Grrrr!

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little_mascara88

little_mascara88

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I've just come back from a meeting with one of my module lecturers. We had to choose an animal to write a report about genetics on. So, because I can safely say I'm not an expert in genetics, but I am at least a bit familiar with them in relation to guinea pigs, I of course chose them.

Now coming out of the meeting I now feel a bit angry. This guy firstly laughed when I told him my choice, and then started asking me what on earth I could write on an animal that does nothing but sit in a cage all day.

So I tried to explain the problems with interbreeding, lethals etc, and that actually, they are great companions with huge personalities. He just looked at me as if I was mad.

Grrr. I hate narrow minded people! grrrr
 
You should of asked him what he knew about Guinea Pigs, when he said 'nothing' you should of then said 'exactly'
 
Very narrow minded indeed. Clearly he's never spent any quality time with a piggy!

I think it sounds an interesting project especially as the relatively new Mummy of a lethal boy and his roan brother.

If you go on one of the other GP forums ( I think it's guinea pig cages... there is a poster called Salana ho had a lethal pig called Einstein adn she did loads of reading on piggy genetics etc. She had also compiled a list of known lethals, their porblems and lifespans which might be useful.
 
Dont let it bother you, surely all animals have equal genetic qualities, not the same obviously but just as complicated and an equal amount to write about? I may be wrong.
 
I enjoy genetics - I had a genetics and genetic engineering module on my foundation degree. Unfortunately, the BSc I am on now doesn't have a genetics module but you could do quite a lot I think with pigs...

I dunno an idea off the top of my head (that needs refining lol)... 8:)

you could use punnet squares and F1, F2 etc Generations to back cross coat colours/ eye pigment/ fur type etc to predict the outcome of a cross between two guinea pigs both that have dominant alleles and another two, one of which has a recessive allele...

For literature, you could use a paper on Mendel's laws of genetics to refer to? as I recall I did this with cats for an assignment.

Umm...

I always liked looking at blood lines but I doubt you could find much on that for piggies unless you have pedigrees.

The important thing is to research and do work on a species that interests you. It's well known you get better marks with this than on something you find boring or uninteresting/ unimportant. And, as long as you CAN produce a good report with relevant literature to go from, I think your lecturer should be encouraging you!
 
MerryPip said:
Very narrow minded indeed. Clearly he's never spent any quality time with a piggy!

I think it sounds an interesting project especially as the relatively new Mummy of a lethal boy and his roan brother.

If you go on one of the other GP forums ( I think it's guinea pig cages... there is a poster called Salana ho had a lethal pig called Einstein adn she did loads of reading on piggy genetics etc. She had also compiled a list of known lethals, their porblems and lifespans which might be useful.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the heads up, I will go and search for that, I've no doubt that it will be useful! :(|)

Yes, he seems very into his big, muscular farm animals. He said he has no interest in smaller companion animals, but is letting myself and the others on my course do our assignments on them as we are not familiar with farm animals. Wish he'd use some non-farm animal examples in his lectures!
 
Wiiiiieek! said:
I enjoy genetics - I had a genetics and genetic engineering module on my foundation degree. Unfortunately, the BSc I am on now doesn't have a genetics module but you could do quite a lot I think with pigs...

I dunno an idea off the top of my head (that needs refining lol)... 8:)

you could use punnet squares and F1, F2 etc Generations to back cross coat colours/ eye pigment/ fur type etc to predict the outcome of a cross between two guinea pigs both that have dominant alleles and another two, one of which has a recessive allele...

For literature, you could use a paper on Mendel's laws of genetics to refer to? as I recall I did this with cats for an assignment.

Umm...

I always liked looking at blood lines but I doubt you could find much on that for piggies unless you have pedigrees.

The important thing is to research and do work on a species that interests you. It's well known you get better marks with this than on something you find boring or uninteresting/ unimportant. And, as long as you CAN produce a good report with relevant literature to go from, I think your lecturer should be encouraging you!
Click to expand...

:o Wow, you really know what you're talking about! I wish my BSc course didn't involve genetics :)), or at least that I understood them better!

Thank you, your post alone has given me far more understanding of what I need to do than what my lecturer has given!
 
What an ignorant fool he is. Well done for choosing such a wonderful animal as your subject.:)
 
Silly silly little man! Although I'm thinking he was trying to change your mind because on marking your work he wouldn't have a clue if its right or not and would have to research it himself lol
 
little_mascara88 said:
:o Wow, you really know what you're talking about! I wish my BSc course didn't involve genetics :)), or at least that I understood them better!

Thank you, your post alone has given me far more understanding of what I need to do than what my lecturer has given!
Click to expand...

Glad I could help... Could you maybe ask for a different lecturer? We have that option if we have a problem or think we're not getting the help we need from a particular person. Just a thought, might not be possible - depends on the policies of your institution.

There's a book written by one of my lecturers called "Asking questions in Biology" - Peter McGreggor. I am currently waiting for a copy to become available in the library but it might have something on asking genetics related questions, though I can't guarantee it :... but it MIGHT lol :red

I usually do a brainstorm and put the species in the middle surrounded by my ideas for the report. That's what I did when I looked at cats for my assignment. If I can remember, the plan I went from was something like:

Let BB represent the dominant allele for yellow eyes
Let Bb represent the recessive allele for blue eyes

Phenotype: yellow x blue
Genotype: BB x Bb
Gametes: B B x B b

Punnet Square

___|_B_|_B_|
_B_|BB_|BB_|
_b_|Bb_|Bb_|

F1 Generation: 50% offspring will have yellow eyes and 50% will have yellow eyes with the recessive allele for blue eyes. If one of these offspring was then crossed with a recessive allele expressing subject:

Let Bb represent the allele for yellow recessive eyes
Let bb represent the allele for blue eyes (expressed)

Phenotype: yellow x blue
Genotype: Bb x bb
Gametes: B b x b b

Punnet Square

___|_B_|_b_|
_b_|Bb_|bb_|
_b_|Bb_|bb_|

F2 Generation: 50% offspring will have yellow recessive eyes and 50% will have blue eyes.

That's not the one I did but I can't remember what I did lol! That's just how I went through it. You can keep going as well until you get 100% blue for example, that would be obviously a cross between 2 bb subjects or add something new like green eyes and see what happens...

I'm sad, I know ") lol
 
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I'm having the same problem at college. :(
I always want to do my assignments on GPs but my tutor says, "there's not much you can write about a guinea pig, is there?" and wants me to pick something "normal" like a dog.
 
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