Unit II Evaluation

Self and Unit Evaluation

1. I’m really proud of the second compendium that I wrote. I think I’m finally starting to get them down! I’m also proud of both labs that I did. I spent a good amount of time on them and I think they came out well. I’m also proud of my lab write up. I had fun with this one, although I think my husband differs ☺

2. I think I could have used some help with the first compendium that I wrote but I think after the second one I wrote I’m a little more confident in it. I think my ethical essay could have used some improvement. I liked the topic but I just couldn’t get the right words out!

3. I think I should get a low A. I really liked all these topics and I think I did a better job this time around.

4. I think I could spend a little more time on some of the projects. I don’t think I spent as much time this time around



1. I really felt engaged when I was doing to food exercise. It really put into perspective what I ate and how it affected my daily intakes.

2. I think I felt distanced from this unit when it came down to the ethical issue.

3. The directions for the lab write up were very clear. They also helped me while I was doing to lab write up and the lab itself.

4. I don’t think anything really confused me this time!

5. Like I stated in question 1, I was really surprised with the food lab. I think it’s crazy that people eat all the time and don’t realize what they are consuming. I know I could benefit using that more often!

Unit II Lab Project

During this lab, I used the Wii Fit to help calculate blood pressure, respiratory rate, and pulse. When a person works out, their body needs to produce enough oxygen to replenish the body. When we test blood pressure you measure the systolic rate (“defined as the peak pressure in the arteries”). (www.wikipedia.com) We also test the diastolic rate “arterial pressure is the lowest pressure (at the resting phase of the cardiac cycle”. (www.wikipedia.com) We also tested the pulse rate, the “throbbing of their arteries as an effect of the heart beat”. (www.wikipedia.com) Finding the respiratory rate, you just calculate the number of respiration's in 30 seconds and times it by 2.

My hypothesis for this experiment is that when a person works out, I believe their blood pressure, respiration's, and pulse are going to go up. In the table below, I show what my hypothesis is for each activity.

In this chart I'm showing what my hypothesis for each activity will be. As you can see, I predict that as the activities intensify, the blood pressure, pulse rate and respiration rate will go up

This is a picture of the watch that we used for the respiration rates and the electronic blood pressure monitor. All measurements were taken immediately after each activity. There was no resting period between activity and time of measurement.

This is a picture of the Wii Fit game. If you aren't familiar with Wii fit, it's an interactive video game that is intended for physical fitness and weight loss.

This is a picture of my husband watching tv (The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel) to get the baseline measurements. Thankfully, my wonderful husband did all the activities for me, as I would have probably died! ☺

Here is a picture of my husband doing Wii Fit Ski Jump. This exercise is designed to help improve balance and requires very little energy and movement.

My husband is doing Wii Fit Push-Ups (10 push ups at a time.) This exercise is designed for upper body strength and requires quite a bit of exercise and movement. It definitely gets your blood moving.

This is the Wii Fit Short Run. Basically its 3 minutes of running or jogging. Running is the best way to get your blood pumping and requires a ton of exercise and energy.

In all of these bar graphs, I know it is hard to read and I'm sorry! But the Purple bar is the Baseline rate, the red bar is the Wii Fit Ski, the yellow bar is the Wii Fit Push-ups, and the aqua color bar is the Wii Fit Short Run...I tried to make them bigger but it didn't work.

My hypothesis was correct for the most part. From the baseline measurement the averages were pulse was 67.6, respiration was 16.4 and blood pressure was 107.4/63.6. As we went on with the other activities all the variables increased, but very slightly, they didn't increase that much, or at least as much as I thought. In the Wii Fit Short run the averages were pulse 86, Respiration 22, and blood pressure 141.6/64.6. I thought that during this whole process that the averages would have been more defined and not close together.

The problems that came up with our lab is that for the short run, it doesn’t pace you at all. It just give you 3 minutes to run, but no pace meter. Without the pace meter we couldn’t tell if my husband was running at the same speed or if he was slower or faster than the previous run. I also think it would be more accurate if you were doing the blood pressure testing while exercising. I would have my husband sit down to take the blood pressure, and you could tell he was calming down after a minute or so of sitting. I know it would be pretty hard to do that, but I think it would be a little more accurate.

When people exercise their blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiratory rate increase slightly. Depending on how much work your activity is, the differences will vary. It makes complete sense that the more you work out the more your heart has to pump in order to get more oxygen to the body. The more your heart pumps, the faster you pulse rate will be. When you work out, the blood enters your lungs to get more oxygen, in which your respiratory rate will go up. The blood pressure will go up because your heart is working very hard to produce new blood to get circulated.

Ethical Essay Two

The issue that I read for this ethical essay is the essay about the Slow Food. It is basically saying that we need to realize where our food comes from and that we should all come together and should start “connecting producers and co-producers, coming together on the farm, in the market, and at the table—to create and enjoy food that is good, clean and fair.” (From the article) We also need to start slowing down and make food pretty much from scratch.

It would be great to know where your food came from, instead of food being loaded onto a truck and delivered to a grocery store. We have no idea where our food comes from and if it is healthy enough to eat. In the past couple of weeks, there was a scare about salmonella in tomatoes. If we knew where our food came from, and who produces them and what their habits are, we shouldn’t have to worry about that. There are many issues with today’s food that we need to start addressing.

Although, it would be nice to know where our food came from, I don’t think our world today really cares. With the way the world is, it’s too fast paced and we don’t even get a chance to relax at all, let alone worry about our food. I know I’m guilty of this, as my husband and I work too much and have to in order to keep up with bills and such. We just don’t have time to worry about it. I think many people are having that issue because the economy is not what it used to be.

Both of these viewpoints are valid. As much as we would all love to spend more time with our families and make our own food, we just don’t have time anymore. The world just isn’t what it used to be. I don’t see this changing at all in the future. If anything, I think it may get a little worse. Definitely now in time, with the economy the way its been, there is no way people can do the things they want and still make ends meet.

Food Nutrition Lab

Here is my food nutrition lab...sorry I couldn't get it zoomed in!!

1. I think my diet is okay...I seem to have a pretty high salt intake though. My calories fall right around 1700, but my cholesterol is very high. But, I think overall it's an okay diet because I'm not exceeding 2000 calories but it does need some improvement on the salt and cholesterol.

2. I think what I would change about my diet is that I wouldn't drink diet soda and I would drink milk. I have never been one to drink milk, but I guess I should start. I would probably also eat more fruit, I only had one serving of fruit. I ate a few servings of Veggies, so I don't think I would add anymore. And no more ice cream :(

3. I do find this helpful because I didn't really realize that my salt intake was high. I also thought that I consumed more calories that I actually did. I didn't realize how much cholesterol I eat either, and I really need to watch on that. This tracking tool would probably help out with obesity trends because I don't think that many people realize how much they are ingesting.

Online Lab: Blood Pressure

1. State a problem about the relationship of age and gender to blood pressure.

There are many different factors that go into blood pressure readings. In this lab there were 4 other variables other than male/female and age differences. Family History, High Salt Diet, No Exercise, and Alcohol consumption were those variables. There is also the weight and height factor. There are many other variables that go into blood pressure readings, but this gives you a good idea of what affects what.

2. Use your knowledge about the heart and the circulatory system to make a hypothesis about how the average blood pressure for a group of people would be affected by manipulating the age and gender of the group members.

The lower the blood pressure the more we could assume it is a younger female.

3. How will you use the investigation screen to test your hypothesis? What steps will you follow? What data will you record?

There are different age categories and they are divided between male and female. We will test 10 people in each category to get find an average. Such as. Male ages 11-17, 18-24,25-34, 35-44, 45-54. Females are broken up into the same age categories. We will test their blood pressures all at the same time so there isn't a discrepancy. The data that will be recorded are the individuals’ blood pressures along with height, weight, age, family history, if they have high salt diet, exercise or no exercise, and if they consume alcohol.

4. Analyze the result of your experiment. Explain any patterns you observed.

In the graph and the table you can see that females generally have lower blood pressures that males do. In the graph, the male systolic is represented by the pink line, and the diastolic is represented by the blue line. The female systolic is represented by the green line and the diastolic is represent by the orange line. In the table, you can see all the averages of the age/gender groups. The older people get the higher their blood pressures are. It seems that most of the males I tested had 2 or 3 different variables that contributed to their high blood pressures. Some were overweight (which we could probably tie to little or no exercise), some had high salt diets, and family history. The patterns that I observed from doing this exercise, family history has a lot to do with the high blood pressure of people.

5. Did the result of your experiment support your hypothesis? Why or why not? Based on your experiment what conclusion can you draw about the relationship of age and gender to group blood pressure averages?

The results from doing this test supported my hypothesis. Females generally have a lower blood pressure than males, and the younger people are, the lower their blood pressures are. The one interesting aspect of this experiment that I found was the average of females 11-17 was a little higher than that of 18-24(refer to the table). Overall though, females have lower blood pressure than males.

6. During the course of your experiment, did you obtain any blood pressure reading that were outside of the normal range for the group being tested? What did you notice on the medical charts for these individuals that might explain their high reading?

When I researched the individuals who had high blood pressure, they usually had more than one factor that contributed to their hypertension. Most of them had a higher weight than they should have. I also noticed that most of them didn’t exercise or had a high salt diet. Both of those factors contribute highly to hypertension.

7. List risk factors associated with the hypertension. Based on your observation, which risk factor do you think is most closely associated with hypertension?

There were quite a bit of people who had hypertension that had family history of hypertension. Weight, I think has a pretty big impact on hypertension. When I tested one male who was 47...he had no family history, he exercised, had a regular diet and was not overweight, so something else must contribute to his high blood pressure.

8. What effect might obesity have on blood pressure? Does obesity alone cause a person to be at risk for high blood pressure? What other factors, in combination with obesity, might increase a person's risk for high blood pressure?

I think obesity has a huge impact on high blood pressure, if a person is not exercising and has a horrible diet; they have a pretty high chance of having high blood pressure. I think obesity alone could have an impact on high blood pressure. Usually, people who are obese do not exercise on a regular basis therefore they aren't able to burn what they eat. If a person who is obese could exercise, then I would imagine their chance of high blood pressure could come down.

Compendium Four: Digestive System and Nutrition

I. Digestive System and Nutrition
A. Overview of Digestion
B. First part of the Digestive System
C. The Stomach and Small Intestine
D. Three Accessory Organs and Regulation of Secretions
E. The Large Intestine and Defecation
F. Nutrition and Weight Control.

I. Digestive System and Nutrition


A. Overview of Digestion

1. This diagram is the GI tract and the organs that are associated digestion.

on

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Digestive_system_diagram_en.svg)

2. Digestion has 5 different processes involved

• Ingestion- When food is processed through the mouth.
  
• Digestion- When food is chewed up into small pieces. Digestive enzymes are involved in this process.
  
• Movement- The movement of food through the GI tract
  
• Absorption- When nutrients from food enter the blood system


• Elimination- The process of defecation through the anus
  

3. The GI tract has 4 different layers

• First layer is Mucosa (Produces mucous)
  
• Second layer is submucosa (carry nutrients absorbed by mucosa)
  
• Third layer is muscularis (helps with movement)
  
• Fourth layer is serosa (secretes fluid)

B. First part of the Digestive Tract

1. The Mouth

• The first part of digestion starts here with the ingestion of food.
  
• 3 pairs of salivary gland that help with movement of food (saliva)
  
• Teeth are responsible for grinding the food into small pieces (mechanical digestion)
  
• The tongue is responsible for mixing food with saliva for easy movement.
  

2. The Pharynx and Esophagus

• Mouth and nasal passages make up pharynx
  
• Swallowing is said to be a reflex once food is pushed back into pharynx
  
• Food usually enters the esophagus, and the esophagus is only there to transport food, no chemical digestion occurs.


• People do not breathe when they eat because the soft palate closes off nasal passage and the trachea moves up to close up the glottis
  

C. The Stomach and Small Intestine

1. The Stomach

• Stores food, starts digestion, controls the movement to small intestine
  
• do not absorb nutrients

• Contains gastric glands which produce gastric juice, which break down food (pepsin is an enzyme that controls digestion of proteins)

Stomach empties in 2 to 6 hours

(http://www.besthealth.com/besthealth/bodyguide/reftext/html/dige_sys_fin.html)


2. Small Intestine

• 18ft in length
  
• Has the enzymes to digest food
  
• Duodenum is the first 25cm of small intestine and supports the transfer of the enzymes from the pancreas


• The walls absorb molecules
  
• Mucosa of the small intestines have villi ("fingerlike projections")
  
  
  
  

(http://www.besthealth.com/besthealth/bodyguide/reftext/html/dige_sys_fin.html)



D. Three Accessory Organs and Regulation of Secretions

1. Three Accessory Organs

• Pancreas- (Pancreatic amylase- digests starch, Trypsin- digests proteins, Lipase-digests fats)----also controls blood glucose by producing insulin
  
• Liver- Receives and filters blood . Removes any toxins from the blood. Is a storage organ. Produces bile
  
• Gallbladder- Bile is stored here

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Digestive_system_showing_bile_duct.png)

2. Regulation of Digestive Secretions

• Digestive juices are controlled by nervous system and digestive hormones
  
• When you smell food it initiates the production of gastric secretion.
  
  

E. The Large Intestine and Defecation

1. Large Intestine

• Absorbs water (helps with hydration)
  
• No production of enzymes or absorption of nutrients
  
• Forms feces (3/4 water and 1/4 solids)
  
• Defecation is getting rid of feces. Feces leave the intestines, then gather in the rectum until defecation
  
• Defecation helps maintain homeostasis
  
  

F. Nutrition and Weight Control

1. How obesity is defined....BMI Scale

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Body_mass_index_chart.svg)

Sometimes the BMI chart is not accurate. It does not take into factor muscle weight.

B. Classes of nutrients

• Carbohydrates- Body needs them to convert fat into glucose


• Proteins- Digested into amino acids...are not stored in the body..needed everyday


• Lipids- Saturated fats, Unsaturated fats, trans-fatty acids, and Omega-3


• Minerals- Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, and zinc are examples.


• Vitamins- Needed for metabolic purposes, 13 different vitamins

C. How to plan a nutritious meal

• eat variety of foods from food groups


• eat more fruits, veggies, whole grains, and milk


• eat less saturated fats or trans fats


• Make sure you exercise

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MyPyramid1.png)

Compendium Three

I. Cardiovascular System: Heart and Blood vessels

A. Overview
B. Types of blood vessels
C. Heart is a double pump

D. Features of cardiovascular system
E. Two cardiovascular pathways
F. Exchange of capillaries
G. Cardiovascular disorders

II. Cardiovascular System: Blood
A. Overview
B. Red blood cells and transport of oxygen
C. White blood cells and defense against disease
D. Platelets and blood clotting
E. Blood typing and transfusions
F. Homeostasis

III. Lymphatic System and Immunity
A. Microbes, Pathogens, and You
B. The lymphatic system
C. Non-specific defenses
D. Specific defenses
E. Acquired immunity

IV. AIDS supplement
A. Origin and Prevalence of HIV
B. Phases of HIV
C. HIV structure and Life cycle






I. Heart and Blood vessels

A. Overview

1. Actual purpose of circulation of blood is to service the cells

2. Blood needs to be "refreshed" in lungs, intestines, and kidneys

a. purified in kidneys

b. oxygenate in the lungs

c. nutrients added in the intestines

3. The lymphatic vessels transport excess fluid to the cardiovascular system


B. Types of blood vessels

1. The arteries (from the heart)

2. The capillaries (exchange)

3. The Veins (to the heart)

4. 70% of blood are in the veins


C. The heart is a double pump

1. Myocardium: serviced by coronary artery and cardiac vein

2. Pericardium is a sac that surrounds the heart

3. Heart has 4 chambers

a. right and left atrium

b. right and left ventricle

4. AV valve on right side has 3 flaps; AV valve on left side has 2 flaps

5. Passage of the blood:

http://www.childrensheartinstitute.org/educate/heartwrk/bloodflw.htm

6. Oxygen deprived cells never mix with cell that have rich oxygen

7. Left side of heart is stronger at pumping

8. Systole, working phase; Diastole, resting phase

9. "lup" is when increase in blood pressure; "dup" when ventricles are relaxed

10. SA node starts the heart beat which causes atria to contract. SA node is called pacemaker

11. Controlled by medulla oblongata (in the brain) Epinephrine and nor epinephrine stimulate the heart

D. Features of the Cardiovascular System

1. The pulse rate is the same as the heart rate

2. Blood pressure is determined by systolic pressure(highest number) and diastolic pressure (lowest number).

3. Hypertension is the condition in which the blood pressure is high

(http://www.lifemana.com/blood-pressure-chart.html)

E. Two Cardiovascular Pathways

1. The Pulmonary Circuit: The exchange of gases

a. Blood passes through lungs and because oxygenated

2. The Systemic Circuit: Exchanges with tissue fluid

a. Provides blood to the organs and tissues through arteries and veins

b. the coronary artery provides the blood for the heart itself

F. Exchange at the Capillaries

1. Blood pressure and osmotic pressure help with movement

2. oxygen and nutrients go outside of capillaries while carbon dioxide and waste go in

(http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/esp/2001_saladin/folder_structure/tr/m3/s10/index.htm)

G. Cardiovascular disorders

1. high blood pressure

2. Stroke, heart attack, and aneurysm

II. Cardiovascular System: Blood

A . Overview

1. Delivers oxygen from lungs and nutrients from digestive tract

2. Defends against disease

3. Regulates body temperature

4. Formed elements

a. Contains red blood cells, white blood cells, and cell fragments

5. Plasma

a. 91% water

b. carries substance into blood

B. Red Blood Cells and Transport of Oxygen

1. No nucleus, but contains copies of hemoglobin

2. Hemoglobin is what carries the O2

3. Help with transport of CO2

4. Produced in bone marrow

C. White Blood Cells and Defense Against Disease

1. Have nucleus and no hemoglobin

2. Fight infection (part of immune system)

3. Types of white blood cells

a. Granular Leukocytes

Neurtrophils are first to go to a virus

Eosinophils are present for a parasitic worm or allergic reaction

Basophils are associated with allergic reactions

b. Agranular Leukocytes

lymphocytes: B and T cells produce antibodies

Monocytes: Serve as "vacuum cleaner"

D. Platelets and Blood Clotting

1. When skin is broken, bleeding starts to occur. Platelet seals the punctured sight.

(http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec14/ch173/ch173a.html)

E. Blood Typing and Transfusions

1. ABO blood typing

a. Type A: has anti-b antibodies

b. Type B: has anti-a antibodies

c. Type O: has both antibodies (universal donor)

F. Homeostasis

1. All body systems work together to maintain homeostasis.

2. Cardiovascular system helps out with homeostasis "Heart pumps blood. Blood vessels transport oxygen and nutrients to cells of all the organs and transports wastes away from them. The blood clots to prevent blood loss. The cardiovascular system also specifically helps the other systems as mentioned"

III. Lymphatic System and Immunity

A. Microbes, Pathogens, and You

1. Pathogens are Bactria and viruses.

2. Three defense mechinisms

a. Barriers to entry

b. First responders

c. Specific defenses

3. 3 different kinds of bacteria

a. bacillus- rod shape

b. coccus-sphereical shape

c. spirillum-curved

d. Growth of bacteria causes disease

4. Viruses do not contain cells

a. colds, flus, measles, chicken pox, AIDS

b. Do not need to contain of DNA

5. Prions- degenerative disease

a. mad cow disease

b. change their shape

B. The Lymphatic System

1. Vessels for one way system (capillaries, vessels, and ducts)

2. Fluid= lymph

3. Primary organs:

a. red bone marrow produces all types of blood cells

b. thymus gland create mature T cells

4. Secondary Organs:

a. Spleen filters the blood

b. Lymph nodes fight infection

C. Nonspecific Defenses

1. Barriers to entry

a. skin and mucous membrane

b. chemical barriers

c. resident bacteria

2. Inflammatory response

a. Second line of defense

b. sends out neutrophils and macrophanges to kill

c. if they need help they can call in cytokines

d. interferons are proteins that warn nonifected cells that there is a virus

D. Specific Defenses

1. B Cells bind to BCR then clone themselves, are produced and mature in bone marrow, create memory b cells and plasma cells

2. Antibodies are Y shaped. They attract white cells to invade.

a. IgG- Bind to pathogens and toxins

b. IgM- show up first for defense

c. IgA- body decretions

d. IgD- antigen receptors for immature b cells

e. IgE- prevention of parasitic worms

3. T cells recognize the antigen with assistance from APC

a. like b cells, they also clone

b. Cytotoxin T Cell kill the virus or bacteria

c. Helper T cells do not fight directly but produce cytokines (chemicals)

E. Aquired Immunity

1. Active Immunity

a. Immunizations

2. Passive Immunity

a. antibiotic therapy after a person has contracted disease

b. temporary

IV. AIDS Supplement

A. Origin of and Prevalence of HIV

1. HIV can be traced back to 1959

2. First case was 15 yr. old male from Missouri in 1969

3. Prevalence of HIV

a. 36.3 million adults and 2.3 million children is 2005

b. 24 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (64% of all HIV)

c. 1.3 million people are infected in the US

B. Phases of HIV Infection

1. Catagory A: Acute Phase

a. symptoms aren't detected yet, infectious, 500 cells per mm

b. some people experience flu like symptoms

c. take about 25 days to detect

2. Catagory B: Chronic Phase

a. 200 cells per mm

b. one or more symptoms

3. Catagory C: AIDS

a. below 200 cells per mm

b. Death usually occurs 2 to 4 years

C. HIV Structure and Life Cycle

1. 2 single strands of RNA

2. 3 important enzymes (Reverse transcriptase, Integrase, and Protease)

3. HIV Life cycle

Attachment, Fusion, Entry, Reverse Transcription, Integration, Biosynthesis and cleavage, Assembly, and Budding

4. Infection can spread from vaginal or rectal intercourse, oral sex, needle sharing, birth, breastmilk, and blood.

5. Testing for HIV can begin within 2 to 8 weeks but it can also take up to 6 months.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HIV_gross_cycle_only.png)

Self and Unit evaluation

1. I would say the three aspects of the assignments for this unit are: My lab report for the Microscope lab. The lab report for the punnet square and dragon lab. I really liked the assignment for Building a Cell.

2. I could have used major improvement on the compendiums. For the first one I was completely lost in thought, and the second one was a little better, although I was still lost in though.

3. I believe my overall grade should be a low A high B. I understand the unit, I was just having problems getting all my ideas out on the compendiums.

4. I'm definitely going to improve on my compendiums. I believe I can develop a better system for it.

Regarding the Unit:

1. I felt really engaged in the unit when we were reading about Cancer and Genetics. I am really interested in Cancer, probably because I'm scared of it. Genetics has always interested me.

2. I was a little distance with work when it came to the Mitosis and Meiosis. I understand it, I just really had a hard time keeping the information.

3. What was helpful to me were the power point slides that Larry Frolich completed for us. I used those tremendously!

4. I was a little confused with the instructions for the Build a Cell project. I was confused with the part for Mitosis, Chromosomes, and the DNA.

5. I was most surprised with the Ethical Issues Essay. When I was reading the articles about cloning, it really opened up my eyes about how cloning could really be a good thing. I'm definitely going to have to research that a little more.

Lab Project 1: Building a cell

This project has helped me out in understanding cells and how they go through mitosis, replication, and translation. This lab was completely hands on! Constructing the cell structure was the easiest part of this lab. Trying to figure out how to represent DNA replication, translation, and mitosis was a difficult task. When trying to show mitosis and the translation of DNA helped me understand the process a little easier and gave me more understanding.

While working on this project, here are the items that I used....

Cell plasma: Black licorice

Nucleus: Purple Frosting

Nucleolus: Rice Cake

Nuclear Membrane: Red Licorice

Rough ER: Walnuts

Smooth ER: Blue M&M's

Golgi Aparatus: Twizzlers Pull and Peels

Lysosomes: Yellow Peanut M&M's

Vesicles: Orange Peanut M&M's

Mitchodria: Raspberries

Cilia: Pink Fish Sprinkles

Chromosomes: Black and Red licorice

DNA: Red and Green Sour Candy Strings

Base for DNA: White, Gray, Black, and Blue Fish Sprinkles

Ribosome: Pink Sprinkles

Polypeptides: Turtles

This is the first picture after the cell structure was constructed. This was quite a messy process as my almost 2 year old decided that he likes just about everything in this cell structure :) I used the book model as a reference for all the cell structures.

Here is a picture of the nucleus and chromosomes waiting to get duplicated. The homologous chromosomes come together and line up next to each other, before they come together to form a sister chromatides.

This is a picture representing the sister chromotides. This is part of Mitosis II. They are joined in the center called centromere.

This was the best way that I could represent the nucleus dividing. As you can see, the chromosomes go to the opposite poles when the nucleous divides.

This picture is representing the DNA structure. As you can see, it resembles a ladder. As you can also see, my camera was having some issues :)

This picture is representing transcription to mRNA.

This is when the mRNA is taken to the ribosome to get translated.

Ethical Essay 1

The article that I read for this assignment is Cloning.

I. Cloning (Saving Endangered animals vs. not have perfection for saving endangered animals)

II. With cloning, this article said that saving endangered animals could be an option. I never really thought about it, but it really could happen. If is possible to create an embryo outside of the womb, and be able to implant into a surrogate mother, than cloning should be able to save endangered animals. The world would never have to worry about having endangered animals which lead to extinction.

III. Although it would be great to save every endangered animal, cloning comes with risks. The cost of cloning is very expensive and it take so much time. There is so much that goes into cloning, and sometimes it doesn't work out. Many of the offspring that are produced from cloning develop a low immunity, which means they can't fight off infection very easily so death comes early in life. Many of the clones that are produced are larger that natural offspring which could lead to some medical problems. Many of them don't live long so they can't report the aging process because they can't get them to live long enough.

IV. Although it would really exciting to see cloning of endangered animals, there is much to be done in order to get it done right. Cloning needs to be just as similar to those that are natural. The knowledge for cloning is there, it just needs a little more perfection. When trying to save endangered animals and they keep dying at early ages, what's the point?

V. In the future I believe that this will be possible. I think that cloning will get perfected in a way that we can help save the endangered animals. I think cloning can be a wonderful thing, although right now it still have a couple errors. If scientists just keep exploring what the difference between the clone and the natural they will be able to come up with a solution and make it possible.

Lab 2: Genetics

Here shown is the fly Punnett Square lab. In scenario 5 it asks us to make a cross of

1. a heterozygous,long wing fly

2. a heterozygous, long wing fly

In the Punnett square you can see that the probability of a long winged fly is 75%.

Here is the Dragon lab. In this lab you had to take the first dragon, which happens to be blue, with horns, without scales, with wings, no legs, ect....The second dragon was completely different and you had to change all the genotypes to try to make him identical to the first one.

Genetics are what makes up human beings. When a man and a women produce children, that child is made up of genetics from the parents. Each parent contributes certain features of a child. This could be consisted of (blond/brown/black hair, brown/blue/green eyes, light/dark skin...and so on). You could also look at the fly lab and see that when the two parents decided to have children, what the probability of having a long winged fly would be.

There are a couple terms that were discussed in this lab:

1. Genotype: They are the genes of an individual cell. They are represented by two letters. (AA) (Aa) (aa) The Genotypes in the fly lab include (LL)(Ll)(ll). For the dragon lab it included (Hh) (Ss)(Ww) and so on.


2. Phenotype: These are what the genes are representing. Examples include (blond hair, blue eyes, dark skin) In the dragon lab (scales, fire, legs, wings, horns, ect..) In the fly lab it included black or grey body, long or short wings.


3. Allele: These are the alternative for genes. These are what affect the genes.


4. Cross: The Punnett square is an example of this. These are what the parent's give to their children. Cross over.


5. Dominant: These are what masks the expression in the allele. They are represented by two uppercase letters (AA) They are heterozygous


6. Recessive: These are masked by the dominant genes. They are represented by two lower case letters (aa). They are homozygous

When talking about genetics it may get overwhelming just thinking about it. Using the Punnett Square is an easy way to get a visual representation of what genetics are all about and how they are contributed. It is interesting to try to figure out how genetics work. When I look at my son it's easy for me to picture. If you ever see my son, you'll see that he has some of my features (blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin) and he has some of my husbands features as well (blond hair, pale skin, and height). It is also interesting to see how much he looks like my family members and my in-laws.

I found a great website that has great examples of how to work out the Punnett Square.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio105/geneprob.htm