It is very late...but here it is.

I have been a very bad blogger lately! I have been working on so many projects for Biology they all kind of just take turns getting worked on. The good news is that I have made progress and finished some stuff on Mitosis and Meiosis. The following is a link to a glog I did on Mitosis:
http://sierra3.edu.glogster.com/glog-6479-4769/

I decided since I do Glogs for EVERYTHING! I would take a break and do an "old fashion blog post" and just tell you a little bit of what I learned on Meiosis.
       First of all, what is Meiosis? Meiosis is the type of nuclear division that reduces the chromosome number from the diploid number to the haploid number, in sexually reproducing organisms. The total number of chromosomes is referred to as the diploid number. The haploid number still refers to chromosomes. But the haploid number of chromosomes is half of the diploid number. For example, in humans, the diploid number is 46. In the haploid number, you end up with 23. Gametes are the reproductive cells, often times this refers to the sperm and egg. Gametes usually have the haploid number of the chromosomes. When these gametes form and fuse they make a cell called a zygote. This is all part of the integral parts of sexual reproduction. A zygote always has the full number of chromosomes, the diploid number. In meiosis there are two unique cell divisions. Meiosis I and Meiosis II. Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase are the phases of both Meiosis I and II. Crossing over occurs in Prophase I. Crossing over is very important. It is the exchange of genetic material between NONSISTER chromatids of a bivalent. Due to this swapping of material, the chromatids held together by the centromere are no longer identical. That means that when those chromatids during Meiosis II, separate, some of those daughter cells will receive chromosomes with recombined genes. The offspring will have a different sequence of alleles, due to genetic recombination. What does that mean? It means that they will have different genes than their parents. Making them, their own person. At the end of Meiosis I the two daughter cells will have one chromosome from each homologous pair. The chromosomes still consist of two chromatids. In Meiosis II, the chromosomes align at the metaphase plate and then the sister chromatids separate and become DAUGHTER chromosomes. In Telophase II spindle disappears, nuclei form. And then cytokinesis takes place. At the end of Meiosis we have four haploid daughter cells. After Meiosis II, the haploid cells become gametes in animal cells and spores in plants. And you know the rest already, those gametes form and fuse to make the zygote! For humans, Meiosis occurs only in the reproductive organs to make the gametes.
So there you go! A little bit of information on Meiosis. Very soon, I will be posting blogs on the things we have been working on more recently. Chapin, Sidney, and I are all working on our Eugenics post and it should be up soon! I will also have a blog on a case study very soon :)

The Cell Cycle Glog!! :)

Being Reflective...

        Christmas Break has recently ended and myself like many other kids all over the country are getting back to walking through halls, reading books, writing reports, typing things up, and learning all kinds of good new "stuff".  On the first day back I was presented with an opportunity to read this article. It was called What You'll Wish You'd Known. I love to read and I really love to write. This article was so enjoyable. And it presented a lot of things to the think about. It wasn't an article on biology at all but it really helped me in that class and all of my other classes, from Choir to Math. The article was in fact a speech directed at high school students. It was something unlike anything I had read before in a good way. I enjoyed it because it addressed things that I have been hearing about for a while now. Things that are important at the moment but also have a direct connection to you later. It made a shout out to something that all American high schoolers struggle with. I guess what you would call it is our placement in the world at the moment. And what our placement will be in 5, 10, 20 years. Among many other things it discussed how we as high school students shouldn't be defined as high school students. Because yes, we do have to go to school 7 hours everyday, and it could be considered a "job". But the author of this article suggested something very smart. Treating high school as a DAY job. Going and doing what you have to do at school but also working on hard problems. Pursuing things that matter. Things that will make a difference to your own life and the lives of others. Learning things that will have a real impact on your life. Putting some of the focus that we so generously give over to t.v. or Facebook into things that will be beneficial to our lives. This article made a very big impression on me. Because it had a message that meant something. It was giving anyone who read it a head start on something that some people never grasp in their lifetime. This article is beneficial to anyone who reads it. Even people who are "old".  I believe that all of us can make a difference when we focus on the hard problems. And use our own talents to "make a difference". This article gave me a big realization that all of the things I am interested in and take an opinion on are part of my future and the future of the world. This article has helped me in this past week back from break, a week that focus appears few and far between. It inspired me. It inspired me to not waste time. To make an effort in everything I do. Whether it be a blog post for bio or a poem for english class...or maybe my own personal creation I have been working on lately. It helped me to look at myself, and see if I was really being true to this world and my "placement" in it. So I have decided to make this the best semester ever. The best summer ever. The best year ever. The best lifetime ever, by getting to work to get things done.


Here is the link to the article incase you are now inspired to read it and become inspired yourself :)


http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html

Glog happy :) PKU

Part 2! This is another Glog on PKU. I really enjoyed making this one. And I promise that I will soon find another way to share my knowledge besides Glogs in a creative way, they are just so much fun. haha
Here you go! :)
Link:
http://sierra3.edu.glogster.com/phenylketonuria/

Glog happy :) Enzyme Lab

So if you have been looking at this blog lately, you will notice my crazy new addiction to Glogs...well guess what! Merry Christmas! I got two brand spanking new Glogs about PKU and our Enzyme Lab that we did about three weeks ago. Oh yeah! Get excited :)
Let's start with the Enzyme lab. So we started out with a solution of 3 ml of H20 and 3 ml of H202 (Hydrogen Peroxide). We then added an enzyme, which in this case was yeast. This starts a chemical reaction that produces O2. Now how does that magical process happen? I wondered that too. And I found out! The way it works is the enzyme(yeast) breaks the oxygen molecules of the H20 and H202 and then they are released. Using the mac and a cool little gadget we used to measure the pressure we found our results. Looking at the Glog which includes some very nice graphs (Thank you much Kiel and Michael) and information on those graphs you will find our results :)

Link:
http://sierra3.edu.glogster.com/enzyme-lab/

Photosynthesis, Cellular Respiration, and information :)

Alrighty, this is the Glog that Sidney, Chapin, and myself worked on to talk about some of the stuff we were learning about photosynthesis. And we also got a taste of cellular respiration as well. We decided that instead of doing the "Green Human Project" we would take a different approach and just make a Glog about what we learned. So here you go!!
Link to the Glog-

 http://sierra3.edu.glogster.com/photosynthesis-cellular-respiration-and-energy/

Cell Structure!

Well it took much longer than I expected. But I finally have my cell structure post put together. I made a Glog to talk about what I have learned about the parts of a cell and what they do. I really enjoyed making the Glog but I actually did learn a lot from different sources on what things make up a cell and what they look like and how they work. So here you go! Cell Structure Glog right below :)
Here is the link as well if its easier-
http://sierra3.edu.glogster.com/cell-structure/