WE ARE FAMILY!

In our last class, we talked about an article that we had to read for homework. The article pretty much talked about how all of us humans today are, in some way, related to each other. Weird, right? For the rest of the class, we began a video called "Journey of Man." This video is a documentary of a man who went on a journey around the world trying to discover how we are all related and where this relation started. What we have learned so far is that we all originate from Africa, from the San Bushmen tribe. The people of this tribe are the first ancestors of mankind, which lived about 50,000 years ago. These people a few major advantages: state of the art hunting technology, advanced language, and excellent tracking skills. We also learned about genetic markers, inherited mutations that write our history and are passed on from generation to generation. At some point in history, a few people of the San Bushmen tribe migrated and ended up in Australia. There is no evidence that can be found that can prove how the tribe made  it to Australia. This is because the sea levels at the time were lower than they are today, therefore, they could walk from one continent to the other. We will be finishing the video next class. Until next time!

My beautiful (not really) poem

So, remember how I said I wrote a poem about Fava Beans? Well, here it is. Think of it as a slam poem. Maybe that will make it seem less ridiculous...

Waka Flaka Fava Bean!

Can you do me a fava?

Tell me, what is a fava bean?

Fava beans are two faced fiends!

For some humans, it can help.

But for others…WELP! DEATH!

Favism, a fatal disease.

Those who have it die with ease.

Fava beans can be so mean.

If you live where they cultivate

You’re sure to feel their hate.

You’d think from spending so much time with them

They’d be your friend.

But nay! They like to slay

Those who spend time with them all day.

Fava beans aren’t the only ones who want to kill

Like Hannibal, who likes his fill.

Because they face fava beans pain

People are resistant to malaria’s reign.

Malarial parasites want to pillage your red blood cells

But G6PD gives them hell!

Evolution doesn’t fava traits

So be careful if you put them on your plates.

Because you might find out that nature

Is one of your biggest haters.

Because of all this strife

There is advancing of human life.

I am so sorry...

Hardy-Weinberg

So we did math in Bio class. It was cool, because, for once, I knew what I was doing. I actually grasped the concept of how to do a Hardy-Weinberg problem pretty quickly. Honestly, I really happy with myself. Hardy-Weinberg problems, by the way, are problems used, in some cases, to figure out the percentage of recessive and dominant individuals in a population. You can also figure out the frequencies of alleles. The equation is

Why, Pan Prior, Why?

So we were given a project where we had to research a theoretical fossil, in my case the Pan Prior, and create another theoretical fossil of the human ancestor. In other words, a transitional fossil. Fun! Most of my break was focused on this project. My partner and I split up the project, and I was given the task of planning our trip to Ethiopia to discover this magnificent fossil. It was one of the most stressful experiences of my life! I don't know how people do it! How does one sit there staring at their computer finding plane tickets, hotel prices, car rentals, etc? Maybe this was just me. I mean, our location is pretty far from EVERYTHING! It is as if no hotels exist near our location. They existed everywhere else but where we needed to go. I even asked my mother how to find a hotel because she is usually pretty good at finding hotel when we go on vacations. She couldn't do it either. It took me forever before I finally found one. Anyways, that was just me ranting. We finished, so it is now out of my life. I now live in peace. 

GENE FREQUENCIES! YAY!

We did a lab in class that involved evolution and gene frequencies. We were given a 25 red beads and 25 green beads. The red beads represented the recessive allele for no fur on a Bengal Tiger. The green beads  represented the dominant allele. We had to put all of the beads in a bag, shake them up, and pick out two beads at a time. If the bead colors we chose were green & green or green & red, then the tiger had the dominant allele. If the beads were red & red, then the tiger had the recessive allele. This means that the tiger died. 

Parent's Day!

So the classroom was a lot more crowded than usual. It was Parent's Day, which is when our parents come to our classes and see what we are learning. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good class. At the start of it, I showed my parents a live brine shrimp from our latest lab experiment. They were pretty fascinated by it, especially with the fact that I could use the equipment in the classroom.

For the rest of the class, we talked about some...interesting stuff about physical attractiveness. We did this activity in class to determine what type of females and males we were most attracted to. It was pretty funny watching my parents do this, especially my mom because she was really getting into it and seriously wanted to know her results. The awkward part about all of this was probably the part where we had to explain the scientific reasoning behind why we are more attractive to certain females and males. Anyways, it was fun and then it was time for BREAK! Adios my people!

Do you see what I see?

We began this class period by looking at a variety of rocks and shells. Using a magnifying glass, we observed and separated the shells from the rocks. Next, we observed only the shells and separated them into categories of our choosing. My partner and I decided to separate them according to their size. When we finished, we discussed the different variations of species.

You see, the variations of a species are caused by DNA mutations. This causes different species to evolve. Some variations can be different shapes, sizes, patterns, and even color. The DNA mutations exist so that the species can adapt the their surroundings and survive. Whichever species survive can then reproduce and pass on their genes to their offspring. The offspring will continue to pass on these genes for generations. 

Then, we began the brine shrimp lab. Brine shrimp are really small, tiny actually. It is pretty difficult to see them, which is why we used our handy-dandy magnifying glass! We were given five different solutions of NaCl: 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%.  We had to put at least 20 brine shrimp eggs in each solution to see what type of environments the shrimp could live in. Our main test was to determine how many of the brine shrimp could hatch and survive in a specific environment. As I said before, we were supposed to put about 20 brine shrimp eggs in each solution, but let's be honest: that didn't happen. They are just too small! Plus, we had to pick them up with a brush, and the brush just decided that it was going to pick up 120 eggs instead of 20. 

After we counted the eggs, we were done for the day. This lab took place in 3 days. So, the next day, we came back and counted how many of the brine shrimp were dead/partially hatched and how many were swimming. And that was pretty much it. The day after that, the last day of the lab, we counted again how many brine shrimp were dead/partially hatched and how many were swimming. We then drew a graph of our data...