Unit 10 Reflection

     Unit 10, titled Physiology, surrounded the essential question of "How do different systems of the body work together and rely on each others' importance to function?" 

     Homeostasis is the body's way of maintaining equilibrium and the circulatory and respiratory systems ensure every cell can maintain it. Oxygen is provided to blood cells after being inhaled by the respiratory system, through the heart and the circulatory system. Without these systems working together, oxygenated blood wouldn't flow throughout the body. The nervous system helps the brain pick up on stimuli which causes the body to pick up on varied information, from essential organ functions to creativity. The endocrine system releases hormones into the body that trigger different functions that help the body reach homeostasis. The digestive system breaks down food we eat into energy cells can use and undigested food is removed as waste through the excretory system. The immune system use varied defenses to protect the body from pathogens that can do harm to it. Finally the lymphatic system collects waste throughout the body to get rid of any toxins.

Homeostasis when speaking in general terms.
This can apply to many things for example blood glucose levels and body temperature

   

This is a picture of the 6 systems mentioned above, and more to help the body function!

    I want to learn more about the body's reactions to foreign invaders or pathogens. I think its really amazing how we have all these "lines of defenses" in our bodies and wonder how much fighting it would take for these reactions to be worn down over time. My grandmother is fighting a lung disease because her lungs are deteriorating and I want to know what has caused this since something has gotten through all of her immune system defenses. 

     Now that the year is come to an end, I look at all of my messy binders with paper spilling out of them and I'm thankful that I have this blog to organize my year's work in biology. I take pride in our unit reflections, my favorite being Unit 9 reflection, because I spent so much time writing it and even after it accidentally got deleted I rewrote it again at 11 pm, almost matching its original quality. Even though I procrastinated alot on it, I'm proud of my Genetics Infographic and this semester I even fixed my Procrastination problem through my 20 time project(there are many progress posts but here is my 20%time wrap up and reflection)! Also looking back at my New Year's Goals, I have met my goal for biology, because I have truly understood most of the material over the course of this year. 

A wrap up on 20 time!

     Preventing procrastination is what I set out to do in the beginning of 2016, and 5 months later, after a whole lot of doing exactly the opposite as well as some serious work, my 20 time project is done for the school year. I will be continuing my project because I basically tested out strategies for success on myself and I want to continue by sharing my knowledge with others and write about my findings. So far, all I’ve done towards my final product is research and begin to draft a potential guide to help with procrastination. Here is my google slides presentation which I used to aid my TED talk and soon, hopefully I will be publishing an infographic or guide to accompany this. 

     The first step that I took to bring closure to my project was give the TED talk, in which I informed my classmates about the causes to procrastination and some of the initial ways I have learnt to prevent it. My TED talk was something I actually looked forward to because I do enjoy talking about things I am passionate about. This was a different experience than the What on Earth Evolved presentation because this time it was completely up to me when it came to what I talked about, so I felt more comfortable. I think my presentation was well thought out and engaging, and I take pride in the laughs I got from the audience. For this talk, I played up my strengths in speaking which surrounds humor and tried to make my presentation relatable and funny, and I think I succeeded. But, I tend to speed up when I speak, not only in presentations but in general conversations, so my talk which while practicing was close to 5 minutes, was only 4 minutes on the actual day! I was surprised that I sped up so substantially and in the future I want to work on those dramatic pauses to emphasize my points more. Preparing and writing the speech was not very stressful because I didn’t procrastinate (haha) and my goal was to practice and get comfortable with my speech, so on the day my nerves wouldn’t cause me to mess up while presenting. As I watched the video, I would give myself a good grade in terms of the presentation but take off a few points because of my lack of a final product. But, as Mr. Orre says, its about the process not product and you can read all about my 20 time process here. After this project, I have learnt how to manage time, which was my original purpose, and I became more comfortable with speaking in front of others. I found out that finishing tasks is actually very gratifying, so if I don’t let my laziness dictate my work ethic, getting stuff done is actually pretty great. 

Pig Dissection

The pig dissection lab corresponded with our anatomy and physiology unit by asking the essential question, “How can we identify parts of a pig’s anatomy and relate its structures to the human body and processes?”. This dissection put all the systems and parts of the body we have been learning this unit into perspective, by being a hands on model to explore each of them. My favorite part of the dissection was probably when we looked at the digestive system and the intestines because seeing the small intestine actually proved how long and coiled up it is! I think this dissection was a valuable experience not only because of the scientific knowledge we gained but because I’m now less grossed out by these types of labs. Before coming into this lab, I would almost faint at the sight of blood and I’m proud of myself for not only sitting through the lab, but also helping out here and there, which was something I thought I could never do!

You can watch a tutorial on our lab here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_tTXnivR1s

20% Time Reflection

This semester I worked on a project surrounding a universal problem, procrastination.

I challenged myself because not only is this topic so broad and needs to be really broken down to try to understand and help overcome it, but also because I am a huge procrastinator. This project meant that I had to improve myself and hopefully end up in a successful position where I could help others.

I started by analyzing myself and understanding how big of a role procrastinating takes in my life (turns out it was pretty major). Then I researched about the human brain and the science behind motivation, productivity, laziness, and other characteristics that falls into or short of a procrastinator’s behavior. Finally I tested efficient ways to reduce the procrastination and improve productivity and how to integrate these methods into day to day life.

It was pretty successful, I am much less of a procrastinator now, though I still struggle sometimes. But, not all of the methods were useful, for example after coming up with many methods, only a few really made my day more efficient. What I took from this is that each person is different and can benefit from different ways to achieve their goals and workload in life. I learnt more about human behavior and how the mind can affect and deter someone from what they set out to do, and how powerful, and dangerous it can be.

If I had more time, I would test these methods on others but for now, this project was somewhat of an individual journey where I will share my experience with others in my TED talk. I might continue this challenge and share insight with people who feel procrastinating is a real obstacle in the way of reaching their goals. The 20% time project, now wrapped up, was a great way for me to tackle a bothersome problem I have been putting off (haha) for a long time and I learnt that to prevent procrastination, one must promote productivity, which might be the next step in this challenge.

Unit 9 Reflection

This unit, called “What on Earth Evolved” surrounded the essential questions “How is life organized?” and “What are the defining characteristics of different organisms?” Organisms are placed in groups based on similarities and this system of naming and classifying living things is called taxonomy. The taxonomic levels are, Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. I made up a mnemonic device to remember this order, Dumb Kids Playing Cards On Freeways Get Smashed. I know it’s a little violent but it’s funny so it sticks. Whatever works, right? Here is the taxonomic classification of a modern human:

There are 3 domains, called Archaea, Bacteria, which has one kingdom called monera(prokaryotes), and Eukarya, made up of 4 kingdoms, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.  Bacteria are the oldest organisms and are decomposers, nitrogen fixers(using symbiosis), and are a key component in Biotech. Viruses are not cells but small infectious particles that use their capsids and membranous envelopes to capture host cells. Fungi are classified into 3 groups, sac-fungi, club-fungi, and bread molds. Plants are spread into 4 phyla, Bryophyta(mosses), Pterophyta(ferns), Gymnosperms(cone bearing plants), and Angiosperms(flowering plants). Within Angiosperms lie Monocots(single seeded), and Dicots(double seeded).

Next come the invertebrates, in which most have Hox genes that control early development. I was surprised that 97% of all animal species are invertebrates, and I wrote a blog post earlier about one interesting invertebrate. The most primitive invertebrate, sponges, are followed by cnidarians. Cnidarians have two forms, polyps and medusas and 4 major classes, scyphozoans(jellyfish), Anthozoans(coral), Hydrozoans(hydra), and Cubozoans(box jelly). Next, flatworms, mollusks, and annelids are closely related. Arthropods have a touch skeleton and echinoderms have a unique water vascular system.

The final group, chordates, are the vertebrates, which all have a back bone. There are seven classes of vertebrates Agnatha(jawless fish), Condrictheyes(Cartilaginous Fish), Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves, and Mammalia. Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals have amniotic eggs to allow them to reproduce on land.

To dive deeper into each of the categories throughout the unit, each student learnt about a species from the book “What on Earth Evolved” and presented about it to the class. My project was on the genus Australopithecus. I did not procrastinate as I usually do because I was trying out methods for my 20 time project (progress 3-28-16 and 4-18-16) and my topic is preventing procrastination. Even though I was prepared with the content, I was so nervous to speak to the class. I spoke really quickly and finished my slideshow barely in the time limit! I think in the future I would benefit if I presented to smaller audiences leading up to the final presentation to the class. I will try this out for my TED talk and focus on speaking slower. Even listening to my classmates was interesting because a new face and voice would teach us every 4 to 8 minutes.

To finish off the unit and tie in the vast amount of information we acquired over a short period of time, we watched a documentary called “Your Inner Fish”, where scientists proved that humans share common ancestry with fish and are related to reptiles. It was cool to see how our ears have evolved from the reptilian structure and how many of our limbs follow the universal “one bone, two bones many bones” pattern. People are still uncovering the mysteries surrounding the evolution of life today and there is so much more yet to uncover about this world.

"My Inner Fish" Relate and Review

In class we watched the two episodes "Your Inner Fish" and "Your Inner Reptile", through which the main themes are that humans, who are closely related to reptiles, have a shared ancestry with fish. In its early stages of development, a human and fish embryo look very similar because of their shared Hox genes, which suggest common ancestry. In other words, the Hox genes that were found in fish embryos are also present in human embryos, leading on theories of ancestry. Other evidence for common ancestry includes similar body structures like bony skeletons, backbones, skulls, and shared basic brain anatomy. Another important key aspect of the relationship between fish and humans is the Sonic Hedgehog gene, which sends out an organizing signal that tells cells to do different things. This gene helps create the array of digits on the hand in many mammals. As we moved from fish to reptiles, we explored our evolutionary relationship to these other organisms. An example of humans' relation to reptiles is their hearing anatomy. Mammals have a wide range of hearing because they have 3 bones in their middle ear while reptiles only have 1 bone in their middle ear. Scientists think that two jaw bones evolved and got smaller and moved upwards towards the ear as reptiles led to mammals over time. 

The reptile ear has only one bone where as the mammal's ear has three distinct parts.

Getting Results

These pasts weeks, I finished up my research and tested many methods that in theory should lead to productivity. If a person does something they like to do, a happy chemical is released in their body making them want to continue. This is what happened when I finished work doing these methods. Your brain actually enjoys the feeling of being productive which is the secret motivator to success. I learnt that people enjoy watching TV so they do it more but actually if you enjoy getting work done, you will feel motivated to get that relief once you have finished the day's work load. The next step in my process is to take all of these tests and research about the human mind and write a guide to prevent procrastination and promote productivity. I hope this guide will help people increase efficiency in their everyday lives.