Genetics Round Up!

Over Thanksgiving break, we were all asked to create a family pedigree that included our family's health history. Thanksgiving was the perfect opportunity to not only catch up with family but to find out a little bit about what health problems our relatives have.

The family pedigree was a start to our new season, Genetics. We used interactive 3 dimensional Z Space desktops to learn about Gregor Mendel’s studies of pea plants. Mendel used pea plants to observe because they have easily distinguishable traits. He was able manipulate the pea plants reproduction by using a paintbrush to cross pollinate the flowers himself. The traits he studied included: tall versus short, purple versus white, and having the peas green or yellow. Through this study, we found out that each parent passed down 1 allele/factor to the offspring, two copies of information are carried in each trait. Mendel’s Law of Segregation supports that the joining of two gametes produces a new plant with two copies of information. Mendel’s Law of Dominance supports that the dominant trait will show through if a dominant allele is present. A recessive trait will only be visible if the organism has a homozygous recessive genotype. Mendel’s Law of Assortment supports that individual alleles must be split up, but can be passed down separately.

After knowing a background of how traits are passed down, we made a paper DNA model. The creation of the DNA model represented DNA replication. The ligase, an enzyme that binds the DNA, was represented by the glue. The scissors that split the two pieces of green paper, represents the enzyme helocase, which splits open and unwinds the DNA. The DNA polymerase adds each nucleotide and was represented by the action of us writing in each letter (A, C, G, and T). We also now understand that DNA is built from bond 5 to 3, but is read from 3 to 5. The repetition of writing and cutting really helped each of us grasp the process of DNA replication.

Genetics has been a season that each of us have been waiting for, and we all have had so much fun so far! Next week, we will be exploring different genetic disorders. I am very excited to continue this season of Genetics!

Season 6 Round Up! - Meiosis in Motion

This season we are learning about cell communication and reproduction. We began working on our meiosis animation videos the week before with partners, and continued to work on our videos in order to share them on Monday.  We had about 3 class periods to work on these projects, and they were super fun to create! The assignment was to show the animated process of meiosis in any creative way we wanted. Most people made a stop motion video using materials that Mrs. Girard provided for us, like Play-doh and pipe cleaners, while Michelle and Gina used paper for their stop motion, and Helen and I created our animation on Keynote. Once the videos were completed, we shared all of our videos in class. All of the Meiosis in Motion videos are posted on our blogs, so check them out! You can find links to all of our blogs under "Rockstar Digital Portfolios" on the left side of the blog page.

A diagram of the process of meiosis
(labeled for reuse)

Personally, I thought this assignment was very fun because we were able to practice our collaboration skills and study meiosis in greater depth. For this assignment, we had to work with someone we had never done a project with in this class. This rule encourages us to work with new people, instead of always working with the same few people on every assignment. Everyone works differently in groups, and having to work with new people gives us the opportunity to learn how to collaborate with all sorts of different people. This is an important skill that we will be able to take with us to college and even further into the workplace.

Many of us got to work with a new, challenging tool for this assignment as well. Animation is incredibly difficult. Animated movies take years to create, and there are hundreds of animators working on the movie every day! Our movies were only a couple of minutes, but the animation process can be challenging and frustrating. A short stop motion video often takes hundreds of images to create, and we had a short amount of time to create our animations. I know Helen and I found the assignment difficult because we faced technical issues while trying to share and save our Keynote. However, the AP Bio team was able to overcome these obstacles and create amazing products! We watched the videos before our test, and I found them incredibly helpful review. Everyone's videos were creative and informative.

We ended the week with our Season 6 Finale. For homework over Thanksgiving break, we all had to create a family medical history pedigree. A pedigree is a diagram that records family lineage. We had to talk to our family members and record any genetic disorders that might be present in our family. Our next season is on genetics (which everyone is very excited about!), and we will all be studying a genetic disorder of our choice. I can't wait!

This is my family pedigree. I have a separate document that lists the genetic disorders found in each generation.

Cell Signaling, Mitosis, and Meiosis!

During Season 6, Team AP Bio learned many fascinating things about about Cell Signaling, Mitosis, and Meiosis! We also had the amazing opportunity to participate in the Face the Future game.

To start this season off, we investigated and solved the mystery of Tessa Wright's dog in "My Dog is Broken: A Case Study in Cell Signaling." During this, we studied the steps of signal transduction pathways and Vasodilation in order to find out why a dog was having trouble -- as Tessa put it -- "preforming" sexually. We investigated the workings of cell signaling, what was wrong with the dog, and also learned about how some possible cures (Viagra, which deactivates PDE5 -- an inhibitor that prevents the proper sequestering of Ca+ ions and therefore induces Vasoconstriction; and Ginseng, which increases NO produced in local area) could help the dog. This was a very interactive and motivating way to learn about cell signaling -- after all, who wouldn't want to help a cute little puppy?

We also played the Face the Future game! Face the Future is a game in which players must critically think about a future where people can feel the emotions of others. Through technology, people in this future could literally feel what other people were feeling both emotionally and physically. Using this mass-participation online game, we were able to communicate ideas and thoughts with people from all over the world and actively prepare ourselves for a possible future! I think that this was an amazing game to play because it gave us the opportunity to think outside of the box and look at both positive and negative effects of something that could happen very soon. In the words of Jane McGonigal, a creator of this game, “Thinking about the future today prepares us to make history tomorrow.”

Kyla Guinon observing some onion root cells through a microscope!

Next up in Season 6, we did some observational sketching to get us used to microscopes and observing cells! This prepared us for our next activity -- the Observing Mitosis Lab. During this, we counted how many cells were in each stage of the cell cycle so that we could determine how much average time cells spend in each stage. This not only helped us better learn the stages of mitosis, but it also got us familiar with using microscopes and identifying what stages of the cell cycle look like in real cells!

Lastly, we made videos about meiosis! In these videos, we had to make diagrams of cells that showed movement. To do this, many of us made stop-motion films. I think this was an amazing project to do because making stop-motion videos means that you have to move every

Alexa Branzuela and Taylor Collins working their meiosis stop-motion magic!

single thing and pay attention to the step-by-step details of the process. I think I can speak for the whole class when I say that this certainly made sure that we will never ever forget the stages of meiosis!

Overall, this season was about cell signaling, mitosis, and meiosis. Throw in a cute dog and a game about empathy and you have the recipe for another season of AP Bio -- full of learning and creating!

BTC and Cell Signaling Round Up

This week we did a lot of fun activities! On Tuesday, we watched all of our classmates Junior BTC videos! As a class, we gained new information on a wide variety of topics. From Gina’s we learned about the ways in which the human body reacts to a virus & three ways a pathogenic microbe can be spread. Lindsay’s taught us about Sickle Cell Disease and all of the aspects of Heme and Hemoglobin. Alexa’s video was all about how love affects us on a biological level, which was amazing to learn because we see love in families, movies, media and our own lives and now we know how it works!

Taylor created a PSA teaching us about why sleep is so important to the human body, especially teenagers like us. Her video suggested we start school at a later time, and was supported by data and by her fellow classmates! In contrast, Veronica’s video was about how caffeine enables you to stay awake. From Keira we were taught the dangers of smoking and how cigarettes affect our DNA. Similar to Keira’s, the video created by Michelle gave us information on how drugs affect our bodies and neurotransmitters. In the next video by Anni, laughter and the biological and evolutionary aspects involved in this reaction were explained. Kyla’s video covered the myths and causes of sleep walking, which many girls in the class realized either they, or someone they knew, had experienced. Helen’s video made us aware of the differences between brown and blue eyes, using the eyes of her own classmates, making the video all the more interesting! Natalie educated the class on pain and aspirin, and my video was all about adrenaline, hormones and our bodies! Many of these videos were connected, and a large connection was cell signaling, bridging great to our new season!

In season 6, cell signaling is huge! Our mastering biology homework covered this topic, but so did our class work. Titled, “My dog is broken: A Case Study in Cell Signaling,”this game had us break into 3 groups and prove our understanding of messengers, signal transduction pathways, receptors, ligands and all of the aspects involved in cell signaling! Thursday, we ended class understanding mitosis on the interactive computers available at our school.

 This blog post only covers four days, but those days were jam packed and I cannot wait to see where next week takes us!

Season 5 Roundup: Review Board Games

Season 5 - Metabolism and the Cycles of Life was full of extremely interactive labs, new tools for learning cycles such as cellular respiration, photosynthesis driving questions, and lastly, review board games to tie everything together. The class was split up into three groups of four, where we were given multiple class days to work on and complete original board games that covered this season’s material, specifically in-depth questions about the cycles in cellular respiration and photosynthesis. The categories as to which the games were invented upon were Glycolysis, the Krebs Cycle, Electron Transport/Oxidative Phosphorylation/Chemiosmosis, Respiration, Light Dependent Reactions/Cyclic/Non-Cyclic, and Light Independent Reactions.

The group shown above was playing a game that was created using a Trivial Pursuit board and crafted the questions to look exactly like the cards that come with the game! They had excellent color-coding by difficulty and provided the instructions necessary to make this an easy game to understand, while still maintaining the challenge in reviewing this season's material!

This group is shown playing a game modeled after jeopardy (with a spin on it). The group had a deck of question cards to pick from that were color and number-coded on the back. When each player answered the questions on her whiteboard ("#1-How many carbon atoms are in each of the products of Glycolysis per pyruvate?"), they would look at the back of the question card to find the number and coordinating color (#1) that matched to a number on the board that had the answer displayed under its numbered post-it (3 carbon atoms per pyruvate). The players loved the organization, color-coding, and display of the board that made it easy to understand, and fun to play!

The last game shown above was modeled after Candy Land! The game came with a deck of question cards, dice, and player pieces. Once a player answered a question correctly, they would move the amount of spaces that they rolled on the dice. If a player landed on a spot that connected to a pathway such as "Gradient Avenue" they would then be able to skip spaces, therefore getting ahead, and whoever made it to the end was the winner! This game was a great combination of playing another version of a childhood favorite and displaying newly acquired knowledge of the topics covered this season!

All of the girls really seemed to enjoy working in groups to come up with these interactive review board games! Not only did they help everyone to study for the upcoming Season 5 Finale, but they gave the girls yet another tool to express their creativity and what they have learned!

Photosynthesis

This season we continued to look into cellular respiration and we went in depth into photosynthesis.  Mrs. Girard began this season by passing out contained leaves.  As a class we discussed the differences in our leaves and the important characteristics and what made each leave special.




           Leaf example                                                                          Anni examining her leaves


For backstage we worked on a virtual chromatography lab from mastering biology.  This lab helped us prepare for our real life chromatography lab with leaves.  Each student had to rubbing in a leaf from outside.  The leaves were rubbed on a chromatography slip with a water and then placed into a solution.  The students let the strips run and then the next day the strips were removed from the solution.  The strips revealed the different types if pigments in each of the leaves.

Gina and chromatography strips

Quinlyn working on the chromatography lab

 
Gina being prepared                                                                                      

Our class also began working on our game boards.  The boards are meant to be review of our season five.  Season five has covered cellular respiration and photosynthesis.  Each group is creating their own unique board game that can last no longer than 25 minutes.  Some games are similar to household games like candy land which is Gina, Kyla, Anni, and Alexa's group.  As a class we will play the games on this upcoming Friday.

Helen and Michelle brainstorming


ON Halloween we began out photosynthesis lab.  This lab tested the rate of photosynthesis with leaf discs.  twenty leaf discs were placed in a syringe a the syringe was placed in a solution with soap.   The syringe soaked up some of the solution.  A technique was performed on the syringe in order to fore the leaf discs to fill up with water and sink to the bottom.  Once the leaf discs were at the bottom of the syringe the discs were poured into a cup and placed in front of a light.  Blocking the heat of the light was a large glass container since heat could affect the rate of photosynthesis.  The lab groups waited for each piece of leaf disc floated to the surface.  The next day the same groups created their own lab.  The labs could be based off of color change in light, heat , etc.  Those experiments did not work out as well as planned because hardly any  leaf discs floated to surface.Mrs. Girard showing us how to use the syringes
Veronica, Helen and Keira working on the photosynthesis lab
Photosynthesis lab setup

Season Roundup: Cellular Respiration

This season, we focused on enzymes and cellular respiration. On Friday, October 14th, we continued our yeast catalase lab where each of the four groups tested the effects of pH, concentration, and temperature of enzymes on yeast catalase activity. To determine the effects of pH, HCl (an acid) and NaOH (a base) were added to the yeast solution and see how the pH affected the rate of the reaction. To determine the effects of concentration, different proportions of yeast catalase solution were used and with an increase of concentration, the rate of reaction was also increased. To determine the effect of temperature, the yeast catalase solution was heated or cooled down and the temperature of the solution was recorded. With an increase of temperature, the rate would peak at around room temperature, and either heating or cooling should decrease the rate of this reaction. To summarize our findings, each group created a lab report folder and afterwards, each group visited each of the other groups’ folders to learn about their findings.

Kyla, Helen, and Keira are working on determining the effects of concentration of yeast catalase
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Girard

Several groups are working on putting their lab report folders together!

Then, we took a five day break from school; however, biology never takes a break and we needed to save Jared! Jared was a CIA agent who was poisoned on a top secret mission, and this poison inferred with his ability to make ATP. Without ATP, his cells would stop working. Using our knowledge on cellular respiration, we needed to determine which of the four toxins Jared was poisoned with. To do so, we used healthy muscle tissue as control data and saw the  different effects from pyruvate, NADH, and IM protons on Jared’s muscle tissue. Jared’s tissue had no change from healthy muscle tissue in pyruvate levels, his NADH levels strongly increased, and the levels of his IM protons decreased. We then tested four toxins on healthy muscle tissue and saw how each of these affected the pyruvate, NADH, and IM proton levels. We were able to conclude that cyanide was the toxin in which Jared had ingested as cyanide was the only toxin that also resulted in the same changes of these levels in comparison with Jared’s muscle tissue. We were then able to save Jared!

Save Jared (program by Cogent Education)

If you’re confused about cellular respiration, you’re not alone! While my classroom was waiting to start the ACT the past weekend, two people were having a conversation about how they were completely lost within this complicated biology topic! We just need to make sure to work together and ask questions to enhance our understanding. To begin, the equation for cellular respiration is C6H12O6+6O2+6H2O —>12H2O+6CO2+32-38ATP. This equation is the reverse of the equation for photosynthesis, which makes sense as plants ingest carbon dioxide and sunlight energy to produce glucose. Cellular respiration has three components: Glycolysis, The Krebs Cycle/The Citric Acid Cycle, and the Electron Transport Chain. These components work independently from each other, which we were able to determine from saving Jared, but they also build off of each other and the products each component makes. The purpose of glycolysis is to split glucose and produce two pyruvate molecules. The purpose of the Citric Acid Cycle is to take the pyruvate and use it to help produce ATP, NADH, and FADH2. NADH and FADH2 are electron carriers, which are then used in the Electron Transport Chain, where its main purpose is to produce ATP. We listed to an MP3 tutor to help create this brochure to summarize the processes that take place within aerobic cellular respiration, and I included a copy of mine below.

3 components of cellular respiration:
glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and the electron transport system

This short span of a couple days have been brain packed with labs, simulations, and lecture, but we pulled through! Now onto a season of photosynthesis!

Season 4 Round Up

In Season 4, we participated in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, which is an international competition that asks students to make a 5-minute video about an interesting topic about the life sciences, physics, or math. The winner receives a $250,000 scholarship, $50,000 for his or her teacher/mentor, and $100,000 for a Breakthrough science lab at his or her school as well as a trip to the award ceremony to receive the prizes. The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. The Breakthrough Challenge is also partnered with Khan Academy, National Geographic Network, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

The Challenge is limited to students ages 13-18 who fill out a short application including their video, uploaded to YouTube. Video submissions were due October 10, after which each applicant was required to peer review five other submissions by October 16, and the winner will be announced at the televised award ceremony on December 4, 2016.

Since we are AP Biology students, we focused our videos on topics about life science, including the science behind laughter, lack of sleep, and the spread of viruses. We started by making storyboards with the visual and audio aspects of our videos. Storyboards are important because they helped us plan what we needed to say and how we were going to emphasize our ideas with our visuals. Storyboards also helped speed up the filming process because we already had all of our ideas planned out on paper. We shared our storyboards with one another through Google Drive to receive feedback and then began creating! Some Rockstars wrote detailed scripts next and others jumped right into filming. Each 2nd and 6th block for Season 4 was dedicated to working on our videos. We shared our progress on October 7, to give final feedback before we all dispersed for the weekend to make final touches and submit our Challenges videos on the evening of October 10. This season ended with the 5 peer-to peer reviews each student had to complete before October 16 to be qualified in the competition which we all had time to complete in class!

Helen is researching.

Michelle is drafting a script.

Michelle is filming in stop motion.

Natalie is reviewing her Storyboard while filming.

Round Up: WATER!

This season, we focused on water, specifically diffusion, osmosis, and water potential

Our AP Bio class kicked off the season with the documentary FLOW - For the Love of Water. FLOW pointed out the advantages that companies take of local people and land when these companies privatize water, a natural, essential, and originally free resource, and sell it to the public at a high cost. The movie focused on how Nestle pumps water from Michigan, but also mentions various other places in the States, even Mount Shasta, which is near us! Coca Cola was trashing the villages in India for their bottling plants and gave the villages free "fertilizer" that was filled with toxins. Suez privatized water and sold it to poor communities in Bolivia, where communities only had water contaminated with blood from slaughterhouses.The entire class was shocked at how cruel the companies are to deplete the earth and communities of water and sell it for profit. To anyone who has not watched FLOW, watch it!

The class then broke up into groups of 3 to make large posters that depicted all the processes that occur in a cell membrane. We drew out the phagocytosis, pinocytosis, endocytosis, exocytosis, active transport, simple diffusion, and facilitated diffusion.

We experimented with the agar cubes and vinegar in our first lab. We were given large and small agar cubes dyed with bromethymol blue, a pH indicator that turns yellow when a substance is acidic. The cubes were places in vinegar, an acidic substance. After letting the cubes rest for about 25 minutes, we saw that the outsides of the cubes had turned yellow. However, the small cube had a much thicker border of yellow than the big cube. This is because the surface area to volume ratio was smaller in the smaller cube, so more of the bromethymol blue could diffuse out of the cell. This lab shows that cells are small because waste products need to efficiently leave the cell and materials need to enter through the membrane, which can only expand so much as volume increases. 

Our second lab was the sucrose mystery lab. The AP Bio team figured out how to uncover the mystery and the entire process of the lab all together! Ms. Girard even said it was one of the fastest she's ever seen :) There were six different solutions of sucrose of water, from 0.0 to 1.0 M, each time raising in increments of 0.2 M. We were to determined the concentrations of each, based on our knowledge of osmosis. Each group of two put some of their assigned solution in a dialysis bag, which is made of cellulose, much like a plant cell. The sucrose would not diffuse out, but water would osmose in. The higher the concentration of sucrose, the more water would enter the dialysis tube. We were almost successful in labeling which solution matched which concentration, just the green and red were mixed up. 

Our final lab involved various vegetables and the same sucrose solutions. The goal was to determined the concentrations of solute in each vegetable. We focused on the concept of water potential, or the likeliness of water to move out of a system. We soaked red potato, sweet potato, and turnip cores in the 6 different sucrose solutions to see if the cores would gain, lose, or maintain the same amount of water content. The vegetables were hypertonic relative to the solutions would gain water, and the vegetables were hypotonic relative to the solutions would lose water, and if the vegetables were isotonic relative to the solutions, the vegetables would remain the same. In the end, we graphed our data and found the approximate solute concentrations of the vegetables based on where the vegetables' masses (affected by water gain or loss) remained about the same after the experiment.

Overall, this was a very fun and lab-intense season. I look forward to more!

Photo courtesy of Ms. Girard

Season 1 Roundup!

             In our first AP Biology season, we covered mostly review from biology and chemistry. We learned about the characteristics of life, water, and organic chemistry. For our summer assignment, we read chapters one, two and three because they were mostly review, so in class, we discussed any questions we had and the new information that was in the text. Chapters four and five were also included in the season.

            In season one we also had a visit from our guest, the candle. We were asked if the flame was alive or not. This helped us go over and apply the properties of life to something. After our properties of life activity, we covered the properties of water. Water is a polar molecule which is the reason for many of the properties of the substance. Organic molecules was another topic we talked about extensively. We discussed the four macromolecules: lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids. To collaboratively learn about the macromolecules we were divided up and created notes for each category.

Carbohydrates notes

Nucleic Acid notes

Protein notes

Lipids notes

             In addition to the material we covered, we also laid the groundwork for an amazing year of biology! We got to know each other, set up our digital profiles and made our twitter accounts! On our very first day, we played four corners as an icebreaker and met each other. Throughout the season we watched each others introduction videos to learn more about our AP bio family! All the videos were very unique and the styles of the videos told us a lot about each individual. Our digital profiles are a work in progress but very interesting and just waiting for a year of amazing posts! The twitter accounts we made will connect us with each other but also with a wider following of people. We will be posting responses, updates and other biology related tweets to our twitter accounts.

             Finally, as a review of the first five chapters, we created a web of review concepts as a class for each chapter. This was a great review of the material in the first season and was a fun way to work as a class. Overall the first season of AP Bio was a great success! I am very eager to see what’s ahead and know it will be an engaging, educational and exciting year!

Our ch 3 review web

Photo courtesy of Ms. Girard

How to summarize our year?

Wow, time passes so fast that AP Biology 2015-2016 is coming to the end. What we have learned in the past year is truly beyond word explanation. When I was sitting on the chair, waiting patiently to open my AP Biology exam booklet, I was engorged by a rush of confidence because I knew that hard efforts will always pay off at the end and that each member of our team will rock the test. The test, for us, was more like a brilliant exposition of our expansive knowledge than anything else.

From an academic point of view, this course prepared us exceedingly well for the AP exam, and we all had so much fun while learning. Dissecting the fetal pig made me reflect a lot on the genius design of our body systems as well as the amazing coordination between them for the sole goal of our fitness and survival; “Save the Bay” field trip helped me realize the importance of citizen science programs and the preciousness of our environment, etc…What’s more, this course taught us to find the most suitable learning technique for ourselves, which helps us save time and study more efficiently.

Technologically, We tried various types of technology, such as WordPressfor expressing our points of view,  Prezi for memorizing difficult vocabularies, Thinglink for presenting a collage of ideas, Stop motion for animating still things, and Voicethread for presenting authentic medical cases. Trying something new is always very interesting and is the best way to learn. Also, using technology to express our ideas in creative ways makes learning a truly fun experience. In fact, technology always makes my life easier since it is a better way to present an idea to the audience and make it interesting and fun.

Businessman and business sketch

This course has taught us that learning is a fun experience, not a hideous struggle. Being successful in this class largely depends on attitude and the effort we have put in. Biology is the study of life and since taking this course, I noticed that I have become more aware of my health and that I have accumulated many good habits.  AP Biology 2015-2016 is an unforgettable experience in my life, and I  will keep everything- the good habits, the positive attitude, the upbeat spirit-I have learned in this class with me, forever.

In the end, I have to say: thank you,  my dear comrades, who made this class so valuable and so revitalizing and thank you, Mrs. Girard, for you truly stroked our passion for the field of science and prepared us so well for the 21st-century advanced world.

Final Preparations for the AP Exam

After months of 80 minute classes every day, we are reaching towards the end of the finish line. However, before we could say hello to summer and graduation, first we had a few more things to do to keep us busy. While some of my other classes seemed to lessen our coursework towards the end of the school year, Mrs. Girard kept us busy until the very end! Some of my favorite activities we got to do were the lab practicals, looking into the new Z Space technology, and preparing for the AP Biology exam. Yes, I know the dreaded four hour AP exam that includes 64 multiple choice questions, 6 math questions and 8 free response questions. Even though we were all nervous and anxious about the exam, our teacher managed to make the last few days of review fun and stress relieving! Let's take a trip down onto the last few activities of the SCHOOL YEAR!

Hard at work (also nice look Julia)

1) Examining pig organs and structures. How fun. If you gathered any sense of sarcasm in that statement, you are partially wrong. Although the idea of dissecting up a foul smelling fetal pig is a tad bit disgusting, it makes for a great learning experience! :) As a class, we looked at mammalian body structures and organs, focusing on the circulatory, nervous, endocrine, excretory, digestive, skeletal, and reproductive systems. Those who felt uncomfortable with physically dissecting the fetus were tasked with the job of the secretary, writing down observations and filling out worksheets.

Lab Practical

2) Back in the good old days (first semester) we visited the Z Space a couple times with our friends from Holy Names School in Oakland (you can check out that post here). This time, we went on to explore more complex programs. We looked at chordates structures using the Z Space 3D technology. This was super cool because it gave a great visual of what we were learning in the science classrooms. My partner, Bianca, and I looked at many creatures such as birds,whales, snakes, fish, and other mammals and amphibians.

3) Last but not least, we reviewed for the upcoming AP exam. All year long we have been preparing for this exam through our labs, tests, discussions, and projects in order to be ready for the exam. During the last few days of review, we played a game that involved filling in the answers to a small slip of paper. The rules are: you have two chances to get ALL answer correct. If you get ALL the answers correct, you get the chance to shoot a paper ball into a trash bin for extra credit points. The game was fun, competitive, and engaging. I was not stressed while playing that game and it helped me to remember some terms that I had forgotten or had trouble with.

Having now taken the exam, I can fully say that this class really prepared me. I learned a whole lot in just the first semester! Sadly, our class days are dwindling down. But it is not over yet! There's still things we have to do (lets face it we're always working)! Stay tuned!

Disclaimer: All pictures are taken by Rebecca Girard

Evolution and Classification

The weeks before Spring Break were packed full of new information on the different kingdoms. Classification is extremely important because it helps us determine the relation of different organisms, shared traits, common ancestors, and relative time of evolution. Our focus has been on how evolution ties into to classification and taxonomy. A key thing to remember is the order of taxonomy levels. The nmeumonic "Dumb Kids Playing Catch On Freeways Get Squished" helps one remember Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species.

First we focused on Kingdom Protista. We examined samples of different protists under a microscope during the Protista Lab. This allowed us to brush up on our microscope skills and strengthen our scientific sketching. We looked at various classes of the kingdom and presented on their sizes, genus and species, movement, method of eating, and notable structures.

To study  plants, we took a more individual approach. Each student chose a topic pertaining to plants that she felt would make an interesting and informative lesson for the Biology and Honors Biology students. Carnivorous plants, fruits versus vegetables, and drugs derived from plants were just a few of the topics upon which the lessons focused. The lessons were all very unique and creative with a focus on interactivity. Multimedia was another focus of these lessons. Websites such as Kahoot and Padlet found their way into these presentations as well as use of home-made podcasts!


 We also focused on animals, specifically invertebrates. This clade includes animals as diverse as sea stars, sponges, spiders, crabs, jellyfish, octopi, worms, and butterflies. Understanding the taxonomy was very important to this section. Phylum and class were the main levels that we learned. These organisms are all animals, and they all lack a backbone. The other group of animals that we will study later is vertebrates (more specifically chordates).

  

To understand fungi, we all collected samples of fungi we found growing freely outside. Usually I can find lots of fungi in my backyard, but this time I couldn't find any. On a search for fungi, I went to a nearby park, and I found what appeared to be a type of mushroom. I brought them in to class as instructed, but when we began to examine them, I found that all I had was a bag of dark liquid. It turns out that I had found an ink cap. Other students had gotten large mushrooms from around campus.

We were able to really dive into the specifics of the different kingdoms during these lessons. Before now, AP Bio focused on the mechanisms, phenomena, and structures that connect all organisms. Focusing on the different kingdoms and phylums allowed us to learn about what makes organisms different.

Originally posted on Christine's blog!