fables

Fables
In the first story, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing the moral/maxim was that people's appearances can be deceiving. In this story, the sheep figured that the wolf who had sheep skin on it was their mom, so he followed her around, however the wolf was smart enough to use the sheep skin as part of his plan to get his prey and was successful. This means that the sheep just saw the appearance and decided it was it's mom but in the end, the appearance turned out to be very deceiving, leading to the sheep's death. Don't just trust your eyes, meaning don't make decisions about people based on how they look.
In the second story, The Four Oxen and the Lion the moral/maxim was that if you work in a team to get things done there are more benefits and you are stronger, but alone you are weaker and there are less advantages. This means that you are stronger working with a group because there more minds to help you think, and you have more strength with more people. On the other hand, if you are all by yourself you only have your strength, and your opinions. In the story, when the oxen were all together they had a strategy and more strength to not become prey of the lion, but when they had a quarrel and separated they only had their own strength which lead to them becoming food for the lion.
In the third story, The Fisher and the Little Fish the moral/maxim was that appreciate what you have, in other words, something is better then nothing. You may not enjoy and be satisfied with what you have but some people have nothing, so you should be thankful for the things you do have. In the story, the fish pleaded the fisher to let him go so he can become big one day and then he can be a satisfying meal for the fisher, however the fisher did not listen to the fish because he knew he may not catch and other prey, so he took the little fish, enjoying what he had.
In the fourth story, The Crow and the Pitcher the moral/maxim was that if you are determined to get what you want with all your heart you will be able to achieve it. Most of the time things don't easy and you have to think outside of the box to achieve what you want. In this story, the crow had to save his life, he was persistent in trying to get water of the pitcher, and at last after throwing pebbles to raise the water close to him he survived.
In the last story, The Fox and the Goat, the moral/maxim was that don't trust just anybody you come across. Don't trust strangers because they can take advantages of you, and maybe even harm you. A lot of people in this world use other people just for their benefits. In this story, the Goat has trusted the Fox thinking he would be safe in a well in the fear of a drought, but the fox has used him just to get out of the well. All of these fables , have very interesting morals/maxim, that can actually teach you a lot in your life.

ask a geneticist

Ask A Geneticist

When I was reading "Ask A Geneticist" I discovered many interesting facts about chimps and humans. I learned how chimps and humans are 98% the same because we almost have the same number of genes except, where the two genomes that have the codes for genes are 1.2% different. Chimps have more chromosomes than humans do because one human chromosome is equivalent to two chimp chromosomes.Humans and chimps are very similar since our genes are similar and genes make proteins but we are different because of the amount and in what part of our body these proteins are made. 97% of the genome directs where the genes are made, therefore that what makes us different. I learned that with comparative genomics will leave a better understanding of the future. Each question gets harder and harder but the answer is very interesting, for all the reading. I also discovered that instead of having DNA on one long srtand it is split up for more difference. Since everyone's DNA is majorly different and when we keep on reproducing we get a lot of diversity. If we had DNA on one strand then there wouldn't be that much mixing. Also, human's DNA is all split up because of how we produce offspring. The bacteria in our body makes new bacteria, thus, when we make new bacteria they unzip in two with each one getting a copy of the same DNA. Each species has different sets of DNA, and us, humans are just more complex. Finally, when I was reading the third reading I learned a lot more facts. I learned that chromosomes basically help organize genetic information. We have 46 chromosomes and close related to us are chimpanzees who have 48 chromosomes. Different chromosomes contain different genes, and each chromosome is differentiated by numbers starting with the largest chromosome being 1 and the second largest second, etc. Doctors and Scientists dye different chromosomes to understand different diseases and proteins. No matter how many contrasting genes you dye you will find out that each come in pairs, which are basically replica's of one another. I also figured out that each human has 22 pairs of autosomes which are the pairs of chromosomes except for one. Also, every organism has sex cells. In females there are two identical sex cells and in male there is one which is smaller and odd shaped. After reading all the text, I understand a little more about genetics but figured that there is much more to be learned.

wooden bowls

Wooden Bowls
The story "Wooden Bowls" teaches you a lesson about treating others the way you want to be treated, the golden rule. The couple in this story do not care how their grandfather feels when he eats alone. They only care about the frustration they will have to go through when they clean up the scraps he drops. The couple is being selfish and do not care even when the grandfather has tears. Suddenly when they find out they are teaching their son that you should eat apart from your family, they see how harsh and rude they are being to the grandfather. Their son puts them in their grandfather's place and they realize what they have been doing over cleaning up a couple of scraps. This story relates to CARES because the couple feels empathetic towards the grandfather at the end of the story. They don't care how the grandfather feels eating all by himself but they care about the mess the will have to clean up. They want to set a better example for their son and they felt bad about how cruel they were, then they feel empathetic. The couple then starts as a family again without worrying about cleaning up the scraps . This story is connected to CARES because the couple feels empathetic.

Basic Genetics HW

Basic Genetics

When reading the Tour of the Basics, about " What is Heredity?" and "What is trait?" I learned many facts about myself and others. Our physical traits, behavioral traits, and predisposition or a medical condition, are all brought down to us from our genes, but the enviorment around us can affect some of our traits or even completely change them. For examply, if someone has black hair but goes out in sunny weather a lot then you hair can become a lighter shade and that mean that your trait is changed. Also, if someone in youir family is diabetic, then you have a greater chance of being diabetic to however, if you control how much sugar you eat then you can perhaps have a less chance of being diabetic. You might realize that you are a lot like yout family, but they aren't the only ones that make you who you are, the enviorment around you shapes you too. Traits can be passed down from generattion to generation, and your child may have traits you didnt have.

In "What is Heredity?" there were lots of interesting details that explained why you are like what you are. Every human has two sets of 23 chromosones (46), and when a child is born they have one set from each of their parents. Each child can have very unique sets of chromosones but they must get one of each chromosome. Every human is different from each other in their own way but inside every human is actually alike.

Science Class Response

Science Class Response/Owl Pellets

This year in science we studied barn owls, and disected their owl pellets. This activity I found, was very interesting and fun. We learned how you can see what the owls ate bye looking at their pellets. My owl pellet came out to be a rodent as well as many others upon our class. Barn owls have to make pellets because they have no teeth to chew their food, and in their glandular organ their food is broken down and sepreated from the hair and bones to the meat. The owl pellet can be stored in the owl for about 10 hours, but no longer because the owls sooner or later have to empty out their stomach and clear their digestive system. The whole process of the forming of the owl pellets is called regurgitating. After finishing the project and completing a packet about the owl pellets I found this lab very facinating and would like to do something like this kind of puzzle in the future too.

To learn more I went on Biologycorner.com and searched up owl pellets. Owls have feeble stomach muscles from forming the undigested bones into pellets. When we were doing thing lab in science I thought that only the barn owls form pellets but now I learned that hawks, eagles, and other raptors also form owl pellets, because they swallow their meal whole too. The owls and other organisms regurgitate because in their digestive tract they the acids and protein enzymes are not enough to digest their whole prey. In class, when we were trying to construct the skeleton we found in the owl pellet, it was a little complicated because our group had two skulls and various more bones from other places that we didn't need and some groups had more bones to. When, we were doing this one of my partner dropped our bones by accident and a lot of them cracked. This told me that the a lot of the bones were fragile, broken in the process of regurgitating, broken in class, chipped, or not even there, this made it difficult to put together a skeleton. However, when I was reading the article about owl pellets on Biologycorner.com, it stated that in the process of forming the owl pelltes the most fragile bones are unbroken. This left me confounded thinking about how so many of our bones were broken. Learning about the owl pellets and getting in a group to build a skeleton was a nice challenge and fun experience.




http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/owlpellet.html

Science Current Events #2

Science Current Events #2/ Greenland Glaciers

Everyone knows about how the glaciers are melting all over the world, but now the ice sheets in Greenland are disappearing faster then at ever. It has been said that the water level has been rising at a rate of 0.75mm , which is equal to 273 Gt( 1 Gt is equal to 1 cubic kilometre of water) each year. An author of an paper and a professer of the University Of Bristol has said, " It's clear from these results that mass loss from Greenland has been accelerating from the 1990's, and the underlying causes suggest this trend is to likely to continue in the near future..." The whole of Greenland's ice sheets are good enough to have a Global sea, rise seven metres. Fortunetly, some of the meltwater that refroze and the snowfall has helped the ice sheets from losing to much mass, otherwise the mass loss would have been double by now. The mass loss of Greenland's ice sheets has been confirmed by a new study in Science.
The loss of the ice sheets, is an effect of Global Warming. As well as the melting ice, a lot of other damages have been occuring all around the world due to Global Warming. The destruction due to Global Warming is like how all the ice is melting, how animals are getting endangered, and believe it or not us humans are being damaged the most. All of Global Warming is because of us and it is backfiring on us too. Since the water level is rising it will only harm us, and if not stop, we can atleast try our best to slow down Global Warming. We can try to recycle more often, carpool more often, turn of the lights when we aren't using them , and reuse more things instead of throwing something out after just using it once. All the small things can make a major impact on the future. The melting ice will lead to great mishap and to prevent this everyone should take part in helping to make a wonderful and safe life.

http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/qthinice.asp

Science Assignment (current Events)

Science Events #1/ Malaria

Malaria is a diesease that is in mosquitoes and affects people all over the world especially in Africa. Every thirty seconds a child in Africa dies from Malaria. Mama Berta lives in a village called Tanzania and is always in the lookout for mosquitoes, because she worries about her grandchildren getting Malaria. Mosquitoes carry a parasite thats called Malaria, and once it bites a person the disease spreads throughtout the bloodstream and makes a person very sick. One of Mama Berta's grandchildren, named Beatrice already had Malaria twice but has luckily survived. There are no vaccines yet for Malaria, but now an organization created a program called " Malaria No More." This organization gives nets to families that keep the mosquitoes out. These nets hold chemicals that keep the mosquitoes away and kill them. Now, that these nets are out Mama Berta can rely on them for keeping her grandchildren safe.
In my opinion, the nets provided from Malaria No More, are truly a lifesaver. However, I don't think nets are enough to keep these dangerous mosquitoes out. When you walk around, people don't keep these nets on themselves. Basically, you can't keep nets on all the times. Vaccines are very important, and have stopped many diseases and other flu's, and kept us healthy. Vaccines are something that can provide us safety and doesn't require any restrictions and, are something that can be with you for a long time. The nets in Africa will certainly help, but as population grows and more mosquitoes invade, you can't be assured that this deadly disease will not interrupt your bloodstream.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/SpaceScience/Malaria