This week in AP Biology we began by refreshing our memory on basic statistics such as calculating the standard deviation and standard error of mean. We also covered evolution and learned about how this occurs in real life, as well as natural selection and key people who paved these ideas.

Descriptive statistics helps me describe basic features in given data, and how to summarize data. The standard deviation is a measure of the variation within data, and we learned how to calculate this. We also learned how to calculate the statistical mean, which is the average that is used to derive the central tendency of the data in a question. We used these ways of calculation on data from the Galapagos finches to practice the formulas. This was helpful in order to refresh my memory on statistics which I took last year, and also how it relates to biology.

The definition of evolution is descent without modification. It is the study of how organisms change over time. Scientists who helped develop ideas such as life evolving, inheriting traits, and carrying capasities include Thomas Malthus, Charles Lyell, Jean Baptiste Lamarck, and Alfred Russel Wallace. It wasn’t until Charles Darwin, however, that natural selection was discovered. Charles Darwin was a scientist who led this new idea of evolution through his work with the Galapagos finches. He published The Origin of Species which explains the changes of beaks of finches over time through natural selection. Because of a drought on one of the islands, the tiny seeds disappeared and so birds with small beaks died off for they couldn’t eat the big seeds. Thus, more birds began to have larger beaks. When the fit animal survives, it reproduces and passes on its traits to its offspring.

The Rock Pocket Mice video was a good example for me to understand natural selection. I learned how mice evolved in oder to survive their respective climates. When the lighter mice lived on the darker rock, they were easily seen by predators and died off. Then the few mice that mutated to have darker fur survived more because they were able to blend in with their surroundings. They survived, and reproduced more darker mice.

In conclusion, this week I learned about evolution, natural selection, and statistics. I used this knowledge on examples such as Galapagos finches and Rock Pocket mice. I learned how this connects to Big Idea 1, that the process of evolution drives the diversity and the unity of life. Without natural selections, many species wouldn’t be alive today. Next week I hope to dive deeper into speciation and how a new species form.