Letter to a Biology Student

Hello there! My name is Liza Ovsiannikov. I’m currently 15 as you are reading this. I went to Foothill Elementary, Redwood Middle School, and am currently enrolled at Saratoga High. Last year I took MAP 9, french 1, drama 1, health/world geo, geometry, and biology. I don’t take PE since I have enough hours of extra curricular activities to do ISPE. School is definitely my highest priority currently, although I dance and play piano. When I first entered this room, I expected to receive lectures and take notes on cells, photosynthesis, and the human body in class. Well, in this class it’s a bit different.

You have something called the flip classroom. Basically, you take notes and receive lectures in the form of vodcasts at home, while in class you jump right into different labs and projects to do with the unit you are studying. Mr. Orre expects you to take notes on each vodcast, which is your homework along with textbook notes. Vodcasts and textbook notes take about 30 to 45 minutes. You keep this in your notebook, which will also contain a table of contents and several other pages Mr. Orre will require you to print out. When you first come into the classroom, he expects you to do the Do Now, which is usually a question you can answer if you did last night’s vodcast. For labs, you are expected to read procedures, complete the procedures, listen to instructions, write a write up, usually, and clean up correctly. Tests are multiple choice and have a collection of science jokes scattered around. You also have your own personal blog on blogger for science. You usually keep your lab write ups there, and other assignments. My personal favorite post on my blog is the pig dissection since it has an embedded video and is the most concise. My blog evolved throughout the year as more images were added, along with a slideshow and video, making each blog post more complex. I changed myself also. I gained better collaboration and time management skills.

Some of Mr. Orre’s pet peeves are talking over him, not cleaning up properly after a lab, and being an observer over a participant in labs. To earn a good grade, watch and take notes on the vodcasts and remember to study the big picture along with the small details. To earn good test grades, do not just read over the notes. Understand the big picture, and how everything during that unit connected to that. Now, so you don’t follow in my footsteps, do not make these mistakes, which I made. Number one, do not wait till the last day to take textbook notes and study. Number two, do not listen to music as you listen and take notes on a vodcast. Lastly, do not forget to submit your url to your blog post you have completed several days ago.

Overall, this class gives you a really solid understanding of biology. I found the vodcasts to take more time than they should, but the labs are really fun. Next year I’m taking chemistry honors since I have a general interest in science. To summarize, do the vodcasts, study smart, time manage, and do not talk over Mr. Orre.

 

- Liza Ovsiannikov

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Pig Dissection

For this lab, we dissected a piglet. The purpose of this lab was so that we could have a visual representation of different systems throughout the human body, creating a clearer understanding of this unit. We used piglets since their  body system is similar to a human's. We studied different organs of the digestive, respiratory, circulatory, urinary, reproductive, and endocrine systems, which we learned about in class and in vodcasts. My favorite part of the dissection was cutting the pig open because I was able to see organs and gain a better understanding of the organs and their systems. The dissection was a valuable experience since we all gained a better understanding of the human body, since this was both a hands on and visual learning experience with audio learning added in when we created the video.

20 Time Reflection

For this 20 time project, I choose to study memory with a partner. Our ultimate goal was to find memorization techniques so that students would have an easier time studying. We also wanted to gain a better understanding on memory.

To achieve this goal, we created several experiments to study different variables of memory. Age, environment, and repetition were the three variables we decided to test. We tested age with a simple memory game. Environment was tested by having people read two articles and take mini quizzes for them in an organized and messy room. Lastly, repetition was tested by reading one article twice a day, while another one was read right before the test subject took the test.

This project did start a bit late, given that both my partner and myself didn't have a clear vision of what we should base our 20 time project on. So when we started, we were slightly behind everyone. Although, we were able to come up with experiments quickly, so we didn't ponder after we got our idea. We were able to get our data, but sadly were not able to explore the best study technique in the amount of time we had.

We learned that teens have a better memory than middle-aged adults, an organized room helps people retain information, and that repetition is a better way to study than trying to learn everything in one go.

My partner and I collaborated well. We did get off task sometimes, but we got back on track quickly. If I could do this project differently, I would try to get the experiments done faster, and maybe add on more of them to have a clearer understanding of memory and find better studying techniques. I also would time manage better. I've learned that I sometimes take charge in projects, and should let go of the reins a bit next time so that my partner would have more of a say.

I'm planning to finish this project so that I will know the best way to study next year. Also, I want to let others know this information so that they can find the best way to study too. I may continue this to find better ways for certain types of learners (visual, auditory, reading/writing, and auditory) to study, and personalize different studying techniques depending on what type/s of learning a person lean towards. 

Unit 9 Reflection

This unit was about taxonomy, which is the study of naming and classifying organisms. We studied the taxonomic levels, which are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, and genus. Organisms are named scientifically by their genus and species, which is called the binomial nomenclature system. There are three domains; they are archea, bacteria, and eukarya. The archea domain live in hydrothermal vents, hot springs, digestive tracts, anoxic muds, marshes, and petroleum deposits. The bacteria domain has actinomycetes, which produce antibiotics, symbiotic bacteria, which live guts and help with digestion, or in the roots of certain plants to help fix nitrogen, and cynabacteria, which are photosynthetic bacteria. Lastly, the eukarya includes fungi, animals, plants, and protists, which I will go into more detail later. The five kingdoms are monera (prokaryotes), protista, plantae, fungi, and animalia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taxonomic_Rank_Graph.svg

We then studied bacteria in more detail. Bacterial cell walls contain peptidoglycan. There are two cell wall structures, gram-positive, which is one wall made of peptidoglycan, and gram-negative, which has less peptidoglycan and has a outer membrane that can be toxic. Bacteria use either use a flagella or flagellum to move. Chemoheterotrophs are heterophic bacteria that take in organic molecules. Photoautotrophs use light to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbon compounds. Chemoautrotrophs use energy to directly from chemical reactions. Obligate anaerobes cannot have oxygen. The importance of bacteria is that they are decomposers, nitrogen fixers, and can be used for biotechnology.

Then we went over viruses. Viruses aren't considered cells or living. They are very small infectious particale consisting of nucleic acids enclosed in a protein coat, and, in some cases, a membrane envelope. Viral genomes may consist of a double or single stranded DNA and/or RNA. Depending on its nucleic acids, viruses are either classified as a DNA or RNA viruses. Capsids are protein shells that enclose the viral genome, and some viruses have membarnons envelopes that help them infect hosts, which are called viral envelopes. Once a viral genome has entered a cell, the cell begins to manufacture viral proteins. A lytic infection is when a virus enters a cell, makes copies of itself, and causes the cell to burst. A lysogenic infection is when a virus integrates its DNA into the DNA of the host cell, and the viral genetic information replicates along with the host cell's DNA.

We studied the kingdom of fungi next. Fungi cell walls are made of chitin, fungi absorbs food through hyphae, they have a fruiting body, and spores. They are multicelluar organisms, besides yeast. There is the sac fungi, morels, truffles, bread models, and club fungi. They have a very complicated reproduction process. Fungi can acts as mutalsists. They are useful because they can be food, antibiotics, and model systems for molecular biology. They can act as pathogens also. They are the main decomposer in any ecosystem.

Then, we looked at the kingdom of plants. The major adaptions plants have are cuticle, a waxy protective layer, a vascular system, which allows resources to move to different parts of the plants, pollen, seed/s, and fruit. There are seven classes of plants: bryophyta (mosses), pterophyta (ferns), gymnosperms (cone bearing plants), cycads, which look like palms, ginkos, conifers, and angiosperms (flowering plants). There are two major types of angiosperms, monocots, single seed leaf, and dicots, two seed leaves.

We then studied invertebrates in two separate parts. In the first part, we learned that over 97% of all animal species are invertebrates. The way invertebrates are categorized is by body plan symmetry, tissue layer, and development patterns. The phylum of invertebrates are proifera, or sponges, cnidaria, playhelminthes, mollusks, and annelida. Proifera has specialzed cells, but no tissue. Cnidaria are the oldest exisiting animal phylum with special zed tissue. It has four classes, scyphozoans, which has jellyfish, anthozoans, which has corals and sea anemones, hydrozoans, which has hydras, and cubozoans, which has box jellies. Playhelminthes are simple bilateral animals. It has three classes, plananias, flukes, and tapeworms. Molluskas are very diverse. They have a complete digestive system with two openings. It has three classes, which are gastropods, which has snails and slugs, bivalves, which has clams, oysters, and mussels, and cephalopods, which has octopus, squid, cuttlefish, and nautilus. Lastly, annelidas have segemented bodies. There are three groups, earthworms, marine worms, and leeches.

We then studied the second section of invertebrates, arthropods, which are the most diverse animals on Earth. They all have exoskeletons made of chitin, jointed appendages, and segmented body parts. They are classified into five groups, trilobites, crustaceans, echinoderms, cheilcerates, insects, and myrpaids. Trilobites are extinct and bottom feeders. Crustaceans share several common features: two distinct body sections, one pair of appendages per segment, and carpace. Echinoderms are vertebrates with radical symmetry. They have an internal skeleton made of interlocking ossicles, a water vascular system, a complete digestive system, some regenerate limbs, and most reproduce sexually. The five classes are feather stars and sea lilies, sea stars, brittle stars and basket stars, sea urchins, sea biscuits, and basket stars, and sea cucumbers.

Lastly, we studied chordates, which we also studied in two parts. In the first part we learned that the phylum chordata, which contains both vertebrates and invertebrates. There are seven classes, agnatha, which are jawless fish, condircthyes, which are cartilaginous fish with jaws, osteicthyes, which are bony fish with jaws, amphibia, which have four limbs and live on both water and land, reptilia, which have eggs surrounded by a membrane, and mammalia, which are mammals, have the presence of hair, and aminote. In this first part, we looked more closely at agntha, condricthyes, osteicthyes, and amphibia. The agntha have two groups existing today, lampreys and hagfish. The condricthyes have cartilage for bones, which osteicythes have bones for bones. Lastly, amphibia have large shoulder and hip bones, a mobile, muscular tongue, and either breathe through their skin, lungs, or gills. They are seprated into three groups, salamanders, which have a long body, four walking limbs, and a tail, frogs and toads, and caecilians, which are legless, burrow, and are tropical amphibians.

Finally, we concluded this unit with the final part of chordates. The class of reptilia are ecotherms, meaning they are cold-blooded, covered with dry scales, reproduce by laying or retaining amniotic eggs, have a three-chambered heart, and cloaca. They have 4 groups, turtles, tortoises, and terrapins, which have a body encased shell, snakes and lizards, which shed skin and have a flexible skull, and crocodilians, which are semi-aquatic predators. The class of aves, or birds, have hollow bones, feathers, and v-shaped wishbone, and "hands" that are missing their fourth and fifth finger. Finally, the class of mammalia are active, large-brained, endotherms with complex social, feeding, and reproductive behaviors. They have hair to retain heat, mammary glands to produce milk, the middle ears have three bones to hear higher-pitched sounds, and they have chewing jaws to break up food quicker. They are divided into three groups, monotremes, which lay eggs, marsupials, which give birth to live young that grow to maturity inside a pouch, and eutherians give birth to live young that have completed fetal development.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_of_life_with_genome_size.svg

Something I want to learn more about is how scientists place new found species into a category if the animal has similar characteristics to two classes or genuses. An unanswered question I have is just how many species will we unearth in the next couple years. I wonder about what type of professions use this information for a greater understating of their topic.

This unit, we presented on a certain species. I presented on the archaopteryx. I spoke a bit too fast, due to nervousness, going a minute under my practice times. I knew my topic and practiced, but ultimately lost control of my pacing. Next time, I'll focus on my pacing and pratcice in front of others so that I will be more comfortable when I presented in front of a group.



This unit we also created a geological timeline, which I have linked to below.
Geological Timeline

Geological Timeline Reflection

In this project, we created a geological timeline of Earth's history. Three major events in Earth's history are the first evidence if life, bacteria, in the Archeozoic period, Pangaea breaking apart at the end of the Triassic period, and mammals starting to appear towards the end of the Triassic period. Bacteria appearing on Earth is a critical event since it was the beginning of life and set off a chain reaction that led us to today. Pangaea breaking apart is an important event on Earth since it created the continents we live in today. Lastly, mammals appearing and eventually dominating the Earth is a signification event on Earth since it carved the path for humans to evolve.

The scale of Earth's history surprised me. Not much happened in the very beginning and many major events happened towards the end of the timeline. More than half of the timeline were taken up by the Precambrian era. Humans evolved at the very tip of the timeline, only taking about a couple millimeters, when we had 9.2 meters total.

In our short amount of time on Earth, we have raised carbon dioxide levels, destroyed natural habitats, and much more.We live in the Cenozoic era, which has lasted about 131 million years. The other eras last from 212 to 4,200 million years. It took millions of years for bacteria to evolve into marine animals. And it took millions of years for those animals to travel onto land. We have changed Earth extremely quickly.

One question I have is what specific types of animals lived in each period.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pangea_political.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eomaia_scansoria.JPG

Unit 8 Reflection

This unit was about evolution. We first studied gradual change. We learned about variation, which is any difference in traits within a population. It exists because of crossing over, meiosis, mutations, and sex. Variation in a species allows people to artificially select certain organisms with traits they want, like color or size. This is called artificial selection.

Then we studied Charles's Darwin's observations and conclusion. His observations where that all sexually reproducing species have high genetic variation, traits are inherited from parents to offspring, all species are capable of producing more off springs than the environment can support, and competition makes it so that only certain offsprings can survive and reproduce due to limited resources in the environment. His conclusions were that there are winners and losers in nature, and that population will start to look like the winners.

The next thing we studied was how evolution is measured. We first learned about the gene pool, which is the total of all alleles in a population, and allele frequency, which is how common an allele is in a population. The steps to determine allele frequency is to first add up the total of all alleles, then add up total for each type of allele, and finally, for each type of allele, divide the number by the total. We learned about how the gene pool slowly evolves. As frequencies change due to natural selection, the gene pool starts to have a higher number in winners. Although, lethal alleles that are recessive can hide in a population, which is why we still see them today.

Then we learned about speciation, which is the rise of 2 or more species from one exiting species. Speciation is caused by reproductive isolation, which is when a population is split into two and eventually the two populations cannot reproduce anymore. Three forms of this are behavioral isolation, which is caused by changes in mating behaviors, geographical isolation, which is caused by barriers in the environment, and temporal isolation, which is when timing prevents reproduction between populations. There are two patterns of speciation, gradualism, which is when speciation occurs slowly, and punctuated equilibrium, which is when new species arise suddenly.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Punctuated-equilibrium.svg

We then studied the supportive evidence for evolution. Evo-devo, which is the study the evolution of development processes in multicellular organisms, shows that embryos look very similar to each other in early stages of development, which shows that we have a common ancestor.  Also, vesgital structures, which are adaptions that benefited ancestors, but are no longer needed and fossils are proof for the theory of evolution. Lastly, homologous structures, which is the same structure but different function, analogous structures, which is the same function but different structures, and convergent evolution, which is a process where unrelated organisms evolve similar structures or analogous structures independently.

We also studied evolving populations. Directional selection, which favors phenotypes at on extreme, stabilizing selection, which favors the intermediate phenotype, and disruptive selection, which favors both extreme phenotypes, are different ways distribution of traits can change. Some other types of change besides natural selection is genetic drift, a random event that drastically changes a population and results in change in allele frequency, gene flow, movement from one population to another, mutations, and sexual selection, traits that improve mating success.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Genetic_Distribution.svg

Lastly, we learned about the origin of life. One possible flow of events is simple monomers of marcomolecules to polymers/macromolecules to molecules bound by lipids to molecules begin catalyzing reactions to simple "cell" or protcell to peplication of cells and molecules to endosymbiosis to eukaryotes to sexual reproduction to multiceullar organisms. There are four eras of Earth, Precambrain, Palezoic, Mesozoic, and Cenzoic.

I want to learn more about different forms of life during each era. An unanswered question I have is how many more extinct species we have yet to discover. I wonder about how life began on Earth.

To be more assertive, I tried to take listen to everyone's opinions and then we all decided on one idea that we were all happy with. I still have to work on trying not to let others' over power mine.

Hunger Games Lab
This is a lab we did to study different types of selection.

Hunger Games Final Analysis

1. In this lab, we used either our wrists, two knuckles, or two fingers to pick up corks. The wrists, knuckles, and fingers represented types of beaks while the corks represented food. We had to get certain amount every time to be able to survive and reproduce. Wrists were called stumpies, with a genotype of AA, two knuckles were called knucklers, with a genotype of Aa and two fingers were called pinchers, with a genotype of aa. To reproduce, we found a mate and used coins with one allele of each genotype on either side to determine what phenotype (AA, Aa, aa) and genotype (stumpies, knucklers, pinchers) our offspring will have. This lab simulated how populations evolve over time due to natural selection.

2. The Aa phenotype was the best at catching food because they had the best trait to survive in the environment since they were able to get food faster and had a better grip on their food.

3. The population did evolve. I know this because the population started with a 50-50 on each allele, and ended with a 38% for the A allele and 62% for the a allele. Also, the graph below shows how the a allele slowly decreased in frequency and how the A allele increased in frequency.

4. Some events in this lab were random. For instance, the disturbance of food and types of birds in the circle were random. Some events in this lab weren't random. For instance, the types of beaks and style of eating were not changed. There was never a mutation or invasive species in the population.

5. If the food was larger, stumpies might have had it easier. If food was smaller, pinches might have it easier. In some areas of the world where birds eat small seeds,  they have smaller beaks. In other areas where birds eat large seeds, they have bugger beaks.

6. Yes. Knucklers wouldn't exist, so stumpies would probably be exist.

7. Natural selection acts on an individual in a population, which causes evolution, which is the gradual change in a population, which is caused by natural selection.

8. Stumpies tried to stack corks with their wrists, knucklers picked up two corks with each knuckle pair, and pinchers picked up two corks with each finger pair. To reproduce, they would try to pair with their own variation to increase their chances of reproducing. Some behaviors that are similar in nature is mating rituals and different types of beaks.

9. Evolution causes the population to evolve because the experiment showed how the population slowly evolved. Natural selection acts on the phenotype since the experiment showed how the population was affected by different phenotypes.

10. Will certain types of food affect results? Does placement of food matter?

Unit 7 Reflection

In this unit we learned about ecology. We studied the themes of interdependence, when organisms relay on each other, homeostasis, when everything is in balance, and cause and effect. We first learned about the basics of ecology. Ecology is the study of interactions between organisms and their environment. A habitat includes all aspects of the are in which an organism lives. A niche includes all of the factors that a species needs to survive, stay healthy, and reproduce. A habitat is different from a niche since a habitat includes everything, while a niche is only the essentials an organism needs to survive, stay healthy, and reproduce. A biotic factor are living things (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, etc.) , while abiotic are non-living things (air, temperature, light, soil etc.).

Next, we studied food chains and food webs.A food chain show how each organism gets energy. Trophic levels are levels in a food chain based on what something eats. A food web is the same as a food chain but it allows to show one animal eating several different types of organisms.  The different types of organisms are autorophs/producers, which make their own energy, while hetertrohps/consumers get their energy from eating other organisms.


https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Food_chain.png

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chesapeake_Waterbird_Food_Web.jpg

Then we studied the transfer of energy through an ecosystem. Biomass is the method of measuring energy. It is the total dry mass of an organism in a given area, measured in calories, and doesn't include water since water has no energy. Energy pyramids show how energy is transferred, which goes from producers to top level consumers. All energy comes from the sun originally. The 10% rule states that of the energy produced, only 10% of it gets passed on to the next trophic level since the rest of it is lost as waste. The population pyramid shows how much of a certain species there is on each trohpic level. Because of the 10% rule, that means there's less and less consumers as you move up trophic levels since the energy decreases by 90%as you move up a trophic level. This means as you move up trophic levels, there will be less organisms. 

After, we studied population ecology, which is the study of populations in relation to the environment. It includes density, the number of individuals per unit area of volume, and dispersion, the pattern of spacing among individuals within the boundaries of a population. Some factors that affect population are immigration, when there is an influx of new individuals from other ares, emigration, when there is a movement of individuals out of the population, birth, death, disease, predators, when abiotic factors start to run low, and population density and dispersion increases, intensifying competition for resources and results in a low birth rate. There are two different types of growths, exponential growth and logistic growth. Exponential growth is when a species keeps growing without stop and passes the carrying capacity often. Carrying capacity is the maximum population size an environment can support. Logsitic growth is when a population goes over the carrying capacity, but then later it goes below, and so on. Boom and bust is an example of cause and effect. This happens when two species are dependent on each other. So when one of the species population increases or booms, so does the other population and vise vesra.

Blue- Exponential. Green- Logistic

After, we studied ecosystem cycles. We first learned about the cycle of succession, which is when an ecosystem is destroyed by a fire or some other natural disaster and starts over. Primary succession is when an ecosystem starts over with no soil and secondary succession is when an ecosystem with soil already there. Then pioneer species, which are small plants, start to appear. Then bigger plant species, and finally, animals. Another cycle we studied was the water cycle, which transfers water through environments through condescension, precipitation, surface runoff, collection, storage, and evaporation. The carbon cycle we studied too. It's transferred from oxygen and glucose, cellular respiration, through engines, carbon dioxide, and photosynthesis. The nitrogen cycle was more complicated.  There were several cycles in one. One of these was dead organisms, bacteria, fungi, and worms, usable nitrogen, plants, animals, and feces and urine. The last cycle we studied was the phosphorus cycle. Phosphorus is mostly found in soil. Most ecosystems are limited to phosphorus since no new phosphorus can be created.

Second to last, we studied ecosystem health.  The ecosystem's health depends on a lot of things, one being biodiversity. Biodiversity means the total number of species in an ecosystem. It goes from genetic diversity, all the different genes within a population and between populations. species diversity, the variety of specie in an ecosystem, and ecosystem diversity, the different types of ecosystems throughout the planet. Now somethings that threaten ecosystems are habitat loss, introducing exotic species to a new ecosystem, which they can take over and throw off balance, over exploitation, which is when we use up one resource so quickly that the amount taken can't rebound back, and climate change. This causes the endangerment of species, the ecosystem, and biosphere. But this may not seem like a big deal. But 25% of our prescription medicines contain substances from plants, and the ecosystem helps sustain human life through the purification of water and air,, and the cycles of nutrients.

Lastly, we studied how we can conserve the environment, We can do this by protecting hot spots, which is an area with high biodiversity, conserving what we still have, planning smart so that we don't lose a lot of habitat for species, and restoring habitats. To protect the environment yourself, you can reduce your carbon footprint, spread the word about the issues in the current world, spending wisely, and not letting the size of the problem intimidate you.

I want to learn more about how the biosphere has been affected by humans throughout time and how we can let other knows about the issues. I wonder about if we can really save the biospherenand what we will have to do to do so.

For our conservation biologist project, I think my group and I worked together well. When we hit problems, like being off task, we got behind everyone else, which was an issue. Although we were off task sometimes, we finished what we needed to finish and completed the project on time. Through this experience, I learned how to work with new people.

My dominant conflict style is passive, although I can be aggressive sometimes also. To improve my assertiveness, I plan to try to get everyone to agree, and suggest ideas that will allow everyone's input and ideas to be used.

Unit 6 Reflection

In Unit 6, we focused on the biotech industry. Biotechnology is the study and manipulation of living things in order to benefit mankind. We learned about what we use biotech for, which is industry and environment, like bio fuels, agricultural, like genetically modified fruits, medicine and pharmacy, like gene therapy, and diagnostics, like genetic tests.

Then we learned about the technologies of biotech. One of these was ploymerase chain reaction (PCR) which is a procedure that amplifies a specific DNA region, yielding millions copies of  sequence DNA, the first step in preparing DNA for experiments, and makes enough DNA copies to analysis. The steps of PCR is to denature the double stranded DNA above or below the region of interact. Then, anneal primers, which are small fragments of DNA that binds with a specific sequence, are connected to the single-stranded DNA above or below the region of interaction. Then, the primers are extended with DNA Polymerase, creating a new double-stranded DNA. The last step is to repeat these steps 20-40 times since this is an exponential application. PCR is often used for detecting diseases, viral diseases, and screen bone morrow and organ compatibility. 

Another technology of biotech is gel electrophoresis, in which an electrical current is sent through a gel with DNA strands in it, and the electric current makes the DNA strands order themselves by their size. The larger the DNA strand is, the less it travels. The smaller the DNA strand is, the more it travels. The unknown DNA strand lengths are compared with known DNA strand lengths. This process is used in forensics, molecular biology, genetics, biotechnology, and more.

The last technology we learned about was sequencing, which determines the exact order of a given DNA sequence. This is done by first  creating copies of DNA with DNA polymerase, primers, extra bases, and florescent dyes. Each copy is one base longer and contains a florescent dye. These copies are electrophoresed and analyzed by a computer, resulting in an electrophergram, which is a graph with four colors, each representing a different base. This sequence is then recorded.

Then we learned about recombination DNA, which is when DNA of one organism is inserted into the DNA of another organism. This is often described as genetic engineering.The result is a transgenic organism or GMO. This is done by first studying the gene of interest, as in knowing the location and sequence of the gene. Then take a restriction enzyme, which are enzymes that cut DNA whenever it reads a specific sequence. Restriction enzymes leave a sticky end, allowing the DNA to bond with other DNA. Plasmids, which are circular DNA found in bacteria, contain a replication and antibiotic resistance gene, are prepared. Then, ligase, an enzyme that reattaches base pairs, is prepared also. Then the process of transformation begins. To do this, isolate the DNA, get a plasmid, digest the DNA, mix the digested DNA, add a ligase to attach to the sticky end, mix Recombination plasmid with the bacteria, plate the bacteria on a tray with an antibiotic mixed in, grow the transformed bacteria, transfer the broth to make many bacteria that express the gene, and extract and purify the protein in the inserted gene produced.

Lastly, we learned about bioethics. Our morals, a justifiable position that has to do with whether something is considered right and wrong, and values, which is what we see as important or moral, and are determined by your personality and experiences, making everyone's values different, is what bioethics are based on. Ethics is the study of how morals and values influence our decision making. Bioethics is the study of decision making as it applies to moral decisions that have to be made because pf advances in biology, technology, and medicine. Then we learned what to do when we get a bioethical question. First, identify the problem and why it is a problem. Then, identify and list all the possible solutions, identifying the pros and cons of adopting each solution, begin sure to consider the unintended consequences. Then, based on the pros and cons for each solution, rank all solutions from best to worst, considering your values are different from others, so everyone will rank each pro and con differently from yours. Lastly, identify if your position is important enough to take a position, and if it is, decide your position and defend it.  

This unit went pretty well, seeing that I followed the lab procedures well, understood the content easily, and having a general interest in biotech. One weakness I had was explaining the vodcasts to my group if they didn't understand. I usually have a difficult time explaining any concept to someone since I have slight trouble processing my thoughts into words. \

The labs I did were the Candy Electrophoresis Lab and the pGLO Observations, Data Recording, & Analysis. They reinforced gel electrophesis and bacterial transformation. I got a clear picture of each process and learned how to do each one. These experiences taught me how to work together with my group mates better.

Something I want to learn more about is gene therapy. An unanswered question I have is how far will biotech take us. Something I wonder about is if we keep on improving the human race through biotechnology, will we be considered something other than humans.

So far this year, I have improved the hours of sleep I get, and I have a good mental grasp on the labs we did this unit since I understood this content easily.
 

pGLO Observations, Data Recording, & Analysis

Plate	Number of Colonies	Color of colonies under room light	Color of colonies under UV light
- pGLO LB	3	Clear yellow	Clear yellow
+ pGLO LB/amp	Unable to tell since they are in one big clump	Clear yellow	Clear yellow
+ pGLO LB/amp/ara	4	Clear yellow	Clear yellow with a green center

Two new traits the transformed bacteria have it that they glow under and UV light and have resistance to ampicillin. About 10 colonies about bacteria since there is already about 7 colonies and we can assume the amount in the +pGLO LB/amp tray has about three colonies since we put about the same amount on each plate. Arabinose triggers the GFP, so that it glows under UV light. GFP can help scientists determine whether a gene is being expressed. It can also be used to study the interaction of different proteins. Lastly, it can be used by scientists to get a broader of a gene. Another application for genetic engineering is giving plants the ability to be resistant against certain pesticides or pests themselves.

Candy Electrophoresis Lab

We did an experiment of candy dyes. We used Mike and Ikes and extracted the dye from them. Then we tested for what types of dyes they have. Two colors seemed to be have more diverse dyes than the others. The green dye is slightly smaller than the rest of the bands. The light red dye is slightly purple. These dyes could be made of different substances than the reference and experimental dyes. Carminic acid and betanin would most likely be as far out as the reference and experimental dyes that are red since they’re similar in color. Citrus red most likely would be as far out as the experimental light red dye since they’re similar in color. And fast green would be as far out as the experimental green since they’re similar in color.

Products that contains food dye include dog food, chips, like cheetos, doritos, and lays, juice, like apple, orange, and grape, and cereal, like fruit loops, lucky charms, and cinnamon toast crunch. This is most likely done so it looks more natural or colorful to people, grabbing their attention, and raising the chance of them buying the product, raising profit.

Two factors that control how far the food dye went in the gel was the size of the food dye molecules and the amount of charge that went through the electric current, which causes the dye to move since they have a negative charge and will travel towards the positive charge, which is on the other side of the gel. The electrophoresis system separates the molecules by size because the bigger the molecule, the slower it will move, and vis versa, in the electric current, causing the dyes to be separated by the size of their molecules. This process is often done with DNA though. If four DNA molecules with the weight of 600, 1000, 2000, 5000 daltons were put in the gel and traveled by the electric current, 600 would be the farthest out, 100 would be the second farthest, 2000 would be the second closest, and 5000 would be the closest to the negative side of the electric current.

New Year Goals

One of my goals for this semester is to try to sleep more. I didn't time manage very well last semester, leading to sleep deprivation. I will do this by doing my homework as soon as I get home from school, not going on my phone after 10 pm, and not drink tea at night because I usually grab a book and lose track of time. Following these steps will make me reach my goal.

Another goal of mine is to have a clearer understanding of labs. Last semester, I just went through the procedure in a timely manner but didn't really think about why we are doing a step and why we are using certain materials. I will do this by consciously thinking "Why are we doing this step?" or "Why are we using these materials?" throughout the lab process and answer these questions as thoroughly as possible. These steps will help me achieve my goal.