Season 9 seemed to go by very quickly. Most of the information was a review from things we already learned in our first year of biology. We started off learning about the origins of Earth and how life began. There are some interesting theories as to how Earth started, but one of the most common theories is, meteorites containing amino acids came crashing down on Earth billions of years ago and when they did, the impact provided enough energy to produce polypeptides. There is evidence that shows meteorites containing amino acids so this theory is probable.
Mrs. Girard directed us to this pretty cool website that you can definitely spend hour looking at. I found out some pretty interesting information ranging from, 15-25% of all land animals are ants to, The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way that is similar in size and shape and apparently, in a few billion years, these two galaxies will collide to form a larger galaxy which would be known as Milkomeda (contributed by Bianca).
Phylogenetics was the next script we had to rehearse. Phylogenetics was a review of evolutionary history. By using a phylogenetic tree you can find the similarities and differences between species and when the species branched off from each other relative to other species on the same tree.
"File:Phylogenetic Tree.svg." - Wikimedia Commons. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
"File:Phylogenetic Tree.svg." - Wikimedia Commons. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
We were assigned to do a class Prezi and everyone chose a designated section to contribute to the Prezi. The Prezi was on Script 27, which is about prokaryotes. The Prezi includes the structure and function, reproduction and mutation, adaptations, phylogeny, environmental role, and impacts on humans of prokaryotes.
Next was the Kingdom Protista. The most prominent thing I remember about this script is the protista lab. I like seeing the things that I am learning about so being able to study some protists under the microscope was helpful in studying Kingdom Protista. My favorite protist is the Blepharisma because of the pinkish color, the way it moves, and the name sounds pretty cool as well.
Before spring break began we reviewed invertebrates and fungi. Invertebrates include phyla porifera, cnideria, platyhelminthes, annelida, anthropoda, mollusca, and echinodermata. For each phylum there was a video to go along with it. The videos gave a good amount of information, but were still interesting and engaging.
Last but not least we studied Kingdom Fungi. Kingdom Fungi sometimes gets overlooked, but fungus are key components in the recycling of nutrients back into the environment. We also use fungus to produce penicillin. Fun fact, the hard white crust on brie is made of penicillium, part of a family of mold that is used to make pencillin.
There are so many species in Kingdom Animalia and I am excited to start learning more about the wrest of the kingdom.
- Dolphins can swim up to 25 mph! They are also pretty smart compared to many
