In this unit we learned a lot about the human body. We learned about the systems in our body that allow us to carry out our life functions. The first systems that we learned was the Circulatory and Respiratory systems. These two systems work together to maintain homeostasis. The major functions of the circulatory system are transporting blood, gasses, and nutrients, maintaining body temperature, separating oxygen poor and rich blood. The Respiratory System delivers oxygen from inhaled air to blood. The next system that we learned is the Nervous System. We learned about the PNS and the CNS and their jobs. For example, the brain has four parts that process: the cerebrum that controls thought, movement, emotion, diencephalon: coordinates with the endocrine system. cerebellum: subconscious, calculates force/direction of muscle contraction, determines body position, and the brain stem: controls basic life functions like some reflexes, breathing, heart functions, swallow, cough. The endocrine system is a system made up of glands that produce or secrete(release) hormones that regulate activity of cells/ organs. Next, we learned about the digestive system. The digestive system is the process of breaking down the food molecules, which is then absorbed into the body. Finally, we learned about the Immune System. The immune system is basically the process of fighting foreign diseases and infections. There are three different nonspecific defenses for the immune system. These include the skin, mucus and then the low pH. The immune system targets, attacks and then kills pathogens when they are dealing with specific diseases. Lastly, we learned about the Lymphatic System and Inflammations. The lymphatic system is a system of tubes and sacs throughout body that collect waste/blood from tissues, otherwise known as a lymph. This clears waste, first line of defense when you start to get sick, use muscles to pump waste out, and catch cancer before it has a chance of getting through. We also learned about chronic systemic inflammation, which always fight foreign substances on top of its normal inflammatory response. However, when you body always needs to fight foreign substances, the systemic inflammation can contribute to many diseases.
Some things that I would like to know more about is how we are similar to other animals and which animals are more similar to us than others.
Since this is my last post, I think that the thing that I have improved on the most is the fact that I have learned how to elaborate on what I am writing, and not just saying what I did without detail. Here is the link to my second unit reflection. This reflection does not have any detail to what we learned in class.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Pig Dissection
The purpose of the pig dissection was to show us how the pig is related to us internally. The pigs internal body has many of the same organs and features that we do and I think that a pig is a really good representation of a humans internal body, when comparing to other animals. This dissection helped me learn more about all of the systems that we learned in our vodcasts, such as the digestive system and the respiratory system. The dissection helped me understand what different parts of the body are used in the different processes. I learned about how to respiratory works with the heart, lungs and other parts of the body. This dissection helped me get a hands on experience of where everything is located inside the body and what parts of the body are used in the main systems. Below is the video that we took describing the different parts of the pig and their function for the different function.
My favorite part of the dissection was cutting up the pig because I never dissected something in a class that is so much like us. Also, I thought that when we were opening up the pig, we had to do some digging to find some of the parts, such as the esophagus. I think that this dissection was valuable because I was able to use my knowledge of systems and the body to locate the different parts of the pig. Also, I learned about how pigs are different to us and why, including with parts that they have and we do not.
20 Time Final Post
In this 20 Time Project, I had to make a presentation to my class about what I accomplished and my whole process for this project. I had to dig up my data from my experiment and that was my proof that I had a physical product. However, keep in mind that I did not finish my experiment just yet, so the data is incomplete.
Another to add is that listening to all my peers talking about their project was really nice because in 20 Time students can explore their interests. Every presentation was different, so that really helped keep the viewers attention because there is always something new that you can learn.
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| This was my data for my on going experiment which showed their before and after blood pressure reading and also the change in blood pressure (shown as a percent). |
I felt that my TED talk went pretty well, even though I was nervous. I thought that I had grabbed the viewers attention the whole time and that my presentation was interesting and informational. Some things that I could have done better was practicing a few more times, so when I went up to speak I would not have to stutter to try and find the right words. However, not everything went badly. Somethings that I think that I did well was that I did not have any text on my slide, so I was the driving force for my presentation. After looking at the video, which is attached below, I think that I would have given myself a 73/75 or 74/75 because I stuttered a bit too much. This is a problem because I could lose some of my viewer's attention. I am definitely much more comfortable talking in front of my peers because I feel like now I know how to prepare for a talk, so I do not get nervous and stutter. Also, this presentation allowed me to understand how important it is for the speaker to be the driving force in the presentation and not your visual aid. The knowledge that I gained from this presentation is something that I can use in the future with projects like these.
Another to add is that listening to all my peers talking about their project was really nice because in 20 Time students can explore their interests. Every presentation was different, so that really helped keep the viewers attention because there is always something new that you can learn.
Monday, May 9, 2016
20 Time Individual Reflection
I challenged myself by trying to pick a topic that would affect me everyday. Music is in my life everyday, so I decided to use music as a part of my 20 Time. Also, I tied music to medicine and go the topic how does music affect your blood pressure and heart rate. My goal is to help myself and others who listen to music regularly to use music for more than just relaxation. My plan for this project was to research what instruments I can use to monitor the blood pressure and heart rate and the same time. Then, I made a class survey for what type of music they listen to when relaxing. I analyzed my results and the most common types of music would be inserted in my playlist for my experiment. After that, I went into a doctor's office and I found a few subjects for my experiment.
Some successes were that I had enough subjects to test one of my genres of music that I chose. However, there were not enough patients to complete my whole experiment, and that was a failure. Some things that I learned was that slow beat music has an effect on your blood pressure and heart rate, especially if the patient has a high blood pressure. However, I am just making this conclusion off of my limited about of results from my experiment.
If I could do this project again, I would ask many doctors if I can do my experiment in their office instead of just one. When I get up in front of the class and give my TED talk, I wish to share my information to all my peers so that they can use music the same way that I will be using it from now on.
Some successes were that I had enough subjects to test one of my genres of music that I chose. However, there were not enough patients to complete my whole experiment, and that was a failure. Some things that I learned was that slow beat music has an effect on your blood pressure and heart rate, especially if the patient has a high blood pressure. However, I am just making this conclusion off of my limited about of results from my experiment.
If I could do this project again, I would ask many doctors if I can do my experiment in their office instead of just one. When I get up in front of the class and give my TED talk, I wish to share my information to all my peers so that they can use music the same way that I will be using it from now on.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Unit 9 Reflection
This unit is all about what on Earth evolved. We learned about how organisms from a long time ago have evolved into humans and other plants and animals today. In the beginning stages of this unit, we were introduced to the study of classification, also known as taxonomy. We learned about the taxonomic levels, which are(from biggest to smallest): domain, kingdom, class, order, family, genus and species. As you go down the ladder of classification, you find that the organisms that belong to the species have more in common then the organisms in the same genus. Next, we learned about bacteria and viruses. The importance of bacteria is that they are decomposers, the are nitrogen fixers and they are apart of biotechnology. Viruses on the others hand are bad for us. They usually make us sick with diseases, like HIV or AIDS. After learning about the viruses and bacteria, we moved on to fungi and plants. Fungi can act as food, antibiotics, pathogens, and more. Fungi are very important to the ecosystem as they are one of the main decomposers in any ecosystem. There are many different types of plants. We learned about the 4 major phyla of plants, which are Bryophyta(mosses), Pterophyta(ferns), Angiosperms(Flowering Plants), and Gymnosperms(Cone bearing plants). All these new phyla help us understand the evolution of plants, as the first true plants probably grew at the edges of water.
Finally we reached the invertebrates and the chordates. The invertebrates include sponges, cnidarian, flatworms, mollusks annelid, arthropods, insects, crustacean and echinoderms. Sponges date back to 570 million years ago. They are sessile, have no symmetry and reproduce asexually and sexually. Cnidarians are the oldest existing animal group that have specialized tissues. The phylum Cnidarian includes jellyfish, sea anemones, coral, hydra and the box jelly. Flatworms have a solid body and incomplete or absent gut. Mollusks have bilateral symmetry and a complete digestive system. Annelids have segmented bodies and a fluid filled space completely surrounded by muscle. Arthropods have an exoskeleton made of chitin, joint appendages and segmented body parts. Arthropods can be classified into five groups which are: trilobites=extinct, bottom feeders, crustaceans=live in oceans and land, freshwater streams, chelicerates=specialized dagger like mouthparts, insects=live on land, must have six legs, myriapods=long bodies and many pairs of legs. They also have an open circulatory system, sensory organs such as an antennae, body segmentation and compound eyes. Insects have a head, thorax and abdomen. They reproduce through a process called metamorphosis. Crustaceans have a cephalothorax and an abdomen, one pair of appendages per segment, two pairs of antennae, exoskeleton and carapace. Echinoderms have an internal skeleton made of interlocking calcite honeycomb. They also have a water vascular system which are a series of water-filled canals around the central disk. These canals store water used for circulation and movement. They also have a complete digestive system and they can regenerate their limbs.
The chordates include fish( condricthyes, ostreicthyes, lobe-finned fish), and amphibians, reptiles and mammals. Fish are vertebrates with gills and paired fins. Condricthyes are fish with skeleton made out of cartilage. The must move in order to breath. These type of fish include ratfish, sharks, rays, and skates. Osteicthyes are bony fish which have skeletons made out of bone. Their operculum protects their gills and the movements of this help the bony fish move water over gills. Lobe-finned fish are paired pectoral and pelvic fins that are round in shape and supported by a single bone. Amphibians are the first animals with 4 limbs. Tetrapods are vertebrates with 4 limbs, they can live on land or water, mobile muscular tongue and lay eggs in water, moist ground or leaves. Reptiles are ectotherms and they have dry scales, a 3 chambered heart and cloaca. The reptiles include turtles, tortoises and terrapins. There is also the birds. These animals evolved from the tetrapod, and have hollow bones, fused collarbones that form v-shape wishbone, rearranged muscles in legs and hips, and feathers. Mammals are the last chordate. This chordate has a large brain and is a endotherm with a complex social feeding and reproductive behavior. They have hair to retain heat and a four chambered heart.
Some things that I would like to learn more about is about how bacteria and viruses because we did not really go as in depth as we did with chordates and invertebrates.
This unit we did a presentation with the topic of "What on Earth Evolved?"My topic was the rubber tree. I think that my presentation went pretty well. Some things that I did well on was that I had enough information so I could fulfill the time requirement while informing my classmates what the rubber tree is used for. One thing that I could work on is reviewing more of the history involved with the rubber tree. The biggest part that I learned from this is in order to have confidence is to know your topic well. The more you know about your topic, the more confidence you will have.
Finally we reached the invertebrates and the chordates. The invertebrates include sponges, cnidarian, flatworms, mollusks annelid, arthropods, insects, crustacean and echinoderms. Sponges date back to 570 million years ago. They are sessile, have no symmetry and reproduce asexually and sexually. Cnidarians are the oldest existing animal group that have specialized tissues. The phylum Cnidarian includes jellyfish, sea anemones, coral, hydra and the box jelly. Flatworms have a solid body and incomplete or absent gut. Mollusks have bilateral symmetry and a complete digestive system. Annelids have segmented bodies and a fluid filled space completely surrounded by muscle. Arthropods have an exoskeleton made of chitin, joint appendages and segmented body parts. Arthropods can be classified into five groups which are: trilobites=extinct, bottom feeders, crustaceans=live in oceans and land, freshwater streams, chelicerates=specialized dagger like mouthparts, insects=live on land, must have six legs, myriapods=long bodies and many pairs of legs. They also have an open circulatory system, sensory organs such as an antennae, body segmentation and compound eyes. Insects have a head, thorax and abdomen. They reproduce through a process called metamorphosis. Crustaceans have a cephalothorax and an abdomen, one pair of appendages per segment, two pairs of antennae, exoskeleton and carapace. Echinoderms have an internal skeleton made of interlocking calcite honeycomb. They also have a water vascular system which are a series of water-filled canals around the central disk. These canals store water used for circulation and movement. They also have a complete digestive system and they can regenerate their limbs.
The chordates include fish( condricthyes, ostreicthyes, lobe-finned fish), and amphibians, reptiles and mammals. Fish are vertebrates with gills and paired fins. Condricthyes are fish with skeleton made out of cartilage. The must move in order to breath. These type of fish include ratfish, sharks, rays, and skates. Osteicthyes are bony fish which have skeletons made out of bone. Their operculum protects their gills and the movements of this help the bony fish move water over gills. Lobe-finned fish are paired pectoral and pelvic fins that are round in shape and supported by a single bone. Amphibians are the first animals with 4 limbs. Tetrapods are vertebrates with 4 limbs, they can live on land or water, mobile muscular tongue and lay eggs in water, moist ground or leaves. Reptiles are ectotherms and they have dry scales, a 3 chambered heart and cloaca. The reptiles include turtles, tortoises and terrapins. There is also the birds. These animals evolved from the tetrapod, and have hollow bones, fused collarbones that form v-shape wishbone, rearranged muscles in legs and hips, and feathers. Mammals are the last chordate. This chordate has a large brain and is a endotherm with a complex social feeding and reproductive behavior. They have hair to retain heat and a four chambered heart.
Some things that I would like to learn more about is about how bacteria and viruses because we did not really go as in depth as we did with chordates and invertebrates.
This unit we did a presentation with the topic of "What on Earth Evolved?"My topic was the rubber tree. I think that my presentation went pretty well. Some things that I did well on was that I had enough information so I could fulfill the time requirement while informing my classmates what the rubber tree is used for. One thing that I could work on is reviewing more of the history involved with the rubber tree. The biggest part that I learned from this is in order to have confidence is to know your topic well. The more you know about your topic, the more confidence you will have.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
My Inner Fish Blog Reflection
Last week, our class watched a series called "My Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin. This series is about how we have evolved from those that are thought to not be related to us, such as fishes or reptiles. In the first video, we learned about the first transitional species that could walk on land, the Tiktaalik. This video showed how the Tiktaalik's flippers, which allowed it to support its weight, slowly evolved into our hands and digits and how the fossils were found. The second video in the series is about the reptile and how they evolved over time to become mammals. We learned about how these early land animals lived underground, hunting for prey during the night and more. This series links back to the unit of evolution because we still have structures inside our body that once were used by fishes and reptiles a long time ago.
One of the questions that we were asked was, "How and why did hair first evolve?" Hair first evolved when it was used as a sensory organ, in the form of whiskers. These whiskers helped the animal maneuver in the dark. However, this makes me think, why did these whiskers suddenly turn up? How did these whiskers evolve into the hair that we have today? I think that the whiskers that the early land animals had really gave them an advantage when compared to land animals that did not have the whiskers at the time.
Another question was, "Why are mass extinctions important?" The reason that mass extinctions are important is because they give the survivors a chance the become the dominant species. These extinctions also create new species that can flourish. The mass extinction of dinosaurs is the reason that humans are dominating. The dinosaurs were the dominating, so no species could take over and flourish. However, when the extinction came, then the mammals began to flourish, and we the human generation was born, since we were once descended from the mammals before us.
One of the questions that we were asked was, "How and why did hair first evolve?" Hair first evolved when it was used as a sensory organ, in the form of whiskers. These whiskers helped the animal maneuver in the dark. However, this makes me think, why did these whiskers suddenly turn up? How did these whiskers evolve into the hair that we have today? I think that the whiskers that the early land animals had really gave them an advantage when compared to land animals that did not have the whiskers at the time.
Another question was, "Why are mass extinctions important?" The reason that mass extinctions are important is because they give the survivors a chance the become the dominant species. These extinctions also create new species that can flourish. The mass extinction of dinosaurs is the reason that humans are dominating. The dinosaurs were the dominating, so no species could take over and flourish. However, when the extinction came, then the mammals began to flourish, and we the human generation was born, since we were once descended from the mammals before us.
Monday, April 18, 2016
Blog Post #4 - Subjects Found!
The past two weeks, I have been trying to find some people that are willing to be apart of my experiment. Finally, I found some subjects that are willing to be apart of it, so I will need to go to a doctor's office to proceed. I have created a playlist with the results that I got from my survey. I will tell the subjects to listen to the music and after 5 minutes of listening, I will measure their blood pressure and heart rate and see if it works. The setback that I had was where I was going to find my subjects, but I have found them. The next step is to conduct the experiment and then analyze my results. I can apply what I have learned from this experiment and implement it into what I will do in the future. For example, when I am studying and I feel the need to listen to music, I can listen to the music that my experiment said would be best for my heart and blood pressure.
Friday, April 15, 2016
Invertebrate of Your Choice - Hexactinellid
The glass sponge, or known as the Hexactenllid, is a sponge that is classified in the phylum Porifera. Some researchers think that this sponge should have their own phylum, called the Symplasma. This class is divided into six orders, which are Amphidiscosida, Amphidiscosa, Aulocalycoida, Hexactinosa, Lychniscosa, and Lyssacinosa. The glass sponge is not like other sponges. Actually, glass sponges are uncommon because of the fact that they live 450 to 900 meters deep in the ocean. They are found in every ocean, but they are most common in the Antarctic and the north portion of the Pacific Ocean. One unique thing that these sponges have is that they contain a system for conducting electrical impulses across their body. This allows them to respond rapidly to stimuli outside their body. Another cool thing about this species is that some are capable of fusing to form coral reefs and they are not able to contract. One question that I have is, why are they not able to contract like other sponges?
http://lifestyleinterests.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/big-sponge-990x556.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexactinellid
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Survey Complete! - Music's Effect on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate
This week was all about figuring out which genres of music I should put into my experiment. I created a survey that shows my results. What I did was I created an excel sheet and wrote down 11 different types of music. Then I went around the classroom and asked everyone to tell me what they listen to when they are relaxing, studying and exercising. However, sometimes I feel like I do not know what to do next after I complete something. A setback that I have right now is I need to figure out how I am going to get my subjects for my experiment. I think I will either research and get help from my peers for ideas on how to find the right people. As I have stated before, the next step is to start the process of the experiment. I will need to find my subjects and then I will need to figure out a procedure to execute my experiment. I think that I can relate what I have learned to my everyday life, because everyday I listen to music and with the new information that I acquire from this project, I will be able to cater the music that I listen to towards my needs.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Unit 8 Reflection
This unit was all about evolution. We dove deep into the topic of evolution and how different ecosystems are effected by evolution. Some of the main topics that we learned this unit was artificial selection, natural selection and the formation of earth. Artificial selection is when humans select traits from a population's variation that they want, and they will only mate individuals in the population that have that certain trait. Natural Selection is a process that weeds out the traits that don't help an individual survive, leaving the organisms that have the most useful traits. The difference between natural selection and artificial selection is that artificial selection is decided by humans while natural selection is all about survival of the fittest with no outside influence.We also learned about allele frequency. Allele frequency is defined as how common an allele is in a population. In order to calculate the allele frequency, you need to divide the total number of time the allele pops up in the gene pool by the total number of alleles. Then you get the percentage of how common that allele is. We also learned about the formation of Earth. What I learned is that the Earth has evolved so much over time, that the time that the humans have been on Earth adds up a very tiny amount in the cosmic year. Earth has gone through many different phases and we are just at the very tip of it. Some questions that I still have are, why did the sequence of events regarding the formation of Earth occur in the way that they did? In my Unit 7 Reflection, I talked about assertiveness and I think that I have definitely improved on my skills, but I still need some work. For example, in my engineering class, we were doing a reverse engineering project. Our project was close to finishing, but we were running out of time, so I decided to speak up and assign my group the last different parts that we needed to complete for our poster and for our product. I set up times in which my group could meet during tutorial and lunch, and we got it done within the time limit that we had. I think that looking back, I have improved, but there is definitely room for improvement.
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| Artificial Selection Ex. Poodles |
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| Natural Selection |
Geological Timeline Reflection
The history of our Earth is action packed. However, the 3 events that stand out to me the most are the Quaternary Period in the Cenozoic Era, the Jurassic Period, and lastly the Cretaceous Period. The Quaternary Period is when the Ice Age took place. This time is fairly important because this was when the first fossils of homo sapiens date back, 200000 years ago. The homo sapiens were the start of us, and without this era, there would be no us, the humans. The other important period was the Jurassic Period. This period stood out to me because this was when the dinosaurs dominated the food chain and they were the most abundant and diverse. This period really made the dinosaurs so popular at this time. Finally, the Cretaceous Period was a very important time for humans. This was when the meteor hit Earth, wiping out much of the dinosaur population, allowing humans to take over. Without this meteor that struck Earth, we would not be here. The dinosaurs would still be on top of the food chain, and we would not be able to survive. The Earth history, when on a scale, is extremely massive. The formation of Earth took much longer than I expected it to. I learned that the Earth took a very long time for it to become like what it is today. What surprised me about the scale was the fact that humans, and their advancements, are on the last hour of the cosmic year. Even though we have not been on Earth for very long, we have impacted the Earth significantly, wether it is good or bad. We have created more technology and more efficient ways of surviving on Earth. However in doing so, we have caused some major problems that will harm us in the future. I wonder what will happen if we decide to continue what we are doing? How much harm will global warming cause us if we don't change our ways?
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| Formation of Earth |
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| The Cosmic Calendar |
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Hunger Games Lab Conclusion
1. In this lab, we simulated natural selection with our class. The way that we simulated natural selection and evolution was we had all of our students circle up around the big circle on the field. There were corks that were spread out around the circle and when the whistle was blown all the students ran into the center to try and get as much food as possible so that they can reproduce. The different bird beaks that we used were the knucklers, the pinchers and the stumpys.
4. Before the simulation started, everyone was given their own bird beak trait and they could only pick up food using the technique that they were assigned. This was the factor that was not random. Some factors that are random include the speed and quickness of the students and the size of the storage for the amount of food that they pick up. These traits are random because these traits vary for every student.
5. Results would have indeed varied if there was more food or less food. If there was more food, then the knucklers and the pinchers would have dominated the population even more because they will pick up the food more efficiently, making all of the stumpys have a lower chance of survival. If there is a shortage in food, then there would be the same problem for the stumpys. The lower amount of food will cause a problem for all species, but the stumpys will have the biggest problem. In nature, there are always going to be times when there are shortages in food, or an abundance in food. The species that live in these areas will need to fight for food more because of the change in the amount of food.
6. Without incomplete dominance, there would be no knucklers. There would only be pinchers and stumpys. Slowly, the pinchers would take over the population because the stumpys would not be able to reproduce fast enough and they would slowly die out.
7. The relationship between evolution and natural selection is that natural selection is the process that leads to a population's evolution. The reason for this is because natural selection weeds out the bad traits, so that only the good traits can reproduce. Then evolution takes place, because then the good alleles would fill up the population, changing the allele frequency.
8. A strategy that individuals used was that they carried out sexual selection. Sexual selection is when organisms from the same species mate with each other, even though there is no benefit to the offspring. For example, the knucklers mated with only knucklers, even though mating with pinchers would give the offspring a higher chance a better trait. This would have affected the allele frequency because then there would be more "a" alleles in the population over time, which would change the allele frequency over time.
9. In evolution, the thing that evolves is the population. Natural Selection acts on the phenotypes of the organisms, because the phenotype is the one that helps or does not help the organism pick up food. Evolution acts on the genotype because evolution looks like the organisms that can reproduce the most and the ones that can reproduce the most are the ones with the better phenotype. So, this affects the genotype of the offspring.
2. I think that the best phenotype for capturing food was the pincher because they could pick food up with their index and thumb, while the knucklers had to pick up food in between the second knuckles of their index and middle fingers. The stumpys had to pick up food with their wrists. The reason that the pincher was the best was because they had to easiest time trying to pick up food, and also they could pick up multiple corks at once.
3. I think that the population did evolve because the species that could pick up food the fastest and in great amounts would look more like the population over time. The reason that I know this was because of the fact that the allele frequency of the "a" allele, which was the pincher allele, was more apparent later in time. In trial 8, which was our last trial, the frequency of the "a" allele was 72% while the "A" was 28%. However, in round 1, there was 52% percent allele frequency of the "A" allele and the 48% allele frequency for the "a" allele. The reason for this was because the pinchers and the knucklers had an easier time of getting food to reproduce, so their alleles were more common.
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| The Allele Frequency of the "A" and "a" allele. The red is the "a" allele and the blue is the "A" allele. |
5. Results would have indeed varied if there was more food or less food. If there was more food, then the knucklers and the pinchers would have dominated the population even more because they will pick up the food more efficiently, making all of the stumpys have a lower chance of survival. If there is a shortage in food, then there would be the same problem for the stumpys. The lower amount of food will cause a problem for all species, but the stumpys will have the biggest problem. In nature, there are always going to be times when there are shortages in food, or an abundance in food. The species that live in these areas will need to fight for food more because of the change in the amount of food.
6. Without incomplete dominance, there would be no knucklers. There would only be pinchers and stumpys. Slowly, the pinchers would take over the population because the stumpys would not be able to reproduce fast enough and they would slowly die out.
7. The relationship between evolution and natural selection is that natural selection is the process that leads to a population's evolution. The reason for this is because natural selection weeds out the bad traits, so that only the good traits can reproduce. Then evolution takes place, because then the good alleles would fill up the population, changing the allele frequency.
8. A strategy that individuals used was that they carried out sexual selection. Sexual selection is when organisms from the same species mate with each other, even though there is no benefit to the offspring. For example, the knucklers mated with only knucklers, even though mating with pinchers would give the offspring a higher chance a better trait. This would have affected the allele frequency because then there would be more "a" alleles in the population over time, which would change the allele frequency over time.
9. In evolution, the thing that evolves is the population. Natural Selection acts on the phenotypes of the organisms, because the phenotype is the one that helps or does not help the organism pick up food. Evolution acts on the genotype because evolution looks like the organisms that can reproduce the most and the ones that can reproduce the most are the ones with the better phenotype. So, this affects the genotype of the offspring.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Music's Effect on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate - #2
For the last two weeks, I have been researching more about my topic and what I decided to research was the different ways the measure the heart rate and blood pressure of anyone. A few machines that can do this are the resperate, an ECG and a cardiac monitor. Some setbacks that I have are what music I need to use to conduct my experiment. Some steps that I have planned in my mind to handle this setback, is I will create a poll with many genres of music, and I will ask students which music they listen to when they are either relaxing, doing homework or exercising. My next step is to make the poll and ask the students in my biology period. Then I will start formulating my experiment, so that I can do the test soon. Once I learn what genre really helps the heart rate and blood pressure during different exercises, I can apply what I learned to whatever I need to do in the future.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Bird Beak Lab
After finishing the first part of the experiment, we claimed that the individuals that have the better traits, for collecting food etc, will be able to reproduce more efficiently and leave more offspring. When we did our simulation, the spoon chicks had 14 chicks, the binder clip chicks had 13 chicks, the tweezers chicks had 15 chicks, the scissor chicks had 13 chicks and the chopstick chicks had 15 chicks. By our simulation, we concluded that the tweezer chicks and the chopstick chicks, who could pick up food easier, had the best traits because of the fact that they reproduced the most and also that they picked up the most food.
Another claim that we had was, "Populations begin to look more like winners". We can support this claim through our simulation, which resulted in the tweezer and the chopstick beaks to end up with 21.4% each in the population. The binder clip and the scissors got only 18.5% of the population. This evidence shows that the tweezers and the chopsticks had the better traits in order to reproduce. Also, these better traits were more apparent, than the losers, when the population totals of each type of bird was recorded.
In part 2 of 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?" Our hypothesis was if natural selection was to occur in the population, then the organisms that are better suited for it will survive and continue their process to improve and dominate the population. We were given the environmental stressor that took away 3/4 of our food supply, leaving us with 1/4 left. We found out that the tweezers, which had 14 chicks born, and scissors, which had 13 chicks born, were able to produce the most because they were able to take a lot of food in the given time compared to the others. However, the spoon and the chopsticks, who both had 8 chicks, was not able to get as much food as the others, which reduced their offsprings amount. This evidence supported our claim, and we think that the reason that this happened was because of the fact that the tweezers and the scissors were able to adapt faster to the less amount of food so that they can create more offspring.
Two errors that could have occurred in this lab were the dispersion of the food and the other error could be the level of experience that a person had with the tool they were using. The uneven dispersion of food could have caused a problem because then there would be an unfair advantage to the person who was closer to the food rather than another person who was farther away. This could have an effect because then the person who is closer to the food would have a better chance of collecting more food and reproducing more. The other error was the level of experience that a person had with the tool. For example, a person who uses a spoon very often will have an easier time to collect food when compared to a person who used the binder clip, with not much experience. This could affect the outcome of the experiment because the person who is more experienced could pick up more food. To prevent these errors in the future, I would recommend that we should have tools that people would have about the same experience when using them, along with more even dispersion of the food so that there is no advantage to one person.
This lab was done so that we could understand Darwin's different conclusions along with how competition works. This lab relates to what we have learned through our vodcasts, which explained Darwin's observations and conclusions along with what competition is and how it works. We can apply what we learned from this lab to help understand different ecosystems and also we can predict what will happen when different things happen that can affect the ecosystem. This could help prevent the extinction of different species.
Another claim that we had was, "Populations begin to look more like winners". We can support this claim through our simulation, which resulted in the tweezer and the chopstick beaks to end up with 21.4% each in the population. The binder clip and the scissors got only 18.5% of the population. This evidence shows that the tweezers and the chopsticks had the better traits in order to reproduce. Also, these better traits were more apparent, than the losers, when the population totals of each type of bird was recorded.
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| The Total Amount of Chicks Born for Each Type of Bird Beak |
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| The Total Amount of Chicks Born for Each Type of Bird Beak After the Environmental Stressor of a Limitation on Food |
In part 2 of 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?" Our hypothesis was if natural selection was to occur in the population, then the organisms that are better suited for it will survive and continue their process to improve and dominate the population. We were given the environmental stressor that took away 3/4 of our food supply, leaving us with 1/4 left. We found out that the tweezers, which had 14 chicks born, and scissors, which had 13 chicks born, were able to produce the most because they were able to take a lot of food in the given time compared to the others. However, the spoon and the chopsticks, who both had 8 chicks, was not able to get as much food as the others, which reduced their offsprings amount. This evidence supported our claim, and we think that the reason that this happened was because of the fact that the tweezers and the scissors were able to adapt faster to the less amount of food so that they can create more offspring.
Two errors that could have occurred in this lab were the dispersion of the food and the other error could be the level of experience that a person had with the tool they were using. The uneven dispersion of food could have caused a problem because then there would be an unfair advantage to the person who was closer to the food rather than another person who was farther away. This could have an effect because then the person who is closer to the food would have a better chance of collecting more food and reproducing more. The other error was the level of experience that a person had with the tool. For example, a person who uses a spoon very often will have an easier time to collect food when compared to a person who used the binder clip, with not much experience. This could affect the outcome of the experiment because the person who is more experienced could pick up more food. To prevent these errors in the future, I would recommend that we should have tools that people would have about the same experience when using them, along with more even dispersion of the food so that there is no advantage to one person.
This lab was done so that we could understand Darwin's different conclusions along with how competition works. This lab relates to what we have learned through our vodcasts, which explained Darwin's observations and conclusions along with what competition is and how it works. We can apply what we learned from this lab to help understand different ecosystems and also we can predict what will happen when different things happen that can affect the ecosystem. This could help prevent the extinction of different species.
Monday, February 29, 2016
Music's Effect on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate - Introduction
20 Time is a program that allows you to work on any project that you have wanted to work on. For our class, Mr. Orre is giving us 20% of our class time this semester to pursue any of our interests in the form of a project. That 20% of our class time that we get to use fro this project is all of our Mondays during second semester.
The essential question that I have for this 20 Time is how can music benefit you in a medical way. The thing that I am revolving my 20 Time around is music. What I wanted to do is I wanted to incorporate music and something medical related. With those in mind I came up with the idea of how does different genres of music affect your blood pressure and heart rate when you are doing different things such as exercising, doing your homework or relaxing.
My goals for this 20 Time project is that by the end of March I would like to finish all my research on my project so that I can start to conduct the experiment. Then after I find out my subjects I will experiment with the different genres of music and by the end of the semester I will have a few playlists, which correspond with the activities, that will hold the songs that I found were most helpful.
To measure my progress is that I will create an excel sheet with the different things that I need to accomplish for my research and my experiment and after every Monday, I will record my progress. My plan, right now, is to finish my research so that I can start the experiment.
The essential question that I have for this 20 Time is how can music benefit you in a medical way. The thing that I am revolving my 20 Time around is music. What I wanted to do is I wanted to incorporate music and something medical related. With those in mind I came up with the idea of how does different genres of music affect your blood pressure and heart rate when you are doing different things such as exercising, doing your homework or relaxing.
My goals for this 20 Time project is that by the end of March I would like to finish all my research on my project so that I can start to conduct the experiment. Then after I find out my subjects I will experiment with the different genres of music and by the end of the semester I will have a few playlists, which correspond with the activities, that will hold the songs that I found were most helpful.
To measure my progress is that I will create an excel sheet with the different things that I need to accomplish for my research and my experiment and after every Monday, I will record my progress. My plan, right now, is to finish my research so that I can start the experiment.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Unit 7 Reflection
In this unit we learned all about ecology, including the threats and solutions. We learned about the factors that affect populations like immigration, the influx of new individuals from other areas, emigration, the movement of individuals out of a population, births, deaths, disease, predators, and lastly abiotic factors such as limitation of resources. Some other things that we learned in this unit was succession, Succession is the sequence of a community and ecosystem changes after a disturbance. The cycle of succession involves the circle of disturbance, pioneers, intermediate and climax. We also learned about the 4 different cycles, the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the phosphorous cycle. All of these cycles have their own significance in the ecosystem. We also learned about the threats of a population, such as habitat loss, introduced species that could be predators, over-exploitation and climate change with the increase in carbon emissions. The last part that we covered in our vodcasts is the way that energy transfers up the food chain. The 10% rule states that of the energy that is produced on 10% is passed on to the next level. This means that as you go up the food chain, less and less energy is being passed on.
Some things that I would like to learn more about is more about how fossil fuels are hurting our ecosystem and how we can reduce the use of them. Some unanswered questions that I have are, is there more cycles that we have not learned about, like the phosphorous cycle? How many are there?
Onto our project that we did that related to this unit, the Conservation Biologist Project. We worked in groups to find information about any region that we wanted to do and we had to talk about the ecosystem there. Our group chose the Great Barrier Reef. I will link the video to the blog. Some things that went really well was that our group was able to collaborate and listen to everyone's ideas so that we could work efficiently and not run into any problems. I learned about how the Great Barrier Reef had many threats that could harm its ecosystem very much and that there needed to be something done about it. I think that our collaboration went very well because everybody took everyone's ideas into consideration when making the video along with the fact that we had no problems splitting up the work and finding information regarding the topic.
This is our video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTZQcWUaM8k
A picture of the food chain of the Great Barrier Reef
Some things that I would like to learn more about is more about how fossil fuels are hurting our ecosystem and how we can reduce the use of them. Some unanswered questions that I have are, is there more cycles that we have not learned about, like the phosphorous cycle? How many are there?
Onto our project that we did that related to this unit, the Conservation Biologist Project. We worked in groups to find information about any region that we wanted to do and we had to talk about the ecosystem there. Our group chose the Great Barrier Reef. I will link the video to the blog. Some things that went really well was that our group was able to collaborate and listen to everyone's ideas so that we could work efficiently and not run into any problems. I learned about how the Great Barrier Reef had many threats that could harm its ecosystem very much and that there needed to be something done about it. I think that our collaboration went very well because everybody took everyone's ideas into consideration when making the video along with the fact that we had no problems splitting up the work and finding information regarding the topic.
This is our video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTZQcWUaM8k
A picture of the food chain of the Great Barrier Reef
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Unit 6 Reflection
In this unit we learned about Biotechnology, which is the study of manipulation of living things in order to benefit us, mankind. Going deeper into this unit, we learned about the different fields in Biotechnology which is the understanding of DNA(genomes), proteins(proteomics), and lastly inheritance(which is basically genetics). We also learned about the 4 main applications in Biotechnology, which are Industrial and Environmental(biodegradable plastics, biofuels etc.), Medical(medicines from organisms, vaccines etc.), Agriculture(breeding) and lastly Diagnostic Research(DNA identification). Bioethics is the study of decision - making as it applies to moral decisions that have to be made because of advances in biology. This is important because scientists are always making bioethical questions about different aspects of life that relate to biology. After that, we learned about recombinant DNA and how it can be used to add traits from one organism into another. Recombinant DNA is the process of putting one organism's DNA into another organism. In the last part of this unit, we learned about the Polymerase Chain Reaction, Gel Electrophoresis, and Sequencing. PCR is a procedure to amplify a specific DNA region and is used for paternity testing, to detect diseases and for cloning. Gel Electrophoresis is basically a way to separate DNA fragments. The way that they do this is that they run electricity through a gel, in order to make the dye run so that they can see the distance that the dye travels on the gel. In the process of the dyes running, they separate. Sequencing is the process of determining the exact order of a given DNA sequence. Another thing that we studied was pGLO and how it is used.
We did a lab on pGLO and what we did was we tried to create bacteria that was resistant to ampicillin and also that could glow in UV light due to the arabinose that we added. In this lab I understood the concept of how bacteria can transform. The other labs that we did in this unit were the DNA Recombinant Lab and the Candy Electrophoresis Lab. The DNA Recombinant Lab helped me understand the role of the restriction enzyme and also what a plasmid was. The Candy Electrophoresis Lab helped me understand the whole process in a more detailed way.
http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/pglo-lab-questions.html
http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/recombinant-dna-lab-analysis.html
http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/candy-electrophoresis-lab-questions.html
Something that I would like to learn more about in the Biotechnology unit is about the fields in Biotechnology because we barely scratched the surface of the four fields and I would like to learn more about it.
I have been keeping up to speed with my New Year's Goals because my main goal was to get the understanding of the concepts as we go along in the unit and not just passively go through each unit. I think that I have done a good job so far and as for my second goal, I feel that I am doing alright in that area. My second goal is time management and I am doing well with it, but I think that I can do a much better job.
We did a lab on pGLO and what we did was we tried to create bacteria that was resistant to ampicillin and also that could glow in UV light due to the arabinose that we added. In this lab I understood the concept of how bacteria can transform. The other labs that we did in this unit were the DNA Recombinant Lab and the Candy Electrophoresis Lab. The DNA Recombinant Lab helped me understand the role of the restriction enzyme and also what a plasmid was. The Candy Electrophoresis Lab helped me understand the whole process in a more detailed way.
http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/pglo-lab-questions.html
http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/recombinant-dna-lab-analysis.html
http://patwardhanblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/candy-electrophoresis-lab-questions.html
Something that I would like to learn more about in the Biotechnology unit is about the fields in Biotechnology because we barely scratched the surface of the four fields and I would like to learn more about it.
I have been keeping up to speed with my New Year's Goals because my main goal was to get the understanding of the concepts as we go along in the unit and not just passively go through each unit. I think that I have done a good job so far and as for my second goal, I feel that I am doing alright in that area. My second goal is time management and I am doing well with it, but I think that I can do a much better job.
Friday, January 22, 2016
pGLO Lab Questions
pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis
1.
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Obtain your team plates. Observe your set of “+pGLO” plates under room light and with UV light. Record numbers of colonies and color of colonies. Fill in the table below.
Comments: The -pGLO LB and the -pGLO LB/amp plates were switched when labeled.
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2.
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What two new traits do your transformed bacteria have?
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The resistance to the ampicillin and the bacteria could glow under UV light.
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3.
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Estimate how many bacteria were in the 100 uL of bacteria that you spread on each plate. Explain your logic.
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If you use the carpet for reference, I think that there are about a thousand to ten thousand bacteria. The reason that I think this is because the carpet is very spread out along the plate, so there will be a lot of bacteria.
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4.
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What is the role of arabinose in the plates?
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The arabinose, which is a sugar, had the effect of making the bacteria glow under the UV light. That is why, when you look at the plate with the arabinose with the ampicillin, LB and the pGLO and compare it to the exact same plate without the arabinose, you see that the one with arabinose will glow.
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5.
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List and briefly explain three current uses for GFP (green fluorescent protein) in research or applied science.
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The GFP is used because of its ability to generate a glowing color. GFP is used as a active indicator for protease action because then the scientists would know that it is working. Another reason why GFP is used is because it can glow inside an organism so the scientists could see what goes on inside the
organisms cell. The third use is GFP is used for Biosensors, which allows you to analyze different conditions, like pH levels. | ||
6.
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Give an example of another application of genetic engineering.
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In medicine, genetic engineering has been used to mass produce human growth hormones, insulin, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and many more.
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