Mutations and the Tree of Life

 1. How would you define mutation for Jr. High students? Introduce students with this definition. 

Mutations is what made some small unicellular organism millions of years ago develop over time with adding features and taking features survive their changing environment and grow into all the organisms and different life forms we see today. Mutation is evolution.

2. Make up an organism. In a population of this organism describe and demonstrate how mutations occur. describe and demonstrate how mutations can be neutral, beneficial, or harmful. Explain how each of these mutation types could influence the evolutionary trajectory of this population

A mutation might occur by the umpa's environment experiencing some sort of change where this organism is now exposed to more sunlight (UV rays), and this exposure causes a mutation in the gamete cells of the umpa. 

The types of mutations that could occur could be either synonymous or non-synonymous.

if the mutation is synonymous that means there is no change observed ed in the organism and it continues on as it has been before.

The mutation could be beneficial and non-synonymous, for example, this mutation could allow the organism to become reliant on photosynthesis, which reduces its risk of not being able to obtain its nutrients and food. This mutation steers the population towards a more positive evolutionary trajectory as the population continues to increase over time.

The mutation could also be harmful and non-synonymous, for example, this mutation could cause a change in color in the population, which in turn makes them easier targets for their predators to spot and so they have a negative evolutionary trajectory, and over time they go extinct.