Evolution: Human Height

Guiding Question: How do eighth graders vary in standing and sitting height?

Hypothesis: I think the females are naturally shorter than males also i think that based on a person’s age the height will vary.

Materials:
- measuring tape
- 8th graders
- chair

Variables: I will keep the people I’m measuring the same-all 8th grade students, but i will change the position they are in for example I will measure them standing and I will measure them sitting.

Person

Standing Height (cm)

Sitting Height (cm)

Skeletal Index

Brachyskelia, Mesoskelia, Makroskelia

Emily	166 cm	80cm	48.19	Brachyskelia
#Ergi	173 cm	88	50.86	Brachyskelia
Jovana	184 cm	97 cm	52.71	Mesoskelia
Eliza	155 cm	76 cm	49.03	Brachyskelia
Abe	171 cm	89	52.04	Mesoskelia
Riena	157 cm	84 cm	53.50	Macroskelia
Maria	177 cm	91 cm	51.41	Mesoskelia
Luka L.	183 cm	84 cm	45.90	Brachyskelia
Luka J.	182 cm	91 cm	50.00	Brachyskelia
Caroline	157 cm	82 cm	52.22	Mesoskelia
Magda	162 cm	82 cm	50.61	Brachyskelia
Cassie	167 cm	82.5	49.40	Brachyskelia
Dijana	165 cm	87 cm	52.72	Mesoskelia
Brin	176 cm	84 cm	50	Brachyskelia
Rafa	170 cm	85 cm	50	Brachyskelia
Aleksej	177 cm	87 cm	49.15	Brachyskelia
Monica	160 cm	81 cm	50.62	Brachyskelia
Philipp	180 cm	91 cm	50.55	Brachyskelia
Roy	172 cm	86 cm	47.77	Brachyskelia
Viktor	190 cm	94 cm	49.47	Brachyskelia
Jude	180 cm	90 cm	50	Brachyskelia
David	176 cm	87 cm	49.43	Brachyskelia
Teodora	172 cm	83 cm	48.25	Brachyskelia
Jacob	162 cm	82 cm	50.61	Brachyskelia
Marko	179 cm	86 cm	48.04	Brachyskelia
Nikola	158 cm	80 cm	50.63	Brachyskelia

Data Analysis: From looking at these results I found that the average female 8th graders skeletal index in our school is 50.78. From looking at the results of the males in 8th grade the average skeletal index for them is 49.63. Also by looking at my table I noticed that most people’s skeletal index is under the category of Brachyskelia meaning that their bottom half is longer than their torso. There were three people who are mesoskelia, and only one person, Riena, is macroskelia meaning that her bottom half/her legs are shorter than her torso. I also found the general height of the males and females in this grade. So for females the average height is, 165.63. Then for males the average height I found is 175.26. So males are on average taller.

Conclusion: From looking at my data I was able to conclude that girls have a larger skeletal idex that boys do in 8th grade. And then not unusually the boys average height is much taller than the girls the boys are on average taller by about 10 cm. I also find it very interesting that nearly everybody males and females are generally brachyskelia.

Further Inquiry: I think it would be interesting to measure the arm span of people to see if their arm span was proportional to their body. My estimation would be that the arm span would be shorter or the same length as the body.

End of Unit Reflection: Sexual Education

During this unit we leared about sexual education. I really enjoyed this unit because it was as well as informative. We had... stories and giggles but we also learn't alot about sexual eduaction. I would say the two things i learn't the most about was different forms of protection and the different trimesters of pregnancy. i new only a few ways of protection at the beginning of the unit but i learn't about several other ways and how to use them during times when you are sexual active. I also learnt about how the fetus develops in the womb duriung the different stages of pregnancy. I also learnt about around 13 differen't STI's and STD's. When at the beinning of the unit i could barely name four let alone tell you about them and now i fell very well informed about STD's. 

Overall i really enjoyed this unit and i think everybody else did to becuase it was fun but left you very informed also if you forget some information we have our brochures and essays to look back at :) . So im glad we completed this unit and that it was part of our curriculum this year. 

Fetal Development

What are the major events that occur during feal development?
- Limbs Grow
- Brain Develops
- Grows Rapidly
- Gains a Lot of Weight Before Birth
- Turns in Womb
- Pushes Against Womb Lining
- Develops  Reflexes

How do doctor's know something is going wrong with the fetus?
- You can you ultra sounds.
- A sonogram.
- By looking at the babies movements you can also tell wheather it is in fetal distress.
- By looking at the colors of your amniotic fluid.


How does a montehr's behavior influence the development of the fetus? 
What Not To Do During Pregnancy:

-           Sterioids can kill baby

-          Smoking causes bone damage and stunts growth

-          Facial abnormalities

-          Certain foods can cause damage to baby. (Bacteria, listeria, lobster, salmon, tuna, swordfish.) à Shouldn’t ea these fish because they have mercury in them.

-          Severe behavior àearning disorders/social disorders.

-          Poor coordination

-          Unhealthy – prone to diseases (asthmatic, allergies, respiratory infection.  

-          Loud music à ear functioning deficits.

-          Illegal Drugs (sometimes baby can be born with an addiction

    What To Do During pregnancy:

-          Pre-natal vitamins – Folic Acid

-          Stay calm otherwise you create a very nervous child.

-          Create an emotional and physical connection.

DNA Fingerprinting

During the DNA fingerprinting activity it taught you how and what fingerprints are used for. Which is mainly about identifying a person (its like a DNA stamp.) It also showed you how they use enzimes to separate theand then use gel electrophoresis, through which you can see the starnd of DNA.(we did this on our felild trip :) ) Using this process you can find out who commited a crime. 


In the secondlab they went more indeapther about Gel electrophoresis. IT dold you the same information basically but then it also whoed you how there are waves of DNA and theyn the acitvity shows you how they movfe (showed through an animation.) 


In the bar cokde activity the way yolu find the suspect is by comparing the lines to see which one is the same as the DNA extract one. By doing this i found that the 4th suspect was the guilty one. 

Dominence , Co-Dominence, Incomplete Domincence

Results for Pea Plants:
- If you have a pure bred purple plant and you mix it with a white pure bred you get all purple offspring.
- When you mix a half bred
- when you put a purebred purple with a half-bred purple you get --> you get 6 purple and 2 whites.
- if you mix whites you get all white
So thus the purple pea plants are dominant and the white are recessive.

Reflection: I know that the purple plants are dominent becuase when you cross the white pea plants with white the offspring are all white. Also when you cross a purpred purple peaplant with a white you get purple pea plant .  

Results for Snapdragons:
- If you mix red and red you get all red
- if you mix red and pink you get 4 pink and 4 red
- if you mix red and white you get all pink.
- if you mix pink and pink you get 4 pink, 2 red, and 2 white.
- if you mix pink and white you get 4 pink and 4 white. .
- if you mix white and whites you get all white.
thus the snapdragons are incomplete dominence

Reflection:
if you cross red with white you get pink. If you cross white with white you get white. If you cross red and red you get all red. This is a definete example of incomplete dominence. Because niether are fighting to be shown they are both neutral.

Results for Lentils:

- If you mix small seeds with big seeds you get all mixed seeds
- if you mix small seeds with small seeds you get all small seeds
- if you mix big seeds with big seeds you get all big seeds.
- if you mix mixed seeds with mixed seeds you get 4 mixed seeds, 2 small seeds, and 2 big seeds.
thus the lentils are co-dominence.

Reflection: When combining the lentils unless you are crossing two of the same you never get one dominent lentil plant shown. --> this is an example of co-dominence. You can also so this when you mix mixed seed with mixed seeds and you get 4 mixed seeds, 2 small seeds, and 2 big seeds. You can think of this as both types of lentils are to stubborn to give in so thus they are dominent together/ co-dominence.

Current Events: Why Does the Same Mutation Kill One Person but Not Another?

Different people have different reactions to different gentic disorders, such as schizophrenia or breat cancer. These different affects are say 1 person has the mutations that can develop into that disease, wheas person 2 can have the same mutations and never develop the disease. THis isn't just people who have a different genetic layout and just the same mutations but studies have shown that two identical twins can even have a different outcome than the other twin. So why does this happen?

For many decades now scientific genetic researchers have been studing the role that genetic mutaions play as well as the environmental affects have on the development of diseases.As one of the more commen researchers says Alejandro Burga, "However, genetic and environmental difference are not enough. In the last decade we have larned by studying very simple organisims such as bacteria that gene exzpression -- the extent to which a gene is turned on or off -- varies greatly among individuals, evne in the abcense of genetic and evnronment variation. Tow cells are not completely identical and someimtes these differences have thier origin in random or stochasitc processes. The results of our study show that this type of variation can be an important infulence on the phneotype of animals, and that its measurment can help to reliably predict the chance of developing an abnormal phenotype such as a disease.


These recent scientistis works show that even if they managae to completely understand all of the genes that are important in the inheriting of the genetic disease. However they may have found a way to predict what will happen to each person from looking at their genome sequence. Though when doing this they need to remember that genese are turned on or off in each person.

Difference between Cytokinesis and Mitosis.

What is the difference between Cytokinesis and Mitosis? How do they go together in order to complete the cell division process? 

part 1. Can you find dividing cells in the oinion root tip? 

          What differences can you seewhen you compare the nucleus of a dividing cell with that of a non-dividing  cell? 

Answer: The non-dividingcells appear as though they have been split in half. As for the developing telophasse stage most of the cells are blury and more condensed. 

Part 2. View a video of mitosis in an animal cell. 

Part 3. Identify at least one cell in each of the stages of division summarized in the review. 

          Place the cursor over a dividing cell and click once. Identify the stage of division.

          When you have identified at least one cell in each stage, proceed to the next section. 

          

Part 4. See what differences you can detect between the division of an animal cell and a plant cell.

Genes With Marbles

1. For the first trail, when y oucressed the B's and b's the result is always the same, you will always get Bb. If you make a punett square for this then you see that the results also come out as Bb. Thus the punet square is reliable for this part. 

2. During the next part one of the bags contained a B and a b. For the second bag there was only a B and a B. When making a punet square out of this information you will get a 50% liability of the trait for each one. 

3. For this 3rd step i got 3 different outcomes, Bb, bb, and BB. Using the punet square we predicted that we would get Bb 50%, bb 25%, and BB 25%.However once doing the experiment we got a larger precentage of bb rather than Bb as predicted. This prove sthe more complex your experiment then the less reliable the punett square becomes. 

4. I only used 10 trials but during experiments like these it is more reliable and accurate if you use much more trials (prehaps over 100). Thus more statistics will be proved rather than 'luck of the draw'. 

5. Looking at the model there is a higher chance and probability of pulling out a certain marble. However with a punnet square you have a completely accurate probablity if you keep it relitively simple. Whereas with models as i said before you need to be careful with 'luck of the draw.' So i think punnet squares are definetly more reliable. 

GATTACA

1. Compare Jerom and Vincent. What were their strengths and their weaknesses? In what ways were they the mirror image of each other? Throughout the movie I found that both Jerome and Vincent had a strong will to succeed. Thye were also both unhappy with how they're lives turned out and managed to change them, for better or for worse. Though there were small similarities it they stilled proved that using they're determination and commitment to one thing that they could succeed.

2. Was Jerome mentally ill? No, i don' think so. I don't dissagree that he was depressed but I think that there are very strong boundaries inbetween mentally ill and depressed. Being unahppy with how your life turned out as well as suicidal acts being a way to cope with depression doesn't make you menatlly ill. There is something off in your brain when you are mentally ill, but there isn't always when you are depressed or suicidal. Some mental diseases can lead to depression but not developing depression the way that Jerome apeard to have.

3. Compare Anton and Vincent, the two brother. How was vincent able to beat Anton at swimming despite vincent's weak heart? Its not all about skill, "only 10% is skill the other 90% is determination and hard work". This is true, Anton saved some for going back to the beach. Vincent didn't, he didn't save anything he did 110%, and was determined to make his dream come true. And he did he did waste his life worrying about his shotcomings he used his all, and with much hard work and determination it payed off, he went to space. Anton never had the same shortcoming/challenges as his brother thus he took his skill for granted and didn't put in the whol 110%.

Cracking the Code of Life

1. Sequencing the human genome may bring to light a number of genes that are the basis for known genetic diseases or that predispose a person to a condition sch as heart disease, cancer, or Alzheimer's genetic disease. Yet finding a gene for an illness may not lead to an immediate cure. Would you want to be tested to learn whether they had a genetic disease of predisposition if no cure was available? Why or why not? 

Personally, yes I would want to be tested because by knowing whether I am liable for a disease may change how I treat my body and the daily diet of food that I intake. Also even if I couldn't change the fact about whether i would get the disease of not i would still want to know about it. Because there are some diseases where you don't find out about them until much later, when it is to late. For example, cancer, i have a liability for getting skin cancer and i like knowing that because i can do things like taking care of my skin as well as if i do get cancer i am prepared for that sort of thing. For of course there isn't a cure for cancer but there are ways that you can prolong how quickly it 'takes you'. So yes i would want to know my liability for genetic diseases however, if some people don't I can see their reasons. 

2. Consider a scenario in which a lab need DNA samples for use in genetic testing studies. Researchers are searching for a variant of a gene that provides resistance to specific bacteria diseases. If the company finds this gene, it may be able to produce a drug to sell to people who have these diseases.

Would you agree to have your DNA be part of the study? Why or why not? Would you want royalties for your part in finding the gene? What if during the testing, the company discovered you had a gene that might result in a health problem later in life? Would you want to be informed? Why or why not?

Yes, i would definitely be willing to submit my DNA for testing. I would have been scared if i found this out but definitely pleased the i know, i think knowing is better than not knowing. Because as i said before in question one i would try and do something about it and i would just deal with it and though i may spend some time dreading it i would treat it the same as death, everybody dies and that idea doesn't affect most people so i don't think that finding out about a health problem in later life would affect the way i live very much either.

3. As more is learnt about genes, there is a risk that the information will be used to define certain members of society by their genetic makeup. Identify the meaning of the terms genetic discrimination and genetic privacy. What are some ways to protect against this type of genetic discrimination?

I think the discrimination about a persons genetic makeup would be unusual however we treat it the same way we treat other discrimination's and though its hard and sometimes violent and sad that's life, however, genetic makeup is not something you can really see so you would have to really get to know a person to learn about that and if you didn't like them then the genetic makeup wouldn't change that and if you did life them the genetic makeup probably wouldn't change you idea of them either. The only time in which i think there may be discrimination about such a thing would be for reproduction and then it is understandable you don't want your child to turn out with some horrible disease that would cause you and the child immense pain and disruption.  

pH Lab

Guiding Question: What happens when you add a neutral to an acid? What happens when you add a neutral to a base.

Hypothesis: The base will turn into an acid because it is being diluted to make it neutral or into an acid. The acid will turn into a base.

Materials:

• Acids: Gurana (pH 4), wine vinegar (pH 3), HCl (pH 1), Blueberry juice (pH 4), pepsi twist (pH 4), green tea (pH 4).
• Bases: Hand soap (pH 7 or 8), shampoo (pH 7or 8), soap (domestos) (pH 13) and windex (pH 10).
• Neutrals: Oil (pH 7), indicator (Cabbage Juice)

Procedure:
1)  Decide on materials how going to mix.
2) Write Guiding Question, and come up with Hypothesis
3) Set up lab.
4) Place 10 drops of neutral into 10 drops of each ingredient.
5)Test each ingredient to see whether they were acids or bases
6) Used red and blue litmus paper to test if the ingredient had changed pH
7) Observed the results

Data Table/ Observations:
After adding 10 drops of neutral (in this case oil) into an acid (in this case Gurana, wine vinegar, HCl, Blueberry juice, pepsi twist or green tea) , it stays an acid but has been diluted and the pH is closer to 7(neutral). After adding 10 drops of neutral (in this case oil) into a base (in this case Hand soap, shampoo, soap (domestos) or windex) , it stays a base but has been diluted and the pH is closer to 7(neutral).

Conclusion: To conclude, though we did not do a very good job with this lab we still discovered some new things.  if you add a a neutral (we used oil) to an acid or base it will dilute to a less strong version of the substance it already was. So seeing as it dilutes it goes closer to a 7 on the pH scale, which is a neutral. However some substances did still have a visually stronger reaction than others. For example, wine vinegar (pH of 3) turns a dark pink color whereas Gurana (pH of 4) turn a lighter shade of pink. As for the bases shampoo (pH of 7/8) becomes a light turquoise colour. But the Domestos Soap (pH of 13) becomes a bright green color which fades to white!! So I think that the bases seemed to have a stronger reaction that the acids. I think that this was probably becauses bases are weaker than acids.

Further Inquiry: As I said in my conclusion the quality and commitment that we showed was low. Therefore there are several things that should be improved if we were to do this lab again. We could have/should have found away to show the before and after piece of adding the cabbage juice which would have made our experiment more scienctific because we could judge off of hard copy materials rather than using our memory. Also if we had recorded our observations during the lab we might have had a lot less trouble writing up the lab. This is the reason we do not have a data table. So we could have done many things better however what we did do seemed to come out quite well.