Unit 10 Reflection

Ending the year

Unit 10 was our last unit in the class. In this unit we learned about physiology. We learned about all of the bodies different systems including the circulatory, respiratory, nervous, endocrine, digestive, immune, and lymphatic. In the vodcasts we watched we learned about all these different systems in detail and what their functions are and we applied our learning in a lab. Down below are diagrams of the nervous and circulatory systems. The function of the nervous system is to pass signals to the brain and the function of the circulatory system is to maintain homeostasis. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/1201_Overview_of_Nervous_System.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Diagram_of_the_human_heart_(cropped).svg/2000px-Diagram_of_the_human_heart_(cropped).svg.png

The one lab we did in this unit was our Pig dissection. I really enjoyed this lab because it helped me understand the body parts we learned about in the unit from our vodcasts. Although at times cutting the pig was too much for me I am still happy that we had the opportunity to perform this lab. One thing I wish we had done for this lab was to look at the pigs brain and nervous system. One question I still wondered was how different is the pigs body from ours and how different our bodies would look like unborn like the pigs. Another question I still have is how do different body parts work for different animals? Lastly my last question is why did the pigs heart not have any blood in it, is it because it was unborn or because they first removed all the pigs blood? In my blog post I have linked the youtube video that we made identifying all of the pigs external and internal body parts and their functions (linked above). 

Since my first unit reflection last year I think I have really grown as a student and made my blog posts and reflections much more meaningful and organized in a well designed fashion. I think that all of my blog posts this year either if they were lab reflections or my 20 time blog posts, all made me reflect on what I had learned at the time. I remember in the beginning of the year I was nervous and stressed out because I thought that the blog posts always took so long to complete and we had so many of them, but as the year went by I realized that the blog posts always helped me better my understanding of that unit or lab and they became much easier to complete as the year went by and we had more and more of them.

One project I am really proud of accomplishing this school year was my infographic. I thought that mine was well designed and it took awhile to complete which made it much more valuable to post on my blog. I think infographics are a great way of studying concepts and I am really happy that I learned how to make my own. 

Few of my favorite blog posts were My Hunger Games Analysis and My unit 9 reflection. I really like my hunger games blog post because that lab was my favorite lab we did in the class and we talked about it a lot and I really understood it a lot. It was also extremely fun because it was a game lab and everyone was competing to win. My blog posts answers many questions given and also different photos. I also think that my unit 9 reflection is one of my better blog posts because I spent time putting different photos after I talked about them and my layout was very nice for that one. In the beginning of the year I used to just put all my photos at the end of my blog post but I have learned that sometimes it is much more eye catching to place them in the beginning or the middle. Overall I think both of those blog posts were my best from the school year. 

In the end, I am appreciate that I have had my own blog to place all of the work we have done in this class. Regardless if others even care to look at my blog posts I think the fact that it is open for anyone to see has forced me to care more about the outcome and make my posts the best I can. 

Pig Dissection relate and review

Pig Dissection 

In class this week we worked on dissecting an unborn big. We worked in our table groups to dissect the pig throughout two class periods. My understanding of the purpose of this lab was to help us understand the anatomy of an animal and work hands on to see the different parts of their body. The vodcasts we watched to prepare us for the dissection were an essential part of understanding their body but with this hands on lab it really boosted our understanding of the concepts we learned. 

This dissection related to our unit which was physiology. My favorite part of this unit was looking at all of their organs and opening the pig's heart. It was a great privilege to be able to look closely at the animals organs because it is a great way of learning about their body hands on. I think that this dissection was a valuable experience for everyone because they work hands on with the animal. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CW4JGWs5jA&feature=youtu.be

20 Time Final Post

Honey bee pollinated gardens 

http://www.starkbros.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Crabapple-Bee_LG.jpg

Overall I think that the TED talk went pretty well (20 time presentation). In the beginning of the semester I was nervous about the final TED talk because I had never done one and my project wasn't with any data or trials like a lot of other people had so I was nervous that I wouldn't have been able to present my project well. I also wrote a reflection on my 20 time project (20 time individual reflection)

I think that in the past I have mainly focused on having good information in my presentation, but with the TED talk I realized that the information is only half of what makes a great presentation and the other half is having a confident tone that can carry you through your presentation. I have learned a lot from my 20 time project and TED talk. First I learned more on how to give a great presentation and speak with more confidence and second I learned to think about saving a species in an easy and inventive way.

I really enjoyed working on 20 time this semester and appreciate the time we were given in class to work on a fresh new concept in school. It was eye opening to watch others' presentations and what they had learned and how rapted they were in their topics. I think I have grown as a presenter and I was given great feedback that can help me with any presentation I do. I would definitely take part in the next chance I get to work on a new and different project like 20 time.

20 Time Individual Reflection

20 Time Individual Reflection 

My 20 time project was a great experience for me. It went a different direction than what I had originally thought I was going to do but I personally like the new way much better. Originally I wanted to find a environment for honey bees to live in so they could stay safe but now I am finding ways to save honey bees and spread the message and ways to save them with people I know. I challenged myself in this 20 time project because I had a problem throughout a large majority of this semester trying to figure out what to do with the information I learned. I needed to figure out how I was going to share the knowledge I gained but still have put something together that could help the bee species for people who don't hear my TED Talk. My goal for this project that hasn't changed is to have people understand how important honey bees are and how effected the economy, world, and nature would be without this big species. I knew from the beginning that a lot of people wouldn't care much about my topic even after they heard my TED Talk so I wanted to create easy ways that people could save honey bees without them having to do too much. If I were to do another 20 time project regardless of the topic I think I would focus more on developing a new originally idea or product rather than finding more and more information. I thought I spent too much time finding out why honey bees have become endangered rather than developing a way too save them. Overall I think that 20 time definitely was a great experience for me and I hope to try it again. In the what on Earth evolved presentations and In 20 time I really understood more that there is so much information in the world to be learned and doing a project like 20 time really lets you research deep into a topic that interests you. 

Unit 9 Reflection

Unit 9 Reflection 

In this unit I have learned about evolution through past species and how us, modern day humans, have a number a traits given to us from past life like fish and reptiles and of course early humans. I did my what on Earth evolved presentation on Homo erectus (My what on Earth evolved project) and I was happy of the knowledge I had gained. In the beginning I was a little worried about how I was going to remember all the information about my species but as I was doing research I realized it was easier than I thought. A critique that I had received during my project was that I should change the tone of my voice at times so I can sound more knowledgeable.

We learned about taxonomic levels which are: Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, & species. Recently they have added domain which is before kingdom and is split into 3 different parts, eukarya, bacteria, and archaea.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Taxonomic_Rank_Graph.svg/2000px-Taxonomic_Rank_Graph.svg.png

Another thing that we learned in unit 9 was about Viruses. Viruses kill or damage cells and they cause the cell to produce toxins. Two different types of viruses are Lytic vs Lysogenic. A lytic infection is when the virus enters the cell makes a copy of itself and then causes the cell to burst. A lysogenic infection is when a virus integrates its DNA into the DNA of the host cell. Down below is a diagram to show the two infections.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Phage2.JPG

Two blog posts that we have written this unit are Invertebrate of your choice and my inner fish reflection. The first reflection was about sponges. The second reflection was about a documentary we watched in class that showed how us modern humans are carrying traits from millions of years ago from the first fish and reptiles. If you would like to learn more click on the link above.

There are three different types of fungi. There is Sac fungi which forms a reproductive sac. Bread molds come in various shapes and are used to make soy sauce. Lastly, there are club fungi which come in various shapes and are fruiting bodies which means that they grow above ground like mushrooms. 

My Inner Fish Reflection

My Inner Fish Reflection

This video series was about understanding our past ancestors and their traits that have pasted on to us. The first video was my inner fish and that was focusing on the similarities between fish and modern day humans and how even though they don't look alike they have similar bone structures. The second video, my inner reptile, was talking about those same things and also talking about the transition from fish in water to land living reptiles. Reptiles have a hard scale skin that derived from fishes' scales that were much less hard. This video series helped me understand evolution more and also the connection between animals and reptiles to modern day humans.
Why are mass extinctions important? Mass extinctions are important because they allow smaller species to evolve and live without being in danger from larger animals. Without mass extinctions the dinosaurs might have still been alive and dominating the Earth which wouldn't have allowed other species to evolve and survive. Without mass extinctions there is an extremely high possibility that us, modern day humans, wouldn't extinct today.
How and why did hair first evolve? Hair first evolved because of colder climates to keep species warmer. This is a prime example of how important and useful traits have been passed on to us. Without hair many animals today would not be able to survive.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fishapods.png

4th Blog Post

Endangered Honey Bees 

Through these two weeks I have done research about a honey bee farm that I want to visit. I have gained a lot more interest in my project in these past two weeks. This weekend I plan to visit that farm and talk to somebody who works there and ask them questions about their bees. At the farm I want too hopefully video tape the trip and make a video about  my experience. I will show that video in my Ted talk at the end of the year to show my experience. I will go with my family to the bee farm and when they visit the farm they can hopefully understand the importance of bees some more and appreciate them more too. The video that I can make will hopefully grabbed peoples attention in the class that watch it. 

Invertebrate of your choice: Sponges

Sponges

I chose the invertebrate of my choice on sponges. Sponges are multi cellular organisms. Sponges are the simplest and most primitive animals on Earth. One fact that I found very interesting about sponges is the fact that they reproduce sexually and asexually. Sponges are porifera in the kingdom Animalia. Their domain is eukarya. Most sponges have three layers of cells that consist of flattened and skeletal cells with many pores. Sponges rely on keeping a constant flow of water in their bodies to survive. They do not have a nervous system. A question that I still have is how the sponges reproduce sexually and asexually. The sources I used wikipedia and Phylum Porifera. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponge#/media/File:Reef3859_-_Flickr_-_NOAA_Photo_Library.jpg

3rd Blog Post

Endangered Honey Bees 

In these two weeks I have made progress with my 20 time project by gathering more information on my topic and trying to piece it together. I haven't had any setbacks so far in my project. My next steps in the process are hopefully to visit a honey bee farm. I found some relatively close and plan to contact them so I can go to the farm and ask them questions about their bees to gather much more information. With my plan to visit the bee farm I can use my knowledge about endangered honey bees and spread the awareness to my family and friends. My goal for this 20 time is for people all around to be aware of the importance of honey bees and how crucial their survival is to the world. 

Unit 8 Reflection

Unit 8 Reflection 

In this unit I learned about constant change. I learned about the difference between artificial and natural selection. The difference between those two is that natural selection is the process of weeding out traits in a population that do not help the individuals and the result is change (evolution) over time. While artificial selection is when humans select traits from a populations variation that they want. The relationship between natural selection and evolution is throughout evolution species evolve   and select the best traits for themselves and their environment. Allele frequency is how often a gene appears in the gene pool. Charles Darwin stated that there will always be winners and losers and that not all offspring will survive. There are always going to be species will better traits for their environment that will "win" because they can survive. 

In this unit we had two really good labs, the Hunger Games lab  & Bird Beak lab . These labs demonstrated natural selection and they were really beneficial for me because it was a real life situation and we were able to talk and discuss the lab which really helped.
(To the left are the graphs from the labs)

Some questions I still have are: What will happen when we get close to reaching our planets maximums carrying capacity? How has the planet survived after so many drastic events?

Since last unit when we learned about how to be more assertive I have tried to contribute more of my ideas to group projects instead of just listening to others. In the geologic timeline project I have discussed my thoughts on how we can present our information on the timeline and made sure everyone in the group had something to do. I still need to improve with my assertiveness skills but I have improved so far. I think I can gain more confidence and be more assertive with more group projects and contributing my ideas. 

Geologic Timeline Individual Reflection

Geologic Timeline Individual Reflection

While working on the timeline, I learned about many events in Earths history. Some of the biggest events were the first living organisms as microscopic bacteria in the precambrian era, Earths largest extinction in the end of the permian period, and the birth of the dinosaurs in the Triassic period. The scale of earths history really surprised me because when we were working on the timeline about 90% of the timeline was the whole Precambrian era. When we were labeling the other periods and era I realized that even though those eras themselves were very long their size didn't even compare to the size of the Precambrian era. When I learned about the events in earths history it is really hard to believe how much this planet has gone through and how well it has survived. Earth has gone through a lot of mass extinctions and change in dominant mammals that have just went extinct. A question that I have is how did scientists gather all this specific information because it was so long ago, but it is amazing that they did. 

 

http://news.wisc.edu/oldest-bit-of-crust-firms-up-idea-of-a-cool-early-earth/

Hunger Games Analysis

Hunger Games Analysis

1. In this lab we stood around in a circle and when Mr. Orre blew the whistle we all turned around and as quickly as we could we collected all the food we could will our phenotype. (Shown below)
2. The phenotype best at capturing the food was knuckles because it was the easiest for most people and a lot of knuckles kept on mating with knuckles which increased their population. 
3. The population did evolve because just after the first round the stumpys were gone. The stumpys came back but very few were there and they never dominated because their phenotype was the hardest to get food. 
4. In this lab the factors that were random were where people were standing in the circle before the whistle blew and what offspring people had. Factors that were not random were where the food was distributed and who mated with who. The effect on evolution this had was the population. 
5. The results would have been different if the food was a different size because then the phenotypes that worked best could be different. If different phenotypes were leading then the population size would be different.
6. Yes the results would differ if there was no incomplete dominance because then the stumpys would have never been able to come back and there would have been more knuckles and pinchers. 
7. The relationship between natural selection and evolution is throughout evolution species and have picking out traits that work best for them and their environment. This lab demonstrated natural selection through evolution because through the trials the stumpys had left because their phenotype was no as useful as the other two.
8. Strategies that individuals and groups adopted through the experiment were that they used their sense of sounds.
9. In evolution, species evolve with better traits for their environment and food. For example in this lab the pinchers and knuckles were dominating because their phenotype was best with the kind of food they had, but if the food was larger then possibly many factors would change and possible stumpys would dominate. In ecology the species with the best traits survive and one's whose traits do not benefit them die off. 
10. Questions I still have are: What would happen if we had more rounds? Would the stumpys eventually die off? When is the food placement random and when is it not?

 Pinchers to the left, Knuckles to the
right, & Stumpys below.

2nd Blog Post/Endangered Honey Bees

Endangered Honey Bees

Throughout these two weeks I have gained a lot more knowledge about my topic. I learned about the factors that negatively affect honey bees and why they are endangered. The things that I learned about myself are that I am much more interested in my topic especially after I learned more. I think some of my setbacks are that honey bees are not dangerously endangered and a lot of the information I find is repeated throughout sites. But luckily all of the information and facts I found are on highly trust able sites like Times and Washington Post. My next steps in the gather more information and research what living conditions honey bees live the best in. The information I have learned so far can be spread around throughout the community so people understand the honey bees are so crucial to the Earth and how we can save them.

Bird Beak Lab Conclusion

Bird Beak Lab Conclusion

Hypothesis (claim)	Evidence of this occurring?	Explanation of this evidence: Why did this happen?
Individual with better traits leave more offspring	They collected the most food because their beak was best for that	Their beak was easy to quickly grab food and large quantities of it too
Populations begin to look more like the winners	The birds with the beaks that collected the most food had the most kids	This happened because the most food a bird had resulted it the more offspring they had

In this lab we asked the question that which bird beak will collect the most food and have the most offspring. We found that the tweezers was the beak that had the most offspring. They have 22 in total. Second most was scissors and they had 15. The last two were binder clips and spoon with 11 and 8. The tweezers was in the best beak for that specific society with that food because it beak all the other beaks with its quick grabbing beak. This data supported our claim because individuals with better traits leave more offspring. 

Two errors that we had in our experiment were that some of the food was more collected in a specific area and should have been scattered around the table better. Another error we had is that I noticed that some people started before others and people ended at slightly different times. Due to these errors, in the future I would recommend to have a timer at every desk so people know exactly when to start and finish so the data is more accurate and also before every new round scatter the food equally around the middle of the table so everyone has a fair start. 

This lab was done to demonstrate how traits effect offspring and which traits are best for an environment. From this lab I learned about artificial and natural selection in "real life" which helps me understand the concepts better from the vodcasts. Based on my experience from this lab I can now understand how animals are genetically altered to fit their environment and society and there are always going to be winners and losers. 

1st Blog Post

Helping Save Endangered Honeybees

20 time is the activity where we spend 20% of our class time weekly working individual/or in pairs on the project of our choice. We had a large range of topics we could pick but it had to be biology related. My essential question for my project is what can we do to help save endangered Honeybees? I chose to do this as my project because Honeybees are so essential to life and food. If there were no more Honeybees then the food chain would fall and it would effect a lot of species. My goals for this project is to find the best environment for these bees to live in so they are safe while producing honey. In areas where there were many Honeybees a few decades ago there aren't any more in those areas. Another goal I have is to spread awareness so people understand how important this species is to our world and how they need to learn to respect this species more. To measure my progress I will use a google drive and fill in what I did every week and what I will do the next week. Moving forward I will research where Honeybees have lived the best and safest from data and try to visit some people who have their own Honeybees. My voice for this project is to spread awareness and I hope people that have Honeybees can learn from my research so they can take care of them better and they can be more protected. 

Unit 7 Reflection

Unit 7 Reflection

In Unit 7 during the Conservation biologist project I think I was assertive because in the beginning when we were figuring out what to do as a topic some of us were headstrong so it was a little difficult to agree on a topic. We first went with my idea which was the Empty Quarter desert. When I went to the bathroom they changed it and decided to make it the Pacific Ocean. When I find out about that I was calm and I didn't argue because I knew I needed to compromise and at the end it works great for all of us. The collaboration overall I thought was a good partnering because my partners and I worked hard in class so we wouldn't have to do any at home so that was motivation for us to work harder. 

This unit unlike last semesters units focused on the bigger picture. We learned about ecology and the study of species. We also looked at factors that affect population like immigration and emigration, births, deaths, and disease. Population is the average year by year number of people living in a area. Physical changes to the environment can also change population. For example volcanoes in Hawaii can change how many people leave and the area change that can affect land people live on.
In food chains there are trophic levels and only 10% of the energy of a trophic level gets transferred to the next level. The levels of organization are first individual/organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, and lastly biosphere which is the highest level.

http://avahooman.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-years-goals-i-will-do-better-on-my.html

This is my blog post for my New Year goals and my first goal was to do better on my biology tests. I was going to accomplish this by studying ahead of time instead of the night before, and really understanding the concepts from the vodcasts when I watch them. 

Unit 6 Reflection

Unit 6 Reflection

In unit 6 I learned about genetic engineering. This unit was about genetic engineering and biotechnology applications. It was a fairly shorter unit and we looked more at the bigger picture of things instead of going into small details. We also looked at how society and science interact. In class we watched the movie Gattaca and it really helped me understand altering genes and it was extremely entertaining too.
My first new years goal was to do better on my biology tests and I said I would accomplish that by studying throughout the unit instead of just the night before. This unit I finished my chapter notes in the beginning of the unit so I could understand the concepts better and I have been focusing on really understanding our labs.
 One of my setbacks in this unit was understanding the pGLO pre-lab vodcast and the pGLO lab was the most challenging lab for me to understand. To understand this concept I will re watch the vodcast and look out other people's conclusions to see what they understood. One of my successes was the Electrophoresis virtual lab because the lab online went through step by step and after preforming the lab in class I had a full understanding of the process. 

I have linked my blog posts from this unit down below: 
http://avahooman.blogspot.com/2016/01/candy-electrophoresis-lab-conclusion_22.html
http://avahooman.blogspot.com/2016/01/pglo-observations-data-recording.html
http://avahooman.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-years-goals-i-will-do-better-on-my.html
http://avahooman.blogspot.com/2016/01/recombinant-dna-conclusion-process-of.html

pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis

pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis

1

Plate Number of Colonies Color of colonies under room light Color of colonies under   UV light - pGLO LB 400 Yellow yellow - pGLO LB/amp 0 No colonies No colonies + pGLO LB/amp 225 Yellow yellow + pGLO LB/amp/ara 200 Yellow Bright green

2.
	Two new traits transformed were that the + pGLO LB/amp/ara glows bright green and all of them grew.
3.	400 bacteria were in 100uL on each plate because there were 400 colonies in the pGLO LB.
4.
	The role of arabinose in the plates was the sugar and help the bacteria grow.
5.	Three current uses for GFP in research or applied science are first as a reporter gene to be easily expressed in bacteria, cell culture or plants and animals. The related protein can easily be measured. The second use is to create a biosensor to measure and detect an analyte. The third use is the application of less harmful fluorescent proteins such as GFP in fluorescence microscopy, studying living cells.
6.	Give an example of another application of genetic engineering. Another application of genetic engineering is glow-in-the-dark cats. This works by altering the cats DNA so that the fur of the animal can glow in the dark.

Candy Electrophoresis Lab Conclusion

Candy Electrophoresis Lab Conclusion 

1.  The two blue bands are moving in the "wrong" direction than the rest of the bands. 
2.  Fast green FCF would migrate similarly to the dyes we examined in class because it is a food dye and we were working with food dyes in class. 
3.  Many dog food manufactures add food coloring to their dog food because it helps give the appearance of more "rich and meaty" food. Also the more attractive the food looks to better it will look in the home it's sitting in. 
4.  Artificial food colors are preferred to natural food colors because the artificial ones make the food look more attractive to eat because the colors might be more bright and not a dark unattractive color, even though both of the foods would taste the same even if one was with artificial food coloring and the other was natural. 
5.  The voltage and the gel concentration control the distance that the colored dyes solution migrate. 
6.  EMF helps move the dyes through the gel. Electrophoresis refers to the electromotive force (EMF) that is used to move the molecules through the gel matrix. 
7.  The holes of the gel causes the molecules to separate by size. The more concentrated the gel holes, the better the molecules stay inside. 
8.  The smaller the DNA molecules, the faster it separates. 600 daltons would take faster to separate than 5000 daltons would.  
   

Recombinant DNA Lab Conclusion 

The process of producing recombinant DNA is basically putting a foreign DNA into a host DNA. For example a piece of human gene, insulin gene, can be put into a plasmid using restriction enzymes, such as EcoR I. This becomes a recombinant DNA. Then insert the plasmid into the bacteria. 

1.) You can use ampicillin resistant plasmid if the bacteria intakes that plasmid then the bacteria can grow on the petri dish containing ampicillin to stay alive and reproduce more bacteria. You would not use tetracycline and kanamycin because if the plasmid is not resistant to that bacteria the bacteria would not survive. 
2.) Restriction enzymes cut DNA on a specific sequence. They are cutting DNA into smaller pieces. We used Xma 1 and Ligase because they cut the the plasmid and cell DNA. 
3.) There would be a gap in the middle and the plasmid wouldn't be a complete circle. 
4.) This process is important to our everyday life because it produces better breeding plants and animals, useful for making drugs for human diseases, and cloning. 
5.) Some other applications for genetic engineering are in agriculture with genetically modified crops and genetically modified organisms. Another application is with BioArt which is created with bacteria to create black and white photographs. And lastly some other examples are blue roses and glowing fish. 

New Year's Goals

New Year's Goals

1. I will do better on my biology tests. I will achieve this goal by studying ahead of time and studying as we go through the unit and not just the couple of days before the test. I can make practice tests and quiz myself so I can see what I know and still need to learn before the test. A mistake I did first semester was that when I was studying I was learning the material while I was studying and not just reviewing it.  
2. This year I will work to make it to the badminton team at the school because I have been working hard this past year and need to continue working hard to make it. I will go in to the badminton studio to practice with others on weekends and attend every class I have. The tryouts are in February, so I will work my hardest this month to improve my skills before the tryouts.