field. Our activities include, JSA, Model UN, Student Council and National Honors Society. Our school mascot is the “Dayton Bulldog”, and our school colors are Blue and Orange. An exclusive “club” in our school is the “Bulldog Bangers”, which is a student section that goes to all the basketball games, and cheers for the students. Our school has given all students in grades 7-11 brand new iBook G4 to use in and out of school.

Students in our class in their free time like to play sports, listen to music, go shopping, hang out with friends and have a good time. Here in Springfield we know how to have a good time.

Our period 2 Biology Honors class is a small class of 10 students, because of that we learn a lot, but also have interesting discussions. The year started with our student teacher teaching us, Mr. Cohane. Basically, imagine the coolest person you have ever met and then multiply his “coolness” by 2 and that is Mr. Cohane. But we don’t forget about Mrs. Ornovitz. She is a really cool teacher and is a great cook. Having Biology 2nd period without eating breakfast makes you hungry, so having a teacher, which makes the best Sweet Potato Pie in the world and other baked goods, is a great luxury.

That’s about it, you stay classy, World.

Sincerely,

Jesse, Peter, Pflo and Mrs. Ornovitz’s 2nd Period Biology Honors Class

Hello from the New Jersey Suburbs, Everyone.

We are the 6th period freshman Biology Honors class of Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield, New Jersey!

Located at 40.7 Latitude, and negative 74.3 Longitude, Springfield is a town known most for its overlooked but crucial Revolutionary War battle. Located about 30 minutes from New York City and in close proximity to the beautiful New Jersey Shore, our town is small, quiet, and super cool. Five hundred and thirteen students attend Jonathan Dayton.

Our High School has various extracurricular activities the diverse population in our school. Our Medical Careers club serves as an inspiration to aspiring medical students. We take many trips and have a panel discussion with local doctors each year. We have bake sales regularly to raise money to donate to charities.

Our class is determined to find out whether the dominant trait prevails over the recessive. Through various surveys and labs, we will eventually discover the answer, hopefully by May 10th. We are excited to start the project. Good luck to all!

Final Reports

Before I was involved in this experiment. I thought that if a gene was dominant then it would be more dominant. During this experiment I learned that this is not true in many cases. As shown in this experiment, there are many recessive traits that are more prevalent than the dominant traits. This could be possible for many reasons including non random mating.

The dominant gene does not always occur more often than the recessive gene in this survey. In fact, in the majority of the results the recessive gene was expressed more than the dominant gene. These results are not shocking at all. People assume that the dominant gene will show more than the recessive gene. For example, the dominant gene White Forelock is expressed less than the recessive gene based on the totals. In 115,581 people only 13271 had white forelocks. An explanation for this has to do with the Hardy Weinberg Priniciple. The Hardy Weinberg principle states that an allele will remain constant in an environment unless acted upon by an outside force. Due to the fact that the traites in this experiment are not acted upon by an outside force, the allele frequency remains somewhat constant or, the recessive allele will be more prevelant over the dominate allele.

P.A.L.S. High School, Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada

P.A.L.S. is a high school that schools grades 10 to 12; we also have many adults who have not yet received their diplomas. PALS has been around for 14 years. We only have about 30 students, and there are only 3 teachers. PALS has a different environment than a regular high school because of its size and student to teacher ratio. The students benefit from having more one-on-one time with their teachers. We also enjoy going on field trips and doing activities as a school. Our school is more like a family then a school because we all know each other pretty well.

PALS is located in Sussex, NB Canada. Sussex is a small farming community near the Bay of Fundy, between the three main cities in New Brunswick which makes us a prime location for tourists and travelers. Sussex has become the “mural capital” of New Brunswick as the town has recently invested lots of money into beautifying our town. We are also home to the Annual Atlantic Balloon Fiesta, which is a weekend where hot air balloonists from around the world gather to fly together.

We think that dominant traits appear more often but are obviously not the only ones that appear, because then everyone would look the same.

Final Report

Through this experiment, we at P.A.L.S. in Sussex have learned that the dominant traits do not appear to be more common every time. In some cases at our school, the recessive trait actually appears much more common than the dominant trait. We didn’t have a single person with white forelock, which was a dominant trait. In others it was split right down the middle, like people with straights thumbs, and people with curved thumbs. The results of this particular trait were 50% to 50%. However, in some cases the dominant trait did show up much more, like whether people had free ear lobes or attached ear lobes. Free ear lobes, which were dominant, occurred in 78% of the people we surveyed. Our final thought is that the alleles would remain constant if they did not have an evolutionary advantage.

Miami Springs Middle School, Miami Springs, Florida, USA

Dear Fellow Students of Science:

Our most gracious salutations to our brothers and sisters around the world. We send our warmest thanks to our friends from all over the globe, including: Australia, Baghdad, The Czech Republic, Iran, Italy and Scotland. The United States of America is a big place, so we also send a nice hello to our paisan.

School Information:

Miami Springs Middle School is located in The City of Miami Springs; it's a South Florida public education institution. It was built in the mid-1950s. Our school is a wonderful place to see kids joyfully interact with an environment where everyone gets along. Our school is particularly interesting because we have many activities that everyone can enjoy. MSMS also provides a safe area for all of the students and staff. Also, our auditorium is big and we have many special guests showing us interesting things there. Another feature that we adore most about our 8th grade Biology class is the wondrous, loving and doting teachers.

Our School Spirit:

Our main colors are blue and white. Our mascot is the American Bald Eagle. Here at MSMS, there are many sports and after school programs. We have football, tennis, basketball, softball, volleyball, bowling, golf, swimming, cheer leading, track and cross-country. Making the basketball team is a nice memory for some of our classmates to have achieved at Miami Springs Middle.

Our Predictions:

Some of the predictions we've made include: 14 of our classmates will have curved thumbs; no one in our class will be color blind; 3 students will have attached earlobes; approximately 9 of our classmates will have attached earlobes; 7 of us will be color blind; we should imagine that merely an individual person in our group of pupils has attached earlobes.

Our Learning:

Heredity is what parents have in their genes and pass down to their offspring. The phenotype is an observable trait and the genotype is the genetic makeup of the organism. A homozygous organism is an organism with two alleles that are the same and that a heterogeneous organism is with two different alleles for a characteristic. We learned that there is an X chromosome or a Y chromosome in sperm cells and the egg has only an X chromosome.

In addition, we would like to learn more about the many scientists in the field of Biology, the Human Genetics Project and how genetics is involved in height and other poly-genetic human traits.
Miami Springs Middle School
150 S Royal Poinciana Blvd
Miami Springs FL
tel:

Latitude & Longitude 25.8163 Degrees North 80.2738 Degrees West