Cole Dichrow Biology 30 Oct. 12 3/3

Revewd the ES Test
Finished male reproductive system
worked on questions
Double block.

We fineshed up the male reproductive system. I thought it was interesting how simple this system was. Also i find it very interesting that usually only one sperm will only be developed compared to the many million that are fighting there way to the overies. I have always wondered what has been the most babies born at one time?
The world record for a natural pregnancy (without fertility treatment) is held by an Argentinean woman, who was pregnant with 12 babies.  Unfortunately, the pregnancy was lost before any of the babies were viable.
The official record for the most babies in a pregnancy (although not the most babies in one birth) was set in 1971, when an Italian woman on fertility treatment conceived 15 babies.  None of the 10 girls or 5 boys survived to birth.
http://www.catalogs.com/info/bestof/the-most-babies-in-one-birth-famous-firsts-2

Cole Dichrow

Casie's extra late blog #3 May 19, 3/3

RECAP

• DNA fingerprinting 
• DNA sequencing 
• similarities and differences between each
• DNA ch 20 slideshow outlined learning objectives
• Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR

1. amplification of a segment of DNA resulting in multiple copies
2. animation/videos outlining PCR

• phylogentic tree and genetic variety
• DNA passing from mom only to offspring in cytoplasm of zygote outside the nucleus
• Lab exercise 20.B table 1
• review chapter 20 pg 700 and 705 

THOUGHT

The material we covered today is fairly abstract and so animations that we watched help for us to see what is happening at the molecular level in PCR. It is interesting to find out how our DNA is actually being read and how the codons of DNA are the sequences that differ from person to person. Applications of DNA use show how important and beneficial the genetic code is in the medical world. I feel like this unit is most in depth and therefore is harder to grasp at the concepts. 

EXTRA

DNA sequencing and the HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
These tools include genetic maps, physical maps and DNA sequence - which is a detailed description of the order of the chemical building blocks, or bases, in a given stretch of DNA. Indeed, the monumental achievement of the HGP was its successful sequencing of the entire length of human DNA, also referred to as the human genome.
Scientists need to know the sequence of bases because it tells them the kind of genetic information that is carried in a particular segment of DNA. For example, they can use sequence information to determine which stretches of DNA contain genes, as well as to analyze those genes for changes in sequence, called mutations, that may cause disease.
Although providing a single reference sequence of the human genome is an extraordinary achievement, further advances in sequencing technology are necessary so large amounts of DNA can be manipulated and compared with other genomes quickly and cheaply. Comparing differences among long stretches of DNA - one million bases or more - taken from many individuals should yield an enormous amount of information about the role of inheritance in disease susceptibility, response to environmental influences and even evolution.
The Human Genome Project's (HGP) successful sequencing of the human genome has provided scientists with a virtual blueprint of the human being. However, this accomplishment should be viewed not as an end in itself, but rather as a starting point for even more exciting research. Armed with the human genome sequence, researchers are now trying to unravel some of biology's most complicated processes: how a baby develops from a single cell, how genes coordinate the functions of tissues and organs, how disease predisposition occurs and how the human brain works. http://www.genome.gov/10001177

Kira Beukeboom Blog #3 May 11th 3/3

review of class:
 - Recap on DNA replication
 -Watched an animation on DNA replication
 - did worksheet on DNA replication

Thoughts and opinion on material:
 I think the DNA replication is very cool. the fact that scientists were able to understand how that all works when it happens on such a tiny level is amazing. I think so far it's difficult to understand some of the material and it will be tough to learn it, but once I get the hang of it it'll get easier. the concepts of messenger and transfer RNA is confusing so far. how fast exactly does DNA replicate itself?

Above and beyond:
The Genome of complex eukaryotes is huge and the process of DNA Replication should be incredibly fast. It is amazing that a Chromosome of 250 million pair of bases can be replicated in several hours. The speed of DNA replication for the humans is about 50 nucleotides per second per replication fork (low speed comparing to the speed of the bacterial DNA Replication).But the human Genome can be copied only in a few hours because because many replication forks take place at the some time (multiple initiation sites).

Courtneys Replacment Blog Should be #3

What We Did Today:
~Mendilian Genetics written reponse section
~Chapter 19.1 and 19.2 quiz on thurs
~Started the DNA section
~Movie on Tay Sachs

Thoughts On The Material:
Today was a petty simple day.  We wrote the written reponse and i thought i was simple, but then i realized i forgot alot of stuff so maybe it wasnt so easy.  I still have to wrie the mumltiple choice which i hope goes well.  We watched a little movie about a boy Hayden who has a rare disase called Tay Sachs. I didnt like that at all, i felt so bad for that little boy.  While watching it i started to wondering how it could be only one letter that could affect someone soo greatly?

Above and Beyond:
This website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay-Sachs_disease says that it is an autosomal esive trait.  If only one gene is deformed, or mutated it can cause this.  This gene is located on chromosome 15.  So if that gene is wrong from both parents (since it is ressive) the child will have Tay Sachs. Both parents can carry it if they are heterozygous they can pass it on without having the disease.

Cher's replacement 2nd blog... April 30, 2010

What We Did Today:
~SNOW DAY
~Practice Unit Test

My Thoughts:

Well the buses were cancelled today, but here I am in biology. Today we did a practice unit test on Mendell genetics. I thought that this was very beneficial as it allowed me to know what position I was in regarding my knowledge of genetics. I think that the test showed us what we needed to further explore before the unit test next week. Even though I could be at home I thought that today's class wasnt so bad. I especially enjoyed jamin to the CKUA tunes. I feel that I am all the more prepared and hope that I can achieve a similar mark on the "real thing".

Above & Beyond:

So on our test it was talking in one question how horns in cows are recessive, but this isnt always neccesary true. In Highland cattle horns are dominant (well I was pretty sure of this anyways), so I checked it out to prove my point. At http://www.nwhca.org/highlands.htm I found out that pretty much every single Highland calf born is born with horns.... just thought this was kind of interesting.

Sarah Milewicz, Blog 3, Tuesday April 20, 2010, 3/3

What we did in Class

• Wrote our Mitosis & Meiosis Unit Exam

Thoughts About the Material

• We just learned about Punnet Squares and they are pretty easy to use when looking for what kind off offspring two certain organisms breed.  I think they're really useful and I thought it was cool that for Mendel's F1 generation for a monohybrid cross there was always a 3:1 ratio for the offspring and for a dihybrid cross it was always 9:3:3:1.  It's interesting that he actually took the time to figure those things out (his life must have been pretty boring). 

Above and Beyond

• In class today (April 22) we learned about lethal alleles and i was wondering how they actually occurred in the first place.  I went the the website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_alleles but i didn't find out why they occurred.  I did find out that most lethal genes are recessive and recessive lethal alleles don't cause death in the heterozygous form because a certain threshold of protein output is maintained. In the homozygous form, the protein output doesn't meet that threshold and because of that, the organism dies.  I found some other examples of lethal alleles and they are cystic fibrosis and brachydactyly.  Cystic fibrosis is referred as the characteristic scarring and cyst formation within the pancreas, which causes progressive disability and often early death.  Brachydactyly literally means "shortening of the fingers and toes."  The shortness is related to the length of other long bones and other parts of the body.

Carrie Kibblewhite, Blog #3, April 19 2010, 3/3

What We Did Today...

- Punnett Squares
- Finished the simple worksheet
- Dihybrid Crosses

Thoughts About The Material...

I think the punnett squares are weird and kind of confusing, just doing the dihybrid crosses for simple genes. That got me wondering how complex a punnett square would be for trying to figure out the phynotype or genotype of a human, because we have so many complex traits, unlike the pea plants that had green or yellow seeds, human have many different characteristics.

Above and Beyond...

I followed this link http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/Michael.Gregory/files/Bio%20101/Bio%20101%20Lectures/genetics-%20genes/Image1.gif 
and didn't quite find an answer to my question but I did find a picture of what a trihybrid cross would look like, and it seems pretty complicated so it gives you an idea of just how complicated a human punnett square would be.
(I tried posting the picture but my computer wouldn't let me, sorry)

Brock Groenewegen, Post #3, Completed April 19th 2010 for the class of Thursday April 15 2010, 3/3

Review of the Class:

1. Wrote the Meiosis Section/Chapter Test
2. Marked the test

Thoughts about the Material:

            I thought that the meiosis test was a reasonable test, it wasn’t too hard and it wasn’t “drive-a-pencil-in-my-eye” easy. All in all, I found this meiosis process much more interesting than the mitosis section due to the intricacy and variability of meiosis. It is quite mind blowing when you try to understand how a cell can actually know which chromosomes go where and when to perform each action. In the end, I am not going to say I am going to miss working on all that meiosis stuff, but I did learn quite a bit from the stuff we did do. 

Additional Insight

            I did some general research on meiosis nondisjunction, seeing as no intriguing questions emerged from the lack of conversation during the test, and I found some interesting animations about meiotic nondisjunction. They just outline what happens when meiosis goes wrong, but I found them quite to the point and efficient at explaining what happens. Follow the following links to view them:

·      http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animations/content/mistakesmeiosis/mistakesmeiosis.swf

·      http://www.biostudio.com/d_%20Meiotic%20Nondisjunction%20Meiosis%20I.htm

·      http://www.medgen.ubc.ca/wrobinson/mosaic/intro/tri_how.htm

Aaron. Third Blog. Fri April,16 3/3

Reveiw of Class:

We have a Meiosis and Mitosis exam on Tues.

We started the next third of Unit 3. Classical Genetics.

Gregor Mendel developed and tested many theories on the inheritance of traits in pea plants.

Thoughts on Material:

It seems right now that idea of the limited amounts of vartiation make it simple to make predictions. The huge variety in humans though adds a whole other dimension to the work. It got me thinking about what traits would we see as dominant in ourselves. It's not as simple as short stem or tall stem but there must be some clear cut yes or no traits in humans.

Above and Beyond:
Brown eyes are dominant over every other colour, so is dark hair. Resistance to poison ivy is dominant, so is curly hair, and unatached ear lobes. It turned out that there were way more traits that could be compared as easily as a tall or short stem. Most of the traits I found were related to facial details, not weather you are tall or short like that. This was found at http://www.blinn.edu/

Meagan F-L, April 13 Blog #3, 3/3

Today in class we:

• Presented our Mitosis and Meiosis Candy Lab to Mr. Challoner
• Were assigned questions from the board, along with a practice question booklet and review questions from the textbook

About the material:

I think it's very convenient and efficient for meiosis to echo mitosis, in that the processes are the exact same.  It's also very sensible and simple, so I'm surprised at how easily things can go wrong. When we learned about the ploidy number in cells, I wondered if there were different animals or types of living creatures that would have different ploidy numbers than humans.

Above and Beyond:

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploidy, plants, amphibians, reptiles and insects tend to be polyploids more often than animals.  Often within these organisma, they well be tetraploidy.  This means that they have four copies of the chromosomes.  In amphibians that are tetraploidy, they will act as if they are still diploidy.  This is referred to as being amphiploids, which are allopolyploids that act as if they are diploids. 

I would give myself 3/3 because I did the required work for each category (and had to look up and read about lots of big words to understand what exactly it was that I wrote in my "Above and Beyond")

Cher's supposed to third, but really it's only the second blog for the class of April 1, 2010

What We Did Today:
~ Mitosis Quiz
~ Read about abnormal Meiosis (Down Syndrome, Turner Syndrome, Klinefelter Syndrome)
~ Marked Mitosis Quiz

Thoughts About Today:

I thought that today was overall a pretty good class. I thought the quiz was extensive and really helped us students determine whether or not we knew the material, it was not too challenging though. I really liked reading about abnormal meiosis and being able to start to understand why things happen the way they do. It was a pretty slack class since it was the last day before break, but it was really good to go over what we had learned that week in the quiz. Making the quiz and going over the answers also was beneficial because it was fresh in our minds and we could understand our mistakes, etc.

Above And Beyond:

After reading about abnormal meiosis I was curious and wanted to what the chances of that happening was.
The chances of Down Syndrome: 1 in 800-1000 births
info from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome
The chances of Turner Syndrome: 1 in 2000-2500 births
info from www.labcorp.com/genetics/index.html
The chances of Klinefelter Syndrome: 1 in 750 (male) births
info from www.antenataltesting.info/conditions/klinefelters/klinfelt_faq.html

Micaiah Achtymichuk’s 3^rd blog: Tuesday; March 30, 2010 3/3.

What we did today: in today’s class we…

• Did a pop quiz on the cell cycle.
• Discussed the yesterday homework questions.
• Talked about mitosis technology- cloning/ in vitro fertilization.
• Labeled microphotographs of cell division,
• Read and discussed cell aging (pages: 562- 563 and 570.)
• Drew a stick figure diagram of IVF vs. Cloning.
• Finished the day with an assignment on the cell cycle and cancer cells.
• (Onion root tip assignment can be found here: http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/activities/cell_cycle/cell_cycle.htm)

(IVF & Cloning diagram)

Thoughts about the material:

I found the Section on the cell clock very interesting, and I attempted to find more information on this Mechanism.

Above and beyond:

On my quest to find answers to my question I was side tracked by an interesting article about the connection between circadian rhythm (a roughly 24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological or behavioral processes of living entities) and cell division within organisms, so I posted it instead. The study focused on Bacteria.

"We looked at how the biological clock controls when bacterial cells divide -- in bacteria, there's a period of four hours where the cells are not allowed to divide -- and we identified the structural changes in a key protein that controls this action."

The scientists probed cell division in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus.

“They found that the timing of cell division, patterns of gene expression and compaction of the chromosome are controlled by the circadian clock. What was unknown was precisely how the circadian clock in bacteria controlled cell division. Using time-lapse microscopy, Golden and her colleagues discovered that the clock proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC in bacteria control the action of a key protein called FtsZ, preventing it from going to the middle of the cell and forming a ring necessary for cell division. After four hours has elapsed, the clock proteins allow FtsZ to move toward the center of the cell and change structurally to form this ring.

"This complex of proteins is at the heart of the bacterial clock controlling cell division," said Golden. "There are two cycles, the cell cycle and the circadian cycle, that need to mesh for organisms to function. What we learned from this study is how these two cycles with different timing periods interact, and that the mechanisms that control the timing of cell division in bacteria are different than they are in eukaryotic cells."

Golden added that knowledge of the mechanisms of how organisms from bacteria to humans control the timing of their cell division and other processes has application to many human problems resulting from disorders in the circadian clock.

The Full article can be found here: (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100218125154.htm)

Sarah M. Blog #2 Wed. March 25, 2010 3/3

What we did today

• Wrote our reproductive system unit test (yay for babies)
• Will write the written response on friday

About the material

It's very interesting to learn about all of the stages that an embryo goes through in order to become a fetus.  It's also interesting to know all of the things that can go wrong, like cleft pallets and spina bifida.  It's a bit of a miracle that an egg gets fertilized by a sperm, that the egg attaches to the right spot in a woman's body and then that the baby is born without problems, because a lot of things can go wrong.  It's amazing to know that most of the development happens within the first three months and after that its just fine tuning and getting bigger.  There are many questions associated with this unit and one i was wondering what causes a woman to have a C-section.

Above and Beyond

I went to the website http://www.marchofdimes.com/pnhec/240_1031.asp and found out that there are many reasons why a woman might require a C-section instead of a normal birth.  Some of the reasons include:

• The woman has already had a c-section in another pregnancy or other surgeries on her uterus.
• The baby is too big to pass safely through the vagina.
• The baby's buttocks or feet enter the birth canal first, instead of the head. This is called a breech position.
• The baby's shoulder enters the birth canal first, instead of the head. This is called a transverse position.
• There are problems with the placenta. Placental problems can cause dangerous bleeding during vaginal birth.
• Labor is too slow or stops.
• The baby's umbilical cord slips into the vagina, where it could be squeezed or flattened during vaginal delivery
• The woman has an infection like HIV or genital herpes.  
• The woman is having twins, triplets or more.
• The baby has problems during labor that show it is under stress, such as a slow heart rate
• The woman has a serious medical condition that requires intensive or emergency treatment (such as diabetes or high blood pressure).
• The baby has a certain type of birth defect.

Aaron. Second blog. Tues, March 23 3/3

Class Reveiw:
Block 1:
Quiz on reproductive technology

Most of the class was a type of lab in wich we checked out many different contraceptives.
We ID them found how each works and there relative effectivness. (some crazy stuff)

Block 2:
We got time to work on test tickets
we watched THE birth movie in all its glory.

Thoughts on Material:
The most effective contraceptives seemed to be the hormonal ones like the pill or the shot. There also seemed to be a lot of variables involved as to if you used them properly. For this reason I think the ones that people can't mess up on like a shot or ring are the most reliable. Since the idea has come up in class before i thot id also check out if I could find any examples or results from men on birth control.

Above and Beyond:
The stats comparing all of the technologies were the same as what we thought. The most common by far was the pill for usage. Technologies like the uterine T implant, implant, and shot were the most effective for the reasons I mentioned above. They didnt leave room for human error. Every type boasted good stats when in perfect usage, the problem seemed to always be the people using them. I got this info at www.gutmatcher.org/pubs/fb_contr_use.html . 

The second question's search took me to some odd places if you will and I didnt want to keep searching. The most I got was that it would have similar effects as if a female took steroids, just reversed.

Carrie Kibblewhite, Blog #2, March 24 2010, 3/3

What we did today...

- Wrote a brief quiz
- Finished the scary movie
- Got some study questions handing out

Thoughts About The Material...

I didn't know that humans have one of the most dangerous births, I thought that ours would be the safest because we are always surrounded by doctors and such. It doesn't make sense that human babies have the biggest head but the mother has a smaller pelvis, you would think that evolution would have fixed that over time. This got me wondering, just how many high risk pregnancies are there in a year?

Above and Beyond...

I followed this site https://merck.com/mmpe/sec18/ch262/ch262a.html and found these statistics,
- Perinatal mortality rate in offspring is 11.5/1000
- Deliveries: 6.7/1000 are fetal
- 4.8/1000 are neonatal (age < 28 days)
The most common causes of death are congenital malformations and preterm delivery.

Brock Groenewegen, Post #2, March 22 2010, 3/3

Review of the Class:

1. Reviewed last semesters diploma marks

2. Marked Investigation C & D questions

3. Worked on practice diploma questions

4. Discussed reproductive technologies from slide show

·      Abortions

·      In Vitro Fertilization

o       Drawbacks of both

Thoughts about the Material:

            I personally found this information quite dry and uninteresting, but I can understand the complexity of reproduction, pregnancy, birth and the various technologies involved with each. I can also understand how some things, like how the female body knows when to go into labour, when the baby is ready to come out, or what prevents the uterus from pushing the baby out before it is ready, are still an enigma to scientists today.

Additional Insight:  

            I did some follow up on the question posed above “how does the female body know when to go into labour,” and I could not find any information regarding said question, but I did find some interesting information on how to cause contractions to start. Several ways include; acupressure, herbs, and even nipple stimulation. To read more, follow http://howtoinducelabor.weebly.com/.

Meagan F-L, March 16, Blog #2, 3/3

Today in class we:

• Reviewed the worksheet we recieved yesterday
• reviewed the questions on page 529 that were assigned (4, 5, 7, 8)
• reviewed the hormonal control inquiry lab on page 527 (a-k) and took it in for marks
• we finished up the hormonal control portion of our studies
• we worked on the hormonal control flowchart that he handed to us
• we created a HOTFF chart on the hormones involved in pregnancy in the female body
• REMINDER: Female reproductive quiz tomorrow! (the 17th)

About the material:

I think that it's really interesting that only a handful of hormones are responsible for the development and care of a baby, from embryo to fetus and finally to birth.  The order of development was very interesting, especially in how the face devlops.  Who knew that before we were born we had eyes on the side of our heads?  (its just good that they aren't anymore...otherwise your mom really could say that she has eyes on the back of her head, or elsewhere).  When learning about menstruation, a question rose up that questioning why women that are living in the same area will have their menstrual cycles line up (i'm sure that the guys who are stuck in a house full of women would like to know as well...haha).  I wanted to know if there was a real explanation for why this happens.

Above and Beyond:

According to http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2429/does-menstrual-synchrony-really-exist , women's menstrual synchrony is believe to be caused by pheromones in the air that cause a hormonal cue in another woman through the sense of smell.  Some scientists believe that this is not probable because every women's cycle can last for different periods of time.  However, they can't ignore the fact that when women live together in groups there is a tendency for their cycles to synchronize.  The latest argument is that they are caused by pheromones.

I believe that I am justified in recieving a 3/3 for this assignment because I did the required work for all three specified marking categories.

Casie's #2, Thursday, March 18 3/3

Recap

• Slide Show of fetal devolopment, and some issues linked to pregnancy.

Some Thought?

• most material we have covered about pregnacncy and development is awarness based as opossed to memory of parts and functions.
• Eye opener to see how majority of development occurs the first 9 weeks of development, and is very interesting to actually be able to see real photos of the progression of fetal development
• It is an important unit because it makes us more aware of the ethical issues involving reproduction and guides us toward having our own educated opinions of what we consider the beginning of life and what is classified as right vs wrong.
• I find it is a nice change from pure memorization, and encourages more critical thinking on our part.

Addition to Thought...

While watching the slide show many questions come to mind on the many things that can go arye during pregnancy. One on which we touched on was FAS.  This is a disorder that occurs when alcohol is consumed during pregnancy. Alcohol crosses the placential barrier and can stunt fetal growth, create distinctive facial stigmata, damage neurons and brain structure and cause other physical, mental, and behavioural issues. Surveys in the US show that up to 30% of pregnant women report having some amount of alcohol during pregnancy. This is a major issue in the western world, and is the #1 birth defect that can cause numerous forms of retardation, and yet it is preventable. The main effect of FAS is permanent central nervous system damage, especially to the brain. This creates an array of cognitive and functional disabilities including poor memory, attention deficiets, impulsive behaviour, and poor cause/effect reasoning. this is a major issue for our society in that so many complications in education, and integration into the work force take much more time, effort, and money that could be used in research or prevention of disorders that are not preventable. The best way to prevent this disorder from occuring at such high rates is education of the population in human reproduction, and pregnacy through courses such as ours, Bio 30. Until people realize the effect that they have on their babies is so great, there will likely be no change in the trend.  No amount of consumption has been accepted as safe.


www.cps.ca/english/statements/fn/cps96

www.wickepedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_syndrome

Kira Beukeboom Blog #2 Thursday, March 11, 2010 3/3

overview of class:
-went over our endocrine system exam
-read an article about a fifteen year old girl who had no vagina but got pregnant when she was stabbed in the stomach
-we began reviewing the female reproductive system and wrote some notes on it

thoughts and opinions on material:
   I think the reproductive system unit is amazing because its unreal how every one of us began as a single cell. the female body is incredible in its ability to concieve and grow a whole new human inside of it. i think it may be difficult to learn how all the different hormones cause the female reproductive system to do what it does but it'll be interesting. The reproductive system is an amazing thing and I would think it would be able to withstand lots of stresses but if there is to much stress on the female body will that prevent it from functioning properly or at all? has there ever been a case of conjoined triplets?

above and beyond:
   Studies have shown that women with prolonged disorders like bulemia or anorexia can become sterile. When women starve themselves their menstral cycle eventually stops and if they do this for a long period of time they will eventual become sterile (http://www.freeessays.cc/db/39/pko90.shtml). In third world counties or generally where there has been famine there is often cases of women becoming sterile because of long lasting starvation. There has only been two recorded cases of conjoined triplets but others of triplets where only two of the three are conjoined:
-Unidentified (Sicily, Italy, 1834) 3 boys born with a single torso, two hearts, two stomachs, two lungs & three heads. The case was profiled in Gould & Pyle's Curiosities of Medicine.
-Unidentified (Samsun, Turkey, 1955?) Three heads, two pairs of arms, two pairs of legs; lived for 2 hours. On autopsy four lungs, three livers, three brains, two hearts and two kidneys were found. Information appeared in Sexology Magazine in 1955, they cited the Journal of the American Medical Association for the information.
-There have been 43 sets of triplets born with 2 conjoined. Only 6 of those sets have all three surviving, 17 sets I have no stats on, and the rest had one or both conjoined babies die.
http://www.skewsme.com/img/conjoinedbabies_b.jpg

Courtney Caines Blog #2 March 15 2010

Review of the Class:
- Male Reproductive System Quiz
- Recall of Oogenesis
-Talked about menstration
-Talked about Castor Semenya the track star who is a hermaphrodite
-Homework: pg 529 #4578
                    pg 527 a-k

Thoughts on the Material:
I enjoyed learning about this section. It is very interesting to know how the body does this whole thing to help humans procreate. We learned about menstration and how females get ready for pregnancy. Its fascinating what your body does and you dont even realize it.  I was very interested in learning about Castor Semenya. She is a hermaphrodite. Her ovaries are actually testes. So she has never menstrated.   How could that happen? What causes this to happen? Did she still keep her medals as a track star?

Above and Beyond:
Although i enjoyed the class today i was still very interested to know how Castor Semenya became a hermaphrodite. I still am not sure how that would happen.  I used this website
http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2009/09/report-caster-semenya-intersex-internal-testes-and-no-ovaries.html this website talked about the fact that she had testes, and she also had no ovaries and no womb. i used this website
http://reproductivesystem.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_a_hermaphrodite to find out what a hermpharoite is. I hermaphrodite is some one with bothe male and female parts. this can occur from high levels of male hormones with a female fetus within the womb.

Jesse Reimert 1st Blog Mon. March 8 3/3

Rewiew of Class

• Start New Unit: Human Reproductive System
• Handout on male reproductive system
• Talked about invetro pregnacy
• Other animal reproductive cycles

Thoughts About Material

This new unit seems like it will be fairly easy.  I hope there isn't anything too complex but it should be pretty straght forward.  It is going to be really interesting learning about all the different parts of the human body. Human anatomy is going to be sweet. It is also going to be different to learn about all my own body parts because you can't see some of them.  It's weird that some animals have such short reproductive cycles and I look forward to finding out why.

Above and Beyond

 Some other species take alot longer than humans to reproduce, such as elephants.  Once an elephant becomes pregnant she carries the calf for 21-23 months.  This is an advantage because the fetus has more time to develope and thus be stroger and not as fragile once it's born.  Elephants also have some of the same characteristics as humans like going through menapause and reaching sexual maturity.  There is more interesting info if you go to the following link.

http://elephant.elehost.com/About_Elephants/Life_Cycles/Adult/adult.html

Micaiah Achtymichuk’s 2^nd blog: Wednesday- March 10^th, 2010. 3/3

What we did today...

(Block 1)

·       We did the multiple choice and numerical response for the unit test on the Endocrine system.

·       After completing MC we worked on any uncompleted work/ tickets to the test/ male reproductive system worksheets.

(Block 2)

·       We completed the written response/short answer component for the Endocrine system.

·       After completing we worked on any uncompleted work/ tickets to the test (Mr. Blankies, HOTFF Charts...) and male reproductive system worksheets.

·       AND that is Wednesday biology double block in a nut shell folks.

Thoughts about the material:

·       After discussing the amount of sperm produced by a human male daily and amount contained in the average ejaculation, it wonder how a verial male and female could fail to achieve pregnancy...

Above and beyond (Meta- cognition):

Both women and men have hormonal cycles which determine both when a woman can achieve pregnancy and when a man is most virile. The female cycle is approximately twenty-eight days long, but the male cycle is variable. Men can ejaculate and produce sperm at any time of the month, but their sperm quality dips occasionally, which scientists guess is in relation to their internal cycle.

Furthermore, age also plays a role, especially for women.

Although women can become pregnant at any time during their menstrual cycle, peak fertility occurs during just a few days of the cycle: usually two days before and two days after the ovulation date. This fertile window, varies from woman to woman, just as the ovulation date often varies from cycle to cycle for the same woman. The ovule is usually capable of being fertilized for up to 48 hours after it is released from the ovary. Sperm survive inside the uterus between 48 to 72 hours on average, with the maximum being 120 hours (5 days).

These periods and intervals are important factors for couples using the rhythm method of contraception.

So at this answers at least part of the equation...

I got my information here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility#Human_fertility) and i found a video about the subject here... (http://www.discoverychannel.ca/Showpage.aspx?sid=16698)

Jeff Smith for the class of Tuesday, march 9th. 2nd blog 3/3

Review of class:
-began with formative quiz on second half of the endocrine system
-marked and reviewed answers for tomorrow's Unit final
-began new notes on the reproduction and development unit. specifically the male reproductive system
-were given ticket to test for male reproductive system.

Thoughts on the material:
The material in class today is very interesting. I find myself becoming intrigued with the information we're covering so far in this unit. As we learn more about our bodies and what makes them tick i find myself becoming more diligent in doing homework and getting to know my material!-who knew. One fact that i found particularly interesting was that there are so many obstacles and counteractions by the male body on the way to becoming pregnant. The environment inside the female body is very acidic..perhaps it shows through to their attitude at times? and the male body must secrete fluids from the prostate gland and cowper's gland to neutralize the acidity of the female body and provide a plausible way to get to the egg in the female reproductive system.

Above and Beyond:
With all the new information in this day of classes, it seems that a poor little sperm has little chance of actually making it all the way to the egg and being the one who actually gets the fertilizing done. Mathematically, if 500000000 sperm cells are delivered in an ejaculation, the probability of any given single cell to be the one who actually fertilizes the egg is2.0x10-9! very small percentage chance!

Sarah Milewicz's First Blog. Wed. March 3rd, 2010 3/3

Review of class

• Quiz 1 on the endocrine system
• Marked quiz
• Unit exam on endocrine system Wed. March 10
• Looked at more ES diploma style questions
• Went over notes sheet about hormones that affect water and ion balance
• Received another handout about our body`s reaction to stress

Thoughts about the material

We looked the other day at how things can go wrong with your endocrine system.  If there is too much of one hormone produced or too little.  I was wondering how often it occurred that people had too much or too little of a certain hormone, specifically TSH because we`ve been looking at goiters and other symptoms associated with an under or over active thyroid.

Above and Beyond

I found on http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/underactive_thyroid.html that about 19 in every 1,000 women and 1 in 1,000 men in the UK, will develop hypothyroidism at some point in their lives and on http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/overactive_thyroid.html i found out that about one in 500 men and one in 50 women in the UK, will develop hyperthyroidism at some point in their lives.  Hyperthyroidism seems to be more common to happen than hypothyroidism, but neither seem to be too common excpet for hyperthyroidism in women.

Aaron. First blog. Mon, March 1 3/3

Reveiw of Class
- went over N.S unit exam numeric response and short answer

 Recap:
- low blood sugar and insulin HOTFF
 -Cortisol HOTFF
 -Hormones associated with adrenal medulla

Started Hormones affecting metabolism- 15.3

We finished class with time to work on test tickets.

Thoughts on Material:
I found myself questioning how thyroid hormones regulate metabolism and found that this was not covered, just that they did. Also knowing someone whose had a goiter I was wondering what was the actuall swelling. Is it a build up of hormones or is it the gland itself? Dealing with the recap in class and insulin, i think trying to regulate yourself with needles if you have diabetes would be very hard. In todays worl I'm surrprised that there isnt a better solution (other than the pump) like a transplant.

Above and Beyond:
I checked out www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid_hormone#Function to find the function of thyroxing but I was unable to find a good source on how thyroid hormones work but i did learn that T3 is 3-4 times more potent than T4.

As far as the goiter I found some great stuff at www.bing.com/health/article/mayo-117220/Goiter?q=goiter. The main cause is Iodine defficiency and the thyroid grows in order to increase surface area to get more iodine. Eating food like cabbage and broccoli can also worsen this problem. Goiters caused by diseases seem to be brought on by simple swelling from overstimulation. 

The idea of a pancrease transplant faces problems like rejection, infection, and are not recomended (along with beta cell implants) unless the patient is also having kindney transplant. The kidney transplant is a common and simple operation for diabetics facing complication associated with their disease. While at it, it is relatively easy and un-invasive to perform the pancrease implant although it is seldom performed. There is also the ability to transplant a partial pancrease from a living donor. www.faqs.org/faqs/diabetes/faq/part3/section-14.html

Carrie, Blog #1. Tuesday, March 2/10. Mark 3/3

What we did today...


1. Pop quiz
2. Finished the hormones related to metabolism
3. Worksheet on hormones realted to water balance
REMINDER..
Quiz tomorrow on blood sugar and metabolism hormones and our Unit exam is next wednesday.

Thoughts About The Material...

I never realized just how many homrones there were invovlved in our body. What I never knew was that you could produce a growth hormone out of bacteria by inserting human genes. I thought that the only way you could get hormones was chemically, like insulin injections, and naturally. I didn't think you could make grow then using bacteria out of common things such as banana's, I was just wondering if they had some major side effects, like if they caused pospubescent hyperproduction?

Above and Beyond

I followed this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone#Side-effects and found out that rhGH can cause an increase in the risk of diabetes, if used for training it can cause growth at a younger age, increase in colon and prostate cancer as well as joint swelling joint pain, carpal tunnel and less sleep.

Casie's first blog, Feb. 25, 2010 3/3

Recap:

• Block 1: Unit 1 test "nervous system"
• Block 2: went over problem questions from multiple choice section of test.
• Endocrine system into/recap 

1. classification of hormones 
2. behaviourally- tropic vs. non-tropic
3. Structurally- Protein vs. steroid
4. positive vs negative feedback
5. Pituitary gland "master gland"(anterior&posterior lobes)

Thoughts:
I thought that the Unit test was a fair test however, the written response was interpreted differently by different people.  Reviewing some of the questions after the test was helpful because we could review as a group and see how we could avoid mistakes on later tests by using process of elimination along with knowledge we have. 
The intro to the Endocrine system felt a little overwhelming based on the fact that this unit is entirely memorization. HOTFF charts will have to used well for us to succeed in this unit. I am interested in learning a more detailed role of hormones, and once we get through a couple more classes they will start to fit together better. 


Little Extra:
When talking about the difference between positive and negative feedback the hormone Oxytocin came up. As a positive feedback , it's function involves a shift away from normal conditions which isn't the most common effect. This hormone targets the uterus and causes contractions during birth.  Us farm kids are familiar with many of these hormones, and Oxytocin is one that is used to induce calving but I was interested in finding out more so...
A variety of hormones are being used on dairies to treated reproductive disorders and to regulate the estrous cycle for timed breeding. These hormones act directly on the reproductive organs in some cases and in other instances they act on the pituitary gland to stimulate the release of naturally occurring hormones, which in turn act on the reproductive organs. Prostaglandin (PFG), estrogen and oxytocin act directly on the reproductive organs whereas gonadotrophic releasing hormone (GnRH) acts at the level of the pituitary gland. 
In cow/calf operations some use this technique called synchronization which ultimately causes the cows to come into heat within a specific time period, and then later allows the use of oxytocin to help induce calving within a more specific time period. This allows for more efficient herd with less range in breeding/calving cycles. PFG is used to bring the cow into heat for breeding. Oxytocin, often used to cause letdown of milk, also has the uterus as a target reproductive organ. It will cause the smooth muscles in the walls of the uterus to contract thus assisting in the emptying the uterus when the cervix is open.
For more info follow this link: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/INF-DA/INF-DA_REVREPRO.HTML

Brett Embleton February 23 1st Blog 3/3

Review of class:

• We did a recap of the ear
• We looked at some previous Diploma questions on Ear as a class
• Rows looked at a model of a ear and label specific numbered parts
• We looked at the article of High tech hazards and The Woman Who Was Always Falling Down

Thoughts of Material:

I thought that the recap of the ear was very helpful for the upcoming quiz on thurday and test on Friday. I think the way the ear works is very cool and is a lot more complicated than I had imagined it would be. I found it very interesting to learn that the ears also plays such a huge role in balance. Reading the article of The Women Who Was Always Falling was very cool to get the perspective of someone whose Semi-circular canals aren't functioning properly and how that affects you. I was surprize that not only did she not have a sense of balance but her vision was also affect as well.

Above and beyond:

Is there any new ways to correct dysfunctional semi circular canals other than the method of placing electrodes on the tongue?

A: There are several things also avaible to treat and rehabilitate dysfunctional semi circular canals. There are several excercises involving secific movements of the body and head that will improve semi circular function. There are also medications you can take for that treat vertigo and dizziness called Sedative drugs. People suffering from vertigo can also get surgery to correct this condition.

Brock Groenewegen, Post 1, Friday February 26 2010, 3/3

Review of the Class:

1. Recap of the Endocrine System from yesterday

·      Hypothalamus making ADH and oxytocin and then storing and dispersing them in the posterior pituitary gland.

·      Anterior hormones made and dispersed there.

§         Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH)

§         Adrenal Corticotropic Hormone (ACTH)

§         Growth Hormone (GH)

§         Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH)

§         Prolactin

§         Leutenizing Hormone (LH)

2. Got deeper into the Endocrine System slide show

·      Pancreas

§         Insulin

§         Glucagon

·      Adrenal Gland

o       Adrenal Medulla

§         Epinephrine (adrenaline)

§         Norepinephrine (noradrenaline)

o       Adrenal Cortex

§         Cortisol (glucocortisol)

§         Aldosterone (mineralcorticoids)

§         Androgens

3. Worked on Endocrine System questions

·      P483 #1-6

·      P484 #4^a-d

4. Received the next “ticket to the test”

·      “Mr. Blanky” assignment

Thoughts about the Material:

            I think that this whole endocrine system is quite an interesting unit, even if the quantity of the information we are required to commit to memory is on the verge of overwhelming. Despite the enormous work load, I still quite enjoy this section of the first unit. I find it quite interesting to think that it is infinitesimal amounts of a certain chemical at a certain time that keeps you from floating belly up. The complexity of the human system as a whole is mind boggling, and it is surely a topic that will keep scientist intrigued for many years to come. One interesting question arose from the lesson regarding the typical time period for the effects of hypercortisolism, or Cushing’s syndrome to emerge (ex. 8-12 yrs of age).

Additional Insight:  

            Following up on the question posed by Jeff I believe it was, I found a web site; http://endocrine.niddk.nih.gov/pubs/cushings/cushings.htm , stating that Cushing’s Syndrome typically affects those who are between the age of 20 and 50. It also stated that those with type two diabetes have an even greater chance of developing Cushing’s Syndrome. To find out more information regarding this topic, follow the link provided above.

Courtney C Post #1 February 17, 2010

Review of Class
1) There is a brain/eye/ear quiz on Feb. 24
2) The Unit Exam is on Thursday Feb 25. It is on the nervous system
3) We did a recap of the eye. We discussed what acommodations your eye does.
4) We learned about the parts of the eye and the function of each part.

Thoughts on Material
I thought that this section on the eye was very interesting.  It is interesting learning about how you see things and what is going on in your body during a simple task like looking at something. The way the eyes works and the roblems that can happen in it is very interesting.  We covered alot about the eye the only thing we did is color.  Why do we have certain colors of eyes and does it sertve any purpose.  I am very interested to understand why peoples eyes are different colors and why eyes are different colors anyway. why do people have colored eyes?

Above and Beyond
I used wikipedia at this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color and i verified my findings with this link http://www.eyecarecontacts.com/eyecolor.html.  I found out that the color of your eyes is genetic.  You often get the same color of eyes as your parents.this is what i found out about eye color: Brown eyes, blues eyes, and green eyes. These are the "standard" eye colors, but we've all seen people with even different eye colors. There's also gray, "hazel", a mixed brown/green/blue, golden brown or amber, even violet. Many children a born with non-descript gray eyes and some become blue, some brown. 

Eye color is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin pigment on the iris fibers. The iris is located inside the eye, between the cornea (front most surface) and the internal crystalline lens. The hole in the middle is called the pupil and it changes size to regulate the amount of light entering the eye. If the iris contains pigment on both the front and back surface, the incident light that reflects off the iris is brown. Sometimes there is little or no pigment on the front surface. The light interacts with the gray iris fibers and the iris stromal cells and reflects as blue. The size and spacing of the fibers and stromal cells determines the "blueness" or "greenness' of the reflected light. Although the majority of irises have similar pigment density on the back surface (called the iris pigment epithelium), some people have less and that allows for some reflection from the retina in the back of the eye. The retina reflects red from the network of blood vessels contained within its structure. This is also what causes the red reflex in the iris pupil seen in photographs taken with a flash. The red color interacts with the blues and browns to create aqua and violet iris colors. There's a rare genetic condition called albinism in which those individuals do not have pigment on the back of the iris and their iris color appears pink. Sometimes, the pigment from the back surface “rolls” up onto the front surface right at the pupil border. This results in a brown ring around the pupil, which can look quite unusual in an otherwise “blue” eye.