Letter to a Biology Student

Dear Biology Student, 

     My name is Monica Stratakos, and I took biology as a freshman when I was fourteen. Last year, I went to Redwood Middle School. This year, I took Health/Drivers Ed first semester in Mr. Lugo's class. Second semester I took World Geo with Mr. Dwyer. I also took Algebra 2 Honors with Mrs. Troxell. I took Spanish 2 with Mrs. Voorhees, and I had Mr. Rector for English. I missed a lot of school for second semester due to out of state national tournaments, so I still had a lot of missing assignments at the end of the school year. Outside of school, I play a lot of tennis. On the first day, I did not expect to have anything to do besides get the syllabus for each class.

     Mr. Orre expects you to be on time with your notebook out, and working on your "do now." A usual class day consists of reviewing the previous night's vodcast with your group, and then do a lab that relates to the vodcast. It is expected that you have your notebook everyday and you are ready to work when the second bell rings. For labs, we usually review the lab as a class, then do the lab and a write-up on blogger. The write-ups are usually fifty points. Homework usually takes fifteen minutes for the vodcast and CFU. If you put him on 2.0 speed, it usually takes a shorter amount of time. Most vodcasts are between ten and twenty minutes long. I do not remember taking any quizzes in this class. Tests are always multiple choice. At the end of the second semester, my average test grade was an 80. The notebook consistes of the table of contents, vodcasts, and DO NOW's. My blog ( http://monicabio9.blogspot.com/ ) consisted of all the labs and unit reflections from first and second semester.  My favorite blog was the pGLO lab ( http://monicabio9.blogspot.com/2017/01/pglo-lab.html ). I really liked this lab because the bacteria glowed a green-white color, and I took some really nice photos. Over the course of the year, I got more responsible with my homework. I did 75% of homework first semester, and second semester I did 90%. 

     Mr. Orre hates phones out in class, and talking when he is talking. To earn a good grade on assignments, be sure to fill in all the required parts. Homework is very important in this class because it is almost the same percent of your grade as tests. To get the most out of Mr. Orre's class, actually watch his vodcasts the day before and do the CFU. I think I should have studied a little earlier for tests. I always studied the night before, but I know I could have done better. Also, when I was absent, I was more than five vodcasts behind. I should have done them before I got to class because I had no idea what was happening in class.
     Overall, I had a very fun time in this class. I liked most of the labs except the pig dissection. Next year, I am taking Chemistry Honors because I think I will have a fun time in that class. Good luck this school year!!!

From,
Monica Stratakos

Pig Dissection

The purpose of this Pig Dissection was to understand the body structure. This unit was about homeostasis, the digestive system, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system. After cutting open the pig, my group and I identified the specific parts of our pig. We also cut the heart open to identify the four parts of the heart, which I learned in the circulatory and respiratory system vodcast. Oxygen-poor blood enters the right atrium from the body through the superior and inferior vena cava. From the right atrium, it then goes to the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve. Then, it goes to the lungs through the pulmonary valve to the pulmonary artery. Oxygen rich blood from the lungs enters the left atrium and goes through the left ventricle and leaves to the body through the aorta. My favorite part of the dissection was before the pig was cut open because I got a little bit dizzy when i saw the pig get cut open. I think this dissection was a valuable experience because it proves that I will not be a doctor when i grow up because I can not handle blood or cut open organs.

Here is our youtube video:

20 time individual reflection

Our 20 time project was about pollution. We gathered information to see how many people knew that pollution was hurting our Earth. At first, we tried to raise money by selling boba at our school. We planned to put stickers about pollution on the drinks, and donate the money to a pollution fund. We could not do this because we had to be part of a club to sell anything at our school. Instead, we made posters and a survey. We placed the posters around San Jose. Over 150 people took the survey from across the country and Hong Kong. I had many friends from Texas, New York, Florida, and many parts of Southern California take the quiz and a lot of them had no idea how bad our Earth was doing. I asked a lot of people from tennis to take the survey and most had no idea how much the world was being polluted. 52% of the people surveyed were a little concerned about global warming. 69% of the 150 surveyed said they wanted to help save the Earth. About 3/4 of the people knew that the living condition of the environment would be worse for the coming generation. 84% believed that the global temperature had risen from the 1800s. If I could do this project again, Vivienne and I would definitely set up a clean up to raise more awareness. After learning about pollution, I cut down on how much trash my family and I produce, trying to use less plastic and recycle more. I have learned that batteries are actually recyclable. Before this project, I put used batteries in the garbage.

Vivienne and I will continue this project by raising more awareness and possibly scheduling a clean up.

Unit 9 Reflection

http://bit.ly/2r1bqcm

This picture shows the diffferent levels of taxonomy.
The levels get smaller near the bottom because it is
more specific towards one species

http://bit.ly/2r82L4r

This shows the historyof the Earth in a 24-hour time period

Unit 9 was called "What on Earth Evolved". I learned about the different levels of taxonomy. The taxonomic levels are (from most inclusive to least inclusive): domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. The three domains are: bacteria, archaea, and eukarya. Protists, fungi, plants, and animals belong to the domain eukarya. The kingdom protista are diverse, unicellular or mulitcellular, plants or animals. Some examples of protists are:  slime molds, red algae, paramecium, and amoeba. The kingdom fungi consists of heterotrophic decomposers that can be unicellular or multicellular. They can bee found in all habitats on Earth (ex. mushrooms, yeasts, molds, and lichens). Non-vascular, vascular seedless pants, and seed plants make up the plantae kingdom. Mosses, ferns, lilies, and oak all belong to the plantae kingdom. The kingdom animalia consists of multicelluular consumers and heterotrophs. Some examples are: sponges, jellyfish, earthworms, sea stars, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.


My previous post was the "Geologic Timeline Reflection"( http://monicabio9.blogspot.com/2017/04/geologic-timeline-reflection.html ). This post explained that the Earth is 4.543 billion years old. Many animals existed before humans. Humans have only been on the Earth for 200,000 years. Animals like the tiktaalik lived 375 million years ago. Dinosaurs lived between 230 and 65 million years ago. Humans are just a small fraction of life.

I am still a little confused about why scientists some scientist like to clump species together, while others like to have subspecies. I think it would be a lot easier if there were no subspecies because it gets very confusing.

I think I did pretty well on my What on Earth Evolved presentation. Mine was about the tiktaalik, which was one of the first land animals. I think I could have made my speech a little bit longer, but other than that, everything ran smoothly. This was a really good assignment to practice my public speaking. In the future, I think I will elaborate more on my slides and not read directly off the slides.


Here is my What on Earth Evolved Presentation:

Geologic Timeline Reflection

The Cambrian Explosion is a sudden appearance in the fossil record of complex animals that had mineralized skeletal remains. This is considered to be the most important evolutionary event in the history of life on Earth. 96% of species became extinct after the Permian mass extinction. There were at least two or more phases of extinction over the span of millions of years. This was the the insect population's one and only mass extinction. This tragic event may have been caused by an asteroid impact or a drop in oxygen levels. 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs died in Cretaceous mass extinction. This mass extinction may have been caused by flood basalt eruptions affecting the world's climate, and a drastic fall in sea level.

The Earth is approximately 4.543 billion years old. The Silurian Extinction happened 439 million years ago. Dinosaurs lived between 230 and 65 million years ago in the Mesozoic Era. This was millions of years before the first homo sapien appeared. Modern humans evolved 200,000 years ago. Compared to the Earth, humans are a relatively new species. If the timeline of Earth was based off a one year calendar with the Big Bang occurring on January 1, humans have only been around for about five minutes. I was surprised that we have impacted the world so much in the five minutes that humans have been on the Earth.

The last 200,000 years have been mainly dominated by humans. In the past 50 years, humans have burned tons and tons of fossil fuels. The human society has also dumped massive amounts of trash into landfills and oceans. With all the technologies we have created to change the Earth for the better, we have dumped so much waste that the Earth might never recover.

My question is "How do scientists know what happened in every mass extinction?"

Earth life in 24 hours

Unit 8 Reflection

This unit was about constant change. Variation is any difference in traits within a population such as height or eye color. Variation exists because of crossing over, meiosis, mutations, and sex. Artificial selection occurs when humans select traits from a population's variation that they want, and only mate individuals with those traits. Darwin discovered that evolution is caused by natural selection. He came p with for observations and two conclusions explaining how populations can change or evolve over time because of natural selection. A gene is a section of DNA that gives instructions for a trait. An allele is different variations of a gene that give different variations of that trait. Genetic variation is stored in the gene pool, and these gene pools can change over time. Allele frequency is how common an allele is in a population. Evolution acts on a population, as natural selection acts on an individual. A species is a group of individuals that can reproduce and have fertile offspring. Speciation is the rise of two or more species from one existing species. Embryology is the similar stages of embryo development that suggest common ancestry. Gene flow is moving alleles from one population to another. Natural selection selects for traits advantageous for survival. The 4 eras are: Precambrian Era, Paleozic Era, Mesozoic Era, and Cenozoic Era.

This is a picture of my graph from the Hunger Games
 Lab. It shows the gene flow in the population.

This is an image of gene flow. It shows how
the alleles move from one population to another.

I want to learn more about the rate of evolution because it is very slow for some populations and not for others. I would like to know how to increase the rate of evolution because some species have a very slow rate of evolution. Since my reflection on Unit 7 ( https://monicabio9.blogspot.com/2017/03/unit-7-reflection.html ) I have tried to focus more on not being so passive agressive. I have tired to consider both sides of the argument and not be mad about which was the argument went. 

Hunger Games Final Analysis

1. I was not here for the Hunger Games Lab, but I was able to get data from a team member. In this lab, students tried to survive and reproduce. This simulates evolution. 
2. Pinchers were the best at capturing food because they could use their thumb and index finger.
3. The population did evolve. In the beginning, the "A" allele had a frequency of 52%, and the "a" allele had a frequency of 48%. At the end of the lab, the "A" allele had a frequency of 23%, and the "a" allele had a frequency of 77%.
4. The placement of the food and the amount needed to survive was random. The genotype was also random because it was based off of a coin flip. The way that a person picked up food was nonrandom. This could have effected the population because there were no favored genotypes. 
5. If there was less food, the results would be different because there would be more of a fight for survival with the same amount of people and less food. This would lead to less people surviving. On the other hand, if there was more food, people wouldn't have to fight for survival as much, and therefore more people would survive. If there is a fire, there would be less acorns for a population of squirrels to eat, which would lead to the survival of the fittest.
6. The results would be different if there was not incomplete dominance. Without incomplete dominance, there would be no knucklers which would lead to more stumpys.
7. Natural selection is the process of weeding out phenotypes in a population that don't help individuals survive which leads to populations evolving overtime. Evolution is the process by which a population improves its gene pool. Evolution is caused by natural selection.
8. The stumpys were the best at strategizing. They reproduced only with each other, which made their population bounce back.
9. In evolution, the population evolves. Natural selection acts on the pheontype because it acts on the traits.
10. How quickly does evolution occur?