Final Class Reflection-Week 18

During the course of this class I learned that as a student I am very determined to get the grade I want. I learned that I could push myself farther than I ever thought. This class was a challenge at first but then I learned how to excel in here. I found that all the due dates and the projects one after the other was very difficult for me. I do not do very well under pressure and in this class I always felt pressure. I knew that one project could bring my grade down way farther than I wanted so I always stayed on edge trying to make my work the best it could be. I get stressed out very easy and this class was difficult due to that. I was always stressed about due dates and tests and quizzes and all that kind of stuff. I am or was not used to classes that pushed me this hard. I am very thankful for this class because now I know just  how much I  can do. The thing I think I most enjoyed about this class was the fact that I retained the information. In most of my classes you learn a tiny bit of information, memorize it long enough for a test and than its gone. This class was way different. I find myself all the time putting out facts from biology and relating things to what I know. I have strongly benefited from this class. I also enjoyed how everything was hands on learning and how this was not a lecture class. I was always very involved and active in this class. I believe that this class will help me in my future classes because I am so much more determined now knowing what I can do. This has made me a different, better, and more determined student. I believe this will continue not only to help me in the classroom but in life in general. I am very thankful for this class.

Link to my Biology Website

http://alexbrookesidney.weebly.com/

Week 17-Reflection

This week we had a lab practical. This really opened my eyes to what college will be like. I studied really hard but I still didn't get the grade I wanted. It was the anatomy of a worm, pig, and a frog. The one that I know I messed up on was Mr. Vogler placed an earthworm inside of a pig and I said that it was the small intestine. There was also jars in which you had to know what class, phylum, and the common mane and I did not study the common name of any of them I just focused on the Phylum but I got those wrong. Honestly im really tired of biology I am so ready to get out for the summer. This class really hasn't been this hard for me its just taught me to study alot. If you don't study in this class you fail. I do feel pretty confident for the biology EOC. This class has stressed me out but I feel like ive benefited from it. I really just want everything to be over though!!

Week 16 -Reflection on collection project

This week we did collection projects. During this project I had to explore around outside. I first went to my grandparents house and collected roughly around 10 leaves. While at school we collected about 15 or 20 but some got lost and some were the wrong classification so I got about 10. Where I got the rest of my leaves were in some woods behind my house. I found about 14 there. I did a scrapbook that contained 34 leaves. During this project I learned more about trees and the environment around me. The only materials I needed for this project were a pencil internet access and a picture book. I built a blog and posted pictures of my leaves and put my voki and Goanimate on that site. I also linked my website to it. I built a website as well that asked the most three common questions and it had examples and pictures. I took me a process of about three hours and then the leaves probley took around three total. I was also first to go and I was super nervous and kinda messed it up.

Field study Journal-Week 14

- Short, slender tree with light brown bark.
- Tall really thick stumped tree with thick leaves.
- Thin trunked tree with lots of thick leaves and a dark brown color.
- Thick tree that had leaves up really high and not many branches.
- Tall tree with light green leaves and a dark thick trunk.

Mistake-Field Study Journal- Week 13

Well apparently we were supposed to do our field study journal this week. I looked last night and it said do a reflective post and add a link. Here is some of my study so far:
- A skinny, weak looking tree with very few leaves. about three long branches that are all equal in size. The leaf is very small, bright green, and has a squarish size.
- A small tree with a thick trunk and many small branches. The leaf is very long, thick, green, and huge.
- A very small tree where the trunk is very weak and its leaves almost look like one bush at the top of the tiny trunk. Its a light brown trunk. The leaf is very small and comes in bunches of three.
- A very large and tall tree but does not have very much leaves. The leaf looks like a bunch of needles. They are think and come in bunches.
- This is a very small tree with many tiny branches. Its a light brown color. The leaf is a big leaf and its ends are pointed and its a very light green color.

Collection project-Week 13

This week we were assigned our collection project. This is where you have to pick between trees, wildflowers, or insects and collect thirty specimns of one. I picked trees because my dad worked at Aspland and you have to know trees to work there. Plus it was the easiest. We also learned about Euglena, Ameoba, and paramecium. We learned how each reproduce, move around, and eat. We also went outside all day Friday which was pretty cool.

Unit 3 Exam-Week 12

This school week was really short for me. Monday we were out on spring break, Tuesday I has a conference meet, and Friday we went to Merle fest. So I've not learned much this week but on Tuesday we had a vocabulary quiz and then we worked on our study island. Then Wednesday we took our Unit three exam. It was pretty easy for me but I got tricked up on a few questions. I feel good about our state test though. Biology has definatley taught me stuff this year and i'm so glad!

Evolution-Week 11

 Well this week we've been learning about evolution and been talking about cloning. During these disscussions i mostly stay quite because I dont feel like it does any good to state my opions. I dont really like biology anymore. I used to love it when we were studying enzymes and stuff like this but now I dont really like what we are talking about and its just stressing me out. I cant wait to just pass this class and get out. Im trying my best to just keep my grade up and learn what I need to in able to pass the end test.

Tons of due dates- Week 10

This week has stressed me to the max. We have had so many due dates and projects and its really messing my grade up. We had a mid-term today and well I didn't do so good. I'm really upset about it. I normally love biology but i'm starting to hate it. We didn't do any labs this week which kinda sucked. I'm just really stressed out and hope that this isn't how it's going to be from here on out. 

Biology projects-Week 9

This week we mostly presented our projects. We have had a good amount of projects but this time was way different. Mr.Vogler graded pretty harshly. So next time ill be prepared for sure. My partner was Bailey Billings and we made a 92. Not too bad but not what i wanted either. I enjoyed all the presentations and I thought they were fun. I learned about different diseases throughly but it was simple and easy to understand. I liked this week. I was absent Friday so i dont know what we did that day.

DNA- week 8

   This week we were out two days for snow. We didnt get that much done this week. We mostly worked with punnet squares. I have that pretty much mastered now. I love doing them. We learned about homozygus which is two of the same and heterozygus which is two that is different. We learned about recessive and dominant. If a dominant is present it will always show. The only way a recessive will show its self is if there is two which would be homozygus. I love learning DNA and stuff with it! 

DNA-Week 7

This week in Biology we learned about DNA. We studied the structure, which is a double helix. We also studied Protein synthesis. I always wanted to be a DNA specialist but i wanna stay in Sparta so thats kinda out of the picture but this week has intrested me so much! I loved this week. We also did two small lab. The first one Mr.Vogler had blended peas and we inserted meat tenderizer and alchol. This made the DNA come to the top and look like snot. The second one we did was look at living amebas under the microscope. That was awesome to see them moving around. This week has been so fun!

Week 6

Week 6

This week in biology i 've had the flu. I came on Monday and we worked on our ecosystem projects. Tuesday we presented them. This week I've learned that the flu sucks and next year I'm getting the flu shot. There's not much to write about since I've not been in class.

Week 5

This week in biology was a slow week. We worked on our projects on ecosystems which are due on Tuesday. I learned alot about the African Plains and its climate. My partners are Deannh, Allie, and Alex. This week we also watched Jurassic park. We did a web quest on the movie. This intrested me because it was dealing with DNA and could you ever re-create dinosaurs. We were also out on Friday.

Part 2 of plant cell lab- Week 4

 The second day of this lab we did cheek cells. Me and my partner decided to do my cells. We took a tooth pick and scraped the inside of my cheek and rolled it around on the pallet. We magnified the cells three times. It was so awesome because we could even see the nucleus. Not only did I learn a lot more about cells and what they look like but I also learned how to operate a microscope. This lab so far was my favorite.

Part 1 of plant cell lab- week 4

 This week in biology we did a lab. On day one we did plant cells. We tested onion cells I discover during this that onions do not have Chloroplasts because they grow in the ground. They almost look like fish scales. The cell almost had a yellowish tint to it. We magnified it with three different settings and had to draw what we saw on our lab paper. On day one we also tested cilantro which had a super green color. That meant it had chloroplasts. It looked like thousands of circles under the micro scope.

Finishing up the enzyme lab-week 3

 This week we also finished up our enzyme lab. We First we filled three test tubes with 2 ml of hydrogen peroxide and then placed a piece of an apple in one and a potato in another and chicken liver in the third one. We did this to see which product had catalase. Next we put liver in a clean test tube and boiled it for five minutes. We next put hydrogen peroxide in the test tube and no reaction happened. We did more but the point is this lab was really beneficial because it gave you a better understanding about how enzymes work.

Animal Cell Project- Week 3

 This week in biology we presented our cell projects. Me and my partner choose an animal cell. I learned a lot during the course of this project. I learned that the cell membrane is like a plastic bag with holes and that bag holds all the cells pieces and keeps all the nasty things out and the holes are there so things can come in and out. I also learned that the nucleus is made of proteins and ribonucleic acids and that it transcribes RNA only to combine it with proteins and form incomplete ribosomes. The nuclear membrane can also be referred to the "nuclear envelope" because it surrounds the nucleus. I could go on and on but the point is I've really benefited from this project.

Animal cell project

Enzymes, Cellular Respiration, and Photosynthesis- Week 2

This week in biology we mainly learned more about enzymes and the processes it undergoes. We also learned about photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Photosynthesis is a chemical process through which plants produce glucose and oxygen only using light energy. It provides the oxygen in which all living organisms must have to survive! We did a small poster this week and me and my partner had photosynthesis. While researching stuff on the poster I learned that the glucose that photosynthesis creates is used during respiration to release energy. Cellular respiration is the process that uses the energy is glucose to transfer it to ATP. Cellular respiration allows organisms to use/release energy stored in the bonds of glucose. This week we also did a lab where we put raw chicken liver in hydrogen peroxide. We saw that the peroxide was breaking down the enzymes in the liver making the peroxide water. I learned alot about enzymes in this lab!

Biochemical Processes-Week 1

 This week or past few weeks I have learned about the biochemical processes. The four main processes are carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Carbohydrates are biological molecules made up of  carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Carbohydrates are composed of sugars, starch, cellulose, and glucose. A phrase in which ends in ose will always be a sugar or carbohydrate. Proteins are large organic molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sometimes sulfur. Animals can also use amino acids to build more proteins. Lipids are organic molecules composed of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Lipids have more carbon-hydrogen bonds and fewer oxygen atoms than carbohydrates. Last but not least I learned that nucleic acids are large, complex molecules made up of smaller molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Nucleic acids are not a source of energy however they are still essential to life. This is the information in which I have learned the past week and half.