Week three's readings really caught my attention. It's very interesting to learn about how human life begins. I was drawn to many of the facts in the chapters. From the first few sentences of chapter 3 ,on page 55, I was fascinated to learn that at conception we were smaller than the size of the period at the end of this sentence. After learning that the genotype is our genetic makeup that cannot be seen by the naked eye I started to think about the traits that I have inherited from each of my parents. The phenotype, or observable traits that I inherited like my hair and eye color I believe are more from my dad. The statement on page 55 of the Lifesmart text,"When you look around a room full of people,it may appear that everyone is vastly different from each other,but the amount of genetic material shared between human beings is astounding - approximately 99.1%". This is so interesting to me, I would have imagined it would have been much more considering everything from height,weight,hair color,skin color, eye color, etc.
After Reading about the different types of hereditary disorders I made a connection to my life because I volunteer at a facility for adults with special needs. Many of the participants have Down syndrome, learning more about how this disorder began from the start will help me to better understand the characteristics of their disability.
On page 119, I read an interesting point of view on whether language is a biological,innate ability that all humans possess or if it is learned through interactions in the environment. I had never really thought about this before but after reading this I was interested in what people believe about this idea. I believe that environment plays a huge role in the development of language. I think that the more books and language support material a child has the better the development of their language will be. I think that we may pick up some biological abilities that my help with language development like being able to speak multiple languages or being able to read quickly.
There were many interesting facts in chapters 3-5 in the Lifesmart text. I am excited to see what we will learn about lifespan development in the stages after infancy.
Very interesting observations. It really does make one think about how miraculous development is when we are the size of a period at the end of a sentence. I think it is really commendable that you volunteer at a facility for special needs adults. I'm sure that will offer you many unique insights throughout the course. The language debate of nature vs nurture is still widely accepted. If you are looking for more to read on the topic check out Benjamin Whorf versus Chomsky view on language development.
ReplyDeleteCaley,
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting that you mentioned that we all share DNA which is 99.1 percent identical. It amazes me as well, especially since--as the Nova film mentioned--when we are born, we have a mixture of chromosomes which has never existed before. With all that diversity, we are still almost the same in nearly every way. I think keeping this in mind will help us when we are in classrooms of our own and are struggling to make connections with our students. Just remembering that we are so much the same will help connect us with our students and can be used to help our students connect with each other.