I have joined the Order of the Sirenia

Monday, September 30, 2013:
Today was an interesting and enjoyable day.
So Mr. Quick has been telling us about a project that we would be working on in the future where we would get to pretty much make up a new creature. Well That Time Has Come. We started of by choosing partners, mine being Chris Hernandez, and then we moved on to picking our creature.

We were LUCKY to get the coolest and most bad-ass creature in the sea....

this AMAZING fellow of the Order of the Sirenia
 AIN'T HE JUST ADORABLE.

PS..As you can see, i finally figured out this GIF thing.
Anyway, back to the lab. So we were meant to look at the cladogram of the sirenia, choose another species with a common ancestor, compare the two, and then create the transition.

So we picked this little fellow as our other species.


So the point is that we have two adorable creatures to compare.
Well sadly my photo-shopping skills aren't too great and our transition ended up looking like this:

So if you would like to come and check out our website, go ahead!
https://sites.google.com/site/sireniantomanatee/

Evidence for Evolution Quiz

Evidence of Evolution Quiz
1. Explain the following picture in terms evidence for evolution.

This picture shows that Evolution occurred. The Mesonychid, over the time span of millions of years, gradually changed from a land-dweller to an ocean-dweller.

2. Which of the following continents did marsupials begin from?
a. Europe
b. Africa
c. Australia
d. South America
e. North America

3. Comparing a dragonfly, bird, bats - explain the type of evolution that these organisms show.
When comparing these three organisms, we see that there are many similarities, but their underlying structures are completely different. This is called convergent evolution. These organisms share the analogous structure of wings.

4. Explain how the Common Descent Lab shows DNA evidence and ancestry as 
evidence for evolution. Include examples of Primates.
In the Common Descent Lab, we took four strands of DNA, a gorilla, a chimpanzee, a human, and a common ancestor, and look for similarities between them. We used similarities in the DNA to find common ancestry among these four organisms. One thing that we found was that, chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than gorillas are.

5. Explain homology using some examples from your readings.
Homology is an ancestral relationship between two or more organisms. We learned this after reading Your Inner Fish, where the author spoke of commonalities of arms between many different organisms, and then introduced the blob.

To Evolution! And On!

Monday, September 23, 2013:
So now what we have a general understanding of what Evolution is, we had to start finding connection. TO THE LAB!!

The lab of the day was to investigate the common descent of three completely different species: Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and, well, Humans. Our job was to synthesize our own DNA strand for each of the three species.


We could then compare these strands to the stand of a common ancestor and to each other. After looking at the strands we built, we found that:

Human DNA compared to:          Number of Matches
Chimps DNA                             15
Gorilla DNA                            10


We found that Chimps were more closely related to humans than chimps were, and concluded that the cladogram would pretty much look like this:

My Best Bud.

Thursday, September 19, 2013:

To summarize this class into one picture:

So this is my best bud, Tiktaalik. He is pretty mucht the trasitional fossil that shows us the transformation from aquatic to land animals. As you can see by the picture, Tiktaalic was a pretty scary, alligator creature with wrists, a neck, and a developed rib-cage, all of which helped it crawl on land. 
Mr. Quick used this amazing creature to illustrate the importance of intermediate or transitional fossils. We learned that without finding a transition fossil like Tiktaalik, our fossil record is not complete. In modern day paleontology, he represents the direct relationship between land and aquatic animals.

The Test...

Tuesday, September 17, 2013:
Well....I just came out of the test. I'll just be honest, I didn't study for this as much as I should have. See what happened was what usually happens.

I had a friend who took the test a few blocks before us. He spent all night studying very hard, because he felt that he was unprepared for the test. When he sat down to take the test, he breezed through it. So this friend of mine walks out of biology and of course, I ask him how the test was, and then he replies, "Dang that was so easy! I don't know even know why I was up all night studying for that." So of course, my brain pretty much shuts out the idea of studying for the test. The truth was that my friend just studied so hard that he was really prepared for the test.

I don't really know why I am telling you this. I just know that this happens a lot. I think I should just stop asking how the test was. Maybe that will change some things. I don't know. Better luck next test.

Review Sesh

Thursday, September 12, 2013:

Well, I kinda forgot to blog about this class, and I don't really remember what we did. So from what I remember...

We spent the beginning of class studying functional isomers and some other chemistry. Then, when we decided to move on. I was kind of taken by surprise when Mr. Quick said that we had a test next class. So, we reviewed for the test. We ended class with a quiz on functional isomers.

Silly Jerell

September 11, 2013

So today was quite a rushed class. My partner, Chris Hernandez, and I raced both the clock and Mr. Quick and Shannon to complete this mystery of a lab, who stole Jerell's iPod. Jerell works at McDonalds, and one day, when he returned to work after a break, his iPod was missing, with only a few food crumbs in its place. There are four possible suspects, Jose, Ashley, Bruce, and Kiara, and we are supposed to help Jerell test all of the foods that they ate that day, and compare it to the crumbs that were found.

In this lab, we took six solutions and tested them to see if they had starch, glucose, lipid, and protein. We found that the crumbs that were found contained Glucose, Protein, and Lipids, but not Starch. We then tested the foods that the suspects ate that day: Bean burrito with cheese, Fat-free Yogurt, Toast with butter and jelly, and Pretzel.

Our results are as follow:

Food	Glucose	Starch	Protein	Lipid
Pretzel	Yes	Yes	No	No
Butter	No	No	No	Yes
Jelly	Yes	No	No	Yes
Fat-free Yogurt	Yes	No	No	No
Beans	No	No	No	No

Based on these results, Bruce, with his Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, has the the meal that is the closest to the crumbs that were found.

BRUCE STOLE JERELL's iPod

House Case

September 10, 2013:

The main focus of today's class was the house case. If all house cases follow our first one, then a house case is when we are assigned someone with many symptoms, and we are supposed to try to figure out what he has.

House Case #1:
High School Senior
18 Years Old
Runs Cross Country
Symptoms:

  Vomiting
  Severe Headache
  Exhaustion
  Confusion

Additional Helpful Information:

  He is not on medications

  The symptoms began after practice

  The practice was in 104 degree weather

  Drank 3 gallons of water during practice

Based on this information, my class and I made a list of possibilities.

1. Heat Exhaustion
2. Heat Stroke
3. Type 2 Diabetes
4. Dehydration
5. Over Hydration

We were then given a list of test results to further our search.
MRI and CAT scan-negative
CRC-normal and white blood cell numbers are normal
    Blood Glucose level-normal
    Serum/Blood Na levels 125 meq/L
    Serum Osmolality - decreased
Urinalysis - Specific Gravity decreased <100mOsm/kg and Urine Na decreased to 15 meq/L
Blood Pressure slightly elevated

After ruling out most of our prior possibilities, a few classmates and I have decided that his situation is most likely over-hydration.

This was my first house case, and I actually kind of enjoyed it. It was pretty interesting trying to figure out what was wrong with this guy with such few information.

I'll be back. Next time on House:

5 Part Lab Full of Fun.

September 6, 2013:
This post will completely summarize this big lab, but sadly, I am not done with my lab report yet. I will post it as soon as I finish the lab report.

See You Soon

Osmosis and Diffusion

September 3, 2013:

This class was all about Osmosis and Diffusion. We spent most of the class discussing this topic, and ended with a lab to test our these properties.

So what exactly are Osmosis and Diffusion?

Diffusion:

Particles have the general desire to more from a higher concentration to a lower concentration. Diffusion is this movement, which can occur in any state, from a higher concentration regions to lower concentration regions.

For Example:
An Air Freshener being sprayed into the air, and then diffusing itself and spreading evenly in the air.

Osmosis:

Osmosis is a type of diffusion. It is specific to water and it's movement through a semi-permeable membrane. A semi-permeable membrane is a tissue that allows some substances to pass through, based on polarity and size. Osmosis is this movement from a higher concentration region, through the semi-permeable membrane, and to a lower concentration region.

For Example:
Osmosis is partially responsible for the absorption of soil water into plants, and also the rising of water through plants and to leaves.


Next, We put these two huge concepts into use. We had a five part lab to test osmosis and diffusion, but I will talk more about that in my next post.

Penny Lab

Friday, August 30, 2013:
Today, our lab was as simple as a penny, some H20, and toothpick. We were told to pile water onto the top of the penny, one drop at a time, until the surface tension gave in. 

Image of penny with convex bubble on top

We did this twice and then on the third time, we were asked to put as much water on the penny as we could without breaking the convex bubble. Once we had a penny with the largest amount of water that the surface tension could hold. We then tested how strong the bubble was by putting a toothpick sideways on top of the penny. The surface tension was strong enough that when the toothpick was put on top of the bubble, it stayed there unaffected. We learned from this lab, just how strong the supposed "weak" bonds in water actually are, because they were able to not only stay on the penny, but also withhold the toothpick that was set on top.


In spirit of our next cabbage lab, here is a picture of the cabbage merchant from Avatar the Last Airbender with his cabbages:

Look how happy he is!