Mitosis and its phases!

This unit, in AP Biology, the class learned about cell communication and reproduction. The class worked hard and endlessly these past few weeks to understand the concepts of communication and reproduction.

One of the topics discussed in this unit was mitosis. The class learned about mitosis and the different phases of mitosis. The team also did a lab on mitosis and the duration of each of the phase. By using the class's knowledge about mitosis and its phases, the class had to come up with a way to figure out how long each phase of mitosis was by looking at onion root cells in a microscope. The AP Bio team had to put on their thinking caps to find solutions to problems.

The AP Bio team decided that the best way to figure out the duration of each phase of mitosis was by counting the total number of cells in view in the onion root slide and divide that number by the number of cells in each of the phases. Then, that number should be multiplied by 24 hours. That number would be the time each cells spends in each phase of mitosis. Another way people approached this problem was by finding the amount of time each phase takes in mitosis by using percentages (i.e. Entire Mitosis process would be 100%)

If you are following the AP Bio Blogs, you may have noticed that the class blogged about the mitosis phase lab. The class included a purpose, introduction, method and data.

Here’s how Shauna approached this lab:

1.  Take three samples of an onion root tip

2.  Take the first sample and focus it on the tip under the microscope

3.  Start by counting the total number of cells (an easy way to accomplish this is to count down and up and then multiply the two numbers to get an approximated value)

4.  Count the number of cells in each phase and record the number

5.  Divide the number of cells in each phase by the total number to get the percent of each one

6.  Next times the percent by 24 to find the total hours spent in each cell

7.  Repeat steps 2-6 with the other two samples
Check out Shauna’s Blog by clicking the link: http://journeythroughbiology.wordpress.com/

Here’s how Allie approached the lab:

1. Set up a slide of an onion root tip under a microscope with x.65 magnification.

2. Focus on a segment of the cell slightly above the tip of the root, and count the number of cells total in the segment.

3. Using the visual cues identified in the introduction, count the number of cells in each phase of the cell cycle (interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase). Enter these numbers in the data table

4. Divide the number of cells in each stage by the total number of cells in the cell segment to determine the percent of cells that are in each phase of the cycle.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 two more times, using a different onion root tip cell slide each time.6. Calculate the average percent of time spent in each phase and multiply this number by 24 to get the hours spent in each phase of the cell cycle.

Check out Allie's Blog here:http://apbionce.wordpress.com/

The AP Bio team collected data that shows how long each phase of mitosis is:

Check out Rebecca’s data:

Data:

Anaphase: 0.309 hours (~18.54 min)
Interphase: 10.520 hours

Prophase: 5.768 hours

Metaphase 0.927 hours (~55.622 min)

Telophase: 3.091 hours
Time calculated with: 
(Total number of cells in a phase/ Total number of cells)  x 1440 minutes = total time of each phase                     
Data:

# of Cells	I	P	M	A	T	Total
Slide 1	61	33	5	3	27	135
Slide 2	68	23	4	2	3	99

	I	P	M	A	T	Total
Average # of cells	64.5	28	4.5	1.5	15	116.5

Check out Rebecca's Blog: http://biobloggingbecca.wordpress.com/

Check out Simone’s data:

Interphase		Prophase		Metaphase		Anaphase		Telophase		Total
	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 1	Trial 2
Number of cells	69	129	17	27	1	1	2	4	1	4	90	165
Percent of cells	77%	78%	19%	16%	1%	0.60%	2%	2.40%	1%	2.40%	100%

Check out Simone's Blog: http://simonesbioblahg.wordpress.com/

Overall, this lab was a lot of fun. At times it was difficult to identify the phases by looking at onion root cells in a microscope. However, by finding the phases in the cells, the class was able to understand what was happening in each of the phases. Also, figuring out how to find out the duration of each phase was challenging, but it made the class think and come up with creative solutions. This lab definitely helped the class better understand mitosis!

Roundup: Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis

Our curriculum this unit was focused on the relationship and function between cellular respiration and photosynthesis, and we investigated this through researching current events and making Tweets and blog posts about them, doing labs related to the subjects, and researched driving questions inspired by the unit.

In-Class Discussion:

Well, as the world knows the first patient in the United States has recently been infected with Ebola. Our class keeps up with current events, and as this disease affects humans, we have been following its progress and commenting through Twitter as well as composing blog posts early on. The link to my blog post is below: This section follows one of our largest in-class discussions, including hashtags to our Twitter page and facts that we have had conversations about. A man in Dallas, Thomas Eric Duncan, arrived in Dallas to visit a family member. He had just flown home from Liberia, but instead of a direct flight, Duncan flew to Brusses and then to the US.

On September 24, Duncan began to feel unwell, a flu-like sickness being one of the earliest symptoms of the disease. On the 25th he was sent home after an appointment at the hospital where he showed a fever of 103º and severe abdominal pains. The hospital “regrets” dealing with the situation the way it did, and actually made a statement about how the nurse had refrained form mentioning his travel history, which it later took back. On the 28th Duncan returns to the hospital and is sent into isolation in the intensive care unit, as his symptoms had progressed to diarrhea and vomiting. The hospital staff begins treatment without proper preventative measures, and were only later fully enforced as the Center for Disease Control deemed fit. During this period Nina Pham, a nurse, began treating the patient and as the protective measures were not enforced, she became the first person to contract Ebola in the US. Along with Pham, it is believed 76 other workers may have come into contact with Duncan and been potentially exposed.

The girlfriend and three family members of Duncan were placed under quarantine until October 19th, which is supposedly the end of the 21-day incubation period, however some believe this period to be as long as 42. In a futile attempt to cure him, Duncan was treated with brincidofovir, and dies 4 days later. Pham drives herself to the hospital on October 12th and is diagnosed with Ebola. Oddly enough, she had reported a high fever two days before to the hospital, who knew she had treated the Duncan, and yet she was not quarantined until this moment. Instead of quarantining everybody who may have been exposed, the hospital again fell short in its preventative duties, and another nurse, Amber Vinson, was allowed to travel on a flight to Cleveland on the 13th, and two days later she becomes the second person to be diagnosed.

Obama admits that the US should have been more careful while dealing with Duncan’s case, as the hospital had been accused of extremely lax security measures for its staff and other patients. To finish off the story, the 76 employees who were thought to have been exposed are “urged” to sign contracts agreeing that they would avoid public transportation, instead of quarantined until guaranteed clear of the virus. Below is a BBC video that explains Ebola in 60 seconds.

Hashtags: #APBio3 #DoNowEbola

My Earlier Ebola Blog Post

BBC Ebola Video

Experiments, Labs, and Presentations:

Anything involving color is always exciting, and to our pleasure, the first lab of this Unit our class was the chromatography lab. Having two parts, during the first half of this lab we used chromatography strips of different widths and lengths and drew thick black lines of marker on them. Submerging the ends in solvent, we quickly saw the pigments that black ink is composed of rapidly climbing up the paper, which eventually looked like this:

With the conclusion of this test, we moved on to testing the pigment composition of plant leaves. This investigation showed that leaves were composed not only of green chlorophyll a and b that we typically associate with chloroplasts, but also orange carotenes and yellow xanthophylls, shown below:

As the chlorophyll labs concluded, our class focused on expanding our knowledge of plant pigments and photosynthesis through a driving question investigation. The link to my Prezi is below, which investigated the relation of plant pigments to pigments found in makeup and paint.

My Driving Question Prezi

ICYMI: AP Bio Rockstars Discussing Global Issues

The AP Bio Rockstars Team has been learning and blogging nonstop for the past few months. Crazy how time flies! If you follow the Rockstars' blogs, you may have notices some themes trading through our blog posts. I'm here to talk about that! Not only as individuals, but as a class, we have been searching and learning new things about life.

In class, we have been in active discussion about the recent Ebola outbreak. It's such a hotbed topic, how could we not talk about it?! As we progressed in our discussion, we went from material we found on the internet or in  the news, and slowly but surely got into making our own inferences and conclusions based on our knowledge of Biology. As much as we don't want to admit it, this Ebola outbreak has a LOT to do with what we are learning in class about cells and nutrition (more specifically, organic molecule intake and processing). We started by discussing the origin of the disease and fatality rate. Meichen Li blogged,

"The disease has been found since 1976 and led thousands of people into death. According to statistics, it has caused 1,578 deaths in Liberia, 632 in Guinea, 593 in Sierra Leone and 8 in Nigeria."

Read more of Meichen's blog post here: http://meichenli123.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/ebola-outbreaks-kqed/

We then discussed where the disease was taking effect during this current outbreak. Due to the number of people it has affected, the CDC and WHO are labeling it as the largest outbreak since the virus' discovery! Jennifer Schulz found us a great map that she put in her blog post about the 2014 Ebola outbreak :

"As of right now, there are five countries affected including Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, all seen on the map below."

Read more of Jennifer's blog post here: http://wildsafarioflife.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/ebola-virus-update/

Knowing that it had originated and was most prominent in Africa, we asked ourselves why it had spread so quickly. We found out Ebola is not an airborne virus (as far as doctors are concerned), so how is is spreading between the people of these African countries so quickly?

Bharathi answered this question in her Ebola blog post:

"First, a challenge is the lack of pubic health infrastructure needed to treat Ebola patients. It is extremely difficult to track the infection. Also, the virus is out of control and spreads quickly. Ebola spreads by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. Many of the victims have come into contact with the virus because of taking care of an infected person or when participating in burial rituals."

Read more of Bharathi's blog post here: http://bharathisbioblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/the-ebola-outbreak/

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is caused by a virus that looks like a chubby piece of loopy string. We've all seen that famous picture of the virus. In class, we discussed how viruses are not living organisms, even though they have methods of reproducing themselves. The way it duplicates itself is by depositing its genetic information into a human cell, overriding the cell's functions and causing it to become a virus-producing factory. The next generation of viruses spread out into the body and continue to do what their predecessor did.

The Ebola virus is, above all other descriptions, a fever. When one runs a fever, he gets overheated. The body's temperature rises so much so that the body heat denatures- or changes the shape of- the proteins in his body. The Rockstars learned that when proteins are denatured, their unique structures are lost and their functions change, inhibiting them from carrying out their jobs in the body! Some bodily functions occur very slowly or not at all because the body has lost its ability to carry them out. This is why fevers are bad for your overall health, especially when attained from the Ebola virus. Ebola has no cure or official treatment, so the fever will continuously affect the patient until death or until medication therapy alleviates it.

I will end here with a quote from Nicole, who discussed the role of American healthcare professionals in this fight with Ebola:

 " I don’t necessarily agree with sending our own doctors to help treat people with Ebola because if they contract the disease, which is very likely, they may want to return to America, which would then bring the infection to our country and put us all in danger. At the same time, I do understand that having more education, they may be more qualified to treat patients with the disease. Another challenge to treating Ebola is that some people distrust the doctors and officials and refuse to let their infected family members be taken to isolation centers for treatment or to protect the rest of the village. Often times they hide the infected people or run away. This makes it increasingly hard to treat Ebola because it will spread to all of the other family members and create an even bigger problem."

Read more of Nicole's blog post here: http://itsunderthesea.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/kqed-do-now-ebola-virus-epidemic/

Thanks for reading,

Simone

AP Bio Rockstars go with the FLOW

Team AP Bio 2014-2015 has been busy. They have created their own unique websites where they are now posting their thoughts and ideas on different topics. One of their posts was about the documentary FLOW - For Love of Water. This film focuses on the issue of water rights and privatization around the world.

Rebecca (@BioforBecca) shared how the documentary has impacted her decisions regarding water usage and conservation.

Check out Rebecca's entire post.

Shauna made connections between water issues in the film and those closer to home.

You can read Shauna's complete post.

The AP Bio Rockstars shared interesting facts they learned from watch FLOW along with connections made to their own lives. It is clear that the movie made an impact and these rockstars want to make a difference!

Our year has begun!

15 brave souls have taken the challenge and chosen to work hard this year to represent the title of

AP Bio Rockstar! 

You can meet Team 2014-015 by clicking on the tab above.

We've already been busy playing, competing, learning, and inquiring.

Here are some highlights and be sure to check out the AP Bio Rockstar blogs...links on the left.

Is a candle flame alive?

Playing with water

Building molecules...

and learning about monomers.

Team AP Bio 2014-2015 Moves on in Their Journey

Our journey together has come to a close and the members of Team AP Bio 2013-2014 are moving on. Most of our team mates are off to college in a couple months. A couple of us will be back at NDB for another year. Before the team members headed on to their next adventure, they each reflected on their year, their website, and left some words of wisdom for those who follow.

Lizzie wanted to share this with the students to come...

 Here are Grace's words of wisdom...

I am so proud of each one of the AP Bio Rockstars. This journey has been incredible and I can't wait to hear about their adventures in college and beyond!

zSpace Blows Our Minds with Augmented Reality!

On Wednesday, April 30, we were generously invited on a field trip to zSpace Headquarters. What an amazing experience this was. Elizabeth, welcomed us, gave us a tour of the office, and then took us to a room where they had set up 6 zSpace terminals for the students to use. Students were able to virtually dissect a lobster, jelly, conch, dolphin, MahiMahi, and a seastar. Not only can students dissect these images, but they can pick up the pieces, move them around and bring them out of the screen!!! This is all made possible by 3D augmented reality. Wearing specific glasses to use with zSpace, students could experience all of this right in front of them.

Here's what my students had to say about the experience!

Thank you so much to Elizabeth and zSpace for allowing us to come and explore! There are so many possibilities for this technology...powerful ways it can be used to enhance learning the classroom. I am looking forward to introducing next year's students to zSpace in the fall!!

AP Bio Rockstars Serena, Grace, and Lizzie give zSpace a big thumbs up!

Learn and Share through Creating Infographics

This class incorporates a little bit of technology...well, I'm sure the AP Bio Rockstars would say A LOT of technology! Here was just another way they used technology during a couple recent investigations. Students reviewed data regarding plant transpiration, designed graphs, and then created an infographic to explain the concepts and content from the lab. Check it out!

Currently students are investigating amazing chordates. Keep checking back to see what they discover!