Today in science (it
is General Science so we discuss a wide spectrum of topics but cover nothing in
great depth…just wanted to throw that out there for some reason), we were
discussing a human’s sense of vision.
One of the things it mentioned in today’s lesson was “rods
and cones”…anyone else remember good ole rods and cones from science/anatomy/a
random blog post which may have mentioned it?
Well, just to refresh you (you may recall: I am a full-service blogger) the rods have to do
with seeing light and the cones have to do with seeing color.
Frankly, that’s all you need to know about them in order to
follow this post.
I, like our General Science, discuss a wide spectrum of
topics but cover nothing in great depth.
Just to make things as clear as possible for you (I know, I know…it is still me who is
doing the writing, so “clear” is a relative term…how about “clearer”?)…the
way our science is organized, we read a bit and then there are a couple (ok, to be exact…sometimes one, sometimes
three, but often just two…hence the “couple”) questions to make sure the
students (and the parent…I won’t lie)
understand what is going on.
Today, one of the questions was this: Suppose a person is born with no cone cells. Will the person be able to
see? If so, what will be missing?
Thankfully one of the PBA understood what that meant and
said “The person would be able to see but would not be able to see color.”
AND the other one knew that was called “color blind”.
Makes my mama-heart swell with pride.
I was also glad b/c it meant we didn’t have to re-read the
lesson.
Time management and all that of course.
And, of course, being the “oh-so-smart” mom/teacher that I
am, went that one step further and said, “Nicely done, but did you know that a
woman cannot be color blind? Only a man can be. It is a trait that is attached to the y-chromosome.” (NOTE:
please do not send me any hate mail…I am about to confess my error on the
blogosphere for God and everyone to see: upon further research I was apparently
mistaken in my assertion…woman CAN be color blind however, it is much more
common in men; and color blindness is actually attached to the x-chromosome,
not the y-chromosome. Should I really be educating my children?)
In a total attempt to redirect the focus off my poor
teaching, you can check out this website; even though they misspelled the word “color,” I believe the
information they present still seems plausible. They might simply need a better
editor.
Anyway…the whole point of my post today was this: my 11yo
asked me “What is a y-chromosome?”
My reply: Well, it’s what you have that makes you a boy.
Yeah…as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew.
Bless me.
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