Unit 10 Reflection

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This unit was about Physiology. We learned about Homeostasis and how our bodies try to keep balance and we need that state to live. We learned about the Circulatory and the Respiratory systems and how they work together to deliver oxygen to the cell and remove carbon dioxide. We also learned about the Nervous system which has the job sensing stuff processing the information and responding to it. We learned about the Endocrine system which regulates and transports hormones around the body. The digestive system breaks down food into nutrients and excretes waste. The Immune system uses white blood cells (including T and B cells) to fight off Pathogens and keep us healthy. Finally the lymphatic systems is a system of tubes and sacs throughout the body that collects blood and waste from the body. 

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I really wonder how the body evolved to be so complex, from such simple cells, in the start. I understand how natural selection works, but it seems so unlikely for all of these complex systems to evolve from such a simple origin. The body is so complex, and interconnected, that I cant help but marvel at how it evolved naturally over time.

I am very proud of my accomplishments this year, and how much I have grown. My first blog posts were OK, but as I went I learned a lot more, and my blog posts became a lot better. I learned how to hyperlink, and use picture, and videos effectively. My favorite lab was probably our pig dissection, because we got see all of the systems we were learning about in our vodcasts in an actual animal. It was a very fun, and useful lab. 

Pig disection

In this lab we dissected a pig, and found different parts of it. The purpose of this lab was to show what structures that we are learning about actually look like in the body. This dissection was really interesting, and valuable to me, bcecausse we could see the structures that we were learning about. For example we could actually see the heart, and where blood comes in, and where it goes out. We also saw the lung, intestines, liver, diaphragm, and many other important organs. My favorite part was that we could see what different parts of the body actually look like.

20 time final post

Starting 20 time was difficult for me. I knew that I wanted to do something concrete that would help me, and my peers, in some way, instead of doing some abstract research project, but it took me a while to come up with something that interested me, and I eventually came up with memorization.

 I thought that this would be great because everyone has to memorize a lot of information for a lot of reasons, and some methods are probably more effective than others. I decided to base my project on finding the best memorization techniques.

I came up with the idea of creating a survey to see what other students use to memorize, and to move on from there. I got my results back from my survey, but the results weren’t very helpful. All of the techniques that were in the survey came back with similar average ratings

After this failed survey I decided that the only way get actual result was to run a experiment. I didn’t have much time, so I got a few people together, and had each of them take three different short tests. Before each test they would study for 5 minutes using an assigned method. The result from this test followed the same line as the survey, with no clear best method, but what I did notice, was that different people would be better with certain methods than other methods, but the better method would vary from person to person. After this I went back and look at my survey again and found a similar situation there. This showed to me that there is no one best way, and the only real way is figure it out for yourself. 

I fell that my TED talk went pretty well. I covered all the topics, but I should have practiced more, and added more information to my presentation, After watching the video i would give myself a similar grade as what I got, with points docked for time, and voice. I feel that the process of preparing for the talk was good practice of time management, and independence.

20 time individual reflection

For my 20 time project I decided to study what the best techniques to learn something new are. I was hoping that this would help me, and others do better on tests, and and in other areas that require memorization. This was very challenging for me, because it was hard for me to find anybody that was willing to try a different way of studying for a test, and risk getting a worse grade, for my experiment. I was a bit lost, so I did a lot of research on different learning methods. I eventually came up with the idea of using a survey to get some basic data, and go on from there. The survey was very successful, and I got a decent base line to work off of. By this time I didn't have much time left, and I really wanted to run en experiment, so I decided to get a few people, and I created 3 short ten question tests. I had each of them take each test using a different method of studying. This test had very surprising results. No one method was the best, and all three of them had very similar average scores, but different people using the same method had very different scores. This led me to the conclusion that there is no one silver bullet solution, and that it varies from person to person. 

From this project I learned how every body is different (as mentioned above), but also a lot about how to overcome obstacles, and that is always okay to go back to the drawing board, and start your project over. If I could do this project again i would try the same thing, bet create better tests, and use more people. I also would start on my trials sooner. I really want to get better data, and I am considering running this experiment on a bigger scale, with a harder test, and more people.

Unit 9 reflection

This unit was about the different types of life, their characteristics, and how they are classified. We learned about how we have a common ancestor, and how that one ancestor branches out into three domains, the Eukaryotas, Archaea, and Bacteria. We also leared about the other taxonomix levels such as kingdom, phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and the Species. We also learned about how different species are all related.

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We also watched a documentary called "Your Inner Fish" which showed how we are related to fish and have many similar characteristics. Both us and fish have bony skeletons, backbones, and skulls. This shows how we are related to fish because it is too much to be a coincidence. Also both use hox genes and have similar developmental process, and our embryos are practically identical. Finally we also share some similar bone patterns.



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Something that I still want to learn about in this unit is about the common ancestor. It really interests me that all animals all originated from one single species. It's really odd how so much diversity could come from on point and that all of the life alive today has the same ancestor. I really want to know more about some of the transitional species, such as Tiktaalik which was the gateway species between living in water and coming onto land.

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A big part of our unit was the "What on Earth Evolved Presentation." We made a 4-8 minute presentation on a species of our choice. I chose apples and presented on what i considered to be important about apples. I gained a lot of experience from this presentation. I realized that it was better to talk more and have less words on my bullet points in the slideshow. If there are too many words on the slideshow, then the audience gets distracted and can't focus on what the presenter is saying. This way, there is a balance between the amount of words that the audience has to read and the amount of words that the presenter says. In my upcoming TED talk, I will use the experience I gained from this presentation and improve upon it. I'm going to try to incorporate even less words into my slideshow and memorize more. 

My Inner Fish

The series "My Inner Fish" has really changed my view on how related we are to different other organisms. The videos were about showing how we are similar to fish, and reptiles, and also about the hunt to find the transitional species between land and water.

 One of the questions was "Even though we don't look muck like fish what are some things we have in common with fish? How does this give us evidence for common ancestry?" I was very surprised by how similar we are to fish. Both us and fish have bony skeletons, backbones, and skulls. This shows how we are related to fish because it is too much to be a coincidence. Also both use hox genes and have similar developmental process. Finally we also share some similar bone patterns.


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Another question was "Why are mass extinctions important?". I was also really surprised by how important they are. They eliminate species, and create new opportunities for species that wouldn't have had the chance to flourish otherwise. For example, it was the extinction of the dinosaurs that open ed up a lot of niches, and allowed mammals to flourish, and even for humans to evolve, and progress as far as we have.

the best way to learn part 4

I have learned a lot about my topic of how to learn things faster. I have found some very good methods from my last survey, and I have used a different survey to see how effective people think certain methods are, to narrow down the list of which ones to test. I am now waiting for my results while i come up with the best way to test them. I am starting to get an idea of how to test the methods, but I still need to work out some of the details. Once i have my results from this survey i can test the top few studying methods, and see which ones are the best. 

Earthworm

Earthworms are a part of the kingdom Animalia, The phylum Annelida, the class Oligochaeta, and the order Megadrilacea. Earthwork reffers to a broad group of species. All earthworks have a full degestive tract, and have segmented bodied. Segmented bodies refer the the lines you can see on an earth worms. These lines are really where two segments meet. These semgment are the same structure repeated all the way down the worm's body. If they lose a segment, then thaey can even grow it back. Earthworms reproduce sexually, and all earthworms carry both male, and female reproductive organs. They don't have  an internal skeleton or an exoskeleton. They instead maintain their structure with fluid-filled chambers that function as a hydrostatic skeleton. Earthworms move by shortening, and lengthening their bodies.

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Wikipedia

Content Sources:
Wikipedia

The best way to learn Part 3

I have learned a lot this week. I learned many different methods of learning, and how effective all of these methods are according to the people who submitted them. One problem i am facing is how to test each of these methods. I haven’t quite solved it but I am thinking of doing an experiment where I have people memorize stif using a certain method, and then test them on the material to how effective the method is. My next step is to figure out how to test these methods, and to test them. Once I have my results, this experiment can be applied to the way a lot of students study.

Unit 8 refleection

This unit was about evolution, which is the change in a species over time, and the different mechanisms that caused evolution. One of these mechanisms is natural selection. Natural selection works by rewarding the individuals that have better adaptations for survival. We did two lads that demonstrated this principle. In our Bird Beak Lab, and our Hunger Games Lab we simulated natural selection by competing against each other to get food. There are a few other mechanisms of population change. these include genetic drift, which is when a chance event suddenly kills a large portion of the gene pool. Another example is when an organism moves from one population to another. The third mechanism of evolution is sexual selection, This is when organisms are selected based on mating success, and not survival ability. We also learned about the evidence of evolution such as fossils, and vestigial structure, which are similar parts of different animals with different purposes. 

I still wan't to know more about the origin of life. I am very curious about how the first life was created, and this question could be helpful in understanding how we got to where we are. In my Unit 7 reflection I talked about how i was mainly assertive, but a little passive aggressive. I worked on this during my biology project, and tried to be nice to people, and say what I want. I still need to work on being less passive-aggressive, with people I don't like, but I have made good progress.

Man Evolution


Different types of finches

Examples of Vestigial Structures

Timeline reflection

One of the most important event in Earth's history if not the most important event was the beginning of life on earth. While scientist are unsure how life was initially formed, it is still undoubted one of the most important events, in earth's history for a couple of reasons. First, it was an extremely unlikely event, and was very complex. For that reason knowing how life first formed would be very helpful to understanding how we got to where we are, and how likely it is that life exists in other place in the universe. The other reason is that the first life, whatever it was, was the beginning of every living thing that exists, without that beginning no life would exist.

Another very important event in earth's history is the Cambrian explosion. It was during this event that life became more diverse. This event is important because it was the event that created diversity in life. During this event nearly all of the major groups of animals began to appear. It was this rapid diversification that led to the creation of many of the species that currently exist.

Another major event in Earth was when life first went onto land. This was also very important, because it was the beginning on life moving out from the oceans, and spreading out through the entirety of earth. This also marked the beginning of a huge new section of earth's history. It created a whole new place for life to expand, and evolve. This event is responsible from a lot of the diversity we see on this planet.

I was really surprised by how long life has been on earth, and that despite that, it was very simple for a very long time, and then is suddenly shot up in a relatively short period of time. It was also interesting to think about how huge Earth's history is, and that everything that we ware taught in our history classes are only a tiny portion of that history. It also profound to me that despite only having existed for a very short time humans have affected the planet so much. It is very weird to think that what took nature such a long time to create has been dramatically changed so quickly. The one question I still how is how did life first get formed?

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Hunger Games Lab

1. We did a lab that simulated evolution in a population by having everybody in the class divide evenly into three different genotypes(AA, Aa, and aa). We than had everyone stand in a big circle, and corks would be spread out in the middle. We would then go and pick up as many corks as we could. AA could only grab corks with their wrist                                    Aa could only grab corks between their 1st and 2nd fingers.  aa could only grab between their thumb and first fingers   Once all the corks had been picked up we would count how many we had, and if we got enough we could reproduce, and then it would repeat. 
2. The phenotype for picking up food between the thumb and first finger was the the best, because it could pick up the corks the fastest, and the most easily.
3. The populations evolved. We know the because the allele frequency changed. The initial frequency was roughly equal, with a at 48%, and A at 52%. The a:A ratio got to 73% : 27% in one round, but ended at 60% : 40%
                      
4. There were several things that were random in this lab such as the distribution of food, what offspring were produced by flipping the coin, and how aggressive people were in getting the food. The way people were required to pickup the food was non random. The random distribution of food, and the different levels of aggression resulted in some  people survived better based on luck, and not based on their phenotype.
5. The result would have been similar if the food had been smaller. The knucklers, and stumpys would have done worse, bet the pincher would still do the same. If the food had been bigger, then the knucklers, and pinchers would die off because they couldn't pick it up. That would represent a change in the available food supply.
6. If there was no incomplete dominance, then the knucklers would not exist, and the pinchers would be the most common, and the stupmys would still pop up occasionally, but it would be Mose difficult, and the allele would eventually disappear altogether.
7. Natal selection is the mechanism that allows evolution to happen. Without natural selection, then evolution would be completely random, there would be evolution, but it would be only due to sexual selection, genetic drift, and gene flow.
8. Some people were more aggressive, or used their hoods to store corks. This allowed them to do better. and increase their likelihood of reproducing. This made their allele(s) slightly more common, and this is similar to hen some animals are smarter that others, but it is not a genetic factor.
9. In evolution the population evolves. The individuals either die or survive, but the allele frequency of the population changes. Natural selection acts on the phenotype, but the genotype also changes, because the phenotype is what determines whether or not an organism survives, and the phenotype is determined by the genotype so that also has to change.
10. I still wornder why the knuckler did the best.

The best way to learn part 2

I have learned a lot about my topic of how to learn things faster. I have found some broad methods such as take breaks, and some more specific methods that focus on different tyes of learning(auditory, visual, etc.). I am having trouble finding multiple methods to test, so I created a survey to fugure out what types of tequniques people are already ulilizing. I shard this link through facebook, and I am continuing to reasearch tequniqes while I wait for results. Once I have results I will then come up with a way to test the methods, and cary out this test to determine which ones are the most effective. Once I have my results, this experement can be aplied to the way a lot of students study.

Bird Beak Lab

Part 1	Spoon Chicks	Binder Clip Chicks	Tweaser Chicks	Scissor Chicks	Totals
Total Chicks Born	21	9	29	12	71
Percent of Chicks Born	30%	13%	41%	16%	100%

In this lab we simulated natural selection by using tweasers, spoons, binderclips, and scissors to represent diffrent types of bird beakes. This lab showed two of darwin´s principles. One is thes individgals with better traits have more offspring. This is shown is our lab, by the fact that our beak that was the best, the twaesers created the most offspring at 29(see top graph) followed by 21, 12, and then 9, for the worst beak.

The other principle is that the populations look like the winners. This is also shown by our lab. We found that the tweasers had the best traits, and therefor had the most offsping and the population was becoming mostly with that trait. By only three years the population was 41% tweasears. The spoon was next with 30%, and the other two dropped to 16%, and 13%.


In our lab we asked the question if natural selection occurs in a population, how do changes in selective pressures affect the evolution of that species?" We found that if if there are winners, and losers in a evolution, the population looks like the winners, and the tweasers are the winners, then the population will be mostly tweasers. We also found that if we change the selective pressures, then the winners, and losers will change. To simulate the change, we made one type of food poisonous. This resulted in all of the populations dropping a little bit, except the scissors, because they couldn't food any way. The spoon beak did the worst because it was hard for it to control what it picks up.

Two errors, are that after every year chicks were produced, but we still only used one of each beak type in each experiment. This resulted in a linear growth. instead of an exponential growth that would have been more accurate. The other is that we had different strategies for picking up food, the resulted in some beaks doing better purely because the were smarter. to fix this we should create more guidelines for how to pickup food.

This lab was done to demonstrate natural selection. It demonstrated the competition between the different organisms.I learned how different phenotypes affect how will different species survive. Also, this supported observations of Darwin. This can be used to about the threats of invasive species. Based on my experience from this lab, I now get a closer understanding of the competition between animals.

Part 2	Spoon Chicks	Binder Clip Chicks	Tweaser Chicks	Scissor Chicks	Totals
Total Chicks Born	12	6	21	15	54
Percent of Chicks Born	22%	11%	39%	28%	100%

 

A new way to learn!

This semester in my biology class I am edoing a project called 20 time. This means tha we use 20% of our time to pursue our interests, and use the scientific method to solve a problem. I asked the question, "How can I momorize new things more efficienty?" My poject will involove reasearching, and testing different memorization tequniques. I chose this because I think that my results will be very helpful for me, and many other high school students. This project shouls andswer my qustion of "How can I momorize new things more efficienty?" through a combination of reasearch, and testing. My goal is to rank defferent methods of studying by how effective they are. I can measure my prgress in how far along I am in testing methods for the first few moths, the my progress can be measured by how much these help people. My plan is to do some reasearh on methods of learning for the first few weeks, then to test them, and rank them based on how effective they are.

Unit 7 reflection

The main focus of this unit was the environment, and the things that effect it. We learned about food webs, and how all the organisms in an ecosystem are dependent on each other. We also learned about the 10% rule, which state that 90% of the energy from an organism is lost, and that only 10% gets passed on to the next trophic level. We also learned a lot about the effect humans are having on the environment, and what the environment will look like if humans keep doing what we are doing. We did a conservation biology project where we researched different ecosystems, and their threats. We then recorded a video that gave basic information about the ecosystem, its threats, and some solution to those threats. The video is Below.

I still want to know more about what is currently being don to lessen the impact humans have on the plant, and how the world will be like in 100 years if we don't change how we interact with the environment. 

The consecration biology project went pretty well for me. Our groug worked well together, and create a pretty good end result(see above). I found that I am an assertive person, which is good, but also that I am a little passive aggressive. I need to work on that a little the next time I do group work. I need to be a little nicer to people that I don't like as much, and be willing to compromise more. 

Unit 6 Reflection

In this unit we learned about bio technology, which is the manipulation of living things or their parts to benefit mankind. This field of study include 4 main domains:

• Industrial & environmental
• This domain focuses on the production of materials from living things.
• Ex: fermentation of foods and beverages, biodegradable plastics, bio fuels 
• Medical & pharmaceutical 
• This domain focuses on medicines and vaccines from living things
• Ex: medicines and vaccines from plants and fungi, gene therapy
• Agricultural
• This domain focuses on the breeding of plant and animal for human consumption
• Ex: trans-genetic organisms, GMOs
• Diagnostic research  
• This domain focuses on the understanding of our genetics, and using for comparison
• Ex: DNA identification

One of the aspects of Biotechnology that we talked about was bioethics, which about how to decide whether or not to use a technology. This was a very interesting unit, because it brought up the future of where bio tech could take us. There may be a point where we can genetically engineer our children, and eliminate all genetic disorders. We would then have to decide whether or not to allow children to be engineered, and that is a very tough question. 

Some of the technologies we learned about were recombination DNA, which is the process of modifying a plasmid, gel electrophoresis, which allows you to sort DNA by length, and PCR, which creates tons of copies of a DNA segment.

My main strengths were electrophoresis and rDNA, I was less solid on PCR and the domains of biotech but my studying help me a lot. 

We did a lab where we isolated different dyes in different candies and compared them to samples using gel electrophoresis. More information here.

We also modified a bacteria to make it glow green in our pGLO lab

I learned a lot from these labs. They taught me what biotech was like in the real world insted of a sheltered classroom setting.

I still want to learn more about the future of biotech, and how far we are from the world of being able to engineer our children.

My New Years Goals were to get better grades by studying more. I have started that by beginning my studying process, but I still need to tailor my studying to what works for me.

pGLO

pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis

Plate Number of Colonies Color of colonies under room light Color of colonies under   UV light - pGLO LB carpet white white - pGLO LB/amp 0 white white + pGLO LB/amp 150~ white white + pGLO LB/amp/ara 70~SO white green glowing(only 30~ colonies glow)

	In our test, the bacteria gained the traits of ampicillin resistance, and the pGLO gene, which makes them glow green when exposed to arabinose sugar.
	We spread 100uL of bacteria on the petri dish, and in that 100uL estimate that there are roughly 1500 bacterium in 100uL because there are 150 colonies on the the one with ampicillin ,and the gene. There are at least to times as many bacterium on the plate with only lori broth, so the must be atlast 1500 bacterium in the 100uL.
	The arabinose sugar allows the GFP gene to be repressed. When it is present, it attaches to the repressor for the GFP gene, and prevents it from attaching to the GFP operator, which allows the GFP gene to be expressed. The GFP gene can be used to tell if an organism has also taken a gene the will not be expressed. You can tell if it absorbed insulin gene, if it glows green. It can also let you follow the movement of substances in an animal, and track the progress of cancer through a brain. One other example of genetic engineering is our turkeys. The have been bred over the years to become as plump as possible.