Wednesday, May 13, 2020

05.13.2020 - Science Notes and assignment -

05.13.2020 - Science - 
Notes and challenge - Remember to define any CAPITALIZED terms with which you are unfamiliar. 

  1. Current Events:  Corona virus - Focusing on antibodies and the immune system.
    1. … (ie: Chicken Pox or Polio vs the Common Cold.)
    2. …. (Mutation of viruses.)
II.  Protists: We’re looking at each of the six Kingdoms. Today it’s PROTISTS: Single, or multi, celled organisms that live in wet environments.
1.  Some protists are plant-like, they PHOTOSYNTHESIZE.
2.  Some animal-like. They consume other living things.
3.  Other protists are fungus-like: The DECOMPOSE.

III.  All protists are EUKARYOTIC: 

IV.  Algae are plat-like protists that have CHLOROPHYLL.
A.  Algae lack stems, roots, leaves, and vascular tissue. Look back on our notes / video on plants and the example of celery stalks and how the tubes pithing the stalk draw up water.  Plants have specialized tissue that bring water up the stem and delivers food to the farthest reaches of the plant.  Algae don’t have these specialized tissues so, usually, algae had to live surrounded by water.

  B.  Some protists are single-celled and propel themselves with “tails” called FLAGELLUM.

V.  Some PROTISTS, like an Amoeba, are PROTOZOANS. They have a simple “eye spot” to detect light and a VACUOLE where they digest food.

VI.  Protozoans are CLASSIFIED based on how they move.
A.  Amoeboids move by extending “pseudopods”. (False feet) and seem to “ooze” along. 
B.  Ciliates move by using very small, hair-like projections called CILIA and waving these hairs in unison to “swim” along.
C.  Flagellates: Some move using a long “tail” called flagella. These whip-like tails can propel the protozoan through water.
D.  Sporozoans:  These do not move on their own. All sporozoans are PARASITIC. Remember back to when we learned a bit about mosquitos and how mosquitos are responsible for more human illness than any other animal. Often, mosquitos pass along parasites which infect a HOST.

ASSIGNMENT:  (Two science assignments today.)
  1. CLASSIFICATION:  Observe any living species (besides a human) and write the complete, scientific classification for it. For example; the oak trees that we have on campus …
Kingdom:  Plantae
Phylum:  Magnoliophyta
Class:  Magnoliopsida
Order:  Flageles
Family:  Fagaceae
Genus:  Quercus
Species:  Virginiana

I know that’s quite a bit, but a scientists would, usually, only use the last two of these to identify a specific species. This is the classification for a Live Oak (There are several on campus. We visited one when we collected seeds.). A scientist would refer to the live oak as Quercus Virginiana. (Or, just Q. Virginiana.)

2.  Assignment #2:  Look up ONE parasitic disease and describe the the life cycle. For example, malaria is caused by a parasite that depends on mosquitos to spread it between animal hosts. It reproduces in the liver of the animal it infects.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

05.12.2020 - Science - Reading and notes -

05.12.2020 - Science - Tuesday - 

  1. Current Events:  https://www.cnn.com/cnn10
    1. A note on the dinosaur story:  One of the most important pieces of evidence for natural selection and evolution is the fossil record. We know about the dinosaurs, that existed more than 65 million years ago, because of fossil evidence.
II.  We recognize SIX KINGDOMS of life … To categorize living things we put them in groups so we can more easily study their history and how they’re related to other living things. The classification system begins at a very “high” level and becomes very detailed.
A.  Domain
B. Kingdom
C. Phylum
D. Class
E. Order
F. Family
G. Genus
H. Species

III.  This is how we get SCIENTIFIC NAMES or TAXA. Usually, scientists use the last two on this list to be specific about which SPECIES they are describing.

IV.  For example, every living thing falls into one of three DOMAINS.
A.  Eukarya: Living things that have cells with a nucleus.
B.  Bacteria:  Once-celled organisms that have cells with no nucleus.
C.  Archaea:  The is the newest classification of domains. These used to be classified as bacteria but they are now seen as their own domain. Sometimes they are called extremophiles.
1.  Off the coast of California and in places like Yellowstone National Park, there are hot springs. Places where water - that has seeped into cracks in the Earth - comes close to rock that is very hot and the water is forced to the surface as geysers or ocean hot springs. Think about camping … yes camping. If you collect water from a lake or stream, and want to be sure it’s OK to drink, you might boil it for a few minutes to kill any parasites and bacteria. This works well for water that you might collect on a trail or near a lake.  Extremophiles are bacteria that actually live in the boiling temperatures and thrive there.  Life was thought to not be able to exist in such “extreme” environments.

     This makes the search for life beyond Earth even more exciting because there are places in our own solar system where such extreme conditions, with all the chemicals necessary for life, might exist! For example, one of the moons of Jupiter, is called Io. (It’s one of the four Galilean moons - so called because these moons were discovered by Galileo Galilei  in the seventeenth century. It’s difficult to overstate how important this discovery was. He showed that the Earth was not the center of the universe. The moons of Jupiter were even important in calculating the speed of light!). The moon Io seems to have a layer of salty water (more water than Earth has!) That is covered by ice. Because Io is so close to Jupiter, the gravity from Jupiter makes the moon flex and makes it very hot on the inside, probably creating hot spring like on Earth. This might be a place where life could exist.

V.  As an example of classification of a common species … let’s take a cat for example. Notice how we use LATIN.
A.  Domain:  Eukarya - (Has cells with a nucleus)
B.  Kingdom: Animalia - (Animals)
C.  Phylum: Chordata: - (Is an animal with a backbone.)
D. Class: Mammalia - (Is a mammal.)
E.  Order:  Carnivora - (Is a carnivore.)
F.  Family:  Felidae
G:  Genus:  Felis
H.  Species:  Cats

VI.  This connects with genetics because we used to put living things in categories based on their STRUCTURE. Now we can look at the DNA from a living thing and determine how closely it is related to another living thing. The ability to look at DNA to help categorize living things has changed the classifications of hundreds of plants and animals.

Monday, May 11, 2020

Thursday, May 7, 2020

05.05.2020 - Science -

05.07.2020 – Thursday –
Notes to go along with our video lesson. Please remember to look up and define and CAPITALIZED terms. (And, any terms with which you are unfamiliar.)
- Current Events:  Link to CNN 10 - https://www.cnn.com/cnn10
         - Two notes on Space travel:  Especially, the use of Russian space launches to get Americans to the ISS (International Space Station.) Since the US Space Shuttle stopped flying in 2011 the US has relied on other countries to get to space while NASA is trying a joint venture with “Space X.”  When I was a kid I remember Apollo astronauts landing on the moon.!

I.  Genetics and chromosomes – Every living thing inherits TRAITS.
         A.,  In the 1800’s a monk named Gregor Mendel studied the inheritance of pea plants. Like the example with squirrels or “Fuzzy Wuzzits” in our video lesson, Mendel “mixed” tall and short plants, but did NOT get medium-height plants. Just like the squirrels, when a white and black squirrel reproduce together they do not end up with grey squirrel offspring. Instead, there are often – two possibilities.
                  1.  A TRAIT might be DOMINANT.
                  2.  A TRAIT might be RECESSIVE.

II. In the case of pea plants, for a plant to be short, it must inherit two recessive ALLELES. One from each parent. If the pea plant just inherits a single recessive allele, the plant will be TALL. There is no “in-between.”

III.  Genetics of humans:  (The subject of tomorrow’s video lesson.)  -
         A.  Humans have 46 PAIRS OF CHROMOSOMES in most of our cells.  That’s capitalized because it’s very important.
                  1.  Notice, we said, “most” cells. There are some cells called GAMETES.
                           a) Female GAMETE is called an EGG.
                           b) Male GAMETE is called a SPERM.
     B.  Each GAMETE is called HAPLOID. This is just a term that means it has 23 chromosomes, not 46. It has half as many as most of the cells in our bodies.
         C.  As you might have guessed, once an egg and a sperm cell meet (GAMETES) a new cell with 46 chromosomes (DIPLOID) is formed. This is called a ZYGOTE.

IV. Here’s the really important point … that new ZYGOTE is not identical to either the mother or the father. That fertilized OVUM, or cell with 46 chromosomes, is a genetic mix of the parents! 


V.  For two parents there are about 8.3 million (8,300,000) possible combinations of unique genetic offspring that are possible! That’s why two siblings are very similar, but never exactly alike! (We’ll talk about twins tomorrow as well.)

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

05.06.2020 - Wednesday - YouTube video links ...

05.06.2020 - Wednesday - 

YouTube video links for today. Science, alleles, and probability.



05.06.2020 - Daily Note - Wednesday -

  1. Good morning. Attendance link is below. 
    1. Science - Notes and video lesson will be posted.
    2. Math - Unit 6, Lesson 15.
    3. Link to LA Times story about Covid 19 mutations. We’ve been studying mutations and DNA in science … https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-05/mutant-coronavirus-has-emerged-more-contagious-than-original

II.  The link for attendance: 

III.  Science notes on the blog (also will be posted in the Science Google classroom.) 
B.  CNN 10 (Current Events). https://www.cnn.com/cnn10

IV.  Google classroom links.
A. The Google Classroom links:
    1.  Math.      o5jdv6r

    2.  Science.     xxhaswm

    3.  STEM -  yox77qa

V.  Kahn Academy log in code:
A.  The Kahn Academy class code for math:  77R2HNBX