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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