End of Year Review

 

How have your perceptions of evolution changed over the past months? 

    Evolution is an extremely complex concept and it even ranges in complexity depending on the situation. Evolution is dependent on many factors including the species its self, time, resources, space, reproduction methods, etc. I used to oversimplify my thoughts on evolution but now it is quite the opposite. 

How have your perceptions of the process of science changed?

    At the beginning of the semester I was confident on how connected everything was but now I just laugh at myself. I have learned that whatever piece of data you have can be built upon by another scientific field. Take paleontology and genetics, they're both very different fields of study but without genetics we wouldn't know nearly as much as we do about past lineages if we just had fossils. 

What do you feel have you really learned in this course'; what are you taking away beyond the end of the semester?

    I am able to do basic coding using RStudio which I never thought I would be able to say. I have also greatly improved at analyzing data and I am able to understand many new evolutionary concepts and ideas.

What have you learned about your strengths and your areas in need of improvement? 

    I could still greatly improve my coding in Rstudio skills. I would also like to improve my ability to see concepts from other points of view. As for strengths I am able to analyze many forms of data and come up with ideas to further explain biological and evolutionary concept in the real world.