Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Pig Dissection
The purpose of this dissection is to learn about the different structures inside a body by physically seeing them inside a fetal pig's body. We can also see how all of the systems are connected and situated inside the body. This dissection related to the vodcasts because we saw a physical digestive, circulatory, and respiratory system. The esophagus, stomach, and intestines are all connected. We also saw inside the heart by cutting it open. It was easier to imagine the flow of blood from the left atrium, to the left ventricle, to the right atrium, and to the right ventricle. We could also see the lungs of the pig. My favorite part of the dissection was making the video because we got to explain and find all the important parts of the pig. That way, we could better understand how its body works to allow it to live. This dissection was a valuable experience. We can see the systems in the body. It is a real-life view of what we were taught in the vodcasts. In addition, since the pig was unborn, it never had to be killed. It was good that each group had one pig because we could see inside clearly without lots of people crowding around one pig. We got to learn about the systems in the body and apply our knowledge by making the video. Below is a video my group created showing and explaining the important parts of the body.
Monday, May 22, 2017
Calabaza Creek Clean-up
On Sunday, May 20. I went to the Calabaza Creek in Cupertino. Then, for three hours, other volunteers and I cleaned up the creek. We used gloves and trash picker-uppers to pick up plastic and other pieces of trash at the river. We means groups because we had to work in pairs. Because there was not very much water, we were able to walk around the rocks and dirt to look for trash. The most common trash were cigarette butts. wrappers, and small pieces of paper or plastic. At the beginning, it was easier to find trash. After that, it took some time to look for each piece of plastic in the dirt and brush. We had to dig around and use good observational skills to find small pieces of plastic. These are the parts that fish can eat and get sick from. That is why it is important to find and pick up these as well as large boxes or bags. From this experience, I gained more knowledge about what trash is our rivers and how much of it there is. I learned how fish can get affected by eating plastic that we leave behind. I helped the community of Cupertino and other communities like it, and that is a good feeling to have. I gained experience on how to use my time. Since we had three hours, I had to plan out how to use my time and when to take breaks. I took away with me a sense that I had done something important and worthwhile. These kind of events can also raise awareness about the wasteful actions that people do all the time, such as littering, which can cause trash to get into rivers. I could do this again if I had the chance to. There is another clean-up in September, so it is possible that I could. One thing that I know now is that we take advantage of the nature around us. We need to protect it in order to continue to live and survive on this planet.
20 Time Individual Reflection
My 20 time project was an experiment that was trying to find which food they preferred: genetically modified food or organic food. People rated the food on a scale of one to five on appearance and taste. The three foods we used were cheese, corn, and bananas. We also included some research that we did about the topic. I chose this project because at the time of choosing, we had learned about biotechnology and the modification of food. It seemed like an interesting topic to learn about and test. My partner and I did this project to inform people about the two different kinds of food. It was also done to see if there actually was a difference in preference among people. People can make their own decision about what they want to eat, but now they will have more information about each.
Our initial plan was to do research for a few weeks and then conduct our experiment. Our first weeks were well-spent, and we looked at and got sources for our information. The original plan was to use about ten people as test subjects. That number went down to about seven. In the end, we ended up testing four people for each of the three foods. One thing that I would have done differently if we had more time would be to get more people to do the test. Then, we would have more generalized data at the end. Still, our experiment provides a small sample of what people prefer. Our experiment also could have happened earlier in the year. We were not getting the materials in time to conduct the experiment on the dates we set. This could have allowed us to involve more people. A success was that we finished the project. We explained the experiment, put together data tables, analyzed our results, and included some of the research we had done at the beginning. We put it all together in a document and included a works cited.
If I did this experiment again, I would stick to our deadlines and get more test subjects. I got better at doing experiments because we had to put together our own instead of it being given to us. My researching also improved because we had to find reliable sources for our information. Since I worked with a partner, I made my communication skills better. We did not always agree on what was best for the experiment, but we compromised and ended up finishing. We were able to work together to complete work and reach a common goal. I learned that I could get things done (while not always meeting deadlines) when I put my mind to it. I need to procrastinate less if I want to get things done on time and done well. I am done with this challenge now because we completed our project. We collected our data and analyzed it. There is still more to learn about this topic, but this experiment can give people more information about what they eat. It's not too much information, but it will include things that people have never seen before.
Our initial plan was to do research for a few weeks and then conduct our experiment. Our first weeks were well-spent, and we looked at and got sources for our information. The original plan was to use about ten people as test subjects. That number went down to about seven. In the end, we ended up testing four people for each of the three foods. One thing that I would have done differently if we had more time would be to get more people to do the test. Then, we would have more generalized data at the end. Still, our experiment provides a small sample of what people prefer. Our experiment also could have happened earlier in the year. We were not getting the materials in time to conduct the experiment on the dates we set. This could have allowed us to involve more people. A success was that we finished the project. We explained the experiment, put together data tables, analyzed our results, and included some of the research we had done at the beginning. We put it all together in a document and included a works cited.
If I did this experiment again, I would stick to our deadlines and get more test subjects. I got better at doing experiments because we had to put together our own instead of it being given to us. My researching also improved because we had to find reliable sources for our information. Since I worked with a partner, I made my communication skills better. We did not always agree on what was best for the experiment, but we compromised and ended up finishing. We were able to work together to complete work and reach a common goal. I learned that I could get things done (while not always meeting deadlines) when I put my mind to it. I need to procrastinate less if I want to get things done on time and done well. I am done with this challenge now because we completed our project. We collected our data and analyzed it. There is still more to learn about this topic, but this experiment can give people more information about what they eat. It's not too much information, but it will include things that people have never seen before.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Unit 9 Reflection
In this unit, we learned about the seven taxonomic levels and how life is classified into these levels. The seven levels are kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. An addition is the three domains, Eukarya, Bacteria, and Archaea. Bacteria can be gram-positive or gram-negative, which means they either have less or more peptidoglycan in their cell walls. The different kinds of bacteria include cyanobacteria, symbiotic bacteria, and actinomycetes. Archaea live in extreme environments including anoxic mud, hydrothermal springs and digestive tracts. They challenge what we think is required for living. In the domain Eukarya, there are the kingdoms Fungi, Plantae, and Protista. Protista are very diverse and can be plant or animal-like. Fungi have cell walls made of chitin, absorb food through hyphae, and have fruiting bodies and spores, They include club and sac fungi and bread molds. Plantae (plants) have pollen, seeds, vascular systems, cuticles, and fruit. Bryophyta are seedless non-vascular mosses. Pterophyta are vascular seedless ferns. Gymnosperms have seeds in cones, and angiosperms have seeds in fruit. Throughout the different levels so far, there has been continual change between each kingdom. Each organism evolved to become a more recent one. This continues in the kingdom Animalia.
In the kingdom Animalia, there are phyla of invertebrates and vertebrates. The first invertebrate phylum is Porifera, or the sessile filter-feeders, otherwise known as sponges. Another phylum is the Cnidarians, who are the first vertebrates to have specialized tissue. They include coral, hydras, and jellyfish. The next three phlya are closely related. Platyhelminthes are flatworms with an incomplete or no gut. The three classes are planarians, flukes, and tapeworms. Molluska have a digestive system, and they are snails, slugs, clams, and squids. Finally, Annelida are segmented worms with a coelom, like earthworms. A huge phylum is Arthopoda. The two classes in it are Insecta and Crustacea. The last phylum of invertebrates is Echinodermata, who have a water vascular system with a skeleton made of interlocking ossicles. The five classes include sea stars, sand dollars, basket stars, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies. Then comes the phylum of all vertebrates, Chordata. It starts with fish, specifically the jawless fish of class Agnatha. There are two other classes of fish. Condricthyes have a skeleton made of cartilage, and Osteicthyes have a bony skeleton. After the tranistional forms of fish climbed up onto land, the amiphibians (Amphibia) came into being. They include the salamanders, caecilians, and the frogs/toads. Reptilia is the class with the crocodilians, snakes, lizards, and turtles. They are ectotherms with a three-chambered heart and a cloaca. Aves (birds) evolved from therapod dinosaurs, and they have wings, feathers, and re-arranged hip muscles. The last and most recent class is the class Mammalia. Mammals are complex, social organisms with hair, a chewing jaw, and a four-chambered heart. The three gruops are marsupials, monotremes, and eutherians, or the most recent mammals. In each ensuing phylum and class, there is more diversity and more helpful traits that all lead to the existence of humans. As life went on, speciation and evolution occurred to create the organisms that exist today.
I wonder about what species we still have to discover and how we will classify them. There are so many species in the world that humans have not discovered yet. New phlya and classes could be created to accommodate a new, diverse species. Also, all of these organisms lived during different time periods, and we did a project showing a timeline of Earth's history. Click here to see my reflection on the project. In this unit, we also did presentations about different organisms to show exactly what on Earth evolved. My presentation went well and I was able to be in the time limit range. I believe that this is because I was well prepared, I practiced beforehand for my presentation, so I didn't read from my slides as much. One thing I could have improved on was putting less information onto the slides and not relying on it so much. By that, I mean that I could have spoke more from my own memory and not crowd the slides with information. I could have used it more as an aid than as the basis for my speaking. This gave me valuable experience with public speaking, as I will certainly have to do more of it in my life. I practiced speaking in front of an audience, and I got to see other people do it too. I learned a lot about other organisms on Earth, and each one was taught be a different person. Below is my presentation about the Australopithecus, the first ever upright-walking hominid.
In the kingdom Animalia, there are phyla of invertebrates and vertebrates. The first invertebrate phylum is Porifera, or the sessile filter-feeders, otherwise known as sponges. Another phylum is the Cnidarians, who are the first vertebrates to have specialized tissue. They include coral, hydras, and jellyfish. The next three phlya are closely related. Platyhelminthes are flatworms with an incomplete or no gut. The three classes are planarians, flukes, and tapeworms. Molluska have a digestive system, and they are snails, slugs, clams, and squids. Finally, Annelida are segmented worms with a coelom, like earthworms. A huge phylum is Arthopoda. The two classes in it are Insecta and Crustacea. The last phylum of invertebrates is Echinodermata, who have a water vascular system with a skeleton made of interlocking ossicles. The five classes include sea stars, sand dollars, basket stars, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies. Then comes the phylum of all vertebrates, Chordata. It starts with fish, specifically the jawless fish of class Agnatha. There are two other classes of fish. Condricthyes have a skeleton made of cartilage, and Osteicthyes have a bony skeleton. After the tranistional forms of fish climbed up onto land, the amiphibians (Amphibia) came into being. They include the salamanders, caecilians, and the frogs/toads. Reptilia is the class with the crocodilians, snakes, lizards, and turtles. They are ectotherms with a three-chambered heart and a cloaca. Aves (birds) evolved from therapod dinosaurs, and they have wings, feathers, and re-arranged hip muscles. The last and most recent class is the class Mammalia. Mammals are complex, social organisms with hair, a chewing jaw, and a four-chambered heart. The three gruops are marsupials, monotremes, and eutherians, or the most recent mammals. In each ensuing phylum and class, there is more diversity and more helpful traits that all lead to the existence of humans. As life went on, speciation and evolution occurred to create the organisms that exist today.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Biological_classification_L_Pengo_vflip.svg/399px-Biological_classification_L_Pengo_vflip.svg.png
I wonder about what species we still have to discover and how we will classify them. There are so many species in the world that humans have not discovered yet. New phlya and classes could be created to accommodate a new, diverse species. Also, all of these organisms lived during different time periods, and we did a project showing a timeline of Earth's history. Click here to see my reflection on the project. In this unit, we also did presentations about different organisms to show exactly what on Earth evolved. My presentation went well and I was able to be in the time limit range. I believe that this is because I was well prepared, I practiced beforehand for my presentation, so I didn't read from my slides as much. One thing I could have improved on was putting less information onto the slides and not relying on it so much. By that, I mean that I could have spoke more from my own memory and not crowd the slides with information. I could have used it more as an aid than as the basis for my speaking. This gave me valuable experience with public speaking, as I will certainly have to do more of it in my life. I practiced speaking in front of an audience, and I got to see other people do it too. I learned a lot about other organisms on Earth, and each one was taught be a different person. Below is my presentation about the Australopithecus, the first ever upright-walking hominid.
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