Unit 10 Reflection

This unit focused upon the anatomy of the human body, and how they work together to maintain homeostasis. The main essential questions that are focused on are how homeostasis was maintained between and within systems, and the differences between the structure of the system to the function of it. Many parts of the body work together to maintain this, such as the respiratory, the circulatory, digestive, and many other organ systems. They work together to produce the energy the body needs, in order to keep us moving. The circulatory system, especially, is the essential system used to support nearly every system, and keeps us alive in the first place.

I think this year overall was great, but there were problems with my classmates and trying to stay with the vodcasts, which take a long time. I'm most proud of the projects that I did with my classmates, and all the other things in class. I think I grew to understand that I work better alone, and not under extreme pressure preferably. There were many things that I learned about myself in this class, but I won't list them all.

Bird Beak Lab
Hunger Games
Geographic Timeline

Pig Dissecton

Relate and Review:

The pig dissection was a fantastic way to study the function of a mammal. I believe that this experiment was all about studying how each organ system in the body worked together to continue homeostasis in mammals. Humans are also part mammal, and many of the systems in the pig are similar to that of a human's, making it a great way to study the anatomy of a person. This experiment heavily focused on the anatomy of the body, which this unit was also heavily focused upon. I really didn't like ripping apart a pig myself, but it was nice to see the anatomy of the mammal, other than the flesh and bones ripped here and there. It's an amazing sight for those who don't get to see this often, like me, and it's my first time doing this too! I think this experiment would be valuable for studying for the finals coming up, and having a hands on experience can really help people remember the organ system effectively.

Dissection:

20 Time Final Post

This is the final post for my 20 time project, and the results of all the work I have put into it

20 Time Individual Reflection

easel.ly

20 Time Presentation:

Reflection:
I was never good at public speaking. I was quite literally sweating head to toe by the end of the presentation. I felt like I had caught the audience's attention with the things I said but there were many things that went quite wrong. I was making up my speech with the help of a few notecards to support me, and I was rushing myself way too much. I probably didn't score as well as I wanted to, but for a stressed out person like me, I feel it was something I probably deserved for being not confident. I probably should use a better script, or have my notecards somewhere I can read easily, rather than in my hands.

20 Time Individual Reflection

It all began that day when we started months ago. I was a bit hopeless in figuring out what to do in this sort of huge long-term project. I wanted an adventure that can be found in the project that I was doing but I had many concerns. At first, when I was brainstorming the idea, I had thought about making a game, that reflects the actions of the person. This makes each actions have more thought, consideration and more value as the game progresses. I had to scrap the idea after figuring out how long a sort of timeline I would have to make in order to build this complex game. I settled upon photography, and I decided that the topic would be awareness in nature. I was inspired by the beauty of nature, after going outdoors for so many times. It was also the same thing that helped me noticed the other side that was hurting nature. I decided to make a portfolio, or a collection of photos that would help show this side that we were doing. Essentially, I was trying to raise awareness about nature. I wanted to make this project be a fancy screen of good photos here and there, and showing what we can do to restore that feature. I thought It would be a good plan, take photos, get back, find more photos, and organize them into one place. There were a lot of problems that came on me, and every idea I had backfired instantly. Most programs can't handle the amount of photos I had, so I had to cut back on a few programs. There were also no photos of back then, so I was stuck there. I decided on trying to show deeper meaning in each photo I took, hoping to seek the same goal by a different way. I had also learned many things about myself as I went on, and it was mostly about the negative things. I had a dark side I hid with a fake smile, and one I tried to avoid in every way. This affected the choices I would make, and distanced me from others because of the possibilities that could happen. I thought I could hide it away, but I can't run from that buried past. If I could have done this project over, maybe I should have found someone to help me, and help me feel secure within myself. Maybe be able to find the right topic, or a good idea that would work between us. Whatever happens to this project, I believe that it is far from over, but in a planet that need to be saved, there are many things that could be improved. For now, until I improve myself, I guess I can shelf this project in my memories.

Unit 9 Reflection

Unit 9 Reflection
Ponifera and Sponges

My inner fish and reptile

https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2016/02/28/19/14/mammal-1227460_960_720.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0kWb2pY8Hec/maxresdefault.jpg

Summary
What we learned about was the many branches in life, all with a common ancestor that we share. One of the few main concepts was about each of the three kingdoms. The rest was about each of the species in each of them.

There is the animalia kingdom, the plantae and much more that we had focused on but mainly the two mentioned. The animalia kingdom includes many mammals, and many others. We had focused on the main features of them, such as having hair on their body, or reproducing without laying eggs.

The Plantae Kingdom talked about the evolution of plants, and how the early plants back then evolved into what we know today. These early plants made the fruiting plants and other functions we know today.

The other parts we had covered included Chordates and Invertebrates, each with their subsections and unique parts.

What on Earth Evolved?
When I was doing the presentation, I was practically improvising and thinking of how to improve the presentation. I was reading off the slides most of the time, but I threw in a bit of information that I din't include. I was even going to see if I should make last minute edits right during the 10 min. break before class. The stress wasn't as bad as I thought, since I worked pretty hard on this, than if I walked in to class, tried to remember what to say, and not freak out. I think a big part is that I wasn't focused on eye contact and just doing what I thought was needed. I'm usually much more stressed when doing it without something to read off.

My Inner Fish

In the two videos we watched about how we were related to early animals like fishes and how they later evolved over millions of years into us. In the unit we are learning, we talked about different types of animals, and how they were similar to each other, making easy to order them into different areas. One such types were the ones that were focused on in the videos: the Fish and the Reptiles. In past units, we talked about evolution and why it occurs. This is especially shown as Fish went onto land and reptiles evolved into mammals. One such part in the video was the discovery of the Hadrocodium, whose name means big brain. This early mammal had a brain bigger than that of their body mass! This was used to allow for better performance in dangerous , and allowed them to survive in a world where dinosaurs lived. Another thing in the video that interests me is unexplored area in North America. When they talked about it, I was surprised by the fact that this place was not explored for years, even in times where the conditions there were low enough to do work in. Even with high-tech gear, people didn't want to travel in Canada because of the cold snow, and chance of getting lost in blizzards, and high chance of death.

http://wallpoper.com/images/00/39/26/85/green-fish_00392685.jpg

4th Blog Post

Moving on over the second hurdle:

This week, I had decided that I would use an info-graphic with my portfolio, along with other information to amplify the meanings of the pictures, since there is very little pictures in the past, since cameras and others weren't invented back then ( Oops.....). The topic I'm trying to convey is not easy to convey with little photos. I may have done my best with each one, but I'm not a perfect photographer. I decided that I would research more about now and back then, and talk to a certain teacher that knows a lot about back then. For now, I moved my work onto easel.ly to continue the rest of my work. Recently, I have thought a lot about myself, and I believe that I am constantly doubting myself. I can't seem to stick to something without thinking of  a negative downside to come with it. I think having someone to ask, come to, or just talk to really helps with this problem and clears my mind up.

3rd Blog Post

This week, I wasn't able to update the blog on time, but I have been making progress one at a time. I learned that not everything was great in the past. All the trees may have lived about 20 years ago, but so did natural calamities and occurrences in the world. Because of that, not everything was perfect, but was more natural than now. I still feel that I'm different from others, but the big thing that affects my process is that I don't have great "talent" or efficient ways to spend my time. I might do something unnecessary, or be very inefficient with my time. Lately, I have been thinking about what format I should really decide on for the final project. The TED talk coming up, I can't really afford to make a portfolio with google slides. Many other options are out considering the amount of photos I can insert without making it harder upon myself. I feel that I should slow down and see what I can make out of the little options I have left. When applying what I learned to other things is that not everything is perfect, since most options I thought would be suitable has a hidden flaw that I stumbled upon midway through the project.

Porifera and Sponges

After watching and taking notes about Invertebrates, I have learned a lot about these abundant animals, especially about the animals in the group, Phylum Porifera. This group includes the topic of this post, sponges, and many others that are multicellular organisms with pores and channels that allow water to enter inside, and be filter by the cells inside them. Sponges are like a clumped group of cells that work together to filter the water that passes through it. They do not have organs or any systems to deal with anything else. All this organism has is a filtering system that draws unfortunate prey into them, where the cells could digest them overtime. In a video that was related to the vodcast, a scientist demostrated the function of sponges and corals by putting dye near the base, and eventually, the sponge/coral was spewing out the dye from their opening. The vodcast talked about the kingdom this group is also in, the Animalia Kingdom, and that the group was also known to be sessile metazoans, which mean they are multicelled immobile organisms. These types reside in the ocean, near the floor where they could eat the plankton that flowed into the organism with the water. Like corals, this organism have formed symbiosis relationships with other organisms in order to protect each other and survive better. Unlike corals though, they are able to adapt to certain situations, for example, there are carnivorous sponges that use thread inside them to capture prey.

Geologic Timeline Individual Final Reflection

Previous Post related to this

I finally finished the project, and even have a photo of our final product!

Unit 8 Reflection

This unit that we had completed talked about evolution, and how it affects the population, as well as the whole planet Earth itself. Evolution comes in many forms, such as artificial selection or natural selection. Other things or events can also speed up evolution, such as a bottleneck event, where a selected amount of species survive. Overtime, evolution helps species adapt to the constantly changing environment, and allow even the least competent a chance to survive, or repopulate themselves. Evolution can even have things here and there that would create an entirely new type of species. Evolution also had effects on Earth, and brought it to what it is now. Without it, no life could possibly exist on the hot molten Earth that was still forming for 4.6 billion years. It was after that, which allowed living things to survive on Earth. No life could possibly change without evolution, even a world where everything was the same would crumple under one single mistake.

There is not a lot of questions that I have about this unit, but the main ones that I would like to talk about are these: are most events regarding evolution random, or are these all a part of a certain cycle?

While we were studying this unit, we had done a survey about our conflict style. When I took it, I had discovered that I had a passive and assertive style. This means that I am the type that would let other people "win" and also the type that would assess the situation and find the best solution for both sides. What I could work on would be to not be lazy, and not let others take credit over my work, or do most of the work.

Bird Beak Lab
Hunger Games Lab

Geologic Timeline Individual Reflection

From completing a project, which I did not get to see the final product of yet, I had found many interesting things about the timeline of our Earth's history.

One major thing that I learned was about the extinctions in Earth's history. One such was the
Permian - Triassic Extinction, known as the biggest extinction to happen on Earth. Another was the Cretaceous - Paleocene Extinction, especially known as how the Dinosaurs went extinct. Each and every one happens to be at the end of one era, and at the beginning of another era. What follows these extinctions are new species dominating the other species and rising up, only to later die down.

The other major event that I was very interested into was the making of the Earth. No matter how many times you see this, it never seems to disappoint me when I view the vast scale of the beginning of Earth. Compared to how we humans had shaped Earth, it took so long just to build Earth together.

The timeline was not as shocking as I thought it would be, considering the scale. The most influential events in human history is less or somewhere close to 1% of the Earth's timeline scale.

For humans, the impact we had on the Earth is tremendous. In less than 1 inch in the Earth's timeline, we had made incredible impacts to the Earth, and many others.

20 Time: Looking for photos in the State parks!

From the past 2 weeks of working on this project, I have encountered unexpected twists and turns, but learned a lot about my topic. From what I found, most of these state parks that I had searched up were once closed down due to budget costs, but later revived due to public pleas. I have also found myself to be the type that is somewhat patient, since I had to wait and look up some things that were being sent while I was doing the project. There were many setbacks, which included the tools I was using to make the presentation. I was forced to switch to a different set of tools, in order to continue my project, and transfer my work before it was lost. My next steps are to get the rest of the slides working, and find more pictures to add to the slide. Based on what I have learned, Nature was not considered high in the past, but now, many people are working to save what is left.

Thanks for keeping check!

Hunger Games Final Analysis

1. We demonstrated competition between animals by trying to collect the most cork/food, and stimulated natural selection, where those with the best traits suited in the environments live, and the losers die.

2. The phenotype best in the lab was the knucklers, because they had the highest population, compared to the other species, meaning they were very successful in capturing food

3. Yes, the Population evolved, since the pinchers, which most people thought would do the best, were beaten by the knucklers, who had the higher population.

4. The placement of the food, where you were standing, having a good physical ability, a unique tool and what type you could reincarnate are random, while the amount you could get, the alleles in the gene pool, and what percentage would die ( since the more food needed to survive, the lower the population ) are not that random

5. If the food was bigger, then knucklers would be out of the picture, and stumpies may have a chance at survival, but if the food was smaller, then the knucklers would have a bigger advantage over the pinchers, making them the most likely to survive and reproduce. In nature, this can easily show natural selection when an event occurs that gives a species a chance to dominate.

6.  If there was no incomplete dominance, then there would be no way to revive species that may have died out, like the stumpies or the knucklers. The gene pool would be vastly different if there were no incomplete dominance.

7. In natural selection, only the population with the best traits in the current environment survive and reproduce. This is part of Evolution, where species undergo constant change in order to adapt to the environment.

8. Some people used their hoods in order to carry the food, or were faster than most people. This in reality would not affect the allele frequency, since the trait, if not a gene trait, would not be passed down to others. If it was, then the offsprings would get the traits and many other traits. In nature, this allows species to adapt to environments better, increasing evolution

9. The species that is most likely to reproduce and become the highest population is going to evolve. Natural selection affects the genotype only. Only the genes get passed down

Bird Beak Lab Conclusion

Hypothesis:

1. Individuals with better traits leave more offspring

The tweezers beak birds, whose beak was easy to control, and could easily grab food, had collected more food than the others, as a result, had more offspring. Because of the beak's ability, it dominated the competition, which resulted in more offspring for that type of bird.

2. Populations begin to look more like the winners

The tweezers beak birds were able to produce more offspring than the others. As a result, the others had fewer offspring than the tweezers beak due to the shortage of food, and the tweezers beak were more common in the population due to this.

In the lab, we were trying to discover "if natural selection occurs in a population, how do changes in selective pressures affect the evolution of that species?" The hypothesis that I wrote in response to this was "if there are changes in the environment, then other species have a chance to have more offspring, and dominate the competition". We found that the more drastic the change is in the environment, such as disease, or famine, the higher the chances of a new trait rising up to deal with the new environment, affecting the evolution of the species. This is most likely caused due to natural selection, where the most effective trait that is best in the current environment.

Some errors that I believe that might have happened would be placement of the food. Some of the food is either closer to the edge than in the middle of the table, or clumped together in piles. I believe this might have affected the advantage of a species to be dominant over others. Another would be the rounding system when counting the food. This system had often worked out more for those in need of offspring to continue the game. Overall, most mistakes could usually be shown as random changes that affect the competition, but a change to improve the experiment would be having people that can use their "beaks" properly can even out how the competition goes. Another change that I believe would help is having more types of food that some beaks cannot eat, so that there could be a sort of balance.

The purpose of doing this experiment is to explore natural selection, and how the species best suited in the current environment reproduces the most. This is a review of evolution in previous vodcasts, with a demonstration of natural selection, where nature decides the traits needed in the environment, compared to artificial selection, where humans manually select the traits they want from a species. This can be applied to everyday environments, where evolution is constantly changing species to adapt to the ever-changing, non-linear Earth. For example, wolves became dogs over many long years, since there were more benefits to being tame and kind to humans, than wild and hostile to them.

The Past versus the Present

20 Time is a small project done by one or more individuals to promote creativity with a fifth of your work, school or free time. The scale of this project can vary, from a small change to a lasting impact on the world.

Back when there were no computers, cars and electronics, the world was vastly different than what you see now. What happened to the clean lake, rivers, forests and living beings in the past that disappeared today in such a short time? I decided to do a project that is a photo journal that compares nature now, to before. I wanted to explore outside and examine the world through this project. By doing so, I can tell what happened to place just by looking at what was changed today. I plan to make a portfolio, with pictures from back then, picture from now, and my own personal pictures as well. By making a presentation, while also taking pictures, I can finish this project as long as I get more pictures to take and find. I want to show the world what we have done to make the past to what is now.

Unit 6 Reflection

In Unit 6, we learned about the pros and cons of biotechnology, and its influence upon the past and present world. We learned about Recombinant DNA, Gel Electrophoresis, and many more techniques in biotechnology. One such thing was how influential it was in normal life. It reminds me of the many exciting things we produced in the labs during this unit. With each technique, it opens up a new variety of possiblities that we can do. From making glowing bacteria, to separating DNA from candy, we can do a lot of things with each technique. Some labs that demonstrate this are included in the following links.

During my time in this unit, I learned quite a lot about each technique, and its principles, as well as its history and effects in the present. Each one has its own flaws and bonuses that benefit people, but the only thing that troubles me is the number of techniques and what it benefits, like medical or food production. The procedures and what it does are easy for me, but remembering the many other minor and major techniques are way beyond me.

I hope others would learn from my mistakes that I may have caused in the past, and build from it, rather than leaving it in a mess like I do. Study well and don't get stuck on one thing, try help from others or search up a reference. Good luck, and always have fun in Biology.

Candy Electrophoresis Lab
Recombinant D




http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA2LzEzLzU0L2RuYS40NjE1MC5qcGcKcAl0aHVtYgk5NTB4NTM0IwplCWpwZw/3b6190d2/275/dna.jpg

Candy Electrophoresis Lab

Focus Question Answers:

1.  Yes, there was one color, which was the candy color of orange, that was faint but had split into two different colors.

2. Betanin

3.  They attract the dog's attention and makes the dog eat the treat, thinking it's good

5. The size of the DNA, and how easily it separates

6. The negative and positive flow of electricity through the gel

7. The pores of the gel as the liquid flows through

8. I would expect the 600, 1000, and 2000 to be somewhere near the beginning and the middle, while the 5000 to be somewhere near the end of the gel

Recombinant Lab Report

In the lab we did, we recreated the process of producing recombinant DNA. When we first began the lab, we had cut out several colored pieces of paper. One color was the pieces that would create the plasmid, another color would be those that create the Human DNA and insulin gene, and the final color would represent the restriction enzymes. I had decided to tape together one piece that had the restriction site, and another that was "resistant" to kanamycin over the two other pieces that were resistant to tetracycline and amplicillin, which I discarded away. I taped together all the pieces that create Human DNA and the insulin gene, and sorted out the restriction enzymes, enzymes that attach to the DNA and make cuts on it. After testing all of the restriction enzymes on the model, there was only one that could make only one cut on the plasmid and two on the human DNA. I then cut out the insulin gene in the the human DNA along the restriction enzyme's path, and the same thing for the plasmid. We attach the parts together and we are done with the lab

Which antibiotics could you use in your petri dishes to see if bacteria have taken in your plasmid? Why? Which antibiotics would you not use? Why?

You could use any, as long as there is so cells that have it inside. If there are none inside the bacteria, you would kill the thing. For example, if I used Kanamycin, and the bacteria wasn't resistant, then when I kill all other parts that aren't resistant to Kanamycin, so would the bacteria.

What are restriction enzymes and how do they work? Which one did you use and why?

Restriction enzymes are enzymes that attach to the DNA and make cuts on it to split the DNA. I used the "ECO R1" restriction enzyme since it was the only one that correctly split the DNA and the plasmid.
What would happen if you used an enzyme that cut the plasmid in two places?

The plasmid would be missing a large chunk of code, which could be vital for the organism to survive. When I attach on the insulin gene from the Human DNA, then the recombinant DNA would be very small
How do you think this process is important in our everyday life?

This process could produce new parts, and create specific immunities to the bodies, and so much more.
How else could this process be used (be creative!) or search online to find current technologies using recombinant DNA.

There are many ways that this technology is being used today, such as medical testing or even genetically modified pets, like the GloFish.

http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA2LzEzLzU0L2RuYS40NjE1MC5qcGcKcAl0aHVtYgk5NTB4NTM0IwplCWpwZw/3b6190d2/275/dna.jpg

New Years Goals for 2nd Semester

For my second semester, I decided that the two goals below would be the ones that I would aim for during the semester

1. I will work hard to keep my grades good, while having enough time to help elsewhere.
By working hard, I could finish my work early and study well, while also allowing time for extracurricular activities like swimming, and also helping my family, having fun, and enough sleep for tomorrow.
I will do my work as best as possible, study hard, and overall work hard, but also have time for other things

2. I will try to keep my family together, even though some of us dislike each other.
Most of my family are at each others necks, with my stubborn little brother and mother arguing with each other constantly, my older brother going to college, and my dad and I trying to stay out of the fight, but also try to help keep the family together for now. I will help my family as much as possible, but also try not to fuel the fire by angering others.