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.