Season 10 was all about the body systems as we virtually dissected a fetal pig. To demonstrate our learning, Kristen and I created a newsletter that describes each body system and has a reflection of the fetal pig dissection that we witnessed. Hope you enjoy!

Recently in biology, we have been learning about body systems as we dissected a fetal pig in class. For the immune system, we created sketch notes. To learn more about the immune system, check out my sketch notes below:

Do you know what makes Kingdom Protista so unique from the other 3 Kingdoms within Domain Eukarya? Kingdom Protista is made up of unique organisms that don’t quite fit in the other 3 Kingdoms. Protists are spread wide and far-ranging from amoebas to seaweed. All Protists are eukaryotic, but because of the wide range of organisms within the Kingdom, they can be unicellular or multicellular. This week in our online virtual classes we were put in groups where we researched more about specific organisms within Kingdom Protista and what makes them so different that they are placed in a separate category. Take a look below at the slide show that Callie, Alysa, Viva, and I made that explores protists and what makes them so unique. 

Check out this cool infographic that I made on Influenza (the flu) and some interesting facts about the virus.

Works Cited
ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/Health/1300-people-died-flu-year/story?id=67754182.

“Types of Influenza Viruses.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 Nov. 2019, http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/types.htm.

“Virology of Human Influenza.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 10 Feb. 2020, http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/communicable-diseases/influenza/data-and-statistics/virology-of-human-influenza.

Technology has become a vital part of our everyday lives and has had many breakthroughs that have really helped the world thrive. One specific area where technology is crucial is within law enforcement and forensics. In this presentation that I made with my partner, you can see how technology is used in forensic evidence and a recent breakthrough to help police identify suspects or bodies.

Have you ever heard of extracting DNA from a strawberry? While this may seem very difficult, it really isn’t. This experiment was fun and easy since it only required a few things that you could find at home. This includes water, salt, dish soap, strawberries, and cold isopropyl alcohol. To learn more about how DNA is extracted from the strawberry and why the process we used work watch the video below. Hope you enjoy!

After learning about the Vortex Swim, we decided to take a look into the effects of plastic and how plastic is harming our environment. To learn more about plastic and its affects you can watch my video underneath! Please feel free to comment any questions of improvements. 🙂

Determining the Pigments That Absorb Light in Photosynthesis of a Green Leaf and a Non-Green Leaf by Using Chromatography

PURPOSE
To use chromatography to identify and isolate and compare the main pigments that absorb light for photosynthesis in green and non-green leaves.

BACKGROUND:
Photosynthesis is a process that all life on Earth depends on as photosynthesis provides food for plants and oxygen for many of the living organisms in the world. Photosynthesis requires pigments, which give plants their color because pigments absorb light of a particular wavelength that is used in the first phases of photosynthesis. Two major pigments that are important in photosynthesis are chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, which give many plants their green color. Chromatography is a technique that can separate pigments in plant cells that will allow different pigments to be identified. The pigments in chromatography are measured by their relative mobility factor or R_f, which compares the distance that the solute traveled to the distance that the solvent traveled. By using a green leaf and a non-green leaf, different pigments are able to be determined by the R_f value that is measured and the different colors that result on the chromatography paper.

HYPOTHESIS:
If the main pigments identified in a non-green leaf and green leaf are different, then the colors on the chromatogram and the R_f values will be different. 

DATA:

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the basic importance of chromatography? 
   The basic importance of chromatography is that chromatography identifies substances by separating compounds in a mixture. Specifically in this lab, chromatography paper is used to identify different pigments in green leaves and non-green leaves. 
2. What factors allow chromatography to happen? 
   The factors that allow chromatography to happen are the chromatography paper, solute, solvent, the amount of pigment transferred onto the paper, the attraction of solute to a solvent to chromatography paper, molecule size, time, and the amount debris left on the pencil line.
3. What purpose does the chromatography paper have on this experiment? 
   The purpose of chromatography paper has in the experiment is that the chromatography paper allows scientists to identify pigments by calculating the R_f, which measures the distance the solvent and the solute diffuse up the paper. 
4. What is the purpose of the solvent in this experiment? 
   The purpose of the solvent in the experiment is to allow the pigment to diffuse up the chromatography paper and is part of the formula for calculating the R_f. The solute moves up the paper based on the solute’s attraction to the solvent
5. What does the R_f value stand for? 
   R_f value stands for the relative mobility factor. The formula for the relative mobility factor is the distance the solute traveled divided by the distance the solvent traveled
6. How do you think the R_f value is useful to scientists?
   The R_f value is useful to scientists because the R_f value helps scientists to identify pigments in plants. 
7. What does D_unknown signify? 
   D_unknown signifies the distance that the solute diffuses up the paper. 
8. What does D_solvent signify? 
   D_solvent signifies the distance that the solvent diffuses up the paper. 
9. How many pigments were you able to identify from the GREEN leaf chromatogram?
   Two pigments were able to be identified from the green leave chromatogram. 
10. How did a GREEN leaf chromatogram compare to a NON-GREEN leaf chromatogram?
    The non-green leaf chromatogram only had one identifiable pigment, while the green leaf chromatogram had two. The green leaf also had pigments that looked like a green and yellow color, while the non-green leaf presented a light pink color. Also, on the chromatogram for the non-green leaf, the chromatogram did not display one distinct area where the solute traveled to, while the green leaf did. 
11. What else did you find out about pigments and photosynthesis?
    There are multiple types of pigments that can be distinguished in the chromatograms collected. Depending on the prominence of the pigment in photosynthesis, the color displayed on the chromatogram will be darker for more prominent pigments. The R_f values that are calculated will stay relatively the same if all of the variables are kept the same. 
12. What is one more question you still have?
    How did scientists initially determine the specific R_f values of pigments?

During season 3, we focused on the cell structure and function. One big part of this was learning about the cell membrane, which is semi-permeable so the cell membrane only lets in certain particles. This means that we learned a lot about the different forms of transportation for particles inside and outside the cell, which includes phagocytosis, pinocytosis, and exocytosis.

To learn and understand the functions of the cell membrane, the class was split into different groups to make their own sketch note drawing. Below is the edited version of the project that my group and I did.

For this season, my partner, Chloe and I, made a stop motion animation of the process of meiosis. Meiosis is the process where sex cells, also known as gametes, divide from one diploid cell that has 2n chromosomes to 4 haploid cells that have n chromosomes. Meiosis occurs in two stages, meiosis one and meiosis two. In both meiosis one and meiosis two, there are 4 different phases in each. This means that there are two stages of Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase. Unlike mitosis, meiosis creates 4 genetically different cells. To create 4 genetically different cells, the chromosomes cross over and exchange genetic information in Prophase I.

Reflection on the Process
Overall, I think that making a stop motion is very time consuming and difficult. You have to take so many different pictures and move your product so little to actually make the video smooth, so sometimes it can be frustrating. I think that our product turned out pretty good, but probably could have been better with more time and more experience with the editing app. I think that overall though our product held a lot of good information and will hopefully be understandable with the pictures.