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).

 

Blog # 9 Define the different forms of community interaction: competition, commensalism, mutualism, predation, parasitism Give an example and a picture for each

Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two or more parties strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For example, animals compete over water supplies, food, and mates, etc. Humans compete for water, food, and mates, though when these needs are met deep rivalries often arise over the pursuit of wealth, prestige, and fame. Business is often associated with competition as most companies are in competition with at least one other firm over the same group of customers. Commensalism describes a relationship between two living organisms where one benefits and the other is not significantly harmed or helped. Mutualism is any relationship between individuals of different species where both individuals derive a benefit. An example of mutual symbiosis is the relationship between the ocellaris clownfish that dwell among the tentacles of Ritteri sea anemones. The territorial fish protects the anemone from anemone-eating fish, and in turn the stinging tentacles of the anemone protect the clownfish from its predators. A special mucus on the clownfish protects it from the stinging tentacles. Predation describes a biological interaction where a predator (an organism that is hunting) feeds on its prey (the organism that is attacked). Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of its prey and the eventual absorption of the prey's tissue through consumption. A parasitic relationship is one in which one member of the association benefits while the other is harmed. Parasitic symbioses take many forms, from endoparasites that live within the host's body to ectoparasites that live on its surface. In addition, parasites may be necrotrophic, which is to say they kill their host, or biotrophic, meaning they rely on their host's surviving. Biotrophic parasitism is an extremely successful mode of life. Depending on the definition used, as many as half of all animals have at least one parasitic phase in their life cycles, and it is also frequent in plants and fungi. Moreover, almost all free-living animals are host to one or more parasite taxa. An example of a biotrophic relationship would be a tick feeding on the blood of its host.

 

Blog 8 Your choice talk about something you learned or ask a question about something that is confusing you

Blog 7 Compare and contrast two biomes describe them in detail include pictures of plants and animals you are liklely to see

One biome is the freshwater biome. Freshwater is defined as having a low salt concentration — usually less than 1%. Plants and animals in freshwater regions are adjusted to the low salt content and would not be able to survive in areas of high salt concentration (i.e., ocean). These ponds and lakes range in size from just a few square meters to thousands of square kilometers.

 Another biome is the desert biome. Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth's surface and occur where rainfall is less than 50 cm/year. Although most deserts, such as the Sahara of North Africa and the deserts of the southwestern U.S., Mexico, and Australia, occur at low latitudes, another kind of desert, cold deserts, occur in the basin and range area of Utah and Nevada and in parts of western Asia. Most deserts have a considerable amount of specialized vegetation, as well as specialized vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Soils often have abundant nutrients because they need only water to become very productive and have little or no organic matter. Disturbances are common in the form of occasional fires or cold weather, and sudden, infrequent, but intense rains that cause flooding. There are relatively few large mammals in deserts because most are not capable of storing sufficient water and withstanding the heat. Deserts often provide little shelter from the sun for large animals. The dominant animals of warm deserts are nonmammalian vertebrates, such as reptiles. Mammals are usually small, like the kangaroo mice of North American deserts. The difference between freshwater and desert biome is that the desert hardly has any water while the freshwater biome is covered with water. 

Blog #6 Which level of a food pyramid is the most important? Support your answer

I think the most important level of the food pyramid is the fruit and vegetable group. Vegetables contain many vitamins and minerals; however, different vegetables contain different spreads, so it is important to eat a wide variety of types. Fruits are low in calories and fat and are a source of natural sugars, fiber and vitamins. The fruit food group is sometimes combined with the vegetable food group. I think these are the most important because even if u eat more than what you need to eat it is still fine. Unlike some of the other groups eating more fruits and vegetable is good for you.

Blog #5 There have been 5 major extinction events throughout history, are humans impacting the 6th? Why or why not?

I think humans are imacting the 6th. Humans have been hunting animals, polluting the air, and causing other harmful things to our planet. For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve, one of the world's experts on biodiversity has warned. Conservation experts have already signalled that the world is in the grip of the "sixth great extinction" of species, driven by the destruction of natural habitats, hunting, the spread of alien predators and disease, and climate change. Speaking in advance of two reports next week on the state of wildlife in Britain and Europe, Simon Stuart, chair of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature – the body which officially declares species threatened and extinct – said that point had now "almost certainly" been crossed.

Blog # 4 Describe the three types of selection: directional, stabilizing and disruptive and give an example of each in your own words

Stabilizing selection favors the norm, the common, average traits in a population. Look at the Siberian Husky, a dog bred for working in the snow. Stabilizing selection has chosen a norm for the the size of the Siberian Husky. Directional selection favors those individuals who have extreme variations in traits within a population. For example people pick hounds that were the fastest in their group, from their offspring the breeders again selected the dogs that ran the fastest. By continuing this selection for those dogs, they gradually produced a dog who could run up to 64km/h (40mph). Disruptive selection, like directional selection, favors the extremes traits in a population. Disruptive selection differs in that sudden changes in the environment creates a sudden forces favoring that extreme. Think about the changes in the environment when that meteor crashed into Earth 65mya. If a plague started by the high death rate also hit these stressed animals, they would have been sorely pushed to survive. Evidence shows that they did not. So disruptive selection occurs quickly, selecting for those extreme traits that help organisms survive in the new environmental conditions.

Blog #3 Explain what microevolution is? What are the three ways that variation occurs?

Microevolution is a change in gene frequency within a population over time. This change is due to four different processes: mutation, selection (natural and artificial), gene flow and genetic drift.
Population genetics is the branch of biology that provides the mathematical structure for the study of the process of microevolution. Ecological genetics concerns itself with observing microevolution in the wild. Typically, observable instances of evolution are examples of microevolution; for example, bacterial strains that have antibiotic resistance. Microevolution can be contrasted with macroevolution, which is the occurrence of large-scale changes in gene frequencies in a population over a geological time period (i.e. consisting of extended microevolution). The difference is largely one of approach. Microevolution is reductionist, but macroevolution is holistic. Each approach offers different insights into the evolution process. Macroevolution can be seen as the sum of long periods of microevolution, and thus the two are qualitatively identical while being quantitatively different. Mutations alter the order of bases in the nucleotides of DNA. Mutations are likely to be rare and most mutations are probably harmful, but in some instances the new alleles can be favored by natural selection. Independent assortment (recombination of chromosomes that occurs during sexual reproduction) and the Crossing over that happens during meiosis.

Blog # 2 Why is fossil record hard to interpret?

Fossil record is hard to interpret because it is thousands to millions of years old. The older the fossil is the harder it is for paleontologists to identify what it is. Most fossils require all of the bones to figure out what kind of animal it is and the bones could be scatter all over the world. When interpreting fossils u must be careful not to break anything. Fossils can sometimes be hard or easy depending on the size of the fossil and how old it is. Interpreting fossils takes time and one must be careful not to damage/break anything.

What was you favorite activity/topic this year? Why was it a favorite?What was your least favorite? Why?If you could change one thing (Not the amount of homework) what would it be and how would you change it?

                   My favorite activity in class is doing labs. All the labs that we did were very exiting and interesting. Learning something is fun but when your actually experimenting something u learned before, that is exiting! Any labs that we did taught me many things and they were all very fun and interesting. My least favorite activity is the karoke project. We had to create our own song about biology and sing it in front of the entire class. This was the worst project i ever got because my group and i cant sing at all. Well we can sing but we sing horribly. If I could change one thing i would change the karoke project to something else like a writing project. Instead of singing a song we could write about what we learned in biology. This would be easier for me because writing a few paragraphs is easy compared to singing a song in front of your class. I would tell our teacher Ms.Malonek that a karoke project would be a bad idea because above all most people are better at writing then singing a song.

Blog#13 How has DNA changed how we investigate crimes? What are the two main tests? Describe them

DNA has helped people solved crimes more faster and easier. Such as a strand of hair left behind at a crime scene can be used for DNA testing to find out who the strand of hair belongs to. The two main tests are RFLP and PCR testing. RFLP testing requires larger amount of DNA and the DNA must be undegraded. Crime-scene evidence that is old or that is present in small amounts are often unsuitable for RFLP testing. PCR testing often require less DNA than RFLP testing and the DNA may be partially degraded. PCR tests are also extremely sensitive to contaminating DNA at a crime scene and within the test laboratory. PCR is less direct and somewhat more prone to error than RFLP. However, PCR has tended to replace RFLP in forensic testing primarily because PCR based tests are faster and more sensitive.

Blog 12 Look up Gregor Mendel and his pea plant experiments Why does P1 look all alike and F1 looks very different?

When Mendel cross-pollinated smooth yellow pea plants with wrinkly green peas every single pea in the F1 was the same as the parents. Somehow, the yellow round peas dominated the green wrinkly ones. Then he notice there are two kinds  of traits - dominant and recessive. The round yellow pea were the dominant one and the green peas were the recessive one. He also learned that each trait is determined by "units" or "factors" and not called genes. He repeated the experiment many times and found out the generation had a 3:1 ratio of yellow to green and round to wrinkly.

Blog #10 Post a recipe for something made with fermentation Explain how fermentation helps make the food.

Timeframe: 1-4 weeks (or more)
Special Equipment:

• Ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket, one-gallon capacity or greater
• Plate that fits inside crock or bucket
• One-gallon jug filled with water (or a scrubbed and boiled rock)
• Cloth cover (like a pillowcase or towel)

Ingredients (for 1 gallon):

• 5 pounds cabbage
• 3 tablespoons sea salt

Process:

1. Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like it. I love to mix green and red cabbage to end up with bright pink kraut. Place cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.
2. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage (through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and sour without rotting. The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it. 3 tablespoons of salt is a rough guideline for 5 pounds of cabbage. I never measure the salt; I just shake some on after I chop up each cabbage. I use more salt in summer, less in winter.
3. Add other vegetables. Grate carrots for a coleslaw-like kraut. Other vegetables I’ve added include onions, garlic, seaweed, greens, Brussels sprouts, small whole heads of cabbage, turnips, beets, and burdock roots. You can also add fruits (apples, whole or sliced, are classic), and herbs and spices (caraway seeds, dill seeds, celery seeds, and juniper berries are classic, but anything you like will work). Experiment.
4. Mix ingredients together and pack into crock. Pack just a bit into the crock at a time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement. The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the cabbage.
5. 5. Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fits snugly inside the crock. Place a clean weight (a glass jug filled with water) on the cover. This weight is to force water out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine. Cover the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.
6. Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water out of it. Continue doing this periodically (as often as you think of it, every few hours), until the brine rises above the cover. This can take up to about 24 hours, as the salt draws water out of the cabbage slowly. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old, simply contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate level by the next day, add enough salt water to bring the brine level above the plate. Add about a teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and stir until it’s completely dissolved.
7. Leave the crock to ferment. I generally store the crock in an unobtrusive corner of the kitchen where I won’t forget about it, but where it won’t be in anybody’s way. You could also store it in a cool basement if you want a slower fermentation that will preserve for longer.
8. Check the kraut every day or two. The volume reduces as the fermentation proceeds. Sometimes mold appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mold as “scum,” but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it. Don’t worry about this. It’s just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the air. The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine. Rinse off the plate and the weight. Taste the kraut. Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the taste gets stronger as time passes. In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months and months. In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid. Eventually it becomes soft and the flavor turns less pleasant.
9. Enjoy. I generally scoop out a bowl- or jarful at a time and keep it in the fridge. I start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavor over the course of a few weeks. Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten. Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic. Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully. Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover and weight are clean. Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged below brine just add salted water as necessary. Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it. This can be done; but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness that I wonder: Why kill it?
10. Develop a rhythm. I try to start a new batch before the previous batch runs out. I remove the remaining kraut from the crock, repack it with fresh salted cabbage, then pour the old kraut and its juices over the new kraut. This gives the new batch a boost with an active culture starter. 

Blog 11 In the movie Gattaca parents were allowed to pick the traits of their babies, should we be able to do this? Why or why not?

No we should not be able to do this. Picking traits for our babies isn't the same thing as picking what toppings we want on our pizza. Being human is being different from others and that is what makes us human. If everyone in the world wanted the same thing then what's the point of having something that everyone already has. Being unique is what makes us human. Everyone should have different traits and that's what separate us from other humans.