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.