Abdalla El-Ghannam

Prof. Agosta
UWRT 1101-035
11/10/15
Observation Assignment UWRT 1101

Guiding Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Who has the authority in this community?

What are the special lexis that is only know to the insiders to this community?
How does the members of this community interact with each other?
What is valued in this community?
Who is considered an expert? How can I tell?

Jotting & Description:

So here we are in the class which takes place in the bioinformatics building and
people are still gathering to start our class as the TA prepares the slideshows that
contains the material we are going to talk about, laughs are getting louder as
people are still talking to each other and we didnt start yet and its already 2:00
pm.
A discussion is going on between the instructor and the TA, I see rarely anyone of
the groups talking about bioinformatics topics at the meantime and people are busy
checking personal social media accounts. And let me take this time till we start to
describe this class. So we are in a big class room with nearly 11 tables and on each
table there is a group of five people. The knowledge of individuals in these groups
should be balanced and should be a mixture of people who have previous
experience with biology or have a biological/medical background so they kind of
understand whats is going on. In this class we have about 6 clicker quizzes on
average each time and members in each group are allowed to discuss the answers
with peers and even with other groups. This way we can share thoughts and this
provides an interactive environment for learning. And sometimes when there are 2
major answers we are asked to stand up and walk around and try to convince
people of our own answer.
The instructor starts talking about a picture on the screen and ask a question he
ask: does anybody recognize this picture, someone said yes.
The picture was a plate like called Wedgewood which I think is a cultural object
people are still arriving. Most of them are coming from the other side of campus, a
piece of text is now displayed on the screen and we should read that. By Richard
Darwin the selfish gene hes is saying that if aliens once visited earth to get in our
civilization the first question is: have they discovered their evolution yet?

Abdalla El-Ghannam
Prof. Agosta
UWRT 1101-035
11/10/15

He is discussing the theory of natural selection.

So by this time I can predict that is going to be about natural selection and a brief
glimpse about how he got the insight to come up with questions like this. This
events are after 10 minutes. People now are concentrated and the room is quit as
we get deeper into the class where the instructor is explaining in an ironic way
Darwins early life.

People are taking notes and making jokes about some old people traditions as
Darwin was about 200 years old.
How did fossils give him the ideas that creatures can change over time.
The word species; it is used to classify and sort similar kinds of creatures.
And how did he used this to create a genetic tree what can describe clearly the
evolution of different traits through mutation and adaptation to the environment.
Transmutation
Some people are getting bored and sleeping on the tables or get distracted by their
phones and they keep like that way until the first clicker quiz people will start to
wake up.
However until now we are still talking about this Darwin man who spent a lot of
years studying species and how did he relate them to the ancient organisms, how
do they change and how can they get very different from their ancestors.
Theory of acquired inheritance by Lamark.
And it states that the acquired traits of the organisms can be transferred to their off
springs and a fine example for that is giraffes. He is the one who came up with the
idea that giraffes have had a short neck and over time as the trees get taller, the
giraffes kept stretching their necks upwards to reach the leaves, and the stretching
of each generation is increased by the stretching of the next one until they specifies
reached their shape for now.
More people are distracted by their phone but wait until the first clicker quiz
appears on the screen and you can see the reaction of their face showing their
surprise as usually the question is about what the instructor has been talking about
for about 33 minutes. And extraordinary he is still talking about scientists who

Abdalla El-Ghannam
Prof. Agosta
UWRT 1101-035
11/10/15
contributed to the genetics field and studied variation of species and due to their
help we were able to discover what we know now.

And now we get to Darwin and Mendel whom their work was necessary for the
medical and genetic understanding that we possess in the 21 st century.
And here it comes clicker quiz 1 &2 at the same time which is kind of strange to
have 2 questions at the same time and here we go.
Now people in different groups start discussing what to put in the clicker, some
people are just interested to know the answer behind the topic by asking why is that
true or why is that false, while others are there to just put in the answer. Discussions
are still going on, people try to convince other people of their ideas, groups are
laughing, a moment of silence and we are about to know the answer for question 1.
And as the number of the clickers are known to the instructor he always knows who
didnt answer yet.
People are asked to get up and try to get the answers from other groups.
My group had a discussion:
A: why do you think the mutation happened?
Me: its because of the environment changes
A: but I thought that mutation occurs randomly
Me: You have a point but why didnt it occur before the environment changes
A: II am not sure, we will know the answer now.
The instructor said that this is a tricky question
And here is the answer and great variation between A & B. Answer A is 49% and B is
51%.
And we run the clicker quiz second time and my answer by wrong.
So the mutation was there but the environment led to its spread.
Ok
So my colleague was right again

Why did the population of rock pocket mice grow dark fur after the flow of lava?

Abdalla El-Ghannam
Prof. Agosta
UWRT 1101-035
11/10/15
So there was a nice answer when everybody laughed at which was that the white
mice tasted well.
These types of questions are there to reduce the seriousness of the questions a bit.
They give a very little break from thinking.
Its a common story to hear in this class that scientist at the first place on one
wanted to listen to them and when they listen to them they dont believe them until
..
Until other scientist confirms the same thing after some time or by having good
proofs.
What do we mean by fixation?
Someone: The presence of the gene in all individuals of the population.
This is a solid example where someone broke the complex phrases into simple and
more understandable words.
The instructor explains that mutations occurs over time and populations goes UP
and goes down, goes up and goes dowwwwwn and goes down a little bit and it
doesnt increase again and the species are extinct and extinction is forever .
But after all, todays class is exceptional as we had a lot of history this time.

Analysis:
I think my observation showed me how this class interacts in the room as a whole,
and how some individuals in groups interacts with the rest of their group. The
interaction of this community is mainly verbal as the instructor speaks most of the
time, groups discuss topics with each other and is also visual as there is slideshows
and sometimes videos on the board. Defined lexis which is used in the class is
pretty scientific and it is mostly the language of insiders in the community. The way
the class is giving feedback to the questions we have. In each group there is always
people whom are considered as experts by their groups. These people are the ones
who always have the right answer for the clicker questions. So the person with more
knowledge is considered an expert by this community. The goal of the class is to
introduce people the science of genetics and how the speed of computers are used
to accomplish the results and supplying accurate information.

Reflection:
This assignment was amazing as I do enjoy reading people expressions and the way
they interact with each other. At the beginning I thought I wont have something to

Abdalla El-Ghannam
Prof. Agosta
UWRT 1101-035
11/10/15
write about, but I said I should give it a try. I did the observation while Im in class to
be writing in real time with full experience and following up with each detail I come
across. I participated in class activities to try to get the most out of the observation.
I took a while to see the whole class in full action as people starts to be active after
the first clicker questions pops up on the screen. This time in class I paid close
attention to members of other groups that mine to observe the way different people
interacts to the same material theyre exposed to. I think it was a good observation
after all.