This week (11-15 Jan), we started the class on Monday by starting to discuss the topic for this term which is about ecology. We were also told that our project for this term is to make a self-sustaining terrarium and were divided into groups. In our groups, we make the group contract that is due this Friday and make plan for our terrarium project. On Tuesday, we started the class with mini lessons about introduction to ecology by discussing the basics such as environment, ecosystem, food web, food chain, predation and competition. After the mini lesson, we were told to sit in our group and continue making the group contract and also the planning for the terrarium project. On Friday, we conduct a mini lesson about energy flow through the ecosystem. It all begins with the sun, then its energy is absorbed by producers (such as plants) to make energy. The energy is later passed on from producers to consumer 1 (herbivore), consumer 2 (carnivore) and so on. Climate and temperature determines ecosystem, that is why we have different ecosystems. Consumers cannot make their own energy, so they ate producers. Scavenger is a consumer that consume other consumer that is dead. Food chain shows energy transfer, while food web is a group of food chain interconnected in an ecosystem. After that Ms. Disty told us about the homework for making a poster about a food web on an ecosystem. I choose tundra for my poster.
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During this week (23-27 Nov), we started the class on Monday by learning a new topic about the eleven human body systems in general. The eleven body system are digestive system, excretory system, respiratory system, circulatory system, nervous system, endocrine system, muscular system, skeletal system, integumentary system, immune system and reproduction system. Every system consist of organs with its own tissue, consisting of cells each with DNAs. Each of the system has its own specific function with its own organ to maintain life in our body. On Tuesday, we continue to on our topic, focusing more on immune system. Immune system is our body's defense against disease and infection. The major actor of immune system is interferon which detect virus and stops it from infecting other cells. Another major actor is t-cells or white blood cells that functions to recognize infected cells and cancer cells and kills it. Immune system also allows us to build antibody so if we ever receive the virus again, our body have the cure. Without immune system, our body will be very vulnerable and easily got sick. On Friday, we were told to write our weekly reflection on weebly at the beginning of the class. We continue our research to do the report, movie and brochure for the group disease research. The disease that we research is MERS. Very tired today, with no spirit of school.. heck, no spirit of life at all. Well, I rarely opens up myself but apparently I'm kinda having difficulty in continuing to live. So if I'm acting unusual, please understand. This week (16-20 Nov), we started the class on Monday by continuing the DNA code scavenger hunt workshop. Once we are finished, Ms. Disty gave us another workshop about DNA code translation and identifying codon and anticodon. We were also told to write the process of protein synthesis and write the steps on our workshop. We also have to draw the polypeptide chain. On Tuesday, Ms. Disty is absent but we were told to continue our research for the project and that the group report is due on next Friday. We continue our group research and start making the group report. Get well soon Ms. Disty! On Friday, we were told to write the weekly reflection on weebly and continue our group project about the disease that we focus on researching. We are also allowed to continue our unfinished workshops if we are not done yet. This week (9-13 Nov), we started the class on Monday by learning about new topic, which is DNA replication, translation and transcription. We start of with DNA replication. DNA replication is needed for reproduction and to provide heredity for the next generation. They replicate first before forming a code. The codes are later used to make protein. The replication process is helped with DNA polymerase, which is an enzyme that add extra bases to create 2 DNA strands for replication. DNA polymerase also add nucleotide to the new parent strand. They cannot read if there is no code. Helicase cut the hydrogen bond so that the DNA could separate for replication. The process is done on the replication fork. The gyrase enzyme make sure the DNA is not tangled back and keeps it open. DNA ligase make sure the bonding is correct. On Tuesday, we continue our topic and move on to DNA transcription and translation. Transcription and translation is a part of protein synthesis, and it is important since everything that we have in our body is made of protein. There are three types of RNA for protein synthesis which is mRNA that functions to carry message from nucleus to ribosome, tRNA that functions to bring amino acid to ribosome, and rRNA that functions to bring mRNA and tRNA together. Transcription process is to make mRNA from DNA code and it happens in nucleus. Translation later happens in ribosome, where the mRNA travels from nucleus to there through cytoplasm. In cytoplasm, the mRNA will meet tRNA. Later, in ribosome, the protein will be made. On Friday, Ms. Disty provide us a scavenger hunt workshop where we are given DNA codes and must translate it to mRNA in order to match it with the words spread around that will later form a sentence. Its a good and fun workshop since it allows us to move and not just sit around and listen. Sometimes, its good to be able to move around. This week (2-6 Nov), we started the class on Monday by making the questions we need for the formative assessment. We were told to make our own questions regarding about the things we learned this term genetics and heredity, and we will be graded based on the questions we made for the formative assessment. There are each type of questions that differ in how much points it worth. The formative must have a total of 20 points and no more. I decided that this is my chance to make a hardcore question to someone hehehe *evil laughs*. On Tuesday, we submit the questions we were told to make in a printout form along with the answer key. Ms Disty collect the questions and divided it randomly. I get the smart student’s question, but luckily the questions are not as hard as I expect it to be. I barely managed to finish on time, but luckily I did, and my answer seems convincing enough. After we were done, we were told to submit the assessment to the creator so that they will attach the answer key on it. I forgot to make my answer key, but I promise i will submit my answer key on Monday. On Friday, we were told to sit in our group and work on the project. We divided the roles, who search what, and started doing the research. Ms Disty also shows us an example of last year’s psa and brochure. Due to highscope’s "awesome” internet, we did not get much informations that help our research. Instead, we make plan on how the psa and the brochure will be like. We are determined to make our psa and brochure better than the one on the example, so have hopes for us Ms Disty! During this week (26-30 Oct) in Biology class, we started the class on Monday by conducting a mini lesson about recessive genetic disorders. Recessive genetic disorder is a disease that affect people born with recessive genes. Carriers are people who carries the gene’s disease but does not have the disease’s symptom. Example of recessive genetic disorder is cystic fibrosis where the their mucus producing gland produce excessive mucus and the mucus cannot be absorbed. Albinism is due to the inability of body to produce melanin, causing pale skin, hair and pale eyes. Tay-sachs disease is a disease that caused by the absence of enzyme responsible for breaking down fatty acid, causing them to accumulate the brain and make the neuron larger. Galactosemia is a disease where the body is unable to digest galactose, On Tuesday, we learned about dominant genetic disorder which is a disease that affect people born with dominant allele, either its homozygous or heterozygous. Example of dominant genetic disorder is Huntington’s disease which affect muscle coordination and the brain, affecting motor skills to decline. Achondroplasia is a disease that cause dwarfism, causing their body to be smaller even though they are adult and also with large head. There are no cure for any of this diseases. We also learn about pedigree, which is a diagram that shows the line of inheritance of a certain trait through generation. On Friday, we learned about sex-linked disease, which is a disease related to the chromosome of male and female. Female’s chromosome is homozygous with xx chromosome, while male’s chromosome is homozygous with xy chromosome. The gene on male’s x chromosome will be expressed in their phenotype even if its recessive. Most of the sex-linked disease are x-linked because there are 120 genes are known to be x-linked. Example of the disease is hemophilia, which is a disease of blood clotting inability and minor cut cause severe bleeding, mostly happens in male because if female get affected on one of its x chromosome, female still have other x chromosome to replace the mutated chromosome’s function, but male only have one x chromosome and the y chromosome cannot replace the mutated x chromosome’s function. Color blindness is an x-linked disease where people cannot differentiate red and green at the same time, it mostly occur on males due to same cause with hemophilia. Muscular dystrophy is an x-linked disease where the muscle weaken and get worse its year, causing them to survive no longer than thirty, it mostly occur on males due to the same cause with hemophilia and color blindness. Lastly, hypertrichosis is a y-linked disease where our ear grows excessive hair, occurs only in male since female does not have y chromosome. During this week (19-23 Oct) in Biology class we started the class on Monday by discussing about meiosis. I didn’t come on Monday, but from the PPT, I learned that meiosis is the cell division that applies on sex cells where the cell became a haploid after being a diploid previously. I also learned that meiosis is important, because if meiosis doesn’t occur, then the chromosome number of each new generation will double, thus killing the offspring. We also learned new vocabularies that we should write on our weebly in vocabulary section. On Tuesday, we continue our discussion in meiosis and start learning about the phases in meiosis. I learned that meiosis has the same phases as mitosis, only it occurs two times, and the second one has the same process that happens in the phases of mitosis. The result of meiosis will be two haploid sex cells. Non-disjunction occurs when the homologous chromosome failed to separate during meiosis. After that, Ms Disty asked us to work in partners and make a poster that explains the difference between mitosis and meiosis, and if we’re not finished, we have to submit it on the next class. So far, there wasn’t anything that I don’t understand, but I’m still a bit confused with the terms, which is why I need to write them down on weebly. On Friday, we started learning on hereditary diseases such as hemophilia, thalassemia, albinism and others. I learned that hereditary disease is a disease passed on from parents and there is no way of preventing it. Carriers are people who carry the disease’s gene but doesn’t have the disease’s symptoms. After that, we were told to find a recent article about genetic biotechnology and write the summary on weebly. During this week (12-16 Oct) in biology class we started the class on Monday by making the work contract for the term project with our group. The contract consist of our agreements in order to finish this project well. The contract must be printed on Tuesday and signed by all the members. On Tuesday, we learn about the introduction to DNA and about inheritance. We learned about traits, heredity, genetics and hybrid. DNA is hereditary and it contains our traits and genetics as well. Hybrid is a controlled reproduction where two dominant traits between two species are combined to produce a better offspring, and later we could find out the genotype and phenotype from it. Gregor Mendel is the person who discovered how to predict the inheritance of traits. He discovers that there are two types of traits which is dominant and recessive. In an organism, they have a homozygous trait and heterozygous trait. The law of independence means that the genes for different traits are inherited independently of each other. The law of segregation is the law that applies in the hybrid of heterozygous and homozygous. There are nothing I’m confused about because I’ve learned this before the term started. On Friday, we are given short mini lesson about Mendel’s law on monohybrid and dihybrid. After that, we are given practice workshop on finding the phenotype and genotype on monohybrid and dihybrid crossing. After finishing the workshop, we write the term’s vocabularies on weebly and make the weekly reflection. During this week (7-11 September), in biology class we start the class on Monday by continuing in discussing about mitosis in cell cycle, starting from the anaphase. After the anaphase, there is the last step of mitosis which is telophase. I learned from the steps of mitosis that mitosis happens when centriole starts to appear and going to separate direction and the nuclear membrane broke. As the dan floats in the cytoplasm, the pairs of chromosome attach to the spindle fibers connected to the centriole. Then the pair of chromosome separate and two nuclei start to appear as the chromosome appear as the chromatin. Then during cytokinesis phase in cell cycle, the cell formed new nucleus and divides itself. After that, we also learned about the process of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Their relation is that photosynthesis is used by plants to make food in a form of glucose and later the glucose is used in cellular respiration to produce ATP energy in the mitochondria that is used for active transport. On Tuesday, in biology class we continue learning more about cells. We learned about types of cell in the body such as red blood cells, nerve cells, bone cells, sperm cells, epithelial muscle cell, skeletal muscle cell and others. We also learned about the difference between cells, tissue, organ, system and organism. Tissue is a group of cells working together, organ is a group of different tissue working together, system is a group of different organs working together and organism is a group of different systems coordinated to carry out some function. After that, we were told to make our cheat sheet for the summative assessment on Monday. On Friday, in biology class we did a review for Monday's summative. I get to ask the question about what I'm still confused about, which is the more detailed cellular respiration. I learned that cellular respirations happens in mitochondria to make ATP that stands for Adenosine Triposphate, Mitochondria also produce waste in a form of water and carbon dioxide. In cellular respiration, the atom C6 will break into two, and then C3 is equal to two ATPs. In the ATP, there is three phosphate, and later one phosphate is given to cell membrane for active transport, while the other two phosphates will return because the phosphates has to be in a pair three. I'm kinda still confused about it, but I decided to add it in my list of what-to-learn for the summative along with microscopes and how prokaryote organelles work together. During this week (7-11 September), in biology class we start the class by review as Ms. Disty ask each of us about what have learned from the previous lesson. Then, Ms. Disty informs us that for the biology formative assessment, we will be making our question and later we will trade with our classmates to fill in each other's. Ms. Disty also gives us the point criteria for each question and we have to make questions that has a total worth of 20 points. The formative will be done on Tuesday. On Tuesday, we start the class continuing the formative assessment task by making our own questions relating to what we have learned so far. We have to make questions that is worth 20 points total. The questions are later be given to our friends to fill. Luckily I got easy questions from my friend so I manage to do the formative well. I did have difficulty in making a case problem for my own questions because I still don't understand real life health cases that could be related to the cell theories that we learned so far. On Friday, we started the class by doing another review relating to the formative assessment. Ms. Disty ask each of us a question relating to the things we have learned so far about cells. Then, we start on a lesson about cell reproduction and how they do it. I learned that the process of cell reproduction is called "cell division mitosis". Cell reproduction is a part of mitotic phase of a cell. In a cell reproduction, the DNA is copied and they became larger until the mitosis phase where they divide their self. Humans have 46 chromosomes, 23 from female egg and 23 from the sperm. What I am still confused about is the detailed steps of mitosis and how it happens. |
AuthorName: Astrida Nayla Archives
April 2016
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