Sick week

Last week was not a great week for me. I had science for only two days because I got really sick at the end of the week.. On Monday we did our meiosis review. I really missed Mrs. Giacomelli on Monday because I enjoy when she is there and I learn a lot. I learned during Monday's review that another word for "sex cells" is "gamete cells". We continued review on Tuesday with our protein synthesis worksheet. I learned how to decode mRNA codons. At first I thought it was difficult but after a lot of practice, I learned how to do it correctly and I improved on my knowledge of transcription and translation with practice. We also did a lab this week. We made a strip of DNA using twizzlers and marshmallows. I was absent for the rest of the week, but I know that the class reviewed for our test on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for our test on Friday, which I missed.
I watched a protein synthesis animation video on you tube and that also helped me understand a little more. The link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikq9AcBcohA

From the pictures in the dropbox it looks like science class was fun as usual and there was lots of learning going on. I have attached my favorite pictures and a picture of my week with my tissue box.

Human karyotyping

This week was a short week in science because there was no school on Monday. That does not mean the short week was not loaded with lots of learning and fun as usual! On Tuesday we learned the difference between sex cells and body cells and the different processes such as meiosis and mitosis. We also learned about the chromosome theory of inheritance. We had our Chapter quiz on Punnett squares, probability, heredity, genetics and also alleles. I really liked the Spongebob Punnett square page. That was fun! I was prepared for the quiz because I reviewed more carefully and studied my definitions. I realized while reviewing that trying to read the class notes from the class website was more challenging than I thought, so I had to print out the notes. In the future, I can improve in my notes preparation and make this less of a hassle if I print the notes ahead of time.
On Thursday we did a lab showing us how to make our own human karyotype. We did two karyotypes. One was normal and the other was abnormal. We had to determine the abnormality by looking at the number of chromosomes. We continued on Friday with karyotyping. We did a lab that showed us how karyotypes were put together and their purpose. We cut chromosomes and matched them from tallest to shortest and determined the abnormalities in the cell to determine the disease.
This week I was fascinated with genetics and how it causes disease in offspring and so I researched human karyotyping and found this website by the University of Utah that explained the process of using karyotyping to predict genetic disorders even more and I was able to play some of the games.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/predictdisorder/

I have also attached pictures of my dna model and others as well as class activities this week.

Traits and Heredity

As always science class was fun with lots of learning involved! We started out the week with a worksheet that showed us how traits were passed from parent to offspring. We found out what our class traits were and we made a graph of our class traits and posted for others to observe. I learned about genetic traits and what traits are most common in our class. The most common trait in our class was being right handed. We followed with an experiment that showed us one example of DNA. This DNA was the DNA of wheat germ. I was able to see the DNA of the wheat germ and it looked like little white strings. I also learned how to do a Punnett square. We were given examples on a worksheet of how genes were passed from parent to offspring and the chances of each trait showing up in the offspring. On Friday, I created my own potato baby. I calculated what the potato baby would like by pulling letters out of jars to complete the Punnett square. I rolled the dice to determine the traits of the potato offspring. Some traits were lots of hair, medium mouth, small eyes, yellow dorsal fin and small feet.
I definitely improved on how I completed the Punnett square. I improved on how I crossed the letters in the Punnett square. Other ways in which I can improve is knowing the definitions of words such as homozygous and heterozygous; pure bred and hybrid before doing my labs. By improving on my knowledge of definitions in the chapter, I will be able to understand the chapter and labs more clearly.
I went to the Khan Academy website and did the punnett square fun activities. It was very interesting. The link is below.
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/heredity-and-genetics/v/punnett-square-fun

I have also attached pictures of my DNA model project.

 

 

 

Halloween Week

Science this week was crazy fun!! On Monday we did Mitosis cookie review. We recreated mitosis using cookies and sprinkles. We also worked on our test study guide. I learned that mitosis is the process in which cells grow and divide and there are four stages in mitosis. We reviewed for the science test on Wednesday by playing fun review games such as Grunge Ball. We drew the parts of a chromosome on white boards. During my study review for the test I improved on my knowledge of the different parts of a chromosome. I also had a better understanding of the difference between RNA and DNA. After taking the test I noted ways in which I can improve when studying for the next test. One way is by reviewing the vocabulary more carefully and the chapter section questions  for a better understanding of the chapter. Halloween day in science was loads of fun! Even with all the fun and excitement I still learned a lot about chemical reactions. I learned that dry ice releases carbon dioxide and carbons make bases react a certain way. When the dry ice was combined with cabbage juice which is a base, it bubbled and turned pink! Halloween was fun and I decided to graph my Halloween candy to see if the amount of chocolate I received was greater than the amount of non-chocolate candy. I have attached a picture of my candy collection along with my Halloween candy graph.
I researched online different experiments with carbon dioxide and learned this cool fact that carbon-dioxide was discovered by Joseph Black over 250 years ago. He was only 24 years old.The link is below. It was a great week in science!!!!

http://mattson.creighton.edu/Download_Folder/MattsonGasBook4thEdCO2.pdf