Unit 10 Reflection

Unit 10 was our final unit this year in biology and the one that I actually enjoyed the most. This unit was titled "Physiology", concerning the functions of bodily parts in living things. We learned about different systems in organisms that essentially keep them alive such as homeostasis, the circulatory and respiratory systems, the nervous system, the endocrine system, the digestive system, the immune system, the lymphatic system, and the inflammatory response. I especially enjoyed a lab we did when we dissected a fetal pig, getting perspective about what it looks like inside our bodies. I feel like this lab also helped us connect organs and systems we had been studying to the literal layout in front our us. Over the unit, essential understandings we solidified each lesson included identifying how organs in each system contribute to the function of that system, and how that system contributes to the survival of that organism. We looked at which systems work together; for example, the circulatory and respiratory systems and the lymphatic system and inflammatory response. In the case of the former, the respiratory system delivers oxygen to the blood of the circulatory system in a gas exchange that occurs in the alveoli of the lungs. The oxygenated blood is then transported by the circulatory system to the cells of the body to keep them alive.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_physiology>

One topic I wondered about as we were studying the connections of all these complex organs that make up these systems, is how do organs grow? At my age, most people I know are still in the process of growing and their height increases each year, but how do organ sizes increase? Do they all increase at once along with our bones and muscles when we get taller? Like our feet that are always slightly different sizes, do our organs grow at different times resulting in some systems being stronger than others?

Looking back on this freshman year, I feel accomplished in the increased professionalism of my blog posts and amount of critical thinking I have become more accustomed to. In my very first unit reflection, I lacked the use of paragraphs to break up my thoughts and my ideas were essentially all thrown into a jumbled paragraph. In the beginning, I also didn't use images to illustrate what I was discussing, leaving my posts looking dull and relatively short. I am proud of the way I have grown as a learner this year, taking more interest in what we have been studying and really utilizing this opportunity to blog as a way to clarify information for myself.

Pig Dissection

I think the essential question for this lab was: what are the functions and locations of the organs found in the pig and what system, or systems, are they a part of. This dissection required us to not only locate the organs, but also to think through how each organ interacts with other organs and why its positioning is useful. This ties right into the vodcasts we have been watching about the many human body systems. The anatomy of the pig and the anatomy of the human are very similar in the function and placement of internal bodily structures. Through our solid understanding of the circulatory, respiratory, nervous, endocrine, digestive, immune, and lymphatic systems in humans, we were able to quickly make connections when we spotted structures in the fetal pig. I found dissecting a pig a fascinating experience and my favorite part was opening the heart because it was interesting to see the mass of arteries and veins that basically kept the pig alive once. It's amazing how a few small tube-like structures within the heart push oxygenated blood throughout the entire body, keeping cells alive and functioning. I think the dissection was a very valuable experience because it gave us perspective on what the internal anatomy of our bodies look like. Many people questioned if the pig was real while doing the experiment because it did resemble rubber or clay very well, but it was valuable to understand the look and connection of our incredible body organs that allow us to be who we are.

20 Time Project Final Reflection

Looking back on the past three months, Reva and I conducted a mostly successful 20 time project centered around the fun theory, and although we do not have a physical product, the conclusions we produced allow us to educate others on our discoveries. Through our experiments that caused people to throw more trash away via a basketball hoop over a garbage can and making written schoolwork more fun by writing with "fun pens" we discovered the core of our classmate's motivation to do things. Although we based all of our experiments off the fun theory, we ended up discovering more about what motivates the human brain in our twenty-first century society. 

 

Data from our trash basketball hoop experiment

As shown from this bar graph, the days we had a basketball hoop over the trashcan (shown in the orange), the more trash was thrown away. People were motivated by the thrill of making disposing litter a game. Recently, in a conversation, I heard about an article written on the subject of new start-up companies hiring specialists to come in and recommend ways to motivate their millennial generation employees. I was able to provide insight in this subject because of our results from our 20 time project. I now know that today's millennials and generation z are not motivated by seeing results, like the baby-boomer generation before them, because our society has technology that produces those results for us and the work positions most commonly found today require the critical thinking behind the producing job of technology. Our most recent generations are motivated by intrinsic motivation: the desire to do things because they are important and/or we have a passion for them. This was the core of our TED talk.

Aside from a few improvements, I feel like our TED talk was successful in getting our message across while still keeping it engaging the entire time. Designing our attention-getter to have props and adjust the focus of the presentation from the right side of the classroom to the left right from the start, I felt, was highly affective. One part we could improve in our presentation was the speed. As most people find is usually the case, when actually presenting, people tend to go much faster than they did in their practice presentations. Our original time for our practice runs was a constant 5min 30sec, however for our actual presentation when we were aware that we were slightly over the time limit, we sped up, causing our talk to end up being 4min 18sec. It might have been difficult for our audience to contemplate everything we were saying when introducing new ideas in such a hurried manner. From this TED talk, I have learned that once all the preparation is complete and you know the time and rhythm for your talk, once you are actually standing in front of the class with your heart racing, it's important to take it steady, relax, and just mentally remind yourself that you're there to teach the class. It's helpful to consciously try to make the information you're presenting to sound fresh, like you're saying it all for the first time, because the audience is hearing it for the first time. I think this mental technique can make your talking slower and you're ideas sound more authentic and passionate. From this TED talk I can actually take something away directly from our project: when presenting, or doing anything in life, find a way to make yourself passionate and care about the topic to both make your presentation engaging and make your life accomplishments more genuine. 

20 Time Individual Reflection

This project challenged my level of creativity, thinking outside the box to come up with ideas and create experiments in order to test the fun theory. When first introduced to this project, I was immediately drawn to the idea of learning and testing psychology. After Reva and I both decided we were passionate about something having to do with the workings of the minds of Saratoga High School students, we came across an interesting theory in our initial research. It is called the fun theory and we figured it would be reasonable to conduct a couple of experiments, using the statement of this theory. Our original goal was never to test or prove the fun theory, it was to use the theory to improve the lives of students. Even though we never stated a clear goal as a final product, we envisioned an end result that looked something like a list of ways the fun theory can make you healthier and improve your happiness.

Overall, our project was not as successful as we had hoped. It took us a few weeks to pass the stage of brain storming and get to the actual planning of our experiments, slowing down the entire process, causing us to run out of time at the end. We were able to successfully gather data for one experiment and are still planning to squeeze in two more experiments later this week before our TED talk. From this experience, I have definitely learned the importance of creating an exact blueprint, or at least a defined product when starting a project. The consequences of having a vague vision of the final result of a project can cause the entire project to be unsuccessful. I don't think I would want to do this project again because it has been proven difficult to find ways to improve everyday life that do not require extensive set-up and are reasonable for people to do on a daily basis. To do it differently, I might want to try observing people and seeing how people naturally use the fun theory to make things more fun for themselves, rather than setting up ways things can be fun. Reva and I are planning to finish up with our experiments and draw conclusions to share in our TED talk. I think in the future we will be able to have valuable conversations with people about ways they can use the fun theory to solve cumbersome areas of their life, but I feel like we won't be able to take the information from our findings much further than that.

Unit 9 Reflection

This unit focused on the big picture behind how scientists organize life. Carolus Linneaus' taxonomy system groups organisms into a species, then genus, then family, then order, then class, then phylum, and finally kingdom. This manner of organization shows relationships between species. He also created a naming system called binomial nomenclature. Each organism is given two names, the first word is its genus, and the second word is its unique species. We began with the three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. Then, we dove in deeper into the kingdoms within these domains, and the phyla inside the kingdoms. Every time we studied a new phyla, the question was asked, "how do defining characteristics of this phyla show the increased complexity that evolved in this kingdom?". Concentrating on major characteristics, we were able to pinpoint alterations in the way the organisms survive, that prove evolution among that kingdom. We watched a video this unit based on the novel, Your Inner Fish, that explored the fact that all life evolved from one ancestor, meaning that humans evolved from fish. Similar characteristics, especially in the embryos and fetuses, of these two organisms linked them to validate that fact that they descended from a common species.

I am still curious about the water vascular system of echinodermata. Its amazing to me that an organism can survive so efficiently with radial symmetry and only one opening for a mouth and anus. The process of the water vascular system centered around a radial disk is one that I would like to learn about more in depth sometime.

<http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Echinodermata.aspx>

I feel like my What on Earth Evolved? presentation was an overall success, although there are many aspects I could improve for a stronger presentation next time. Inspired by the white-board time-lapse video my group did for our Conservation Biologist Project in unit seven, I decided to make a similar video to present behind me while talking through my presentation. I did my project on the Influenza virus that drastically changed the course of human history, through its retro-virus instability affecting humans and animals alike. Being that the whiteboard video I created was going at a constant speed, it required me to have to talk at the same speed to keep the presentation moving at a good pace. This goal failed when I didn't spend as much time rehearsing as I needed to, causing the timing to be slightly off at some parts of the presentation. Overall, I felt like my choice of visual-aid was unique and was entertaining for my piers to watch. For the TED talk coming up, I will make sure that I rehearse enough because even with a visual aid that does not rely on timing, it is much better to be prepared and comfortable with the timing of the talk.

<https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/viruses/influenzavirus.html>

Here is the link to the white-board time-lapse of my presentation on the Influenza virus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8KsxpARJJU

My Inner Fish Reflection

Neil Shubin's revelation about human's direct connection with our ancestor's the fish changed the way I view the incredible features of man. He pinpointed the origin of our fingers and toes in prehistoric fish and found evidence that our skin, hair, and teeth are originated in early reptiles. Why were fish embryos that Dr. Shubin studied in the summer significant? Fish embryos and human embryos side-by-side are almost identical. This evidence proves the fact that fish and humans stem from the same common ancestor. I can relate this question to a vodcast i watched on evolution in which we learned about embryology, the study of similar stages of embryo development to suggest common ancestry.

<http://www.rationalconclusions.com/citations.embryologyvestigial.asp>

What is the "Sonic Hedgehog" gene responsible for? The Sonic Hedgehog tells cells what their function is, producing a signal for making the array of digits. These genes are positioned at the base of limbs to give direction for "smaller limbs" or fingers and toes to form. These genes reminded me of Hox genes that we learned about this year which control the body plans of embryos, directing parts such as legs, eyes, antennae, and organs. In relation to one another, Hox genes control the formation of the leg, and then Sonic Hedgehog genes manage the making of toes.