Blog for 12/14

The steps for protein synthesis are:

1. The cell gets a message to make a certain kind of protein.

2. A part of the DNA unwinds, showing the gene responsible for the protein

3. With the help of enzymes, the nucleotides move one strand of the exposed gene and make a m-RNA

molecule

4. Many copies of m-RNA are made according to the amount ordered; they leave the nucleus through

the nuclear pores in to the cytoplasm.

5. An m-RNA connects with a ribosome so that the m-RNA could be decoded; the message is read a

codon at a time.

the steps for photosynthesis

This week, I learned about the respiration system that takes place in a plant cell. An organelle called mitochondria is where the respiration takes place. It takes in C6 H12 O6 and O2 and gives out CO2 and energy. The energy that they give put comes from the sun. There was also something called fermantation. Fermantation is respiration without oxygen, and in that case, the body makes alcohol, and also lactic acid. When the body creates the acid, you get a cramp. I also learned about the steps of photosynthesis. An organelle called chloroplast is where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplast has the green color that makes the whole plant green. The photosynthesis equation is CO2+H2O+ energy----------C6, H12, O6+O2.

This week, I learned about the way humans breath. More specifically, we learned about what we breathed in and breathed out. Our class came to a conclusion that we breathed in oxygen and breathed out carbon dioxide. We tested this by breathing into jars with a gas sensor on it, and if the number on the sensor got larger when we breathed in to the jar, that meant that we breathed in oxygen. If the number on the sensor got smaller on the sensor after you inhaled into the jar , that meant that you breathed out carbon dioxide. By doing some research, we figured out that we breathed in O2( oxygen) along with C6, H12, and O6, which all together and combined create carbohydrates, or food/energy. I also learned about the different combinations of atoms which create different molecules of air, like 1 carbon and 2 oxygens create CO2, or carbon dioxide. 2 oxygens create an oxygen molecule. Another thing that I learned was about photosynthesis. This is the process in which plants use the energy that they collect from the sun to convert it into sugar, which they use as food.

This week, we did not learn much because it was a 3-day week. On Monday, we researched the insides of animal cells and plant cells. These insides of cells are called organelles. There was a nucleus in each cell, and mitochondria as well. In the plant cell, there was something called chloroplast which maintained the green color of the plant. The organelles in the animal cell were all mostly in the plant cell as well. On Tuesday, we talked about the organelles in the plant cell and animal cell and researched the functions of all the organelles. Some of them were that the nucleus controlled almost everything about the cell, like the cell's actions. The cytoplasm keeps everything in place inside the cell. The cytoplasm is like some kind of gel which fill the empty spaces in the cell. On Wednesday, we talked about paramecium which we had to research for homework. Paramecium was shaped like a foot, and was sometimes called the lady slippers. We thought about the places where paramecium could be found, and thought about where most bacteria was found: still water like ponds and swamps. We got a sample of still water full of duckweed, a kind of aquatic plant. Under the microscope, there were many things that looked like paramecium.

This week, I learned about the structures of cells, more precisely, animal cells and plant cells. We looked at our own cells by rubbing the inside of our mouth with a toothpick and rubbing that stuff onto a slide. We then looked at the slide under a microscope and drew our observations onto our notebooks. There were 2 slides we had to make with our partners: one slide with blue dye, and the other one with nothing. I figured out that the slide with the blue dye was easier to find the cells in, and I was able to see the cell more clearly than the slide with nothing. The dye made the cell more visible and showed more details than the one without dye. Our class also researched the many parts of a animal cell and a plant cell. The picture of the cell above ( it mysteriously disappeared) is a animal cell. It has the DNA in the middle, which is purple in the diagram. The green wavy organelle is the endoplasmic reticulum. The red organelle is the Golgi apparatus. There are many more that I have not mentioned.

This week, I worked with a diffrent group since my partner was absent and she had not made a petri- dish for our group. We first did a grams test, which is a test which shows whether the bacteria is gram negative or gram positive. When we finished our test, it was concluded that the bacteria on the petri- dish was gram negative, since it was stained red. The bacteria on the petri- dish was from the chicken we tested. After this, we looked at our petri- dish under a stereoscope. A stereoscope has two eyepieces, unlike microscopes which have only one eyepiece. Under the stereoscope, Kassy and I saw many small rod like shapes in a certain area. They were rod shaped, we guessed that they must be some sort of baccilus. Katie and Alex researched about the four kinds of bacteria that could possibly be the one seen in the stereoscope. In the end, they figured out that the bacteria must be salmonella, since salmonella is often found in food, and also is rod shaped.

This week, my partner Svitlana and I did some experiments with the pond water. We found some things like algae, and even some living things. We researched one of the living things and found out that they may be called cyclopoid copepod or a water flea( Daphnia Magna). The cyclopoid copepod is a crustacean which is the family of all water animals that have shells or a hard covering, like shrimp, clams, mussels, crab, and many others. Under the microscope, the organism did look like a shrimp, with it's beady eye, tail that flicks back and forth, and the curled rounded back. A water flea is fed to fish, or put in the fish's tank, where they double in number, and the fish feed on them. Alex made a hypothesis that if the water flea is fed to fish and since the fish don't die, that may mean that the water flea or cyclopoid copepod may not be harmful. Also, as I mentioned before, there was lots of algae in the pond water. Algae are not very harmful, because they are a kind of plant that grows in the water. We started researching things in the first place because students from a nearby school had many absences, especially the band kids. So we researched and saw that the band kids had gone to a field trip called the Battle of the Bands. We re-traced the steps they took and saw that they had swum in a pond. Some long time ago, our class had made a hypothesis that the pond was dirty, and possibly diseased, and had gotten all of the students sick. This hypothesis was probably wrong, since nothing in there was infected.

This week, I learned all about the structures of viruses and bacteria. We figured out that bacteria were alive. We think so because they have something called the cell wall, which is like a skeleton, and holds the insides of the bacteria in shape, or something like that. A bacteria also has something called a cell membrane which keeps everything in place. It also controls what goes in and what goes out. A bacteria has parts of it which are composed of cells, and a living thing must have the trait of being composed of cells. The bacteria has something called DNA which is something like heredity, and heredity is another trait of a living thing. A virus does not have DNA. Instead, it has something called RNA, which could also be called nucleoprotein. Another thing is that they have NOTHING made up of cells. A virus has a lipid envelope, or fat or oil covering. This blocks all the water from coming in. I learned a lot about viruses and bacterias this week.

PRETTY

Marika's Blog for 9/29/09

This week, I learned a lot about the steps of a full experiment. The first step is to observe, where you take in every little detail that you can see. After observing, you need to create a hypothesis. The hypothesis can be wrong, but the prediction cannot. After you make a hypothesis, you think up of an experiment to test. That is the experimentation step. After this experiment, you prove if your hypothesis is right or wrong. For example, if you are a doctor and you get a patient one day, your observations can be that this patient is sneezing, coughing,have a runny nose, and be sweating like he/she is hot. Then, you could make a hypothesis : this person might have a cold. You could test this by checking the inside of this patient's ear, checking the patient's mouth, and the breathing and heart rate. If you see an infection in the ear, or swelling in the mouth, you could or should be able to tell if your hypothesis was right or wrong. Then, you could make another hypothesis, or possibly a prediction. If you make a hypothesis, you could test again and find out more about the sickness the patient has. In class, we did this by having one student pretend like she was sick, like coughing, etc. I learned many things this week.