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Week Number Fourteen- The End is Near

The days have flown by and at last the end draws near. I have survived this far. That sounds like a good start to a chapter or something. In a way, that’s what this entry signifies; the end of my semester of honors biology and the first half of my sophomore year. This class has been one of my favorite science classes of all time. Looking back on this semester, I have to say, all the projects were my favorite part. The biotechnology film was my absolute favorite with the collection project coming in second. Some assignments were kind of rough and some I enjoyed far more than others but that’s to be expected. Learning isn't always painless and carefree. Overall, I feel that I have learned a lot and I certainly hope that I can retain this knowledge to use in later classes. If I may, I would like to offer some advice to the biology students of the next semester and those thereafter. Always remember, 1) The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. 2) The “dropper” used in labs is called a pipette. 3) There will be pop quizzes and no, you can’t make them up and lastly 4) Don’t eat the corn.

Week Number Thirteen

Why?
Why is commonly mistaken for the letter Y. Y is the first letter in the word yellow. The sun is yellow when drawn in pictures. The sun is the center of the galaxy. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way. Milky Ways are a type of candy bar. Many candy bars are made by Hershey's. Hershey's produces up to 1 million pounds of chocolate every day. One million British pounds is equal to 1,578,949.45 US dollars. Benjamin Franklin is present on $100 dollar bills. Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity with a key attached to a kite. Keys open doors. Doors are present on almost all buildings and structures. A barn is a type of building. A typical barn is painted red. Moscow has a Red Square. Moscow is in Russia. Czars used to rule Russia until the Russian Revolution where the last, Nicholas, was killed. Nick is an abbreviation for Nicholas. Old St. Nick is another name for Santa Claus. Santa Claus comes down the chimney. Chimney sweeps clean chimneys for a living. There is a song about chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins carried an umbrella. An umbrella protects you from the rain. Rain is typically seen as depressing and gloomy. Edgar Allen Poe always wrote depressing and gloomy poetry.
Thus....
Why? Edgar Allen Poe.


Results may vary.

Week Number Twelve

After dissecting frogs and worms this week, I really don’t see why so many people get so worked up over the entire topic. Before this week, I had only dissected sheep eyes and chicken feet. It was really cool dissecting the entire body of the frog rather than being limited to just a single section like before. I really liked the atmosphere in the room this go ‘round over the classroom back in 7^th grade with Mrs. Strode. From the worm dissection, I found that the scissors in the lab kits hate right handed people when the specimen is facing certain directions. That was great fun. With the frog dissection, it was really neat seeing all the different organs that are similar to ours. I expect the pig dissection in December to have strong similarities as well. The only part of the dissection that I wasn't very comfortably with was removing the eye of the frog. Using tweezers as the handout suggested made the task the equivalent of ripping the eye out of its socket which is not a comforting thought. Nonetheless, we succeeded and actually proceeded to the second eye.

On a side note, I really want the weather to either warm up or snow 3 feet. There must not be an in-between. (One must not turn the thermostat to 74 unless proceeding to 75. 75 is the temperature one must count. 76 is right out.) I do not like cold but if the amount of snow is substantial, I can stay inside my house and be perfectly warm. That's what I really want for my birthday.

Week Number Eleven

Given the vastness of space, I believe that there must be life forms somewhere. Currently, humans have only been able to see 4 galaxies out of millions. It doesn’t make sense to me to say that life on other planets is impossible. Humans can evolve and adapt to survive in harsh conditions. Animals can as well. At the most basic level, humans require oxygen to breathe, food of some kind to eat (which requires sunlight), water to drink, shelter, and other humans to survive. It’s kind of nice to live in an environment where the sun doesn't roast you alive or the air be full of toxins too. Life in space doesn't have to match life on Earth completely; life forms in other places probably look completely different and require different things for their existence. They may not breathe for all we know. Anaerobic respiration all the way! There are all kinds of possibilities for ways of life on other planets. But above all else, technically speaking, there is life in space. Earth is part of the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of many galaxies that make up space. Thus, there is life in space.

Judging a Book by Its Cover- Independent Project

Here is my presentation of my independent project.

Week Number Ten- Biology Class Reflection

Biology has been a very interesting class so far. This is the first 'real' science class I've taken with labs that have been fairly consistent. In 6^th and 7^th grade, Mrs. Strode conducted labs with us but they were far and thinly spread throughout the year. Mr. Cole's environmental science class was all book work with an obvious absence of labs. Because of my lack of experience in the field, I was kind of dreading biology, which is understandable. I have always wanted a class where we were instructed to do various projects that were actually substantial. My favorite project has been the film project, by the way. In practically every class, I dread group work. I am an introvert (as it has been previously discussed) and don’t cope well in social situations, in my opinion. In biology, our group projects and activities are different and I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly makes that so. The terms ‘eukaryote’ and ‘prokaryote’ had been passed around in previous years but this is the first time I have ever had the terms actually explained in depth and in an understandable way because the background information was also provided.