Human Reproduction
All throughout human history, philosophers have asked the question, what is the meaning of life. They make such a big deal out of a simple question. All they had to do was ask a biologist. Since the beginning of life 3.5 billion years ago, the goal of life has been to keep life going. Every organism's biological goal is to stay alive, and to reproduce.
Lets start with some basics. What is reproduction? Reproduction is the process of creating new organisms. Organisms reproduce in many different ways. Bacteria just split in two. Ferns and some other plants alternate between cloning themselves and sexual reproduction....
Wait...what is sexual reproduction?
For most of us we think of sexual reproduction as putting a penis in a vagina, injecting sperm which fertilizes an egg, and then you get a baby. But that is not always how it works. Do flowers do sexual reproduction?
Sexual reproduction is the mixing of two different organism's DNA. This is usually done by a sperm and egg joining together.
The biological goal of sexual reproduction is genetic diversity. Organisms that reproduce sexual are more successful than organisms that just clone themselves. Genetic diversity is really important. It creates variety in a species.
We are going to start by talking about the male and female anatomy. For the purposes of this part we are talking about birth gender. Birth gender refers to the chromosomes you were born with. If you have an XX you are a biological female, XY is a biological male. Biological Males have testes and make sperm, biological females have ovaries and make eggs.
We probably already know most of the anatomy of the external genitalia, but it is important to learn/review all the parts so we are on the same page while having our discussions. Also, some of us might know the slang for words but not know the proper anatomical words.
Activity:
Lets start by having a little bit of immature fun. I want you to turn to your neighbors. Maybe a group of four. I want you to take two minutes to share all the slang words you can think of for the male and female reproductive parts. There are so many that we will all learn new ones during these two minutes I am sure.
Now who wants to share some of the funniest ones you heard?
During the next couple of days, lets try to use the proper anatomical words. But if you cannot think of the right word at the moment, it is okay for you to use a slang word. You will probably not be able to use those words in other classrooms, but for today, you have a pass.