Letter to a BIO STUDENT

Dear Bio Student,

I am Veda. As a freshmen at Saratoga High School... let me start by saying... it's not as bad as you think it is. Freshmen year depending on the classes you take can be enjoyable if you do homework and pay attention in class-shocker i know. I took Geometry and Bio, duh, and found both classes to be relatively well paced. I play three sports and found it easy to manage my time wisely and turn in all my homework on time. I also am in MAP which gets better trust me.

As a teacher, Mr. Orre likes it when you follow rules... a huge expectation for a teacher to have I KNOW. You can joke around with him but when he is talking, you are expected to listen to what he says and do as he instructs. Being a split classroom, we do an awful lot of labs and write-ups on our blogs, and listening to instructions and turning them in on time is essential to maintain a passing grade. If you do well on labs and the write-ups and average a C on tests, you will be able to get an A in the class. His tests are hard however, and after studying I got Cs as an average on all my tests. Our notebooks contain everything in them and are organized how Mr. Orre wishes it to be. Another thing, don't skip vodcasts; it's an endless cycle that you struggle to break. We also keep a blog and here is a link to my personal favorite blog post...http://vedabioblog.blogspot.com/2017/04/unit-8-reflection.html

Some things I did this semester that kicked me in the butt was doing the vodcasts, or not doing them is more accurate. I would skip them and at the end of the week realize i had five thirty minute videos to watch and make-up. Another thing is studying. Study for biology, it's a hard class and covers a lot of material, don't put it off to the end.  Also, don't get on Mr. Orre's bad side. This doesn't really affect me, but some student I know have gotten on his bad side and deeply regretted it.

I liked this class, however, I am not interested in Biology as much as you may be. I am into the conservation part and found that to be the most exciting unit, but the rest was just learned to pass the class. Even though that works, having an interest and going beyond expectations is a really good idea. I am taking Chem next year because I know I will not be able to keep up with Chem Honors. Overall, do your vodcasts, listen to Mr. Orre, and apply what you learn in this class to your life. Since this is my last blog post forever I shall sign off in a manner of true excellence.

BE EXCELLENT MY DUDE,

VEDA 

River Clean Up Reflection

The river clean up was organized on National River Clean-up Day, and the site I visited was the one in San Jose near Westmont High School. A couple of students from my sixth period class was their including Shreya and Jayne. When I thought about a river clean up, I had imagined cleaning up an actual river full of trash, but at the site, most of the work we did was no where near the water.

I relate this to what my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Chapman, said about the river near her house, and how on some days, she would find lawn chairs and old umbrellas and other misselanouc objects. I suppose I had thought this clean up would be similar to that, however, there was barely any water in the river. A lot of trash we picked up was plastic bottle pieces, as well as food wrappers. In the end, we had a stack of five half full trash-bags.

Pig Dissection 2k17

In this lab we asked the question, what organs that pigs have relate to human structures? The idea of dissections is to learn more about the animal being dissected, or to relate it to us and learn more about the structures that we possess. This pig was never born, it never got to eat mush out of a trough or frolic among the grass with its fellow piglets. It was dissected by Mr. Orre's biology class to learn more about the organ structures that we took notes on. My favorite part of the dissection would be the end of the dissection because I felt really bad for the pig. However, since that is not the answer I should tell my teacher, the second best part of the dissection would be the cutting of its mouth and peeling the mouth back because it was incredibly satisfying. This lab was a valuable experience because we got to see the same organs we possess in real life. It also helped visualize how every system in our bodies work.

Twenty-Time Project

I worked on this project with Ananya. When I learned that she was working with ADHD I wanted to join her because my family friend has been recently diagnosed with ADHD. The project itself was learning about the diagnosis of ADHD and how specialists could improve it. Our initial plan was to create an actual test to diagnose it properly, but after realizing the complexity of the process, we just decided to write up options on how to improve the actual diagnosis. We also planned on actually testing subject with and without ADHD, but because it was a subject that people often don't wish to disclose, we also were unable to do that. Based on what we have information wise, our next step would be educating people of the unreliability f current diagnosis and treatment, and other steps that can be taken to help people with this learning disorder. I also learned that children with ADHD often have smaller brains than children without, and also they have significantly more grey matter in their brains. They also have smaller frontal lobes which plays a part in impulse control as well as hyperactivity. If I had a chance to redo this project, I would actually create a test and test it on human subjects to see whether our analysis is valid or not. I learned that as a person however, since we finished the analysis decently soon, I took the free time in class to listen to music and just do background research instead of trying to do more real work to push our project forward. Our next step would be sharing what we have learned with others as well as trying to see if we can test it on subjects.                                                                                                                                                      

Unit 9 Reflection

This unit we focused on the defining characteristics of organisms, and the classification of these organisms. These organisms are divided by Kingdom, Domain, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. There are five kingdoms which are divided into a three domain system. Besides the basics, the most important thing we learned is how we evolved from the smallest of organisms to us. We watched a documentary called "Your Inner Fish" which depicted a man looking for a fossil evidence to prove that we evolved from fish. He was looking for one of the transitional fish/ tetra-pod organisms.


https://www.sciencenews.org/article/find-your-inner-fish-pbs-series-human-evolution

Some questions I have can not be answered at this moment. I want to know how dinosaurs looked like, not their structure- which can be defined by their fossil- but their exterior. I heard that some dinosaurs may have been covered in colorful feathers and bright scales which is very different from what I had known about dinosaurs being brown and green. I wonder why dinosaurs would have colorful feathers and what the purpose would serve. I also wonder how mammals managed to stay alive with all the dinosaurs ruling the earth. I would assume they went underground, but the fact that they were able to evolve into modern mammalia is incredible.


(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/cf/af/85/cfaf850a14e07b971c03c63a3273024c.jpg)

To help us learn in a different fashion about evolution, we did solitary projects on different organisms. I feel for my project I could have done far better. I was not as prepared as I could have been and it totally showed in my deliverance. Next time I definitely should review my information more before I present. I did the project a week back and did not look at it till I presented it and because of that I left out a ton of information and did not meet the time limit.

Geologic Timeline Reflection

Two major event in Earths history is the extinction of dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period, and the evolution of Eukaryotic cells two billion years ago. Another important event is the evolution of mankind during the Holocene epoch in the Cenozoic era. The reason the extinction of dinosaurs is critical is it not only shows the end of reptilian domination as well as the evolution of mammals. Even before the dinosaurs is the evolution of eukaryotic cells which became the dinosaurs and mammals that evolved into humans.

Earth's history mainly occurred during the Precambrian period and was just the development of the basic units of life like oxygen and unicellular cells. After the Precambrian period however is when the main evolution of mammals and all life occurred.

Just as humans we screwed up the atmosphere and caused the extinction of hundreds of organisms. We also have decimated the forests, polluted the ocean and continue to spew poisonous gas into the atmosphere.

It would be interesting to see how long the Holocene period will actually last. Based on the extinction of the dinosaurs and all other evidence of mass extinction, it is safe to assume we too will be decimated at a point. I wonder if we will just be fossils that future life forms find just as we find and try to explain the fossils of dinosaurs.

Hunger Games Final analysis

1. In this lab we studied the effects of natural selection in a classroom environment where we were all birds fighting for survival.

2. The phenotype that was the best at collecting food was the pinchers because it was easier to pick up corks by pinching them. In comparison to the stumpies which had to pick corks up with their wrists, the pinchers were more efficient and better at collecting the corks.

3. The population did evolve as the little "a" surpassed the big "A" allele. It started off as a 50, 5O difference but after the second generation it became 33% little "a" and 67% big "A". The population evolved from an equal amount of stumpies, pinchers, and knucklers, to just knucklers and pinchers, with the stumpies on having 1, or 2 repersentatives. The knucklers were the dominant race having a "Aa" allele combination, but in the end, the pinchers still ended up collecting the most food. 

4. The variables in this lab that were random was the placement of the food, and the placement of the birds. If you were closer to the food and had less people around you, you got more food. This is an example of genetic drift. What was also random was the amount of corks needed for offspring which varied from 5 to 12. What was not random was how the offspring was created. We used coins to determine what children we concieved but you could choose any partner you wanted whether it was a stumpy and you were a pincher or vice versa. 

5. If the food was bigger or smaller the results would be the same because our results were based on allele frequency. No matter what the foods size was the knucklers had the best allele combination and therefore would have been the dominant variation no matter what. However, a variable would be how easy it would be to collect food. For the stumpys it would be easier if the food was bigger but if it was smaller, it would be more difficult. Like the galappogas finches, the populations would have to evolve to fit the food size. 

6. If there was no incomplete dominance, there would be no knuckles at all, and therefore, the variation that was the majority of the population would disappear. Incomplete dominance proved to be crucial to the lab because they had a higher chance of being made, and therefore dominated the population.

7. Evolution occurs because natural selection helps weed out the weak genetics and only allow those with the genetics needed to survive reproduce. By only allowing the ones with the genetics to survive to reproduce, the population becomes the variation that has the best genetics and therefore a species evolves.

8. Some strategies people evolved to survive better was to stay away from people and choose the corks that were not in the huge clumps, or to grab multiple corks at a time. In nature, animals do anything they can to survive and reproduce. On an emphasis on ANYTHING, it made sense in the lab if people went overboard. People were tackled and dove to the floor in order to secure the most food. People pushed people out of the way in order to ensure they got the amount of food needed to survive.

9. In this lab, what evolved was the beaks. Since the beaks are a phenotype or physical trait, I can state natural selection acts on the phenotype.

10. If there were no stumpys, and only had "aa" as pinchers and "AA" as knucklers and no incomplete dominance who would make up the most of the population, or would it be equal?

This is the graph of allele frequency. 

Unit 8 Reflection

Unit 8 was all about the constant change in our environment. Constant change refers to the change in organisms to fit their surroundings or evolution. Evolution is key because without evolution species go extinct. Species rely on genetic variation either in the form of a recessive gene, or a mutation to evolve. The species with the superior genetics necessary to survive get to pass down their genes to the next generations. Over a long period in time the species with the better genes become the population and therefore evolution occurs. Darwin documented these changes in his observations of natural selection. The galapagos finches were an example of evolution because they were all the same type of finch before they ended up in different islands. These finches evolved to suit their new environment and soon became so different they could not mate again with the finches on the other islands.

The thing with animals is if they can not support themselves, they do not get to reproduce and their inferior genetics does not get passed on, however in humans, even if you can not support yourself or your children, you often are able to reproduce. Is it fair to the children you are creating to be raised in poverty and not have a chance to change their social standing? The example I'm coming back to is in India, the walk to the beach is often littered with children begging for money, they come back home to an alcoholic father that beats them and a mother that is pregnant not by her wish or consent. Is it fair to the children to be born and not cared for? Shouldn't they have the opportunity to go to school and be someone instead of begging on the streets? Not just in India, though that is where my example is from, is the idea that people that can not care for their children give birth to them and are not able or do not wish to raise them and is it fair to the child to be raised in neglect?

If that does not involve evolution or natural selection, what about the Nazis idea of an Aryan complex? Having blond hair and blue eyes does not mean genetically you have a higher chance of survival, but it meant you were better, or superior. In another example, apartheid in Africa shows the stigma of looks being the judgement of superiority. Native Africans were completely segregated from the Caucasians in apartheid run Africa and they were not allowed to reproduce with each other for the fear of having mixed blood. If you had blue eyes and blond hair and gave birth to a child with brown eyes and brown hair, your child was not as good as someone with blond hair and blue eyes. In 2017, we look at this in disgust. We say, how on Earth did we think this is a good idea? But we still do it, not with humans but with our animal companions. Who are we as humans to manipulate other species to our benefit? Is it morally accepted to manipulate chickens and animals to eat, and then say judging humans by their appearance is wrong? It is interesting to see peoples point of view change when they enter animals in the question. Are animals not living breathing organisms?

This unit raises a lot of questions on morality, just like the previous unit on Ecology (http://vedabioblog.blogspot.com/2017/03/unit-7-reflection.html). But it also is not just about understanding the idea of evolution, its understanding we are the objects of evolution just as the food we eat is a object of evolution. Evolution is all around us and we can track it by looking at fossil remains and more. We are evolution, your dog is evolution, everything is an example of evolution. If you look back far enough, we all evolved from nothing.

http://www.angelfire.com/cellophanetales/evolution.html : An example of the importance of understanding evolution.

https://www.papermasters.com/origins-of-man.html

Above is an example of evolution in humans and below is an example of natural selection and how organisms that are suited to their changing environment survive and become the population. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/121935927@N06/13578828153

Unit 7 Reflection

Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with their environment. What is ecology really mean however? Based on what I learned this unit I can relate that ecology is the understanding of our ecosystems and the balance necessary amongst all the ecosystems on the world. The transfer of energy occurs when the producers of energy get consumed by the consumer class. But to ensure that the consumers have enough energy to survive, the levels between the consumer and producers must remain in balance. Everything recycles itself in the end and if left undisturbed our enviorment should be able to go back to the state it was in before human interventions.

The minimum we humans can do is focus on the conservation of all our ecosystems either by recycling, help clean areas that are polluted or covered in trash, campaign against overexplotation of natural nonrenewable resources or recommended by the documentary Bag It, control the amount of plastic we use and dispose of and be aware of the fact that our trash ends up somewhere and make sure we realizes trash does not disappear.

 In our conservation project I learned that a whole bunch of trash ends up in the ocean because the currents of the water pulls the trash dumped in beaches or piers and collects and distributes them to the sea animals. I wonder if people will ever understand that pretending something doesn't exist doesn't help it cease to exist. I am referring to global warming, and climate change due to green house gases, deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels. Maybe it is just a period of dry spell but we can not afford to wake up one day and realize it is far too late to reverse the effects of our existence on Earth. We have to wake up and get educated on how we can help before its too late. Instead of regretting past mistakes we have to actually learn from them and even though it is harder to change bad habits than it is to gain them, it is what is necessary for us to live in equilibrium with nature.

"Scientific and Public Perspectives on Climate Change." Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2017. 

"Plastic Pollution in the Ocean." BioMass Packaging. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

Biotechnology Unit Review

The purpose of biotechnology is to make life easier for us, by manipulating living things. There are four types of biotech: Industrial and Environmental, Agricultural, Medical and Pharmaceutical, and Diagnostic Research. This unit also covered polymerase chain reactions which is the duplication of DNA with added information or primers, as well as gel electrophoresis and bio-ethics. The labs were definitely confusing but the whole idea of bioethics was incredibly interesting because it was more about people and values. I really have to crack down and study on PCR and all our labs before the test because I definitely need a better understanding of the process and objective itself.

I learned more about genetically modified food and since people are always talking about GMOs it was cool to finally learn what eating genetically modified food meant. I also learned about PGLO and that it has many properties and can grow only in specific mixtures. I still need to work on understanding the PGLO lab but at least I know what PGLO means and that is an improvement from not knowing anything.

Here is our Gel electrophoresis lab: 

This is our PGLO lab under normal room light:

PGLO Lab Analysis

pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis

1.

Obtain your team plates.  Observe your set of  “+pGLO” plates under room light and with UV light.  Record numbers of colonies and color of colonies. Fill in the table below. Plate Number of Colonies Color of colonies under room light Color of colonies under   UV light - pGLO LB none none none + pGLO LB/amp 37 grayish yellow white + pGLO LB/amp/ara 28 Greyish yellow Fluorescent yellow/ green

2.	What two new traits do your transformed bacteria have?
	They clump together in colonies and they have a fuzzy border around them and some have more lots of clear colonies but some have a mushy colony.
3.	Estimate how many bacteria were in the 100 uL of bacteria that you spread on each plate. Explain your logic.
	It would be impossible to count exactly how much bacteria there is because live bacteria is constantly growing and expanding but if we moved one colony then I approximate that there was 100 plus live bacteria samples transferred.
4.	What is the role of arabinose in the plates?
	I believe the arabinose acts as a culture for the bacteria to help improve growth and promote the increase in bacteria sample.
5.	List and briefly explain three current uses for GFP (green fluorescent protein) in research or applied science.
	GFP can be used in military science as a glow in the dark mechanism for underwater exploration. It can be used to make glow sticks and those collars for dogs and people to keep them safe in the dark. It’s a hard question because GFP by itself is just a protein sample from a jellyfish, but maybe it can be used to insert in animals or people to make them glow in the dark.
6.	Give an example of another application of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is the manipulation of genes and an example of that would be genetically modified food. Food that has had been altered and manipulated for maximum harvest counts as genetic engineering and is a common form of biotechnology.

Gel Electrophoresis Lab

When we analyzed the gel, there were  only a little difference from our reference dye and candy extracted dye. It was mainly color wise, but even so, it was by a couple of shades. The dyes stayed together for the most part, however the yellow managed to spread and cross the red dye. I think the dye that resembles the dyes we used would be the Fast Green FCF since the dyes we had migrated up and down and seemed to spread out from the side.

The main enticement for the sale of food items is how they look. If a hunk of meat looks rotten or grey, people simply wont buy it. In the sale of dog food, it doesn't matter to the dog how it looks; they are color blind, however, for people, the look of the food in their house or their dogs diet is incredibly important and so dog food companies invest in making the food more appetizing not for the dog, but for the human instead. Even the food that human eat, if mac and cheese is defined by the orange/ yellow cheese even if it is chemically based. 

The two things that control the migration of DNA is the electricity and the buffers acting on the gel. The electricity is the thing that acts on the DNA and causes it to move up the gel floor. The DNA groups by size of the dye and groups by their size automatically after adding electricity. I believe DNA with molecular weights in Daltons move and separate by size and weight. The 600s stay with the 600s and the 1000s with the 1000s and so forth.

New Year Goals

This semester I will plan on world domination. Just joking, in biology I want to like the class. I don't understand biology in a whole, therefore i am unable to appreciate the class, but by taking the time to go back and mentally tell myself, this is interesting, I hope I can like the class more.

Another goal is to get better at basketball and field hockey. I will be able to shoot anywhere on the court and make it as well as handle the ball like I can do it in my sleep. I will be able to dominate on defense and get strong enough to fight for rebounds and steals. In field hockey, I will be able to control the ball better and maneuver around defenders, which I can not do currently. I can work on both sports by practicing and not giving up even when it would be so easy to do so.