Final Blog

Final blogReflect on your semester and year in biology What were your successes? What were your failures?
My year in biology is fun and exciting.  I learned a lot of things like dissecting different kinds of organisms and structures of organisms' body.  I am very successful in dissecting the organisms, especially the frog, and also very successful in many of the projects assigned.  Unfortunely, I have a feww failures.  I failed on getting good test grades, therefore, I need to retake some test once or twice to get an A.  The year in biology is awesome and I love the biology fieldtrip.

What did you learn that you will never forget?
I will never forget how the squid squeeze its ink on Diana when she is trying to take the lense out.  I learn that experiments can help people understand better than just reading.

Blog #15 Semester 2

Blog 15 Compare two of the organisms that we have dissected Discuss at least 2 similarities and 3 differences

Grasshopper and crayfish both have a exoskeleton that protects them.  They also have antenna that sense things.  But grasshopper lives on land while crayfish lives in the ocean.  Crayfish has gills for respiratory while grasshoppers has spiracles and book lungs.  Grasshopper has 6 legs while crayfish has 10 legs and a pair of cheliped.

Blog #14 Semester 2

Blog 14 Which specimen that we have dissected so far seems most like humans? Why?

The organs of the fish is very alike with humans.  Although fish does not look like humans, its organs like liver, skull, stomach, kidney, intestine, and heart are all organs that we humans have and are very important.  Therefore, fish is the organism we dissect so far that is most like humans.

Blog #13 Semester 2

Blog 13 What was most interesting about this week's dissections?

The fish dissection is very interesting.  The fish has a lot of organs like stomach, heart, kidney, air blader, trunk muscles, gills, and liver.  I learned about how the fish uses its gills to breath under the water and how fish digest its food.  The fish dissection is interesting and taught me many new things about fish.

Blog #12 Semester 2

Blog#12 What surprised you from the worm's dissection?

I learned a lot of new things from the worm dissection.  One of the most surprising things is that the worm actually has 4 hearts.  Back then, I always wonder why worms can survive when being damage badly or cut off some parts.  Now that I dissect the worm, I notice that the worm's 4 hearts supports it.  I think this is why worms can survive in terrible condition.

Blog #11 Semester 2

Blog #11
Get a picture of alternation of generations put it in your blog and explain how it relates to plants

The cycle begins as a new grown plant that is blooming.  As it is getting sunlight, the process of photosynthesis caused the plant to grow.  When the flowers bloom, insects like bees and butterfly will take the spore from one flower to another.  When the spore goes into the ovary and produces eggs, the fruit produced.  As the fruit grew old, its seeds will fall off to the ground.  This cycle then begins again.

Blog#10 Semester 2

Blog #10
Why is dissection an important part of a biology curriculum? Which animals and/or plants should be included in biological studies?

Dissection is the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components.  Dissection helps us understand the parts of organisms better.  Dissection makes biology much more fun and can allow students to learn faster and easier.  Understanding the parts of the organisms can help scientist determine how organisms' body works, survive, and reproduce.  I think monkey should be included in biological studies because they are very similar to humans.

Blog #9 Semester 2

Blog 9
Define the different forms of community interaction: competition, commensalism, mutualism, predation, parasitism Give an example and a picture for each

 Predation is the interaction where a predator feeds on other organisms.  An example of predation is lion killing and eating a deer.

Competition is when organisms fights for survival and food.  An example of competition is tigers fighting for food.

Commensalism is the relationship of two organisms, where one organism benefits but the other is neutral.  An example of commensalism is the tree with birds in the nest.

Mutualism is the relationship where two organisms interact and both benefit.  An example of mutualism is the bacteria in plants.

Parasitism is relationship where one organism lives in other organism, where one benefit by harming the other one.  An example of parasitism is the bacteria disease in human body.

Blog #8 Semester 2

Blog 8 Your choice talk about something you learned or ask a question about something that is confusing you
From this biology class, I learned that doing experiments can help me learn faster and easily.  I can remember the knownledge in the book better by doing experiments.  Also I found out that doing experiments can help me learn and have fun in the same time.  This is something that I ever knew until I had this biology class.

Blog #7 Semester 2

Blog 7 Compare and contrast two biomes describe them in detail include pictures of plants and animals you are liklely to see.


Two types of biomes are alpine and tundra.  Alpine is cold, snowy, windy.  It is filled with mountains and there are high winds and ice.  They have an altitude of about 10,000 feet or more.  Even in summer, the temperature is around 10 to 15 degree C.   In winter, the temperture is below freezing and last from October to May.  Because the severe climate of the Alpine biome, plants and animals have developed adaptations to those conditions.  There are only about 200 species of Alpine plants.  At high altitudes there is very little CO2, which plants need for them to carry on photosynthesis.  Some animals that lives in Alpine are alpaca, andeam condor, chinchilla, llama, mountain goat, snow leopard, vicuna, and yak.



A savanna is a grassland scattered with shrubs and isolated trees, which can be found between a tropical rainforest and desert biome.  There is not enough rain falls on a savanna to support forests. Savannas are also known as tropical grasslands.  They are found in a wide band on either side of the equator on the edges of tropical rainforests.  Unlike Apline, Savannas have warm temperature year round.  There are actually two very different seasons in a savanna; a very long dry season (winter), and a very wet season (summer).  In the dry season only an average of about 4 inches of rain falls.  Between December and February no rain will fall at all.  Savanna has animals like african elephant, caracal, emu, lion, koala bear, and nile crocodile.

Blog #6 Semester 2

Blog #6 Which level of a food pyramid is the most important? Support your answer

For the food pyramid of the organisms, I think the producer is the most important level out of all the organisms.  The producer can produce their own food from sunlight.  Therefore they can grow and reproduce by themselves.  Other than that, many insects and animals feed on plants to survive.  Without the producers, all these animals and insects will die and extinct.  And as this extinction moves on, all organisms will be extinct because of the lack of food sources.  Therefore, the producer is the most important part of the food pyramid.

Blog #5 Semester 2

Blog #5 There have been 5 major extinction events throughout history, are humans impacting the 6th? Why or why not?

I think humans are impacting the 6th extinction.  Human's advance technology is casing a lot of pollution and is invading the natural environment of the species.  As trees gets cut down and pollution spreads around the world, a lot of species will be extinct.  Globe  warming and pollution will eventually led to the 6th major extinction in Earth.

BLog #4 Semester 2

Blog # 4 Describe the three types of selection: directional, stabilizing and disruptive and give an example of each in your own words.

 Directional selection is a type of natural selection where certain gene is used and more favored. It becomes apparent in each generation and removes mutation from a population.

Stabilizing selection is a type of natural selection where the genetic differences reduced through generations due to a trait that has been more favorable than the reduced genes.

Disruptive selection is the a type of natural selection in which there are two favorite genes and one of them is more favored than the other, resulting into two distinct groups with two distinct features yet from the same ancestry.

Blog #3 Semester 2

Explain what microevolution is? What are the three ways that variation occurs?

Microevolution is evolution, or changes, in gene frequency that responds to a population. The three ways that the variation can occur is through mutation, natural and artifical selection, and genetic drift.

Blog #2 Semester 2

Blog # 2 Why is fossil record hard to interpret?

Many fossils are thousands or million years old.  Some of the fossils are broken and only some parts of the fossil is not damage.  In this case, it is very hard to inerpret the fossils if the fossils is not in one piece.  Sometimes, sand and dust can also damage and cover some parts of the fossils.

Blog #1 Semester 2

Why is evolution a theory and not a law?

 Evolution is the change over time in the proportion of individual organisms differing in one or more inherited traits.  The evolution is a theory because there is not enough information to prove how the evolution started.  No one knows how the first cell in this planet is created.  Therefore, the evolution can only be a theory.

Blog #14

What was you favorite activity/topic this year? Why was it a favorite?



My favorite activity of this year is the chip burning lap.  I like it because we can burn chips and eat the left overs after.  It was very fun except the fact that we burn the chips out in the sun.  It is very HOT!

What was your least favorite? Why?

I think learning about cells is my least favorite topic.  I am not very interested in cells and I don't know much about it.  A lot of the notes on it is hard and I have to try very hard to get it.  Therefore, I think cells is my least favorite topic.

If you could change one thing (Not the amount of homework) what would it be and how would you change it?
I think the points Ms. Malonek gives to my notebook is too high.  When I'm trying to calculate the points, I get very dizzy and crazy because the number is too big.

Blog #13

Blog#13 How has DNA changed how we investigate crimes? What are the two main tests? Describe them

DNA changed the way we investigate because it had helped us find the perpetrator through blood, saliva, hair, fingerprints.  PCR only needs little DNA  and it is very cheaper.  PCR is often used because of its efficiency.  PCR uses repeated regions of the DNA and copies it with another region.  Then, it uses primers to indicate a starting point of where the DNA copying should start.

RFLP requires large amount of DNA that is "fresh".  In RFLP, thousands of cells are collected and then cut in the same place with a restriction enzyme. Next, the cut DNA is sorted by size through a gel which allows smaller pieces of DNA to pass through quicker than the larger pieces of DNA. After, another copy of the gel is used to trap the pieces of DNA which is later on treated with probe. Finally, the sizes and how the DNA is distributed is noted down and repeated for many other people.