Unit 3 Reflection

Unit 3 Reflection

This unit was about Cells and what is inside them. It was also about photosynthesis vs cellular respiration. We learned about the different organelles in a cell and what there structure and function is. 

In this unit, some of my strengths were learning the difference between prokaryote and eukaryote cells. Prokaryote cells have no nucleus and are typically smaller that eukaryote cells that have a nucleus. One weakness in this unit for me was learning all the different roles of the organelles and how each one is used. One topic that I completely understood was passive transport vs active transport. Passive requires no energy but active requires energy. The labs that we performed in class really helped me use what I learned and apply it in the labs. 

For this incoming test I had/am going to review all my notes and watch the hardest vodcast agin. I'm also going to read the chapter that I didn't chose to take notes on which would be chapter 8. 

Egg Diffusion Lab

 Egg Diffusion Lab

 In this lab we asked how and why does a cell's internal environment change, as it's external environment changes? During this lab we first placed the eggs in vinegar for more than 48 hours and after we took them out of the vinegar we washed them and then placed them into a different substance. The vinegar removed the membrane. 

 While looking at the class data I notice that after the sugar concentration increased the mass and circumference of the egg decreased. The change was cause by passive diffusion when an area of high concentration moves to an area of low concentration. Also more solute inside the cell 

A cell's internal environment changes as it's external changes because of diffusion. It would move from areas of high concentration to low concentration until they reach eqilibrium. After placing the eggs in vinegar, water, and sugar the eggs had shrunk and grown. After placing it in vinegar it shrunk but when we placed them in water and sugar the egg grew. 

This lab demonstrates the biological principal that a cell's internal environment changes as it's external environment changes. This lab demonstrated this principal. 

I can relate this lab to real life with examples like why fresh vegetables are sprinkled with water at markets the water is keeping the vegetables fresh with hypertonic solutions. They are solutions with less solute concentration that what is inside the cell with cells gaining water.  

Based on this experiment the next thing I would want to test would be placing the egg in oil because vinegar and oil are opposites and they don't mix so I would like to know if it would do the opposite of what the vinegar did to the egg or if it would do the same thing. 

Egg Macromolecule Lab

In this lab we asked the question Can macromolecules be identified in an egg cell? We found that for the cell membrane, there were polysaccharides and lipids. The polysaccharides turned black and the lipids turned orange. Membranes are made of phospholipids. For the egg white they had all four macromolecules, proteins, lipids, polysaccharides, and monosaccharides. The proteins turned purple and they were their because they are important for growth and development. Also enzymes are for immunity. The lipids turned orange, the polysaccharides turned black, and the monosaccharides turned green. They are all easy for growth and development. The yolk also carried all the macromolecules and they all made proteins. They turned the same colors as for the egg whites.

A few errors that we made during our experiment that may have affected our results were that when I was pouring the egg whites, yolk, and membrane into my test tubes I accidentally used the same pipet for everything but when I realized we weren't supposed to do that I stopped. I don't know if this affected our results but I won't do that next time because it might affect the data. Another error was that one of our table partners more water into the test tubes and it was inaccurate. He had pours either more or less and that might have affected our colors in the results. In future experiments I will definitely be more careful with accuracy because in some labs it can affect your data greatly. We have to be more careful when we read the directions and also try to be as accurate with the water.

The purpose of this lab was to show what kinds of macromolecules are present in different parts of the egg. I don't have much to relate this lab to but I can relate this with previously working with eggs in cooking. In this lab we went in depth on the different parts of the egg. Mr. Orre was saying that there is a thin cell membrane around the yolk and thats what keeps it together. I remembered seeing the membrane during cooking when I cracked the egg and there was a shiny layer over the yolk which now I know is called the membrane. Overall from this lab I learned a lot about eggs and what things affect them. I also learned about the different types of macromolecules in the egg and what their purpose is. I am definitely more familiar with the roles of macromolecules and that could help me on a test.