Respiration and Division

This week in science was filled with lots of exciting experiments and new topics! We began on Monday with a lab observing carbon dioxide during respiration. We put soda, vinegar and our breath into different tubes filled with cabbage juice to see the reaction of a carbon with a base. I learned that carbon dioxide can change the color of cabbage juice to purple or pink depending on the carbon dioxide level. We continued with cellular respiration and I learned that it is different from "breathing" type of respiration. I also learned about the different stages of cellular respiration. The first stage of cellular respiration takes place in the cytoplasm and the second stage takes place in the mitochondria.
I also did a gas exchange in plants lab by putting cabbage juice in the bottom of three test tubes with cotton balls on top of the cabbage juice. The first tube was the control and then one tube had sprouted peas and the other unsprouted peas on top of the cotton ball. The color change in the cabbage juice was observed. In the first tube nothing happened because it was the control. In the second tube it turned dark purple and the third tube turned pink. I learned that sprouted peas give off more carbon dioxide than unsprouted peas because the sprouted peas are germinating and releasing carbon dioxide.
Later in the week I learned about cell division. We worked on our mitosis flip book and I drew and labeled the stages of cell division. We observed this by taking slides of onion cells and watching them divide under a microscope. As another example of this we watched a video in class  showing cell division of a liver cell.
I also learned that Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA, which is DeoxyriboNucleicAcid. Below is a link to a mitosis rap I watched on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOsAbTi9tHw