Week of June 1-5

This week we talked about how molecules work in different situations.  We did an experiment where Mr. Finley had a test tube and he put water in it.  He put the test tube over fire and we had to explain what was happening.  I thought what was happening was that all of the water molecules were heating up because of the fire.(P.S. we also learned that fire or heat is not a thing even though people talk about it like it is, like gravity.  But heating is a process so I was allowed to say what I just said).  The molecules at first were vibrating at a normal pace.  Then, because they were over the fire they heated up they started to vibrate faster and faster until they were popping out of the water.  They also wanted to be evaporated so they were going up.  The cork eventually couldn't hold the pressure and popped off.  The next day the bottom popped off too so that was cool.  We also had to say what happens in a thermometer.  I get what happens there.  The mercury gets the heat from the sun and whether it's hot or cold it goes up or down because if it's hot the mercury expands.  If it's cold it shrinks.

May 18-22

This week we worked on more about evolution and what causes it.  We talked about mutations which are random occurrences that cause a change in the DNA.  Selective breeding is when people make two things to mate to get a desirable trait.  Natural selection is just when an organism adapts to survive in its environment.  Genetic engineering is when scientists make a mutation forcefully so that the organism can have a desirable trait.  Gene flow is when there is a change in the gene pool in an area because some organisms have come to that area when they are different.  Genetic drift is when a whole trait goes extinct because of a random chance occurrence.  We also learned that there was another person besides Darwin who had some theories about evolution.  This created the Lamarckian theory which states that if work hard enough you can change your genes and pass it on.  Like if a really skinny guy worked out a lot and became muscular then he could pass it on to future generations.  More recently we are learning about hominids which were early humans/apes.  These hominids were the common ancestors of humans and apes.  But only one kind of hominid survived, homo sapiens, which are what we are. 

May 4-9

This week we concluded the cockroach experiment. We concluded that they maybe colorblind, it prefers rough surfaces to climb on with its suction cups. They prefer darker areas, but to walk on it doesn't prefer any surface. Also hissing only occurs with physical provoction not emotional provoction. Smaller roaches run faster. Finally they are able to move two times their own weight. After this we moved into the evolution unit. We did three simulations to understand evolution. One simulation was with a blue jay was trying to eat moths. That we could understand was focusing around how moths were adapting to a dark brown color and not white. If it were white then it would be seen more easily and eatin more often. So more moths were being dark brown like the tree so they could survive and hide in camouflage. It was the basic idea with the other two simulations. After we finished the simulations we talked about how if the organism stays in an enviroment its most suited in it will live and reproduce and prosper. If its not in the right enviroment they will most likely die and not reproduce. But the gene of that organism might be past down to other organisms if the new organism is heterozygous.

April 20-24

All this week we focused on the cockroaches. We had to figure out what kind of experiment we were going to do. First we observed the bugs to see how they acted in this envirement and then we had to come up with an a question to test in an experiment. My group observed that the cockroaches stuck to your hand. Also when you tried to get them off it was a little hardere than expected. So our question was, "What can cockroaches stick to?" Our hypothesis was that they could stick to everything we tested them on using the suction cuo like things on their feet/legs. We tested plastic, glass, wood, cloth, computer screen, and dry erase board. We put the object at a 90 degree angle so we could see if stuck or not by it falling if it did not stick. The independant variable was the materials. The dependant variable was whether they stuck to the object or not. And the control variable was the cockroach. In the end they stuck to everything except the dry erase board. I think we did this experiment to better understand the cockroach. If we know what it could stick to maybe we can better understand what kind of nvirement it lives in. Since it stuck to the wood we can tell that there are trees in its natural envirment probably. We can also ask more questions and conduct more experiments. One question like why do they stick to things and maybe we could test thet and get more questions and experiments from that and so on.

Field Trip

On this field trip we went to camp Spears. It was very educational. I learned about bogs, lakes, and teamwork, but I'm only going to talk about the bog and the lake. At the lake we caught a frog. Then some people caught leaches. I caught some bugs and learned that they were I think stone fly larva. They were swimming and didn't know that larva could swim. At the bog I saw that the land looked like you could stand on it but as we learned from the counselers said that a kid stepped down in the bog moss. We also learned that there is a tar substance in there so it's impossible to swim. So if you fall in you couldn't get out without help. That's what happened in England where there was a man found in a bog and because of the tar it mummified him in a leatherly layer of tar stuff. He was so preserved people thought that it was a murder that might have happened 3 weeks earlier. But it turned out he was hundreds or thousands of years old. And that he was part of a sacrifice ceremony. The last thing I learned was that the bog we visited was actually the largest bog in North America!

Genetic Variety

Genetic Variety is where there are alot of different genes. Like when you have genes from your mom and dad. You also have genes from your grandparents and great grandparents and so-on. Genetic variety played an important role in our reebops by making all of the different traits. Your F1 bug could be totally different than your F2 bug. But your F3 bug could look almost exactly the same as your F1 bug. Like with me, my P1 bug has long legs, but my F1 and F2 have short legs. You could see the variety by looking at the genotypes on the back of the bugs. Each color represents a gamete coming from someone. You could have not of come in contact with that person and have their gene in one of your bugs. Most people in our class had one of almost everyones genes. Without genetic variety the bugs would be all the same and boring.

March 23-27

All week we worked on our genetic projects. You had to do things like write summaries and blog about the bugs that everyone did last week. We also researched agenetic disease and made a wikipage. I did alzeimer's. We also had to make a recording on how to use a punnet square. This helped us understand genetics more.

March 9-13

This week we made our official coclusion on how punnet squares work. We said that the punnet squares were a bunch of mutally exclusive events. This means that it did not depend on past events like when your flipping a coin. When you flip a coin it doesn't matter what the last flip was it is still a 50\50 chance. Even if there were ten tails it doesn't mean that the next flip would be heads. With the punnet square just because one thing already happened doesn't it mean it can't happen again or many times again. After we finished this we started focusing on the kinds of dominance. Incomplete dominance is when one allele is not completely dominant some of the recessive allele shows through, this is a phenotype thing. With co-dominance it is more of a genotype thing where both of the two different alleles are preasent. Now we are working on aproject focusing on genetic diseases. I'm thinking focusing on Arthitis.

March 2-6

This week we focused on genes and alleles. On Tuesday we made a graph of the classes traits and determined which were dominant traits or recessive traits. We thought about if you can see if someone is heterozygous just by looking at them. I thought that sometimes you can because sometimes the person goes through change of hair for example. But I thought most of the time you can't because they just show the dominant trait. So you don't know if the person is heterozygous or homozygous dominant. You can always find out from what the parents are.
On Thursday we had to figure out why when two dwarfs had three kids that are average when the punnet square only showed one part of the square for that to be possible. Then I suggested that the reason that three out of the four kids were average was because that every birth had the same odds of being average or a dwarf.
On Friday we experimented with this idea by making paper alleles and according to what the imaginary parents were for a specific part. We drew the alleles out of a cup and whatever we got that's what the imaginary kid would be. We found out that my theory was right. So we made a conclusion and had a take home quiz about genes, alleles, and spidermen. Everyone good luck on the quiz!!!!!

Week of February 23-27

I was absent for Monday-Wednseday so not all of this might be accurate.
So this week we learned more about genetics. We can now somewhat predict what the eyes or hair might be. We use alleles that stand for the kinds of genes. There are three combinations of alleles. Two of them are used when we are talking about homozygotes (purebreeds) which are written like this BB or bb. With a heterzygotes (hybrid) it looks like this Bb. The uppercase letter is the dominant gene. The lowercase letter is representing the ressecive gene. For example if you're talking about right and left handed the right handed gene might be the dominant gene so it would be the uppercase letter. The left handed gene would then be the ressecive gene so it would be the lowercase letter. We also learned how to chart these to see what the off spring might be. I don't know how to put one of the squares on the blog so I can't show you. So everyone have a nice March.

week of February 9-13

This week we finalized meiosis and mitosis which I explained the process in my last blog. this week we started with genetics. On the computer we had asimulation that explained what happens with genetics when reproduction happens.
There was a monk who set the way we think about genetics. His name was Gregor Mendel. He did this by breeding his plants and using the theory that all living organisms inherit things from their parents. Each gene is called an allele. A plant with two alleles is called a homozygote. A plant with two different alleles is called a heterozygote. Also an offspring of two pink plants can have a white plant if both of the parents are heterozygote and both of the parent's white flower traits are passed down to the plant.

February 2-6

On Monday we learned about how diploid cells are 100% the same as their parent cell. These cells are made with mitosis which splits into two cells from the original cell. First the nucleaic membrane disintigrates. Then the cell goes through DNA replication. Then the DNA unwinds to make chromatins. Then the chromatins combine to make chromotids. Then The chromatids are joined together by a centromere to make a chromosome. They form an X shape. Meanwhile the centrioles start to form spindle fibers. The chromosomes go across the mitosis plain and the spindle fibers attach to the centrioles and pulls the chromosome apart back into chromatids except they are not chromatids anymore they are still chromosomes. Then the cell is pulled in two along with the chromosomes and a new nucleas is formed in both of the new cells. All of this occurs through several stages starting with interphase, prophase, prometaphase, metaphase anaphase, telophase, and cytokinesis. You would think that because the cell is split in two that each cell would only have 50% of the original DNA. But if you look back to the begining of mitosis the cell went through DNA replication which made twice the amount of DNA. So there is enough DNA to go around. Now we also learned that a haploid is a cell with 50% of DNA from the original. Which is produced through sexual reproduction. One process of sexual reproduction is Meiosis which we learned on Tuesday.
On Tuesday we learned about meiosis which is to produce haploid cells like sperm and egg cells. First just like mitosis the nucleaic membrane disapears and DNA replication occurs. Unlike mitosis when the chromatids make the chromosomes the chromosomes pair up into homologus pairs and the pairs crossover and take a peace of eachother. Meanwhile spindle fibers are being formed by the centrioles. The pairs aline along the metaphase plane and the spindle fibers attach to the pairs and pull them apart. Then the two daughter cells form just like in mitosis, but it doesn't stop there. It goes through interphase except there is no DNA replication. Spindle fibers form again and the chromosomes align along the metaphase plate and the spindle fibers pull them apart to make a total of 4 daughter cells.
On Wednsday and Thursday we recapped on it and learned that all of this occurs in stages called interphase, prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, cytokinesis, interphase 2, prophase 2, prometaphase 2, metaphase 2, anaphase 2, telophase 2, and cytokinesis.
On Friday we watched a simulation regarding all of the details at http://cellsalive.com/mitosis.htm.

Week of January 19-24

Monday was a special day for all of us in one way or the other. Some of us liked it and some of us didn't like. Some people liked it because we were off of school and we can get away from homework and have a break from our teachers. Some of us like it because we can spend the day honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all the great things he's done. But me I wasn't to fond of that day. Well actually I don't really remember because I got a concussion sledding.
On Tuesday I wasn't in so I don't know what we did. But Tuesday did make history with the inaguration of Barrack Hussein Obama the first African American president!!!! I wasn't in again because of the accident on Wednsday which was the day that all of you had the science test that I still have to take.
On Thursday we talked more about cell reproduction and why sperm and egg cells only half the amount of DNA. This is because they have to combine to create an organism.
On Friday we talked about the details of how cells reproduce and the different stages of the reproduction.

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Week of January 12-16

This week we reviewed about protein synthesis and got started on a new unit about reproduction. On Monday we reviewed everything about how DNA uses Thymine instead of Uracil. And RNA uses Uracil instead of Thymine. We learned also how cytoplasm, ribosomes,and also the rough ER are involved in the process of protein/enzyme synthesis. A codon has a group of nuclaic bases. mRNA delivers the information from the nucleas about the DNA and proteins and brings it to the ribosomes which are in the rough ER. The ribosomes read the mRNA codon by codon and as they are doing this amino acids are being released. So tRNA go and bring the acids by the specific codon. On one side of the tRNA is the binding site for the amino acid and the other is the anticodon designed to the specific amino acid. Then the amino acids stack on top of eachother like a ladder. They do this until all of the amino acids are stacked together and then they become a disorganized line which is the protein. That night we made a map of the whole process and on Tuesday we went over it.
On Tuesday we went over it by acting it out. Someone was the Ribosome, someone was the tRNa, and some people were amino acids, and ect. Then after we did that we started the new unit on reproduction. We got started on the basis that cells come from other cells. Continuing from this we learned that there are two kinds of reproductions. There is sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction is when you need a sperm cell and an egg cell, which when combine create an organism like an animal or a human. And with reproducing sexually the cells/organisms are'nt exactly the same. Asexual reproduction is when you don't need a male or a female. For example cells reproduce asexually by duplicating and the cells are exactly the same.
On Wendsday we went over everything and most of us got started on the studyguide to study for the test on next Wendsday. We also worked on a work sheet on the last few days of the week. We looked at the tip of an onion root which we examined. GOOD LUCK ON THE TEST EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week of January 5-9

This week we focused on photosynthesis and protein synthesis. We built a chart of photosynthesis that consisted of how water and energy from the sun contribute to the making of glucose and oxygen. Carbon Dioxide that we breath out also contributes to this process. It's like a cirlce. We breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide that the plants take in and then they release oxygen that we breath in. Then a small animal eats the plants. A large animal eats a little animal. While this is happening the glucose of the plant is still in their bodies. Finally we eat the large animal and we get the glucose. Then the process of protein synthesis comes into play. Many processes take place during protein synthesis like transcription and translation. As we learned on Thursday from two simulations. One describing transcription and one describing translation. Transcription is the process where DNA is read and made into RNA. Translation is the process where the ribosome reads the RNA made from the DNA and makes into a protein. On Friday we had a quiz on all of this. I hope everyone did well ( including me)!!!!!!!!