Un. 10 Reflection

In Unit 10 , we learned about the different systems that help the body function, which included Homeostasis, Nervous System, Digestive system, Circulatory system, Respiratory system, Endocrine System, and Lymphatic System with Inflammatory Response. The Homeostasis vodcast talks about different ways our body maintains a constant temperature, using Positive(above set point) or Negative Feedback(above or below set point), and whether it is a Behavioral or Physiologial response. Also, it explains the difference of Thermoregulation( temperature rises and temperature decreases depending on body temp.) and Osmoregulation(keeping osmiality in blood). Differentiation is surpassing several genes, and Apoptosis is death of cells, and  we use Circadian Response to respond to time.

Next, we learned about the Nervous System which contains Central Nervous System(brain and its' stem, spinal cord,sensing stimuli) and Peripheral Nervous System(Crinal Nerves, Spinal Nerves). The Central Nervous System contains the cerebrum(thought, movement), Dicephalon(coordinates with endocrine system, Cerebellum(Calculates force & direction of muscle contraction), and brain stem which controls the reflexes, and other basic life functions. Spinal cords in the PNS controls reflexes with sensory neuron sending its' impulses, and eventually directs impulse to motor neuron. Neurons then, have 3 types, Sensory(Carry nerve impulses from sensory receptors in body to CNS), Association(Carry impulses from sensory neurons to motor neurons), and Motor Neurons(Carry nerve impulses from CNS to muscles and glands). They contains a Cell body, Dendrites, Axon and its' terminal, Schwann Cells, and Synapse.  The action potential is through neuron in an electrical impulse which reaches the Axon terminal, and Neurotransmitters being released to synapse in order to stimulate next cell; many disorders are associated to Neurotransmitters.

Then, we learned about the Endocrine System, which was releasing hormones and controls all body functions. They travel through the circulatory system and affects cells with matching receptors. Glands produce hormones and synthesize a substance for releasing the bloodstream using the Hormonal Domino Effect. The glands include the Hypothalamus(Links Nervous system to Endocrince System via pitutary gland to control body temp.), Pituary(receives instructions from Hypotalamus), Thyroid( absorbs iodine and regulates growth & structure of bones and other functions, Parathyroid(releases hormones regulating calcium levels), Adrenal(releases Epinephine(Increases Heart rate) and Cortisol(stress hormone), and Pancreas which releases Insulin and Glucagon that helps with the Positive and the Negative Feedback.

After the Endocrine System, we learned abut the Digestive Sytstem, which we use to digest our food and nutrients, mainly water,carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals(inorganic molecules) and vitamins(organic molecules). The digestion occurs mechanically(breaking food into digestive chunks using muscle contraction), and chemically(breaking food into digestible pieces using extreme PH). We use Peristalsis to move food through stomach and use mouth to digest carbohydrates, stomach to digest proteins, and small intestine to digest fats and sugars, with most of the digestion in the duodenum of small intestine(absorption of nutrients using folded lining, villi, and microvilli). Large intestine absorbs water which is stored through the Rectum and eliminates solid waste through the Anus. Good bacteria keeps good health, and protects gene expression and vitamin biosynthesis and absorption.

Next is the Immune System where it protects pathogens entering the body. It includes Innate Immunity(Rapid Response, Animals) and Adaptive Immunity( Only vertebrates, slower response). Pathogens can be transferred by direct or indirect contact with body. They are defended first nonspecifically(Skin, Mucus), and specifically second)Immune System). All cells communicate each other using surface proteins, which includes Antigens and Receptors. Immune cells determine "self" from nonself" and pathogens contain antigens to bond cells and infect our body. Phagocytes engulf the pathogens and other bacteria. Natural killer cells kill pathogens and cause lysis or apotosis. In every pathogen, comes same nonspecific response.  However, two specific immune reponses which are last defenses to pathogens include Humoral Immunity (B-cells produce antibodies), and Celluar Immunity ( T-cells destroy infected blood cells)

Finally is the Lymphatic System and Inflammatory Reponse where they collect waste& blood from tissues. They include nodes that are filled with white blood cells to fight infection, as their Celluar Defenses, and Mast cells, that release Histamine(Chemical opens capillaries & causes muscle contraction) during inflammatory response, which is part of innate immunity. There are 3 types of Inflammatory Responses, which are Acute local, which pathogens enter body at specific spot and body focuses attack at one spot,  Systematic( Foreign substances get into bloodstream, and spread throughout body and releases full scale attack with immune cells, and Chronic- Sytemic which fights foreign substances in body on top of normal inflammatory response, resulting that it cannot do its' job well, causing serious diseases. Finally food irritate epithelial cells through Acute Inflammation to Gut Permeability to Chronic Inflammation.

I want to learn more deeper into all the systems and more of the impacts on our Anatomical Body so I would take Human Anatomy Class. I still question and wonder whether if I will finish strong in Biology?

I thought this whole year went pretty well as in the beginning of the 1st semester,  I was just adjusting to High School Biology and how it was a big difference from 7th Grade Biology.  As I kept writing my Blogger posts in Biology, I improved more upon being creative and really explaining the experience I had in Biology and the many fun projects from the Jean Lab to the Pig Dissection.  First Semester, I ended up with a 92, A- , which was not bad but I wanted to improve my grade the next semester by preparing more on the Unit Tests, and understanding the vodcasts and going over the CFUs'. Eventually this helped my grade as right now I am currently at a 95 ,A. This is an improvement I am very proud of but I need to keep studying hard because the grade can change any time after a test is taken.
My Favorite Blog Posts: http://jonathanlishs.blogspot.com/2016/05/pig-dissection-relate-and-review.html, http://jonathanlishs.blogspot.com/2015/12/human-dna-extraction-lab.html. I chose these blog posts because these were my favorite topics to write about, but best blog posts out of both semesters.

Pig Dissection Relate and Review

In the Pig Dissection, we used the knowledge of External Anatomy, Digestive System, Respiratory System, Circulatory System, Endocrine System, Immune System,  and Urinary and Reproductive systems and answered how do all these systems apply to the Pig's anatomical structure. The External anatomy(the easiest to identify) included the External Ear, Eyelid, Wrist, Shoulder, Digits, Ankle, hip, tail,umbilical chord, thoracic and abdominal cavity, along with the gender of the pig which was a female. Digestive System(to eat) includes the mouth, incisor teeth, canine teeth, tongue, papillae, hard and soft palates, esophagus, stomach, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, large and small intestine, rectum and anus. The dissection for the Digestive organs is the longest because of how we need to first cut it body, break the pig's throat and mouth open. The Respiratory System(to breathe) includes the nostrils, larynx, trachea, lungs, and diaphragm. The parts were also as easy to identify. For the Endocrine System(Control hormones), it includes the cervical and thoracic thymus portions, thyroid, and spleen, which were parts very hard to identify that we could only find the pig;s thyroid and spleen. The Circulatory(transports materials throughout body) includes the heart organs (right and left auricles, and right and left ventricles, and the vessels(Coronary Artery, Aorta, Superior and Inferior vena cava, Umbilical arteries and veins, and Renal arteries and veins. The coronary artery took the most time to identify. Then the Urogenital (Excretes waste) included the kidney, ureter bladder, and since our pig was a female, an ovary, uterine horn, uterus, vagina, and genital papillae, which are used when they give birth to young pigs. My favorite part of the dissection was cutting the pig's body and being able to observe the many parts that are same shaped in humans such as the digestive organs.Pig Dissections are always very valuable since they just increase our understanding of how human body systems are also similar to the animal body systems. This whole lab relates to the last few vodcasts before the Lymphatic and Inflammatory vodcast, which included the Nervous, Endocrine,Digestive, Immune, Respiratory and Circulatory system vodcasts.

Part 1:                               
Part 2:                    

20 Time Final Post: Hybrid Vehicles

Today, I shared why Hybrid vehicles are important to our environment, in order for people to know the importance of Hybrid Vehicles.

My video

My Ted talk went well with using the infographic to explain the benefits of Hybrid Vehicles. I also thought I did not pause during my 20 Time Ted Talk and had the talk between the 4-5 minute range. However, I have to improve on putting fewer words on the visual but have more to say for the Ted Talk. In other words, I need to let my words drive the Talk and not the visual. Also, I should have come with more testing on the hybrid vehicles like their overall mileage, and the emissions that they release. Instead of creating an infographic for my Ted talk, I should have created a Prezi since Prezi allows to zoom in easier to what I am going to talk about than the infographic. Prezi is also easier to present its' slides and showcase the product better than my easel.ly infographic. When I watched the video, I would give a 72out of 75,  since I need people to hear my talk, not the visual,  but I thought that I already stated the goal of my presentation before giving the Infographic. Preparing the Ted talk was not stressful at all, including the day of the presentation where I showcased my 20 time talk, but the feedback of the audience was a little bit nerve-whacking. I grown from this Ted talk by knowing next time to put less words, but more talking on the day of presentation.  By listening other Ted Talks, I felt that people did more better than me because they put more images on their visual which causes them to talk more(lecturing) than talking off from the presentation. Overall, I did well on my 20 time Ted Talk but there is still lots of lessons for me to learn from this.

20 Time Individual Reflection

I thought that my 20 time project on Hybrid vehicles was a very fun and a memorable experience, because I am interested into making our environment greener. One of these obvious ways we can help our environment is by driving Hybrid Vehicles. Each week, I challenged myself to discover ways of how hybrid vehicles are benefit to our environment. The goal of this 20-time project was to eventually convince others to driving hybrid vehicles for the sake of the Earth's environment . In order to explain the benefits of Hybrid Vehicles, I created an Infographic that will help others gain the big picture of how hybrid vehicles can be beneficial. It went very smooth but there were several concepts I had to learn about hybrid vehicles such as that its' engine is composed of gas and electricity motors and what is the function of horsepower in each hybrid vehicles. I learned from this hybrid vehicle project that to not spend time on preparing my Hybrid Vehicle Ted Talk earlier in the 2nd semester, but to come with more ways of "how hybrid vehicles are beneficial?" If I did 20-time again, then I would still go back to the Hybrid vehicles and focus more globally of how hybrid vehicles are beneficial. Therefore, the new question I would need to solve is "How Hybrid Vehicles are beneficial globally?" I would share this to many people as possible that want to preserve our environment

Unit 9 Reflection

In this unit, we learned about "What on Earth Evolved?" In the beginning of this unit, we were learning about the taxonomic levels in the Classification and Evolutionary  Relationships vodcast, which were Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. We also learned about Binomial Nomenclature, which are Genus and Species names. The first letter of the Genus name is capitalized while the first letter of the Species name is lower-cased, and eventually both words need to be italicized.  Next, we learned about the 3 Domain System which includes Eukarya, Archaea, and Bacteria. Eukarya includes four kingdoms, which are Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, and Protist. Kingdom Protista are unicelluar or multicelluar, Kingdom Plantae is nonvascular and vascular, Kingdom Fungi are heterotrophic decomposers, and Kingdom Animalia are multicelluar heterotrophs. Archae lives near hydrothermal vents, and hot springs, while bacteria contains actinomycetes which produce antibiotics and can be symbiotic and cyano.

  In the Bacteria Viruses Vodcast we learned how bacterial cells contain peptidoglycan, which is a network of sugar polymers cross-lined by polypeptides.  If the peptidoglycan has greater amount on simpler walls, then it is Gram-positive bacteria while if petidoglycan has less amount on simpler walls, then it is gram-negative bacteria.  We also talked about the mobility of bacteria which is  by flagella that they scatter about the surface or concentrated at both ends, and its' importance. In addition, we learned how viruses are small infectious particles that consists nucleic acid enclosing protein coat and the membraneous envelope, and how their genomes consist of RNA or DNA.

Then we go in deeper learning about plants and fungi. Plants are autotrophic, and they contain a Cuticle, Xylem, Pholoem, and a water vascular system. They contain phylas of Bryophyta, Pterlphyta, Gymonosperms, and Angiosperms which subdivdes into Monocots and Dicots. On the other hand, Fungi are multicelluar, heterotrophic, and mutualist organisms that contain hyphae, mycellium, fruiting body, and a spore. They contain Sac Fungi, Club Fungi, and bread molds. Then we start on learning about Invertebrates and their defining characteristics. Sponges are specialized cells that have no body symmetry and can reporduce asexually or sexually.  Cnidarians are the oldest existing group that have specialized cell tissues  and contain classes of Scyohozans, Anthozans, Hydrozans, and Carbozans. Flatworms have simple bilateral animals with an incomplete gut and include classes of planarians, flukes, and tapeworms.  Phylum Molluska share a Radulla, Mantle, and Cteridia, while Anellids contain segmented bodies. Anthropods are classified as trilobites and have joined appendages. They include Crustaceans that contain 2 distinct body sections and a head, thorax, and abdomen. Finally, Echinoderms have a water vascular system and can reproduce asexually and sexually. In Chordates, there are seven classes of vertebrates. Agnatha are one of the first recognizable vertebrates to have segmented bodies. Condricthyes are cartilage fish, and Osteicythes are bony fish. Amphibians contain an aquatic lavae of frogs and are very mobile. Next are Aves, which contained a fused collarbone and feathers, and finally, Mammalia are endotherms that have memory glands, and contain 3 modern groups, which are Montromeres, Marsuipals , and Euteherians.

On my "What on Earth Evolved" I thought the presentation was good overall since I maintained eye contact with the audience the whole time because I memorized what I said. But, I also need talk more about the pictures that I put in the presentation. Like Mr. Orre said, anyone can read the words out of the presentation whenever they want, but it is mainly about describing the pictures I put on the presentation. For my 20 time Ted talk, I need to make my lecture and presentation more of pictures than words.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19_VpgsarV1pKKBBpHpQQxAlEj7rwoHGQtjpY9SWXLMI/edit#slide=id.p

Relate & Review- "My Inner Fish"

 In the episode of "Your Inner Fish," Dr. Neal Shubin talks about how many of the features we inherit are from fish, especially our embyronic structure. Some questions that interested me is what the Sonic hedgehog gene responsible for, which is to tell cells in a particular order due to the signals and generating multiple digits. The Sonic hedgehog gene helps form the multiple digits along the hand.  It is located in the embroyo and comes in when interaction of proteins lay down a basic pattern. It can be increased where it can form more than 5 finger digits like Kamani, and can decrease. Another interesting question is what did Tikataalik use its' neck for in the water, which is to watch out for other predators, and hunt smaller prey. Tiktaalik are the first transitional fish to live underwater and go onto land. They are tetrapod primitive fish that descends from pioneer amphibians. These concepts relate  to knowing the structure and defining characteristics of fish and how there structures are very similar to humans, mainly in the Chordates Part 1 and 2 Vodcast.

4th Blog Post

On my 20 time project "Hybrid Vehicles," I decided to change of building the hybrid model, to creating an infographic to prove that Hybrid Vehicles are beneficial. This was not only because of Mr. Orre convinced me to do the infographic instead of building the hybrid model, but actually realzing that the hybrid model, which I'm building out of cardboard,will not prove anything that hybrids are beneficial, and takes a lot of time. After I finish my infographic, I am going to keep practicing on what I am going to say for my 20-time Ted talk.

Fire Corals

Fire Corals, are classified as a Hydrozan in the Cnidarian phylum. They use their long hairs that protrude from their skeleton to trap their prey and gets their food from Zooxanthealle. Then they produce clusters of stingning cells that inflict the stings on human skin. Their polyps reproduce asexually, and are near microscopic size and mostly are imbedded in the skeleton and are connected by minute canals.  These corals contain gastropores and dactylopores, that are visible on their smooth surface. Fire corals can reproduce asexually through fragmentation. However their brittle skins are easily to be broken during storms or by divers. This relates to learning about Hydrozans in the Part 1 Invertebrates Vodcast which is part of the Phylum Cnidaria that is hte odest group containing specialized Tissues.http://www.arkive.org/fire-corals/millepora-spp/.

3rd Blog Post

                                             Environmental Impact of Hybrid Vehicles Progress Report 3

Right now I already finished my google slide on my Hybrid vehicle 20-time Ted talk. The problem I want to solve is according to http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1083671_hybrid-vehicle-sales-grew-40-percent-last-year-study-finds,  25-34 year olds are 16% more likely to live in a household that owns hybrid vehicle, with 8% of these people are more likely to say that it is important others see hybrid vehicles as an environmental impact to our society.  Hearing these statistics I want to somewhat increase these numbers by having my 20 time Ted-talk reflecting on the environmental benefits of hybrid cars, and also using a hybrid model to explain the concept as well. I need to start building my hybrid model, and continue preparing for my Ted talk.

Unit 8 Reflection

In this unit, we learned about artificial and natural selection, and how does it relate to the evolution of species. While natural selection is the "survival of the fittest" and artificial selection is we pick out traits that we want in order to mate different individuals with these traits, the population does evolve by having some indviduals die and other indviduals live. We also learned about speciation and the different types of isolations: Behavioral, Geographic, and Temporal isolation, along with discovering relative dating and drawing evidence from fossils to determine how long they live and when. Next, we learned about gene pools, and allele frequencies which are used in the Hunger games lab when we found the "A" and "a" allele frequencies based on how much Stumpys, Knucklers , and Pinchers. In the population, there are different kinds of selections such as Behavioral, Stablizing, and Directive selection based on the phenotypes it favored. We also talked about Embryology in which we once shared a common ancestry with other animals such as frogs, birds, but eventually evolved differently from the time.  There is evo-devo which is evolution among multicelluar organisms such as humans, whales, and any other living individuals. Also there is adaptive radiation, where there is rapid speciation from a common ancestor. Finally, we learned the History of Earth was long and vast. It was divided into 4 eras: Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Era. Precambrian era shared 88% of Earth's time and was when concentration of oxygen increased, Paleozoic era is divided into Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. It was a time where animal diversity increased and the colonization of land and animals, diversification among vascular plants, along with the "age of fish" and domination of amphibians. The Mesozoic era was the "Age of Reptiles, and Cenozoic Era was the time insects and flowering plants dominate, and the Ice age along with evolution of humans.

I want to learn more about whether there will be another era existing after the Cenozoic Era? Also, is there going to be another mass extinction? In other words, is there going to be a 7th math extinction? I do not have any questions, and I wonder how long will there be life on Earth?

I have tried to make an effort on it, by not stressing after each test, and knowing that I cannot control the final score or result I get on the tests. All I can do, is control how much time I study for the tests and how much preparation is needed. I still need to work on having more confidence in myself on tests.

Geologic Timeline Reflection

The 3 major events of Earth's history are the creation of Earth, concentration of atmospheric oxygen increasing, and the "Cambrian explosion."Humans and living animals would not exist without the Earth's creation. Without oxygen on Earth increasing, we would not survive because the oxygen amount will be so little for us to breathe in. However, without the "Cambrian Explosion," we would not have the food that is needed to survive, since animals are the primary food source for humans. Without all three major events, Earth will not be having a "green" environment as it is.

Scale of Earth history starts with Hadean Period, Precambrian Era, Paleozoic Era, Mesozoic Era, and finally the Cenozoic Era. The Precambrian Era is subdivided into Archeozoic and Proterozoic periods, Paleozoic Era subdivided into Cambrian, Ordovician,Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian periods, Mesozoic Era subdivided into Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous period, and lastly, Cenozoic Era is subdivided into Tertiary(Paleogene and Neogene), and Quaternary period. What surprised me was after the Diversification of early vascular plants, the diversification of bony fishes existed before extensive forests of vascular plants form, since I thought after the diversification of the earliest plants would come the existence of these plants. Also, after the diversification of flowering plants was the major radiation of mammals, bird, and insects, instead of Angiosperm(the flowering plant) dominance increases since the dominance of a flower consists the process of creating and diversificating it.

The short time we had on Earth really made a big impact by increasing the global health of our environment, maintaining diversity among our planet, and most importantly, caused more concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere by the increase of human population each year. However, without the preceding events before the existence of humans such as the oxygen increasing, Cambrian Explosion, and diversification of marine life, we would not be having the happy experience of living in a good Earthly environment. The recycling we try to do as humans, also helps out with Earth to maintain a greener environment.

The questions I have is based on past evidence before the Existence of Earth and its' land and sea creatures, along with humans, when will Earth end? While scientists say that the increase of human population will cause the Earths' carrying capacity to be eventually full and explode, the movie"Story of Stuff" says that if we keep do not recycle our trash and continue burning trash, Earth will not exist. Also what will be the aftermath of Earth after humans die? Will a new kind of species exist? Or will Earth will just die itself?

Hunger Games Final Analysis

Hunger Games Lab Analysis

1.In the Hunger Games lab, we were divided into 3 groups: "Stumpys"(AA), "Knucklers"(Aa), and Pinchers(aa), that fought for survival by trying to get as many corks as possible before all the corks were gone.  Those who survived after each round got to mate with other people in the class by flipping 2 coins to determine whether they were a "Stumpys," "Knuckler,"  or "Pinchers," and those who did not survive had to sit out until the mates called their name to get back in.We simulated natural selection by being to mate with different people that have different traits, after each survival round was over so that those who did not survive in the previous round or two, could come back in as a child of mom and dad, and evolution, which is the change of allele frequency over time. For evolution, we would have survival rounds where we had to get as many corks as possible for ourselves until the corks ran out. Then we would determine the number of Stumpys(AA genotype), Knucklers(Aa genotype), and Pinchers(aa genotype were left. Eventually after the Hunger Games lab was over, we were able to use how many Stumpys,Knuclers, and Pinchers surivived in each round, and determine the allele frequency for each round.

2. The Pinchers captured more food since they were able to just use between their thumb and index fingers to get the corks, saving more time to get more corks each time to get all the corks. Darwin concluded that "individuals with better traits help survive better and reproduce more offspring than other individuals," and those are the pinchers of the lab.

3. Population evolved over time by having the "A" allele frequency decreasing after each trial because the "Stumpys" and the "a" allele frequency increased because of the "knucklers." Also the population was evolved by the natural selection among the Stumpys, Pinchers, and Knucklers. For instance, both A and a allele frequencies started with 50% but eventually in the end the "A" allele frequency had 17% and the "a" allele frequency had 83%. This is because of the amount of Stumpys, Pinchers, and Knucklers changing after each time.

4. Random events in the Hunger Games Lab is the amount of corks needed to survive was unpredictable around each time. For example for the 1st round, I picked only 10 corks which I thought was enough until Mr. Orre said we needed 12 corks to survive. In the 2nd round, I picked 12 corks and also though I would survive but, then Mr. Orre increased his expectancy of the amount of corks to survive. Also, Mr. Orre spreaded out the Corks in different places so you were either close to a clump of Corks and survived or you will not close to a group of Corks and you died. Predictable events were that everybody was going to fight for survival so that they could get more corks over time, and eventually mate each other. These random events or predictable can either slow down the population or increase the population.
5. It would have been different since if the corks were larger, then there would have been a tie between the Stumpys and the Pinchers, which is an example of Disruptive selection. If the corks are smaller there would have been a tie between Pinchers and Knucklers.This happens in nature for example when some plants and animals grow more than others due to their enviornment and so when predators eat them, not everybody will have equal amount of food.
6. The results will be different since now that there is one less group, the competition will reduce greatly and it will be much more safer and better for having survival.
7. Natural selection is selecting traits in a population that cause it to not survive, in order to cause evolution on population over time. For example, since the Stumpys could not get as much food as the other groups did, some people(animals) had to be taken apart from the Stumpy population so that the Stumpys could survive which was true with only Tripp on the Stumpys surviving.
8. In order for the groups to survive in the Hunger Games Lab, some people become very aggresive and eventually dive to get many corks as possible before the corks run out, which are mainly the pinchers and knuckles.  Aggressive animals like tigers, lions, sharks fight anyone it takes in order to eat their prey. Another way students used to survive is wearing sweaters on that day purposely to get more corks in order to survive. This meathod would work the best if someone was a Stumpy. For example, big fur mammals like bears, grizzlies, and kangaroos would use their huge hands and pouches to store as much food inside to feed their offspring.
9.  In evolution, populations that have offspring  and allele frequency in the gene pool will evolve greatly over time.  Natural selection acts on the phenotype since if animals  have better traits, they will survive better. However the genotypes will change in order to be susceptible to mutations.
10. I have no questions. I wonder whether if we will ever do another outside lab again?

2nd blog post

The progress of preparing my 20-time Ted Talk on my Hybrid Vehicles

I learned that hybrid vehicles are ran on half engine and half motor. I learned in myself that I need to start having earlier preparation of my Ted talk on Hybrid vehicles to have success. Started on my Google Slide of my 20 time topic of Hybrid vehicle that I will use as my Ted talk and also preparing materials to build my hybrid model that will represent the environmental benefit of hybrid vehicles. I have not encountered any challenges and my next steps are to start building the Hybrid model of the Hybrid vehicle that I will use in my Ted talk; also work on my google slides to prepare for the day of my Ted talk of my 20-time idea. I can apply my idea to the community by the teachers, sophmores, juniors, and seniors driving to school, still using. regular cars that are composed all gasoline and I want to reduce that numerical amount.

Bird Beak Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question of if Natural Selection occurs in a population, how do changes in selective pressures affect the evolution of species. We found that birds with the better type of beaks like the tweezers get more food and evolute faster than other, causing them to be the winner. In feeding round of part 1, there were 41% of chicks from the Tweezer-beak bird, 38% of chicks from the Spoon-beak bird, and 21% of chicks from the Paper Clip-beak bird; this supports the hypothesis that if there are winners and losers, the tweezers would win and the scissor and the paper clip lose. In the feeding round of part 2, the paper clip beak had 16% of the chicks, the tweezer picked 31% of chicks, and the spoon picked 53% of the chicks; this however does not supports the hypothesis that the tweezer-beak bird is the winner since in round 2, the spoon-beak bird was the winner. Based on the 2 rounds, we found that the whole population of chicks are the tweezer-beak bird and the spoon-beak bird which made them the winners of the competition. This comes from what Natural Selection is, which is selecting pop. out of a group that cannot survive, and the Change that it's all natural vodcast, that included Darwin's observations and conclusions that we used in the lab. By knowing what Darwin's observations were, we related it when we had a competition among who can get the most food using different types of beaks. The data in the Bird beak lab supported that there are winners and losers among a population, by having some types of bird beaks having more chicks than others, because of eating more food than others.

Some errors we made in the lab included that not everybody in our table group might not be trying as much to get as much food in round 1 and round 2 of the Bird-Beak lab competition. If we did this lab in the afternoon, even though we might not have the best bird beak to eat food,  we would have more accurate results since all these birds are competing really hard for food with a lot of energy, and in the morning not everybody is having that energy to get the food in the lab. Another error we might have faced was in the second round of the Bird Beak competition, we did not have toothpicks to feed on due to massive drought. So now the competition of resources will be more tighter since there are less resources.

In conclusion, the Bird beak lab was done to demonstrate Darwin's observations & conclusions in effect. There were different types of bird beaks that had to fight for survival in order to raise their offspring. From this lab, I learned the concept of natural selection that there are going to be some birds or any other living organisms that become extinct, and some of them survive;those who cannot survive are moved out naturally out of the competition like in the 2nd round of the Bird beak lab competition where we had some birds drop out or extinct because they did not get enough food in order to raise their offspring, or survive. Based on my Bird beak lab experience, I can apply it to the school life today where we all eventually want to get in the great universities like Stanford, Berkley, UCLA, Harvard, etc. But eventually there is limited space for each of the universities so some will get accepted and others will be dropped or rejected from the university like the bird beaks in the experiment when they could not get enough food, they go extinct.

The environmental impact of hybrid vehicles.

20 time is an idea that came from Google where students or employees use twenty percent of their time to do a project that passions and interests them. In my 20 time project of the environmental impact of hybrid vehicles, the essential question I ask is why we need to drive hybrid vehicles? I chose this 20 time idea because lots of people in the world do not realize of how important it is to make Earth a greener environment . Instead they drive gasoline cars that come from fossil fuels that pollute the environment. The environmental impact of hybrid vehicles answers why we need to drive hybrid vehicles by hybrid vehicles having a half gasoline and half electric engine, so that it will reduce the pollution in the environment by a lot. My goal is to build a hybrid model that will help explain the benefits of driving hybrid vehicles. I will measure my progress by seeing how much I get done each week by doing a blog every other week to reflect on my work. I hope that after I explain this 20 time idea through my Ted talk, more people will begin to understand the importance of driving hybrid vehicles in order to reduce pollution on Earth, and drive hybrid vehicles often.

Unit 7 Reflection

In this unit, we talked about what is Ecology, the purpose of the food web and the food chain in the ecosystem, how is energy divided in the ecosystem, how the population of living species can possibly grow in an ecosystem, Ecosystem recycling, and how do we protect our Ecosystem. Ecology is the study of living things and their environment, and has the levels of organization: Organism to Population to Community to Ecosystem to Biome to Biosphere.

The Ecosystem environment is full of living organisms with their own habitat, interdependence, and niche, but they also have Abiotic and Biotic factors of determining an ecosystem. In order for producers and consumers to survive, they need sunlight and other animals to survive. The way of how producers and consumers attain energy in an ecosystem is through a food chain  or food web, though food web is more accurate. Ecological pyramids help show how energy is transferred and uses the 10% rule starting from the bottom level of the pyramid to the next level and so on. Besides an Energy of Pyramid, there is a Pyramid of numbers that shows amount of animals left in each level and the Biomass Pyramid which is the amount of potential energy in each trophic level.

The population of living species can grow exponentially or logistically, depending on the carrying capacity of the environment, and how much living organisms in species are born, leave , come, and die. By seeing successions after large natural disturbances we still have an ecosystem and we can recycle through using nutrient cycles like the Water, Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorous cycle. Finally, we can protect our Ecosystem by looking at each environment and determining the amount of habitat loss, overexploitation, introduced/exotic species, and climate change in it.

I want to learn about how the nutrient cycles are used in our life, and what are more problems we face in a linear system of earth? I wonder about whether we will be able to help make Earth a greener environment.

I thought the Conservation Biologist Project was very successful esp. with my groupmates contributing a lot of time to this project of the Amazon Rainforest. I thought the quality of the recording of the Powerpoint was very good but it took a while to record since not everyone had time to practice what they planned for the presentation, so next time, just have a time to read over the parts each person will read and the next class, we will record it. I learned that the Amazon Rainforest is also affected by Global Warming and is endangered. The collaboration of our group was perfect via email and class time. I am assertive but to me more assertive, I cannot blame people too much by saying "you" and set your own boundaries and tell them when people invade them when they talk to you.

Gel Electrophoresis Virtual Lab

Gel Electrophoresis Virtual Lab Worksheet Name_Jonathan Li____________________

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/gel/

Make a prediction:

1. How do you think you could figure out the lengths of the strands in the tube of DNA?

By identifying where the flurorescent dye is attached which stops the synthesis on the strand.

Go through the simulation:

2. What is the process called in which we measure the DNA microscopically?Electrophoresis

3. What is the “gel”? Filter that sorts DNA strands and made of Jell-o with small holes.

4. Write down the step of gel electrophoreses

Set up gel apparatus.

2.  Look DNA sample in gel.

3. Hook electric current and run gel.

4. Stain gel and analyze results.

5. What does the current do the DNA samples? Pass positive and negative energy through gel.

6. What kinds of strand move quickly and further down the gel?

Shorter strands

7. What kinds of strand move slower and lag behind? Larger strands

8. What about the strand that are the same length?

They move the same speed and are grouped together.

9. What helps us see the DNA strand in the gel?

Electrphoresis box

10. What are the ingredients to make a gel? Make your Gel!

Powdered agarose, flask, Gel Mold, Gel Comb, Buffer, Microwave.

11. Load the Gel with the DNA!
12. After you load the DNA sample into the tray, what is the next step? Look at the gel box to see what is happening.

13. How do you know current is running through the gel?

By the bubbles being produced.

14. After the gel is done, what must you do to it before you can analyze your results?

Take the gel mold out of electrophoresis box.

15. How long does this process take?

Half an hour

16. What type of light do you use to view the gel? Is it safe and what precautions would you might need to use?

UV light, which isn’t safe and you want to wear protective or safety googles.

17. Take a screenshot of your gel and paste below.

If you do not know how to take a screen shot go to http://www.take-a-screenshot.org

18. Write your size estimates below:

1. Strand 1_3000 bp__________________

2. Strand 2 2000 bp____________

3. Strand 3  1500 bp___________________

19. Could you list one reason why we would run a Gel electrophoresis on someone and explain your answer.

To determine whether their DNA can be seperated at anytime esp. electric voltage, since voltage creates shock and whether DNA can resist to it, is the main reason why.

Relate and Review

Write at least 5 sentences summarizing the process of electrophoresis and relating to what you’ve learned before.

In this Gel Electrophoresis lab, we learned the process of Gel Electrophoresis, by first setting up the gel apparatus, using the electric current to move strands toward gel. Then look for the DNA sample in gel. Next, hook electric current and run gel by the  electric current moving bubbles inside. Finally,  stain the gel and estimate length of DNA strands. Gel Electrophoresis is mainly seperating the DNA fragments or strands using the electric voltage or current. This relate to Mr. Orre’s vodcast of technologies of Biotech , when he introduced Gel Electrophoresis and how it seperates DNA.

pGLO lab conclusion

pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis

1.

Obtain your team plates.  Observe your set of  “+pGLO” plates under room light and with UV light.  Record numbers of colonies and color of colonies. Fill in the table below. Plate Number of Colonies Color of colonies under room light Color of colonies under   UV light - pGLO LB 0(carpet) white light tan - pGLO LB/amp 0 white white + pGLO LB/amp 75 white white + pGLO LB/amp/ara 250 tan/green green

2.	What two new traits do your transformed bacteria have?
	Ampicillin resistance and ability to glow by shining UV light on it.
3.	Estimate how many bacteria were in the 100 uL of bacteria that you spread on each plate. Explain your logic. About 1000 microliters of bacteria because adding 25 to each plate and the +Glo LB/amp/ara had 250 colonies which is 10 times the amount of bacteria from adding the bacteria to the plate. so 100(10) equals 1000 microliters.
4.	What is the role of arabinose in the plates?
	To express the gene of the plasmids having that sugar, in order to let bacteria glow.
5.	List and briefly explain three current uses for GFP (green fluorescent protein) in research or applied science.
	It is used to image pathogenic bacteria, an indicator to show when one glows, the other glows, and gives quantitative amount of bacterial association with mammalian cells.
6.	Give an example of another application of genetic engineering. Genetic Engineering helps create Genetically Modified Organisms in Agriculture, and in organisms, determine the functions of their certain genes.