Last week, we dissected a fetal pig. We received a male pig, that was about 38 cm long. The purpose of this lab was to apply what we learned in the past two units. We actually saw the evolutionary components that we learned about. We saw what made us the latest evolutionary piece. We saw the lungs, the 4 chambered heart, and many other body parts that made humans humans. Our vodcasts in the physiology unit that we focused on during the dissection included the digestive, the respiratory, the circulatory, and the endocrine systems. There is a major difference between learning about evolution with a vodcast and probing around and feeling the parts.
My favorite part of the dissection was the probing of the inside. I felt a weird satisfaction when I snapped the ribs in half and then scraping out the connective tissue. Although satisfying, the most interesting things was seeing the inside of the pig and then discovering things like the diaphragm and the kidneys.
Here is the link to our Pig Dissection Vodcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLEIk-TFP18&t=1s
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Friday, May 26, 2017
20 Time Reflection
When Mr. Orre first mentioned 20 time to me, I sighed with despair. I was practically done with large projects. When I read the guidelines, I just thought it was gonna be a boring assignment that would take up 20% of class time. However, I soon realized that I am gonna do this whether I like it or not, so I might as do something worth my time. That is when I teamed up with Joelle and we started thinking. Our first idea was surrounding phobias and dreams. However, we got the feeling that the idea would turn into a research project. That is when Jayne came to Joelle and asked to be her partner. At the time Alex was also looking for a partner, which is when we decided to switch. That is when I birthed the idea of a cancer awareness project. This was not going to be an average cancer awareness project, but one that is less common but more lethal, the EGFR NSCLC.
As I have said in my previous blog posts, my grandfather was diagnosed with the epidermal growth factor receptor mutation of the non-small cell lung cancer about 12 years ago. He defeated the cancer, or so he thought. About a year ago, it resurfaced, but it grew more advanced. We used two types of chemo drugs, but this mutation grew resistant to both medications. The mutation, Alex and I found out, is a new discovery in the field of lung cancer, but it is one of the most deadly. The mutation is becoming more common, and it is occurring without a cure or survival rate. This is the reason we wanted to spread awareness. The best word to describe cancer is "bastard". Our goal is to change that.
Alex and I had a very rough outline on what our plan was. The first part of the plan was getting in contact with Dr. Heather Wakelee, the head of oncology at Stanford. This was the toughest part of the whole process as she is probably the busiest person I know. She oversees every single patient in the oncology department. It was easy to contact her through email, but we wanted to get a conference call with her to ask her suggestions for where exactly the money should go and how. Once we got in contact with her and held the conference call, it was rather smooth sailing. She recommended that we donate the money to Max Dienh, the head of a research team exploring the resistance of the mutation through blood work. We took this advice and started our campaign on gofundme. After creating the basic fundraiser, we began sharing it witch everyone we knew. We went on every social media form we knew including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. We even reached out to celebrities hoping we could gain popularity or start a trend. Our end goal was about $5000, but we knew this would not be reached and expected about $1000. In the first week, we raised about $500, which was a great start, but then nothing happened. To this day we have only raised $500, and achieved only about 25 shares.
Although the fundraiser was not what we had hoped, it was a great experience because I learned more about time-management and work ethic. Time management was a weakness because it took us about a month to schedule a conference call with Dr. Wakelee, and that scared us as the deadline crept up on us.
We finished what wanted to and met the deadline, but this will hopefully become a long-term project and maybe even a club at school. I am very interested now about the topic of fighting the mutation and I am also very enthralled in the subject. I have not stopped the fundraiser, but I will do so once we reach our goal. The greatest thing I learned about myself is that I underestimate my abilities. When I first thought of the idea, I thought this would be too much for me to handle and recruited Alex, but as we worked on the project, I realized I could have easily done this by myself and I would have felt more accomplished at the end. I think I can make this small project into a large movement or club.
Although the fundraiser was not what we had hoped, it was a great experience because I learned more about time-management and work ethic. Time management was a weakness because it took us about a month to schedule a conference call with Dr. Wakelee, and that scared us as the deadline crept up on us.
We finished what wanted to and met the deadline, but this will hopefully become a long-term project and maybe even a club at school. I am very interested now about the topic of fighting the mutation and I am also very enthralled in the subject. I have not stopped the fundraiser, but I will do so once we reach our goal. The greatest thing I learned about myself is that I underestimate my abilities. When I first thought of the idea, I thought this would be too much for me to handle and recruited Alex, but as we worked on the project, I realized I could have easily done this by myself and I would have felt more accomplished at the end. I think I can make this small project into a large movement or club.
Friday, May 12, 2017
Unit 9 Reflection
In the past two units, we zoomed out of the microscopic view of what we had previously learned. We first focused on ecology. This unit, we learned about Earth's animal population, its evolution, and taxonomy. Along with the traditional vodcasts and notes, we were tasked with a small presentation on a certain animal. This presentation was almost stress-relieving because it was a project, but we had the power to choose what we wanted to put. We did not have any other labs or projects.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MBv4B7VQrq3Jxy0raEQ_UJpPckNFZYN5mk-YhTZWI3E/edit?usp=sharing
Taxonomy is the naming and classifying of organisms. This study and classification was created to avoid confusion, as the same organisms have many different names and descriptions in different environments of the world. It was created by Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist in the early 1700s. He created the seven levels of organization with proper classification and the binomial nomenclature system. Phylogeny is the evolutionary history and relationships of species using taxonomy. It is represented using a phylogenetic tree. In the phylogenetic tree are the levels of taxonomy: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Phylogenetic_tree.svg
Then we jumped into the Kingdoms and Domains. There are three domains in taxonomy, and those are the Archaea, Bacteria, and the Eukarya. Inside these three domains there are four kingdoms, the Protista, the Fungi, the Plantae, and the Animalia. The Protista is is very broad and considered the junk drawer, where all the hybrids and mismatches go. The Fungi's defining characteristic is that the kingdom is filled with decomposers. The Plantae kingdom's defining characteristic is that they all photosynthesize. Animalia's defining characteristic is that they are only heterotrophic.
Bacteria and Viruses were the first "animals" we looked at. Bacteria have been that 1% of all species that survive the test of time and have been alive for billions of years. The are about 1/2 a micrometer. They also have cell walls made up of peptidoglycan, which is a network of sugar polymers cross-lined by polypeptides. They move using the flagella, which spirals around forcing movement. Bacteria is important because they are decomposers, nitrogen fixers, and they help in the biotech industry. Viruses are considered nonliving. They latch onto a host cell and take over all machinery. Once a viral genome has entered the cell, the cell begins to manufacture viral proteins. The virus either uses the cell and then kills it, a lytic infection, or it uses it to make copies of the virus, and keeps it alive, a lysogenic.
Fungi used to be considered plants, but they are very different. Once main difference is that plant cell walls are made up of cellulose while fungi cell walls are made up of chitin. Fungi don't photosynthesize either. Fungi are useful for food, medicine, model systems, etc. However they can also be pathogens causing ringworm or athlete's foot, and also Dutch elm. Plants used to be water-dwelling organisms only, but they slowly evolved to land, which gave them a great advantage because they could now reproduce easier and less competition. Cuticles allowed plants to stay hydrated on land, and a vascular system allowed plants to grow off the ground. There are two majors types of angiosperms: monocots and dicots. Monocots have leaf veins that are parallel, have flowers in multiples of 3, and have a bundle of vascular tissue scattered in the stem. Dicots have netlike leaf veins, have flower parts in multiples of 4, and have bundles of vascular tissue in rings of stem.
http://images.wisegeek.com/leaf-diagram.jpg
Invertebrates are diploid and usually reproduces sexually. Most animals have HOX genes, which control early development. They tell the body what to do, when to do it, and how. Instead of talking about every class, I will choose the most significant and explains why. Sponges (Porifera) were the earliest with specialized cells but no tissues. They are immobile and can repoduce sexually and asexually. The Cnidaria phylum has the oldest existing animals, such as jellyfish, sea anemones, coral, hydra, and box jellies. Annelida have segmented bodies, and they have a coelom, which is a fluid-filled space completely surrounded by muscle. The arthropods share many highly adapted features such as chitiin, jointed apendages, and segmented bodies. It is split into 5 groups - the trilobites, the crustaceans, the chelicerates, the insects, and the myriapods. Crustaceans are very diverse and have 2 distinct body sections, a cephalothorax and an abdomen. They also have a pair of appendages per segment. Echinoderms are on the same evolutionary branch as the vertebrates. They have radial symmetry, and use a series of water-filled canals to move around. They also have a complete digestive system. The classes in this reflection are significant because they highlight the evolution of invertebrates in the increasing complexity of the organisms. We first talked about sponges who were filter feeders and weren't even made up of tissues, and then we went all the way to echinoderms, who have a very advanced form of movement along with a complete digestive system. The annelids and mollusks were the middle stages, as we could see the formation of a digestive system.
The Chordata phylum includes all vertebrates. The first is the jawless fish, the Agnatha. These were the first recognizable vertebrates. However, these gave way to the condricthyes and the osteicthyes. These fish had a skeleton made of cartilage or a full bony skeleton, respectively. They also had gills which was huge as it made breathing much more efficient and easier. The last of the aquatic only vertebrates were the lobe-finned fish. These had a pair of pectoral and pelvic fins that were round. They were not as maneuverable, but they could support their own weight, which allowed for adventures onto the shore. The final step to land was the class of Amphibians. They evolved from lobe-finned fish and were tetrapods. They breathe through their skin, and can lay eggs on both land and in water. Along with the evolution onto land, there came major adaption for reproductive systems. The amniotic egg is a completely waterproof container that holds the embryo and keeps it safe. All amniotes have 2 circuits of blood vessels. The class Reptilia share characteristics such as having a 3 chambered heart, being covered with dry scales, and being an ecotherm. Class Aves are birds that evolved from theropod dinosaurs. They have hollow bones and fused collar bones for flight. These major adaptions allowed for flight. Lastly, the class Mammalia share characteristics such as hair to retain heat, mammary glands, a middle ear, and chewing jaw.
This unit is very tough as we need to not only memorize the taxonomy but also understand the defining characteristics. This is because there is overlap, and you must be able to differentiate. This unit reminded me of the mitosis and meiosis unit because that unit was the hardest for the first semester. We had to memorize, understand, and differentiate for that unit as well.
This was that unit review http://shivpaulgupta.blogspot.com/2016/11/unit-4-reflection.html
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MBv4B7VQrq3Jxy0raEQ_UJpPckNFZYN5mk-YhTZWI3E/edit?usp=sharing
Taxonomy is the naming and classifying of organisms. This study and classification was created to avoid confusion, as the same organisms have many different names and descriptions in different environments of the world. It was created by Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist in the early 1700s. He created the seven levels of organization with proper classification and the binomial nomenclature system. Phylogeny is the evolutionary history and relationships of species using taxonomy. It is represented using a phylogenetic tree. In the phylogenetic tree are the levels of taxonomy: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Phylogenetic_tree.svgThen we jumped into the Kingdoms and Domains. There are three domains in taxonomy, and those are the Archaea, Bacteria, and the Eukarya. Inside these three domains there are four kingdoms, the Protista, the Fungi, the Plantae, and the Animalia. The Protista is is very broad and considered the junk drawer, where all the hybrids and mismatches go. The Fungi's defining characteristic is that the kingdom is filled with decomposers. The Plantae kingdom's defining characteristic is that they all photosynthesize. Animalia's defining characteristic is that they are only heterotrophic.
Bacteria and Viruses were the first "animals" we looked at. Bacteria have been that 1% of all species that survive the test of time and have been alive for billions of years. The are about 1/2 a micrometer. They also have cell walls made up of peptidoglycan, which is a network of sugar polymers cross-lined by polypeptides. They move using the flagella, which spirals around forcing movement. Bacteria is important because they are decomposers, nitrogen fixers, and they help in the biotech industry. Viruses are considered nonliving. They latch onto a host cell and take over all machinery. Once a viral genome has entered the cell, the cell begins to manufacture viral proteins. The virus either uses the cell and then kills it, a lytic infection, or it uses it to make copies of the virus, and keeps it alive, a lysogenic.
Fungi used to be considered plants, but they are very different. Once main difference is that plant cell walls are made up of cellulose while fungi cell walls are made up of chitin. Fungi don't photosynthesize either. Fungi are useful for food, medicine, model systems, etc. However they can also be pathogens causing ringworm or athlete's foot, and also Dutch elm. Plants used to be water-dwelling organisms only, but they slowly evolved to land, which gave them a great advantage because they could now reproduce easier and less competition. Cuticles allowed plants to stay hydrated on land, and a vascular system allowed plants to grow off the ground. There are two majors types of angiosperms: monocots and dicots. Monocots have leaf veins that are parallel, have flowers in multiples of 3, and have a bundle of vascular tissue scattered in the stem. Dicots have netlike leaf veins, have flower parts in multiples of 4, and have bundles of vascular tissue in rings of stem.
http://images.wisegeek.com/leaf-diagram.jpg
Invertebrates are diploid and usually reproduces sexually. Most animals have HOX genes, which control early development. They tell the body what to do, when to do it, and how. Instead of talking about every class, I will choose the most significant and explains why. Sponges (Porifera) were the earliest with specialized cells but no tissues. They are immobile and can repoduce sexually and asexually. The Cnidaria phylum has the oldest existing animals, such as jellyfish, sea anemones, coral, hydra, and box jellies. Annelida have segmented bodies, and they have a coelom, which is a fluid-filled space completely surrounded by muscle. The arthropods share many highly adapted features such as chitiin, jointed apendages, and segmented bodies. It is split into 5 groups - the trilobites, the crustaceans, the chelicerates, the insects, and the myriapods. Crustaceans are very diverse and have 2 distinct body sections, a cephalothorax and an abdomen. They also have a pair of appendages per segment. Echinoderms are on the same evolutionary branch as the vertebrates. They have radial symmetry, and use a series of water-filled canals to move around. They also have a complete digestive system. The classes in this reflection are significant because they highlight the evolution of invertebrates in the increasing complexity of the organisms. We first talked about sponges who were filter feeders and weren't even made up of tissues, and then we went all the way to echinoderms, who have a very advanced form of movement along with a complete digestive system. The annelids and mollusks were the middle stages, as we could see the formation of a digestive system.
The Chordata phylum includes all vertebrates. The first is the jawless fish, the Agnatha. These were the first recognizable vertebrates. However, these gave way to the condricthyes and the osteicthyes. These fish had a skeleton made of cartilage or a full bony skeleton, respectively. They also had gills which was huge as it made breathing much more efficient and easier. The last of the aquatic only vertebrates were the lobe-finned fish. These had a pair of pectoral and pelvic fins that were round. They were not as maneuverable, but they could support their own weight, which allowed for adventures onto the shore. The final step to land was the class of Amphibians. They evolved from lobe-finned fish and were tetrapods. They breathe through their skin, and can lay eggs on both land and in water. Along with the evolution onto land, there came major adaption for reproductive systems. The amniotic egg is a completely waterproof container that holds the embryo and keeps it safe. All amniotes have 2 circuits of blood vessels. The class Reptilia share characteristics such as having a 3 chambered heart, being covered with dry scales, and being an ecotherm. Class Aves are birds that evolved from theropod dinosaurs. They have hollow bones and fused collar bones for flight. These major adaptions allowed for flight. Lastly, the class Mammalia share characteristics such as hair to retain heat, mammary glands, a middle ear, and chewing jaw.
This unit is very tough as we need to not only memorize the taxonomy but also understand the defining characteristics. This is because there is overlap, and you must be able to differentiate. This unit reminded me of the mitosis and meiosis unit because that unit was the hardest for the first semester. We had to memorize, understand, and differentiate for that unit as well.
This was that unit review http://shivpaulgupta.blogspot.com/2016/11/unit-4-reflection.html
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