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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. 

Week Number Nine: Biotechnology Film Reflection

I really enjoyed making our film for this project. We named it “The Sane” it took a lot of work. I did a lot of the editing and I’m very pleased with how it came out, especially because I was using new software that I had never used before and I was teaching myself new things the entire time. My group didn’t have any real problems that I know of. We met after school the first Friday after the group had been defined and started brainstorming. We had plenty of ideas to work with like alien invasions, zombie apocalypses, and a few other thriller themes. After eliminating a few because of the lack of effects possible, we decided on the storyline that our film follows. We tried to meet after that without incident but with multiple deaths in Logan’s family and birthday parties and family obligations for various other people, we had a little difficulty gathering everyone together but it worked out in the end. The music played in the background came from a variety of artists and was rather random when assembling it all together. Songs from the Pirates of the Caribbean, Linkin Park, West One Music, Bastille, Soft Cell, and Phaelah were used. One thing that really took me by surprise is that I had no idea that video files were so large. After producing them through my program we chose to upload them to Google Drive and the final video took around 10 hours to upload. It would have been faster to transfer it to a flash drive. Google Drive files are much more versatile, in my opinion.

I really liked the idea behind the other group's movies, especially Kaylee and Quenton's. I found it to be really fun and although the blue screen left Quenton without legs for a portion of it, I felt it added to the overall presentation. If the whole thing had been serious, I don't think it would have worked as well. Sophie and Mikayla's group have had some technical difficulties and I wish we could have seen the real final cut of their video. Savannah and Jacob's video was really clever. I liked how Savannah brought in themes from our Principles of Technology class into it. 

I really hope the next group to do this enjoyed it as much as my group did!  

The Sane

Here is our biotechnology film.
https://drive.google.com/a/alleghanyhighschool.net/file/d/0BzC69plBhZtrZWpmX19sZEhBNE0/view?usp=sharing

Week Number Eight- Project Description

The time has come for us to decide what we will be studying for our independent projects. After much thought, I have decided to test to see what physical characteristics of an individual influence a person’s perception of them.

So, in other words, I want to see if you determine the nature of a person simply by their appearance. In my version, I’m going to show participates photos of incarcerated individuals and ask who seems the most likely to commit the most violent crime.  

To test for this I am going to need a notebook and writing utensil of some sort to record findings, photos of incarcerated criminals (and yes, Sophie, I know that is redundant), around 100 test participates, and time. I know time is not a physical material needed but I say that it is still needed nonetheless.  

The procedure for doing so would follow something along the lines of 1) isolating a participant in a quiet place like our in the hall or in a separate room so that their responses are not influenced by the individuals around them, 2) showing eight photos of criminals to the participate, 3) asking the question, “Which of these would you be believe would commit the most violent crime?” 4) asking the following question of, “What characteristics would lead you to believe that this is the most violent?” 5) and then finally recording the accumulated information.

Week Number Seven

The entire sophomore class took the ACT Plan test on Tuesday and I think it went rather well. To relate that to the class, the science portion of the test was the only portion that I finished with time to spare. Not much, but there was time. We had an interesting ‘lab’ on Wednesday. We were assigned an environment of which we had to ‘evolve’ humans to be able to survive in harsh conditions. Logan and I had to work with an extreme hot climate with high exposure to UV rays. We stuck to a fairly normal human shape with the exception of large ears and a longer tongue to help get rid of heat. They would also have darker skin. Internally, these people would have a second heart to pump water throughout the body directly under the skin to help reduce heat. There were other changes but I don’t want to get in to it all here.

On the film project, submitted our research papers on Monday, our concepts and contracts on Wednesday, and my group how to film a lot on Sunday. We haven’t decided on a name for it yet but the guys have been wanting to name it after video games and horror movies. As for the independent project, I still don’t know what to do, but I have bounced around some ideas with murder suspects and cockroaches. 

Week Number Six

Biology this week has interesting. (It is spirit week! And that's probably as excited as I'm going to get on the whole thing.) We did a lab on natural selection where different shaped beaks are tested to see which was most effective. We found that spoons are more effective in moving beans from one place to another than tweezers, clothespins, popsicle sticks, and forks. We didn't have class on Thursday because of the PLAN ACT testing even thought we were just filling out informational papers. On Friday, we took a vocabulary test that wasn’t too difficult.
 
Our film group has been working quite a bit. We have started our script, divided jobs, and have a basic concept written down. I believe you would call it a work of science fiction with (hopefully) some major plot twists and a very dramatic ending. I have already finished my research paper for next Monday and I ended up talking about cloning, nanobiotechnology, and stem cells as my fields of biotechnology. We also started talking about our independent experiment projects and I still have no idea what I want to do with it. In the past, every time we've been assigned science fair projects I resulted in conducting my experiment on something related to radios, light, rocks, and minerals. I don’t know what I’ll do this time. 

The original bird beaks

Week Number Five

This week we were assigned a new project. By October 31^th, we have to have a completed ‘film’ to present to the class. We have a group of six people, Jasmine Kimber, Jackson Williams, Logan Edwards, Austin Hawkins, and Rianna Evans. We were also assigned a research paper due the 13^th. I really like the idea of this and I think our group will be able to work together. I have started thinking about the assignment contract and who will be doing what and so far, I have not really figured it out. Monday was a ‘free day’ of sorts; we brought in food and talked through most of it to celebrate the end of the first 6 weeks. On Wednesday, we have Mrs. Woodie as a substitute and we went over vocabulary words. On Friday we took a genetics quiz where we were asked to ‘solve’ Punnett squares and analyze them. We also started what I’m calling the Make-A-Kid Lab. So far, my partner and I have a dark skinned, dark blue eyed, slightly red tinted hair, freckles all over the face, and female child. Just for the record, I never want children so this assignment has been very comical. I’m really just not a nurturing person and I’m too demented by some people’s standards.

I'm really glad our Punnet squares weren't this lengthy!

Anyway, this week has gone fairly well and I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks. 

Medicinal Plants Field Journal

American Bittersweet	Clinging vine, yellow/ red berries, 4in by 2in leaves, green leaves with bug bites, bark on stalk	Clinging to pine trees by road
Asiatic Dayflower	Small blue/ purple flowers with yellow disk	Mixed in with other thick foliage on the side of a parking lot
Blackberry	Fairly large bush with leaves  grown in groups of three with ridges, no fruit, no bark on stalks	Next to barn, surrounded by freshly-cut grass, at road intersection
Black-Eyed Susan	Yellow petals with black center, 2ft tall stems, leaves with bug bites	Surrounded by other flowers and ferns in front of a house
Bloodroot	1ft tall, diameter of 2ft, kelly green leaves, no flowers present, just leaves, leaves circular fan shape with long stems	Edge of meadow, deep forest, near a creek, little sunlight
Beetleweed	short to the ground, works as foliage to forest, grows in group, long stringy root, glossy leaves, no flowers	Found on the side of a mountain, near a creek, little foliage around
Bracken Fern	Very tall fern with thin ‘leaves’, lighter green, thick, covers ground completely from above	Surrounded by flowers by edge of a porch
Canada Thistle	fairly large plant, blooms are purple and tuff-like growing out of a green cylindrical base on the stem, this base has a triangular pattern covering it	In wet environment near stream where it has access to lots of sunlight
Cardinal Flower	grown in vertical rods, red blossoms branch off from head of plant, lots of red petals, leaves small and pointy	Near pond with stream, surrounded by tall grass and other marsh plants
Calendula	orange flowers, tall, as big as a 50 cent piece, 2ft tall, lots of leaves, strong stalk	Growing around lots of other vegetation, full sun exposure, no local water source like creeks or streams
Chicory	Blue flowers on vine close to the ground with darker disk	Mixed in with Queen Anne’s Lace and Goldenrod on the side of the road
Common Cattail	very tall stalks with thicker dark brown cylindrical pieces at the top, leaves long and smooth without ridges, dried tips are light brown, next to bank of pond	in marshy area surrounded by lots of other cattails, some are standing in water while others are on grassy area near bank
Common Blue Wood Aster	looks like purple daisy with yellow disk, smells great but is strong, grows in clusters	Lots of sun exposure, along banks of stream, many other marsh plants
Corn	tall plant, taller than Jasmine, green, having multiple ears of corn, silk covering top ends of ears, top of plant resembles hay	In an open field on rolling hills, lots of sun exposure, on a backroad, surrounded by other corn plants, large bug population present
Dandelion	small yellow flower, light green stalk, less than 1ft above ground	found in a yard near short grass and clover, area well traveled
Echinacea	purple flower with large pointed disk, light green foliage all around, disk is very dark, petals are small and rounded	Along fence line surrounded by sunflowers and creeping ivy, partial sun exposure
Fox Grape	large dark leaves with pale underside, bears fruit that makes excellent jelly, very little is touching the group because it is clinging to a tree	In shady area, clinging to to  tall hemlock tree, surrounded by pine trees and a phone pole
Jewelweed	1ft tall stalks with smooth dull leaves, orange blossoms, resembles a cornucopia slightly, with tiny red dots, leaves are somewhat triangular shaped	deep within marshy area of forest surrounded by decaying plants, animal pasture
Lady Fern	small fern, at least 13 sets of ‘leaves’ branching off from the base, light green, ‘leaves’ narrow to a point, ends at top curl up	near edge of forest under shade of other ferns and fallen trees
Lemon Balm	light green leaves, strongly resemble peppermint, edges are not straight and flat, curl up like pasley, appear to be bumpy but aren’t in actuality	Near a house, surrounded by other herbal plants like spearmint, peppermint, and chamomile, limited sun exposure
Maidenhair Fern	grows in basically a bush of ferns, darker green than lady fern, very defined line of ‘stem’ running down the middle	In dense forest on creek bank with little sun exposure, other fern populations present, very little other foliage around
Milkweed	leaves have no ridges on edge, very straight and strong, flowers have died for the most part, stalk contains white fluid when broken in half, lots of bugs around	In hay field, surrounded by tall grass, lots of sun exposure, yarrow and other meadow plants close by
Plantain	leaves fan out in a circular shape around base, tall stalk rises in the middle, leaves are also circular but definitely not exact	Found in backyard, around gravel and grass, commonly traveled area
Pokeweed	large bush-like plant, stems are purplish, berries are purple in places and green in others, leaves are very light green in comparison	In field surrounded by tall grass and thistles on edge of forest
Queen Anne’s Lace	small white heads of plant are tiny but look bigger in magnitude, 1-2ft tall, green stem, appear very delicate	Found on the side of the road with chicory and goldenrod
Red Clover	purple flowers, green stems, leaves have a lighter green ‘Y’ shape on them, reminded us of truffula trees from The Lorax	In a yard, surrounded by common grass, saved from feral, invasive bunny population
Sweet Goldenrod	2ft tall plant, yellow blossoms near the top of stems, leaves are long and straight, kind of pointy	On the side of the road with Queen Anne’s Lace and chicory, lots of sun exposure
Sweet Joe-Pye-Weed	very large bush with pink/purple/red blossoms covering it	On the side of the road, leaning over a creek, surrounded by goldenrod
Witch Hazel	kind of resembles a tree but we think it’s classified as a bush, no blossoms, the base and stalk have bark, branches out like a tree with green leaves that resemble cherry tree leaves, circular	Close to a creek containing many fish friends, in a field, surrounded by dense foliage
White Pond Lily	no blossoms, lily pads are fan shaped, some darker green while others are lighter, floating in water	in pond near bank with cattails and lily flowers nearby, water was relatively clear
Wild Chamomile	resemble daisies, small flowers with white petals, yellow disk, stems are long, have lots of tiny little white petals rather than larger ones	By the side of a house, surrounded by spearmint, peppermint, and lemon balm, limited sun exposure
Wild Indigo	no blossoms, leaves resemble clover but are smaller and spread out more, leaves are darker green on top and stem and underside are lighter green, grow on long stems branching out from the base like a bush	Surrounded by multiple pine trees, growing in thick layers of pine needles, limited sunlight, growing in a group of other wild indigo plants
Yarrow	1ft tall stalks, ‘leaves’ are small and delicate, blossoms resemble Queen Anne’s Lace	found in a field near tall grass, clover, and Queen Anne’s Lace

This is our field journal for our project. I thought this was a really cool assignment that really helped me see that Alleghany County is a very diverse county in terms of the plants found here. If I were to do the project again, I wouldn't really change much besides preserving the plants immediately after they were collected instead of doing so that night. 

Our Collection Project

We have been working really hard on our collection project, and now it's finally finished.
This is our presentation. Medicinal Plants by Jasmine Kimber, Laura Walker, and Jackson Williams.

Week Number Four

  This week in Biology, we took our first unit test on Monday and then we started our next unit on genetics. I was really looking forward to this one because I think it's really cool how such small substances like DNA can determine who (and what) you are. Mr. Vogler took over ‘principalling’ duties on Wednesday so we had time to work on Study Island and our genetics packets. I was feeling pretty under the weather that day, though. We had two pop quizzes this week, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. We also did a lab on Thursday where we "extracted" DNA from peas using alcohol and meat tenderizer.

As for the collection study, my group has stayed after school two times this week to work on painting our boards which we will later mount the plants on. I know our grade will come from our multimedia presentation but that doesn’t mean we can’t care what the collection looks like. I recently discovered what chamomile looks like and found a few plants on our property. I had heard of it in passing when one of my friends had herbal tea but I had never known what the actual plant looked like.

One of our recent additions to the collection.

Replication- Graphic Organizer

Week Number Three

This week, a woman from a state program came and taught a lesson on Monday. She talked about neurotransmitters and hormones and her teaching style was... interesting. Not bad, just interesting. We also had a lab this week where we tested 6 liquids (sugar water, corn starch, an egg mixture, vegetable oil, and two unknown substances) with iodine, Sudan #3, and Beirut. We were later asked what we thought the unknown liquids were. My group had a little trouble with iodine testing so we did that part twice. Before we started, Mr. Vogler said that this would be more of a chemistry lab. I didn't think I would like it because in the past I have had issues with chemistry but this one was pretty cool. On Friday, I could have gone on the field trip with my Principles of Tech I class but I wasn't really into being stuck on a bus for four hours with mostly guys. I don’t think it would be worth it. So, instead, I came to school like normal and our review on Friday was great. We went through all of the topics for this unit to prepare for the Unit Test on Monday.

My partners for our collection project and I have been working on developing some way to present our collection of medicinal plants and I think we have finally decided on a layout. 

This is one of our specimens.

Week Number Two

We didn't have school on Monday, Labor Day, which was really nice. On Tuesday we finished our group posters on mitosis and did a strange carousel group sharing of them where one partner moves around the room listening to other's presentations on the mitosis cycle while the other stays and presents their own. I only call it strange because it actually seemed to help me remember the different stages in each because of the repetition and having to "teach" it.

My group and I have decided we want our collection project to be on plants with medicinal properties like yarrow, wild indigo, and chicory. We talked to Mr. Vogler about it and he said that that would be fine.

We had a pop quiz on Wednesday and on Friday. I was definitely prepared for the one on Wednesday but the other I struggled with. We also did a microscope lab on Wednesday looking for different stages of mitosis in onion root cells. On Friday we walked up to the Lion’s Club and did a field study assignment. Jasmine knows a lot about mushrooms and it was really cool listening to her talk about them. We found some slugs, spiders, a turkey, and quite a few plants. 

Crash Course has some really useful videos -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQK3Yr4Sc_k&list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF&index=8 <-

Week Number One

This week in biology, we presented our cell models. Sophie and I were partners. Our cell model presentation went surprisingly well considering the situation. As we stood up to go to the front of the class, our model broke off from its string that was supporting it and as it fell, one of our vacuole water balloons busted and one of the mitochondria fell off. 

    This is our model after we finished our presentation, so the damage had already been done. 

For our presentation, http://cellsalive.com/cells/cell_model.htm was very useful.

We had two of each so both were still represented though. Mr. Vogler also introduced our next project, the organism collection field study.
I've enjoyed Biology so far, I really like that we are left to be somewhat self-sufficient. Learning new things on your own makes them easier to remember, in my opinion. We have played a couple of Kahoots in class and those are always fun. Mrs, Vestal used them with our Spanish I class last year as well. 
Our lab on Friday (that carried over to this Monday) was really cool. We looked at onion, elodea, and human cheek cells. The chloroplasts in the elodea cells were very distinctive. The only other microscope I've ever used was a small kit when I was little which had far less magnification power and it's a crime to even try to compare the two.

I've enjoyed Biology so far and I'm looking forward to this coming year!

Who Am I?

Even though I really don't like talking about myself, here we go.

I'm Laura Walker. I am constantly working on something, whether it be a school project or some small personal project. I like sketching random things, mostly people and canines, but I despise coloring. My favorite subject in school is math. I easily remember numbers, they just seem to stick in my head. I have OCD, which makes high school life challenging with all the chaos going on. I play soccer and I used to run hurdles in middle school but now that girls' soccer is in the spring I can't run track at the same time. 

Whenever you ask me in person what I want to do with my life, I probably won't respond with any solid answer. I am interested in engineering but I am also considering a career studying how the human mind works.