Adv Science

Summary: During this week, I was mainly absent due to illness. However, on the two days in which I did make an appearance, I learned about water efficiency and found out how to calculate the average water efficiency and I did the Gizmo on the right, which was about bears and trees. Once again, I didn't learn anything from this, but what I knew was that trees will still thrive even when there is no other organism around because they do not rely on other organisms for food - they make their own. SP1: Asking testable and/or scientific questions. I asked   scientific questions when I was looking at the gizmo such as "How long will it take for the trees to die off because of overpopulation?" and "Why does it seem that the mushrooms aren't reproducing and spreading around?" Another question that I asked was "Why do the mushrooms grow in clumps?" Image link:  A cartoonist was found dead in his apartment. Details are sketchy.

Summary: During this week, we learned about biology and the animals and plants of the rainforest, such as a coral snake, which has vibrant bands of black, red, and yellow, to warn off predators and prey that this is a snake that carries venom. There wasn't really anything that I didn't "learn" because of the books that I've read, and all the nature documentaries that I watched. However, some of the things that I learned included how leaf cutter ants grow fungus, like termites, to grow their food. I also learned that a mother frog carries her babies (aka tadpoles) on her back and then releases them in a small pool of water gathered in the dipping canoe-like leaves of a plant. SP1: Asking testable and/or scientific questions. I asked   scientific questions when I was watching the rainforest documentary, such as does the coral snake a "venom gland"? If it does have a "venom gland", where is it located? Image link:  I stayed up all night t...

Summary: Over the course of our superhero project, we had to study heredity, genetics, and other mis cell aneous DNA topics (phenotypes and genotypes). While doing this project, I learned that genotypes are represented by a letter (capitalized - dominant, lower-cased - recessive) and that letter represents the phenotype. For example, my superhero had red hair. The phenotype to represent that would be R and r. Her genotype for her hair would be Rr. Backward-Looking: How much did you know about the subject before we started?  I knew a little bit, but nothing spectacular - for one, I knew a little about genetics and DNA - all through reading and using context clues (thanks, I-Ready!) and a little about phenotypes and genotypes when I saw it on the board about five months ago (I copied it down in my notebook and searched it up when I got home). Inward-Looking:  What does this piece tell you about yourself and how you learn? This piece tells me that I don't need to build...

Summary: During this week, we had to draw the "alter ego" of our superhero, including four changes in the alter ego, all of which had to be differences in their body systems and/or organs. I chose the eyes, nervous system, skeletal system, and muscular system. While drawing out my "villain" I learned that the femur was the longest bone in the human body (it stretches to an average of 19.9 inches!) and I also learned that brain stem is the most important part of the brain because it controls some of our unconscious movements that allow us to function/live properly (heart rate, breathing, etc). SP1: Asking testable and/or scientific questions. I asked   scientific questions when I was drawing out the villainous form of my superhero, such as, "What is the most important part of the brain? What is the longest bone in the body?" Image link:  Why are tertiary structures selfish? Because the amino acids are all wrapped up in themselves.

Summary: During this week, I learned about epigenetics. I also learned about mutations and GMOs. In fact, while writing my superhero origin story, I wrote how she had shark powers due to a mutation where her blood mixed with a shark's after she was attacked by it. That was how I learned one way of a mutation. SP1: Asking testable and/or scientific questions. I asked scientific questions when we were learning about GMOs and mutations, such as, "What is a mutation? What does it mean?" and "How are mutations formed? How can someone's genes be modified in the first place?"   Image link:  How did you get such a great picture? Well, I guess it's in my genes.

Summary: During this week, I learned that Punnett Squares were a way of determining the types of traits of animate objects (for example - in our Superhero project, we have to assign traits to our "super baby" by using Punnett Squares). I also learned that a heterozygous trait was when there were one of each allele (for example - Rr would be a heterozygous trait). SP1 - Asking Scientific/Testable Questions: I asked scientific questions when I was doing my Punnett Squares coin toss (at the end of our packet, we had to do a coin toss and if we got heads then our "super baby" would have a trait that our superhero/mate had. Tails meant that they didn't the trait), such as "Could there be two capital letters for both alleles?" (could there be a genotype of RR?). Image Link: Mendel's Pea Flower Punnett Square

Summary: During this week, I learned about Gregor Mendel who worked with pea plants because they had many different traits the determined the differences between pea strains. I also learned that cross fertilization was  when one species mated with another, like for example, Mendel cut off the stamens of an immature flower and then when the flower matured, he sprinkled the pollens of another plant onto the pistil of the mature pea flower. SP: Asking Questions and Defining Problems  —  I asked scientific questions when I was doing the Heredity with Dogs activity, such as, "If a one dog has floppy ears, yet the other has straight ears, then how is it that if the two were to mate, then they could end up with a puppy that has a mix of both floppy and straight ears?"  Image Link:   PBS Kids - Dragonfly TV | Heredity With Dogs | Dog Breeding