Blog #16-LAST BLOG 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 #16-LAST BLOG 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?

In the second semester of this year in Biology in Ms. Malonek's class, I had some success along with some failures. First of all, one of my success would be working hard does help in the long run because if I do all my homework when it was given, I don't have to rush to finish it; thus, avoiding that I have to do sloppy work while rushing and not getting a better grade on it when I can. Additionally, good work does come with a good grade in return which will make my parents and me very happy!

Another success would be that it was really informative to learn about difference specimen's anatomy, making me compare and contrast the human's body anatomy and there is such a great difference. I used to think that  all animals had the same organs such as lungs, kidneys, etc. but that was where I was wrong and know my mistakes now.

However, I had some failures along the way and one of them is to open my ears and listen to the teachers with depth. I don't know why but when I thought the anatomy quiz was the worm and the grasshopper, I thought the anatomy quiz was going to be about the worm and the clam, instead. It was like I didn't open my ears to listen. WHAT A FAILURE! I studied for the wrong material for tomorrow's quiz!

Even though sometimes I almost cut the specimen at the wrong end, I didn't because good thing I had a partner. Therefore, I think dissecting specimen helped me learn a lot because there was actually a visual for me to learn and to actually know how each organ or thing looks like which made it easier for me to learn the material. I would always remember that preserves would make a rat look yellow and how squid can be made to yummy calamari. I would always remember "survivial of the fittest" because it is tough when people fight for candy. They were vicious people!! and they always grabbed the candy easier because they were big and strong.

Blog #15 Compare two of the organisms that we have dissected Discuss at least 2 similarities and 3 differences

Blog #15 Compare two of the organisms that we have dissected Discuss at least 2 similarities and 3 differences

I would compare the two organisms: frog and squid. These two organisms have more differences than similarities.

The first similarity would be that these two specimen both have two eyes to see. The habitat is another similarity because they live in underwater where they have a membrane for their eye. They both have closed circulatory system, external reproduction, and a complex nervous system.

There are quite some differences between the frog and the squid. The frog has a vertebrate while the squid has an invertebrate. The frog also contains kidneys, a total of three chambered hearts, lungs, and a total of four limbs. The frog, however, can live in the water but it can also live in land. The frog also uses its hind legs to jump while a squid can't even jump. Now we can also compare the color of these two specimen. It is obvious that one animal is green and has black dots; a frog also can feel slimy while a squid's color is gray and soft and slippery.

The most obvious thing an animal has is a "pen" for the bone which is what a squid has, also for squirting ink just like an octopus. The octopus, however, has many limbs in which you cannot even tell how much there are because they may vary for one squid to a different squid. The squid mainly lives underwater swimming all day long. Therefore, a squid can be eaten but usually frogs are not eaten by humans even though it is considered as seafood.

Blog 14 Which specimen that we have dissected so far seems most like humans? Why?

Blog 14 Which specimen that we have dissected so far seems most like humans? Why?

The specimen that we dissected so far that seems most like humans are fish out of the other specimen which were grasshopper, squid, worm and clam so far. 

One reason that humans do relate to a fish is because of all the organs they have compared to us. A fish is a similar kind of model to humans. For example, fish has kidneys, a heart, a stomach, etc whereas a worm doesn't even have a kidney and some other parts the human body has.

Both has two eyes, also ears but for fish the ears are inside their head so they don't hear that well unlike humans who hear to listen to music, hear to listen to the teacher's lectures in class, or even hear the beauty of each person's voice. The different thing about fish and humans is that they don't have similar habitats, but distinctive habitats because fish live underwater while humans live on dry land.

2020

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

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

The most interesting in this week's dissections was that some animals actually don't have hearts, eyeballs, or certain organs. In my opinion, I think humans usually need most parts of their body. For example, we need eyes to see things in case we might bump into someone that we don't want to. We need ears to hear things such as listening to music or even listening to the teachers yell at us when we don't want that to happen.

We use our hands to touch, to feel what is surronding us or to feel how things feel like such as the wodden floor, the bumpy floor, or even the rocky floor. There are also the nose we use to smell foods or even stinky perfume. For example, even though we to smell something good, we don't want to smell stuff that taste bad. For example, the big trash truck is right next to my friend and me so she sprays perfume everyone around us to make us smell the perfume instead of the nasty, stinky trash. Also, when we smell our parents making our dinner, yummy! it smells so good that we ask what is for dinner and etc...

What else was fascinating was that I thought we were only doing a frog dissection but I was wrong because we did all kinds of dissections-the clam, worm crayfish, and etc. It was interesting how we got to know how these animals/species move and how it looks inside their bodies because their bodies looks so different from my body and the other type of animals' bodies. The shape, color, or even texture is so different that even there are organs they don't have! Interesting isn't it?!

I think there will be wayyyyy more fascinating stuff in next week's dissection since the dissection part of the chapter is not finish yet! Frogs~

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

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

What surprised me in the worm dissection was not only one thing but plenty of things.

At the first place, I didn't there were some worms that were as long as the ones we dissected in class that were at the same time really skinny. It was longer than my whole hand, but also skinner than one of my fingers.

The second thing I was surprised was that it was so simple to dissect a worm; we just needed to use a simple blade, and there the skin opened and we saw the organs inside the worm while putting pins to keep the worm in place.

Another thing was that inside the worm, there was huge amounts of dirt. From top to bottom was full of dirt and it seemed like nothing else. Well, it was from the clitellum to like the annus part of the worm. Sometimes I wonder if all worms eat are DIRT, DIRT, DIRT, and nothing else to fill up their stomach.

I was also surprised that worms have FIVE HEARTS! Because they have five hearts, I wonder if they have five lives like a cat supposedly have nine lives. Well, it must be false that the worm has five lives because the worm should have survived after we dissected it and since it didn't that might be a safer thing because I know worms won't run around the classroom or school.

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

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



This is the alternation of generations- of ferns obviously.

The alternation of generations refers to the occurrence in the plant life cycle of both a multicellular diploid organism and a multicellular haploid organism. For example, ferns can be part of an alternation of generations because this plant life cycle is either or both the diploid plant or the haploid plant. The process will be from meiosis to mitosis as shown in the digram but in between, fetilization will occur or take place.

 

First of all, the large leafy plant is the diploid organism; these diploid have to undergo a process which is meiosis to create haploid cells, which is seen- the other plant. Therefore, these cells will not adapt quickly to form diploid cells that fast. Instead, they are shedded like spores and germinate into small haploid organisms. Since the diploid cells create spores, it is called as the sporophyte generation of their life cycle. Over some time of maturity, the haploid organism will create haploid gametes or could be called as the gametophyte generation of their life cycle. The male gametes will then be released and swim to the female egg; then it will be completed as the full or completed life cycle.

 

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

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

Anatomization is another word for dissection; thus, dissection is the process of disassebling and observing something to determine its internal structure and it helps as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components. Dissection is an important part of a biology curriculum because it is a sort of model for humans to use it on. For example, mice or rats are used for experiments to determine if something could work on the rats in order to work for humans.

A rat could be tested on something before used on humans. Such as a type of medicine or surgery to make sure it is used safety to be performed on humans. Even though dissection may look unpleasant and nasty, that is one way to experiment what does and doesn't work for humans.

In the short story- Flowers for Algeron, it is first tested on the rat Algernon to make sure if it works on a human. The surgery was to be make a person/animal smarter by doing the surgery on their brain. After experimenting it, it really worked on the rat; therefore, they started surgery on the person to make him smarter. A few weeks later, he was really really smart but then the rat had some problems. Later on, the rat died! To see what happened during the experiment and not continue with this type of surgery, the scientists had to cut the rat open to see why it died and didn't stay alive.

Some other animals such as frog are dissected at school in the course Biology to show students how it is inside a body like the tissue or the stomach, etc. Maybe some other animals can be use in dissection can be birds or even worms. However, I also don't think birds would work because their habitat is different from ours and humans don't have wings.

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

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

Parasitism is a type of symbolic relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one benefits at the expense of the other and even sometimes, without killing it. In addition, one organism lives on or inside another organism and harms it. The host from the parasite that gets all or part of its nutrientional needs from the other organisms.An example of parasitism is a tick feeds ont he blood of its host and may carry certain diseases that might cause microoraganims to appear.

Predation is an interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism. The predator is an organism that does all the killing and eating work. The prey is a food organism. Like in the picture, lions are fierce animals and they are strong; therefore, you can see that they are even eating an ox for food. Even cheetahs aren't animals to hunt for lions, instead, it is vice versa where cheetahs hunt for lions because cheetahs are fast and they have sharp teeth and claws to catch animals easier. Their powerful legs also causes them to run faster after their prey or enemy.

Mutualism causes both species to benefit from the relantionship. The biggest example is flowers. As shown in the picture, a bee pollunates the flower causing the flower to sprout and look beautiful; thus both species are happy of the ending. The flowers also provides the bee nectar as a source or food or pollen and the bee helps the flower to reproduce.

In commensalism, one member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped no harmed. For instance, barnacles are small marine animals that often attach themselves to the whale's skin. Whales are not harmed from barnacles when they are sticked  onto the whale's skin and yet the barnacles benefit from the whale's constant moving in the ocean. Another example is that if a bird makes a nest on a tree, the tree does not get affected in any way and yet the birds benefit from the tree by having a place to set their shelter on which is their nest.

Last of all, competition occurs everywhere. To be specific, competitions take place when organisms of the same or different species attempt to use an ecological resource in the same place at the same time. Resource is defined as to any neccessar of life such as water, nutrients, light, food, or space. An example would be that birds that are stronger would be able to fight for food better especially in the sky like an eagle catching a jay bird. The eagle would win; therefore, also getting food to eat and fill up its stomach.

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

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

My choice for today's topic will be evolution, my opinions about it. Even though I understand what humans came from and what they evolved from, it seems to confuse me how everything else started. For example, how did it occur for humans to grow brains and rule this world. Why are humans so powerful in this world? Why do we get to go to school? What is the point of everything when all living things-humans are going to die someday?

Additionally, how come elder generations of species didn't decide to invent stuff such as the "lightbulb" like Albert Einstein? If a human is a type of species or an animal, then how come we don't die as easily? For instance, if a dog kills a human, then the dog will be sent to death; aren't humans considered as animals too or is it just because we have total control of this Earth? How come humans get rights or can fight for their rights and if dogs want too, they cannot do what we can do exactly? Why can't humans live a simple life too like what pandas are, just wanting to eat and sleep? If the answer is like no because no humans will do any job for making us food. To be more specific, if no one was working, no one will be processing our food to eat, but how did species long ago survived? They depended on each other for survival (survival of the fittest), maybe that is the reason for the human population growing and not decreasing. This concludes my topic for today:evolution and think about all the questions I posted.

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

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

The two biomes that I will describe, compare, and contrast are the tropical rain forest and the tropical savanna.

The tropical rain forest are habitats to many animals or species. Rainforests contain lots of tall trees in a region of year round warmth. Rain falls 50 to 260 at average, inches a year; therefore, it is a wet climate group where it only covers 6% of Earth's land in the world but it gives us 40% of Earth's oxygen so don't you think we need more tropical rainforests since this world is producing more and more people. Every year it is humid because of all the rainfall; a tropical rainforest gets about 150 centimeter of rain every year. The rain comes from all the hot and wet weather. The hotter the air is, the more water vapor it can hold; therefore, causing a lot of rain. The climate is near the equator meaning that their is more direct sunlight hitting the land and sea causing the water to evaporate into the air and the warm air can hold lots and lots of water vapor.

Scientists estimated that more than half of the animals and plants in the world lives in these forests; it is their habitat. Above the forest floor, there forms a dense covering called a canopy; additionally in the seond layer of shorter trees and vines forms an understory. The organic matter that falles to the canopy decomposes quickly and the nutrients are recycled. Abiotic factors of a tropical rainforest are hot and wet yearlybut also round. In addition, the sils are thin and nutrient poor soils.

The dominant plants are broad-leaved evergreen trees with ferns, large woody vines, climbing plants, orchinds and bromeliads. However, the dominant wildlife contains herbivores such as sloths, tapirs, or capybareas; predators like jaguars, anyeaters, monkeys; birds such as toucans, parrots, and parakeets; insects such as buttterflies, ants and beetles; reptiles such as caymans, boa constrictors, and anacodas; piranhas and also other freshwater fishes. The geographic distribution are parts of South and Central America, Southeast Asia, certain parts of Africa, southern India, and northeastern Australia.

The other biome is the tropical savanna or it can be called tropical grassland. The tropical savanna has a similar weather as the tropical rainforest because the temperature is warm but there are seasonal rainfall, compact soil, and frequent fires set by lightning. However, the tropical savanna receives less seasonal rainfall than the tropical rainforests.  Savannas are seen by the isolated trees thereare and small groves of trees and shrubs or bushes. Compact soils, fairly frequent fire, and the action of large animals such as rhinoceroses stop some savanna areas from turning it into a dry forest. During the summertime, there are lots of rain days; an average of fifteen to twenty-five inches of rain falls which gets really humid and hot . Every single day, the hot, humid air will rise off the ground and collide with cooler air above and eventually will turn into rain.

Most of the animals in savannas have long legs or wings to be able to go on long migrations. Some animals are predators such as lions, leopoards, cheetahs, hyenas, and jackals. There are also animals such as elephants, giraffes, antelopes, zebras, baboons, birds such as eagles, ostriches, weaver birds, and storks; insects such as termites. The dominant plants are mostly tall, perennial grasses and sometimes drought-tolerant and fire-resistant trees or shrubs. Almost every animal and plant help each other to keep the enviroment balanced.

Every year savannas are lost to the Sahara desert because of overgrazing and farming; people had started using these savannas as a place to graze their cattle and goastsl they don't move around and soon the grasses are completely eaten up. With no vegetation, savannas just turn into a desert, dry and a place where vegetables are spotted.

These savannas are in large parts of eastern Afirca, southern Brazil, and nothern Australia.

How are tropical rainforests and tropical savannas the same? They are similar because of the weather; these places both have warm temperatures; however, the weather is different because savannas are not humid, but tropical rainforests are. Therefore, animals that are mostly like on the grass or land running or using their legs are mainly those that live in the savannas because animals that live in the rainforests are usually animals that climb on trees or the sky because the place is easier to adapt for them. Plants are also different because savanna plants are spreaded all around everywhere, but rainforests are very close together. Rainforests and savannas are also found in both northeastern Australia.

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

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

The most important level of a food pyramid is the bread, cereal, rice and pasta group, or it can be called the grain group. One of the reasons why is because more servings of the grain group are needed for your daily life. Every person should eat six to eleven servings of grain per day whereas the other groups are mostly three to five servings per day stating that the grain group is the most important meal of each day when you eat foods.

The grain group can be eaten anytime of the day such as cereal, rice, or bread. However, fruits are most likely not wanted to be eaten for breakfast because a stomach ache may happen.

The grain group helps fuels up your energy faster and faster for your body. It also has provides many benificial for health; it helps your body to reduce the risk of heart disease and your cholesterol if you have any. It also helps you with the weight management and reducing the incidence of constipation. Because grains are rich in fiber, it can prevent diarrhea and help you live a longer life. Eating grain foods or fiber can help you loose weight because it stays in your stomach for a longer amount of time than other foods, it is also lower in calories and fat, and it also causes you to chew more, which makes you end up eating slower.

Another reason is because grain foods can contain other good kinds of food groups. When you get a grain food, it could have some fruits, vegetables, or even dairy inside. For instance, if you eat cereal, you can add milk and bananas; therefore, having three types of servings from your food pyramid group already. Even schools mostly sell grain foods for lunch such as rice, sandwich, etc as the main food.

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

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

Since there are already 5 major extinctions throughout history, humans are going to have an impact to the 6th because humans are ruling this world currently, not animals, not mystical creatures, but humans. Humans together gather ideas of what to do in the future or right now, such as doing the captive breeding program-keeping animals from wildlife so they don't become extinct, but also keeping them in "jail." In addition, humans use electricity a lot; therefore, affecting the earth/environment in many ways. It is also why people are spreading the words to: Go Green and also reuse, recycle, and reduce. Apply it to yourself too! We can also see the world is changing because of the weather. For instance, during christmas time it was pretty hot and I thought winter was suppose to be cold. 

However, some incidents don't happen because of humans, but because of world changes. For example, we can't control when earthquakes stop, when hurricanes come, when a meteor crashes to earth or even when lava erupts; we have to face it and unfortunately, some animals or species may extinct by this. Because of mother nature, we simply cannot stop a meteor with our own hands like we can when there is a can being thrown at you. 

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

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


Natural selection can affect the distributions of phenotypes in any of three ways which are directional, stabilizing, and disruptive selection.
Directional selection helps those individual species that have extreme variations in traits within a population.
Stabilizing Selection are the average traits in a population.
Last of all, disruptive selection is similar to directional selection which helps the extremes traits in a population.

Stabilizing selection happens when individuals at one end of the curve have higher fitness than individuals in the middle or at the other end. For example, teenagers are the time of each life, most likely. Because teenagers are healthy, both emotional and physically for most of us, we can do so much that maybe adults and little kids cannot do.

Therefore, most of us can eat whatever we want, learn a lot of different stuff from our public schools, we have so much privileges that some adults and kids don't have yet or have received already; we still have our upside-downs for teenages; for instance, when we cannot go to a horror movie because we are not old enough, or cannot drink red wine because we are still too young too, not that I want to presently. Kids can't just stay home alone without a parent because it is too dangerous, and their brains aren't fully developed whereas there are not much stuff/incidents for them to worry/think about. For adults, they have so much responsibilities because adults have to pay for their gas bills, take care of their children (if they have any), or even work hard on their jobs instead of slacking have which children can do right now in school if they choose to because their futures are not set yet. The middle is just right at the time of life.

Distriputive selection happens when individuals at the upper or lower ends of the curve have higher fitness than individuals near the middle, disruptive selection takes place which states the beginning or the ending is better than the middle. For example, you want to buy a pair of shoes but the worst part of buying those shoes you want is the middle because that is the part when you have to pay. In the beginning when you saw those pair of shoes, you just try it on and you look in the mirror and yourself if it looks pretty or feels comfortable for your feet. In the end, you buy the shoes and you can wear them right away and buying the shoes and having it in your hand are the results, which is one of the best times when purchasing a pair of shoes.

Directional selection is a little different because it takes place when individuals near the center of a curve have higher fitness than individuals at either end. This can mean it's better to wear tennis shoes better than wearing flip flops when you are racing for the track team sport. Even though this example seems really obvious, it is a simple, yet good exampple for directional selection. This example demonstrates how wearing the best shoes improve on your running and also standing. Wearing tennis shoes instead of flip flop shoes can make your feet feel more comfortable inside and it won't get your foot injured as easily when you probaly stepped on a nail on the floor. Wearing flips flops may cause injuries like slipping easily or having an impact that may cause your feet to hurt if your sprint. It can also bring you to the first place trophy if you wear good shoes!

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

Microevoultion is a change in gene frequency within a population. It can also be defined as evolution on a small scale within a single population meaning to narrow our focus down to one branch of the tree of life. However, microevolution means that if an animal or plant produce with another different  species, it produes a new bizzare species. For example, if dogs--like poodle and golden retriever are together and have a dog, the dog will be a mix of both when give birth. Maybe perhaps thousands of years later, dogs and cats will start being together and having their own babies; therefore, making their own animal that was probaly never existed in Earth.

The three ways of how variation occurs of microevolution is mutation, genetic drift, and natural selection. All three of these affect the gene frequencies in a population; mutation can randomly mutate one gene to another. Genetic Drift affects the genetic makeup of the population but it is different from natural selection whereas through an entirely random proess. Genetic Drift doesn't work to produce adaptions even though it is a mechanism of evoultion. For instance, beetles can produce differently when it comes to a different or next generation.  The last way, natural selection is the process by which traits beome more or less common in a population due to consistent effects upon the survival or reproduction of their bearers. (natural selection from wikipedia; internet)