Reflect on your semester and year in biology What were your successes? What were your failures? What did you learn that you will never forget?

Blog 14 Compare two of the organisms that we have dissected Discuss at least 2 similarities and 3 differences

Blog 13 What was most interesting about this week's dissections?

The most interesting thing about this week's dissections is

Blog#12 What surprised you from the worm's dissection?

What surprised me from the worm dissection is the inside of the worm. I didn't think that it would be so interesting. To me it looks like the inside

Blog #11 Get a picture of alternation of generations put it in your blog and explain how it relates to plants

  

Alternation of generation refers to life cycles where organisms have two different multicellular stages: one that is diploid, one that is haploid. This is different from us. Human beings at any multicellular stage, are diploid. The only haploid stage we have is sperm and eggs - single cells. Gametophytes are the haploid stages of plants. It's the part that makes the gametes (sperm & eggs). In some plants, the gametophyte is the dominant stage, like in mosses. The green stuff you imagine when you think of a moss is the haploid stage. There are males that make sperm and females that make eggs. In most plants, however, the gametophyte stage is very small. In larger plants, the pollen is the male gametophyte. It contains cells that make sperm. The female gametophyte is the ovule and is inside the ovary in the flower or cone. But, even though they are small, they are still multicellular. The sporophyte stage is what is produced after fertilization and is therefore diploid. So, the actual plant or tree that you think of is the sporophyte. The sporophyte makes haploid spores by meiosis that become the gametophyte. The gametophyte then grows and develops and makes the gametes by mitosis which, when fused through fertilization, make a new sporophyte.

Blog #10 Why is dissection an important part of a biology curriculum? Which animals and/or plants should be included in biological studies?

Dissection is usually applied to the examination of plants and animals. The term is also used in relation to mechanisms, computer programs, written materials, etc., as a synonym for terms such as reverse engineering or literary deconstruction. Dissection is usually performed by students in courses of biology, botany and anatomy and in association with medical and arts studies. Vivisection refers to the dissection of a living animal, often for the purposes of physiological investigation and nowadays always under heavy sedation. However, the term is no longer widely used, in part because more sophisticated techniques have superseded it for many applications. The term is now almost entirely used in a pejorative sense by those who oppose animal testing of any sort. Dissection is often performed as a part of determining a cause of death in autopsy (on humans) and necropsy (on animals) and is an intrinsic part of forensic medicine, such as would be practiced by a coroner. Dissection is important because we learn the insides of animals and plants. I think the kind of animals and/or plants that should be included in biological studies is wild animals and plants. The kind of animals and plants that live in the wild and forests. Dissection teaches us about animals and plants by checking their insides.

Blog 1 Why is evolution a theory and not a law?

The statement "evolution is both a theory and a fact" is often seen in biological literature. Evolution is a "theory" in the scientific sense of the term "theory"; it is an established scientific model of a portion of the universe that generates propositions with observational consequences. Such a model both helps generate new research and helps us understand observed phenomena. When scientists say "evolution is a fact", they are using one of two meanings of the word "fact". One meaning is empirical: evolution can be observed through changes in allele frequencies or traits of a population over successive generations. Another way "fact" is used is to refer to a certain kind of theory, one that has been so powerful and productive for such a long time that it is universally accepted by scientists. When scientists say evolution is a fact in this sense, they mean it is a fact that all living organisms have descended from a common ancestor (or ancestral gene pool) even though this cannot be directly observed. This implies more tangibly that it is a fact that humans share a common ancestor with all living organisms. Evolution is usually defined simply as changes in trait or gene frequency in a population of organisms from one generation to the next. However, "evolution" is often used to include the following additional claims:

1. Differences in trait composition between isolated populations over many generations may result in the origin of new species.
2. All living organisms alive today have descended from a common ancestor (or ancestral gene pool).