Mac Walton- June 3- 3/3 Blog #2

Overview-

-We had a super badass quiz first up on the endocrine system

-then we gained the opportunity to review sexual reproduction and human development. smart board + chinooksedge's review booklet.

-questions out of key/ reviewbook

-we ascertained a review 'guide' sheet

-bell rang

Thoughts and/or opinions

This is an especially important review class for me because i was in East Asia during the time that this unit was taught. This material, I find is most difficult because the hormones are in both males and females, and have different functions. The LH and FSH negative feedback loops are especially tricky. Throw in the menstrual cycle and this unit is like trying to have a hootenanny at a hoedown.   This class also reminded me of the field trip to Red Deer and made me think. A lady puts a rifle up her vagina and shoots her baby, how do they both survive and what important birth organ did she miss?

Bed, Bath and Beyond

To your dismay, I'm not going to answer the previously asked question but instead, use bio thirty to explain how a pregnant lady could survive running away from a bear and getting hit by a car. An innocent walk by a pregnant lady turned out to be a scary situation. A cute little bear cub started chasing Ashley Svendson, when she said her 'fight or flight response' kicked in. in lemans, this means that the hormone epinephrine was secreted from the adrenal medulla and Svendson's heart rate, and ability to escape her little friend. They little bear probably was born with the autosomal recessive curious gene and with their habitat full of people, just wanted to say hi. Unfortunately, the lady ran onto the street and a lady driving a car slowed down but chose not to stop. Being an older woman, I assume that she had Alzheimer's disease, which can be caused by the removal of acetylcholine from the synapse preventing the firing of nerves in the somatic system. After hitting Svendson, the lady drove off.  Svendson then went to the hospital and they told her that her, and the baby were ok. They told her that the baby, which was in the second trimester, having already developed all of the basis for her organs, was just fine. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30476218/

Yeaheha!

Eleanor McBain- June 2, 2009- 3/3-Blog #2

Endocrine Systems Review

Tropic- affect other glands and causes the secretion of other hormones.

Nontropic-Does not other glands, just the target gland

Negative feedback control systems- resists change in normal operating conditions.The mechanisms activated will restore conditions to their normal state.

Positive feedback control systems- move the controlled variable away from a steady state.

Pituitary- Master gland and controls most of the hormones in the body but is controlled by the hypothalamus.

Anterior pituitary- makes and stores hormones -> TSH, FSH, LH,PRL, GH, ACTH, MSH.

Posterior pituitary- made in hypothalamus ->ADH, Oxytocin

Hormones affecting blood sugar

Pancreas

-> Glucagon- Alpha cells of islets of langerhan- increases blood sugar levels

->Insulin- Beta cells of islets of langerhan- decreases blood sugar levels

Adrenal Gland

->Adrenal Medulla-produces epinephrine and norepinephrine- increases levels of blood in times of stress

->Adrenal Cortex- produces glucocorticoids- cortisol, which helps the blood recover from stress, increases blood sugar levels- and mineralcorticoids- associated with sodium absorptiona and water retention.

Hormones affecting metabolism

Thyroid Gland

-> Thyroxin(T4)- increases metabolism

-> Triiodothyronine(T3)-increases metabolism

->Calcitonin- decreases blood calcium by depositing it into the bones and is also being absorbed by intestines.

Parathyroid

->Parathyroid hormone-increases blood calcium- released from bones

->Human Growth hormone- affects all cells

Hormones affecting water balance

->ADH

-> Aldosterone

Mitch Bach -- Blog #2 -- 3/3

What we did today:

• double block class
• reviewed unit 3 and unit 4 exams, looking at toughest questions on each test.
• reviewed the Nerve System
• got our Key Booklets.
• got another review booklet.
• for last 30 minutes, worked on practice wuestions on our own.

Thoughts and Opinions:

This class was quite informative because we looked at all questions that the mojority of the class got wrong. Our key books serve as a very caluable study guide, and should be used on a regular basis. Refreshing lost knowledge in the Nervous system was quite beneficial. it was amazing how fast we went through almost an entire unit, and practically relearn everything.

Above and Beyond:

During our discussion about nerves, and how they travel, i wondered how fast a nerve travels. According to http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/biology/nervecell.html, different nerves travel at different speeds. However, studies suggest they travel at tens of meters per second.

Mitch Bach -- May 22 -- 3/3

What we did:

-finished Hardy-Weinberg notes on PowerPoint and sheet.
-worked more on Hardy-Weinberg calculations.
-learned and got Changes is Gene Pools (21.2) notes.
-learned about evolution and how it comes about.
-assigned worksheet, p. 730 #11b, p. 734 # 1,3,4,5, & 7.

Thoughts and Opinions:

Today's class was interesting in the fact that were using easy math to calculate what big changes in gene pools can cause. Once you get a hold of the math it comes easy with every question thrown your way. Evolution was interesting because all organisms have gone through some sort of evolution at some piont of time.

Above and Beyond:

Learning about evolution got me thinking that humans would have gone through evolution as well. I wondered what we could have looked like.... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans/humankind/index.html shows a step by step introduction of how evolution of humans progressed. It says that humans first became distinguished from apes 8 million years ago!!!! Its tough to tell what we first looked like, but it must have been some kind of cross between apes and what we are now. The earliest history of our ancestors can only be traced back through fossil, making it really difficult to decipher what we actually looked like.

Cody Vewchar, May 19/09 Blog #4 3/3

What we did today:

1. Wake up pop quiz after may long. Due the next day
2. Complexity in proteins (notes)
3. Mutations case study

Thoughts and/or Opinions:

The thing about mutations was quite interesting and how mutations are actually changes in the genetic material of that species. Considering how much genetic material a human has it seems alot could go wrong with just a few errors that could cause some serious mutations to occur. This whole unit is really quite interesting and since I learned today that cancer is actually a form of mutation I was wondering what else is a mutation or causes mutations of genetic material.

Above and Beyond:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/archive/sloozeworm/mutationbg.html
This site can give you quite a bit of info on really what happens to cause DNA mutations.
Cocaine and Ecstasy Cause DNA mutations
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1893/a08.html?1263

Rachel Schneider - May 11, 2009

Blog #2 - 3/3

What We Did Today:
-Finished video "One Wrong Letter" (about the kid with Tay-Sachs disease)
-Started Molecular Genetics unit (recieved handout)
Review Questions: page 666 #3, 4, 7
Read Gene Expression (20.2) on pages 667 and 668
-Reviewed DNA activity from Friday
-Discussed DNA Transcription and Translation (recieved handout)

Thoughts and Opinions:
The issue of Tay-Sachs disease is interesting, as with a lot of the genetic disorders that occur when only one base in the DNA is wrong and then the problem is spread from one cell to all cells through meiosis. It's baffling how only one letter amongst trillions and trillions of bases would cause such a problematic effect and the results could be lethal.

Above and Beyond:
I found that the disorders like Tay-Sachs disease are called Single Gene Disorders (the name is pretty self-explanitory). According to this site, these kinds of disorders affect only 1% of the population as a whole and over 10 000 human diseases are caused by single gene defects. As rare as they are, it's amazing and unfortunate that the two families in "One Wrong Letter" both had kids that developed Tay-Sachs disease.

Kaitlyn Marbeiter Monday May 3 2009

Kaitlyn Marbeiter, Monday May 3 2009 Blog # 3, 3/3

What we did today:
Mendelian Genetics
1. Tips for Pedigrees
2. Sex-linked traits
3. Gene linkage and Mapping

Thoughts and Opinions:
I think the tips for pedigrees are really helpful. Makes the big trees less confusing when you look at them. The sex linked traits are very interesting, there are sooooo many different ways of getting traits, its crazyyyy.
Here is a link for a pedigree of the royal family which once you know how to read it, it is sort of cool..
http://www.ikm.jmu.edu/Buttsjl/ISAT493/Hemophilia/europeanroyalfamily.html

Eleanor McBain- May 5- 3/3 Blog #1

In today's class, we wrote a test on Mendelian Genetics. Gregory Mendel used pea plants to determine factors of genetics. The Austrian monk defined alleles, which are an alternate form of a gene controlling a characteristic and also homozygous, heterozygous, dominant, recessive, genotype and phenotype. Also he made two laws ( which means they haven't been disproved yet), the Law of Segregation (separation) and the law of Independent Assortment. He also showed that chromosomes can have multiple alleles, incomplete dominance, co-dominace and the genotype and phenotype can be found using a punnet square. When using the multiple alleles in the punnet squares (dihybrid crosses), it can be quite confusing. It is where I had the most difficulty. My question is how could Gregory Mendel find out all of this information in the early 1800s?

Well, Mendel would grow the plants and then crossbred whatever pea plants by putting them together so that fertilization would occur and kept very good notes about all his findings.

This is a monohybrid punnet square showing the crossing of 2 true (homozygous) pods. This shows that the green colour is dominant to yellow (G= Green, g= yellow)

The green pod is homozygous dominant(GG) and the yellow pod is homozygous recessive (gg)

The next cross shows the crossing of the F1 generation. This shows that both of the parents are heterozygous (Gg) and therefore produced a yellow pod.

The next cross shows a dihybrid cross, that means it can determine 2 traits

This dihybrid square shows the crossing of a pea plants that are heterozygous for the colour (Gg) and also heterozygous for the colour of the seeds (Yy)

It shows that:

9/16 will have green pods and yellow seeds (56%)

3/16 will have green pods and green seeds(19%)

3/16 will have yellow pods and yellow seeds (19%)

1/16 will have a yellow pod and green seeds.(6%)

These are the first experiments of Gregory Mendel and his pea plants.

Kaitlyn Marbeiter, Thursday Apr. 30 2009

Kaitlyn Marbeiter, April 30, 2009, Blog#2, 3/3

What we did today:
1. Reviewed Multiple Alleles WS.
2. Went over Q's on Potatoe Hand out
3. Got it? Q's 2a-c p. 607
4. Pedigree Tips
5. Beyond Mendal, Sex-linked traits

Thoughts and Opinions:
I find the pedigree tables fairly easy as long as you know the basics, and make sure you learn the legend.
I was wondering what kind of traits are sex-linked traits and found out that they can be many different ones from immune, skin, endocryne, nervous system and many more.
Here is a link with even more sex-linked traits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-linked
Woww, amazing =]

April 28 2009, Kimara Gratton 3/3

What we did today:

• Recall:
• allele
• law of indep. asst.
• page 619 questions 1c,2
• Finished notes
• multiple alleles
• incomplete dominance
  
• codominance
• gene interactions
• Coin toss activity
  

Thoughts and opinions/Above and Beyond
I was thinking that people must have alot of time on their hands to run around tracking "pea offspring" but I'm not complaining cus now i know how i ended up with a backwards toe knuckle hahahaha..... i also started wondering about what blood type i am so i asked my mother when i got home after school and it turns out i'm O+ but i cant donate cus i'm anemic DANG!!! I also enjoyed the coin toss activity out of 96 kids me and carrie had 6 albino midgets haha neat...

April 15th 2009 Candy lab and internet research ~ Kristi Sissons

April 15th 2009 Kristi Sissons
Candy Lab and internet research
· During the candy lab we were suppost to create a demonstration using candy on mitotic cell division and the process of meiotic cell division.
Requirements for this lab are:
· Make sure that the organism that is being modeled has 4 diploid umbers.
· Make a legend to remind yourself and to show what each section desplayed means and what it is representing.
· You had to make sure that you included a nucleas in all of the stages in both mitosis and meiosis
· Include key activities in each stage
· Must be labeled clearly in each individual stage.
· You get bonus marks for additional information.
o You were aloud to use your notes but you lost 10%
In the experiment on the computer we were suppost to go to the bio site http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/tutorials/meiosis/page1.html
And answer the questions on the sheet of paper we were given, online meiosis practice and karyotyping exercise.
With this exercise we were put onto the computer and had to find out how to read karyotypes and look at cases that someone might have and try and find out what they have.

Hayley Tarnasky, April 17, 2009, Blog #3, 3/3

What We Did:

1. Online activity marking

• karyotyping
• non - disjunction

2. Handed out notes - based on Page 583

3. Review questions on karyotyping etc

Thoughts and Opinions:

• Throughout the whole class I was completely baffled about the fact that there seems to be no logical explaination for why on earth downs syndrome happens or klinefelters syndrome, other than the fact that there are millions of cells in ones body so of course there are bound to be errors, and this of course, was not good enough for me! Meaning that I still couldn't wrap my head around the whole concept. So, it turn, we have a quiz on Monday, so I hope that that go's well.
• My question is, how many people get down syndrome in Canada, and why it happens to only certain people.

Above And Beyond:

• http://www.dsrf.org/ has my answer

Kimara Gratton March 27 3/3

What we did today:

• finished the video on pregnancy and stuff
• did our reproductive system exam

Thoughts and opinions:

• i thought the video was interesting but actually giving birth looks super painful.

Above and beyond:

here are some ways to make child birth less painful... http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/pregnancy/childbirth_pain.html

carrie blog #2 March 25th 2/3

So on wednesday we marked the investigation C and D questions. And we also have a unit test on Friday March 27th on the reproductive Unit. This includes the male and female reproductive parts. Bith, hormones involved and everything involved with giving birth and what exactly happens. Half way through the class Mr. Challoner brought out a bunch of bith control methods. We looked at sponges that have a spermicide that kills sperm, birth control pills, condoms, nuva rings. We had to compare what they did and just how effective they are. Most of them have over a 90% chance of preventing pregnancy. I thought it was a very good class, learning about all the differnt methods people invented for preventing pregnancy...where they all basically do the same thing, killing sperm or preventing sperm from getting pass the vagina.

The Snow Day - Everett Francis Chudleigh 3/3

today was a very interesting class, it gave us a chance to upgrade our marks. all this was possible because today was a SNOW DAY. of course i didnt know that before i came, or i um still would have come. today was also like a review class we went over missing assignments.

Hayley Tarnasky, March 18, 2009, Blog #2, 3/3

What Did We Do Today??: (Bio Or Not Bio: That Is The Question)

• Went over Biology 30 Diploma Exam Exemplars
• HOTFF Chart 
• Questions on Page 529 4,5,7,8
• Case Study on Page 527 on Hormone Levels During Menstrual Cycle
• Fertilization, Pregnancy, and Birth (Beginning on Page 530)
• Did worksheet on Fertilization, Pregnancy, and Birth

From The Students Perspective (Thoughts and Opinions)

• I thought it was pretty crazy that a women can go through so many stages, and then a baby results from it, like the fact that all the mitotic division and all that result in an embryo and then a fetus is absolutely baffling how bones, and eyes and ears and our brains develop from such a tiny union of sperm and egg. It's truly amazing the things a human body can do and producing a baby makes the human body even more of a spectacular thing to look at it. So, in turn, by all this stuff being so awesome and actually relevant it makes Biology 30 an interesting class. 
• We were talking about twins being when an egg is split into two or when two eggs are implanted into the uterine wall. I wonder which is more common: fraternal or maternal?

Somewhere, Out There, Beneath The Pale Moon Light(Above And Beyond)

• According to http://organizedwisdom.com/Fraternal_Twins_vs._Identical_Twins fraternal twins are more common than identical twins and account for about 2/3 of twins pregnancies. Also twins are slightly more likely to be female than male.
• The following picture is an image of identical(left) and fraternal(right)
• 

Thursday, March 12th, 2009 (Rachel Schneider)

Thursday, March 12th, 2009, Rachel Schneider, Blog #1 - (3/3)

What we did today:

• Talked about the Endocrine System Unit Exam results - 58% class average on written response, 60% class average on multiple choice


• Started Reproduction System by looking over questions on page 508 #1ab, 4, 5ac and page 510 #1, 3a


• Recieved fill-in-the-blanks notes on the male reproductive system, which we went through in class. Questions on page 519 #1 & 4 assigned (due tomorrow - March 13th) and a worksheet (due Tuesday, March 17th)
  

Thoughts and Opinions:

It's kind of crazy how much a sperm a guy produces in relation to how many eggs a girl produces. In his lifetime, a guy will produce around a trillion sperm compared to a girl's 400 000 eggs in her lifetime, of which only around 400 will be ovulated. Jeez, take a rest guys.

Above and Beyond:

Did you know that a sperm can live for 7 days inside a lady's special place?
Check it out here.
According to that site, not only will around 749 999 999 sperm feel ashamed for not being the one to fertilize the egg, but they'll have to swim around for about 7 days with nothing left to do but die.
Poor little sperm.

Kaitlyn Marbeiter, Wed. March 12, 2009

Wednesday, March 12, 2009

Kaitlyn Marbeiter, March 12, 2009, Blog#1, 3/3
What we did today:

• Endocrine System Unit Exam
• Handed in Mr. Blanky and HOTFF chart

Thoughts and Opinions:

I find it really interesting how simple chemicals (hormoes) can affect so many things in the body. And how fast it happens. When we were talking about the endocrine system and the hormones adrenaline and how it affects stress, it made me think about why you sometimes get the "jitters" when you have an adrenaline rush ?!??

Above and Beyond:

I started looking up information on "why you get the jitters?", and here is an interesting link i found:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006051119223

Basically, its just due to all the adrenaline! Groovyyy. =D

Kimara Gratton, March 4 2009, Blog#1, 3/3

What we did today:

• Endocrine Research project due
• Recall blood sugar hormones, metabolic hormones
• pop quiz on blood sugar regulation
• H2O/ion balance
• Stress response
• Metabolic hormones quiz tomorrow

Thoughts and Opinions:

When we were talking about ADH and Water balance I started wondering about all the things that can cause you to be dehydrated. I know that alcohol makes you thirsty but not exactly sure why.

Above and Beyond:
So I creeped around the internet and found this website http://www.alcohol.org.nz/BodyEffect.aspx?PostingID=671 and found out that alcohol is diuretic which means it stops the body from making anti-diuretic hormone. Also when you get dehydrated from drinking the alcohol drains your potassium stores. I also found this nifty thinger that does something with ADH. http://missinglink.ucsf.edu/lm/Renal_physio_modules/images/ADH_action.gif

Carrie Dubois Tuesday March 3rd 3/3

Today we had a double class. In the first block we learned about how hormones affect metabolism and different diseases that occur when you have Hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. We talked about what Hyper and Hypothyroidism is symptoms.
In the second block we did an acitivity on the endocrine system and different diseases. We had to pick a diease, issue, or hormone treatment and talk about the symptoms, causes and treatment and make a one page summery on our findings which we will present to another group.

I thought it was a very interesting class. I didnt know there were this many hormones doing all sorts of things in our system. I also didnt know about what most of the disorders we talked about and what causes them.

In my group for the activity Kimara and i did Graves disease and here is a link on what it is.....
www.thyroid.ord/patients/brocheures/Graves_brocheur.pdf