Friday, July 27, 2007

Self evaluation

evaluation

REGARDING YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE1. What were the three aspects of the assignments I've submitted that I am most proud of? Well I got a lot of pictures posted. I did good on the tests.

2. What two aspects of my submitted assignments do I believe could have used some improvement? The reviews were kind of short.
Honestly this unit was difficult for me to bring myself to get threw. I’ve had a death in my immediate family last week, so it was hard for me to focus and do anything right now. I’m not sure what grade I deserve this unit. I’m just proud off myself for managing to do the work at all.
The evolution part was difficult for me because I haven’t really studied it before.
The reproduction part was simple because I have three kids and I’m pretty sure I know where they come from, so this part was stuff I already knew a lot about.

Unit 4 Lab project Species




I think most everyone can identify the species I have pictured. Underdog was an accident, I couldn't figure out how to erase him.




























































































































































1 English bulldog/ canis familiaris: House hold pet humans have a mutualistic relationship with pets. Humans provide housing/food/etc. Animals provide attention and affection.
2 Boxer mix / canis familiaris: House hold pet
3 Cat/ felis catus: House hold pet
4 Spiders/ rhubidosa rabida: pest and predators that help kill other insects.
5 Ants/ solenopsis invicta buren: pests
6 Lizards: cnemidophorus: eat bugs help control pests.
7 Beetles: bugs or pests
8 Mouths: Pests
9 Quail: Tend to be prey for coyotes or neighbor hood cats
10 dove/ zenadia macroura Prey for predators.
11 Grass/ festuca vasey Food source for pests.
12 Chicken/ gallus domesticus We eat these domesticated animals and eat their eggs.
13 Cow We eat these domesticated animals.
14 Wheat Bread We farm wheat.
15 Corn/ zeamays Is used in all kinds of things from cereal to tortias
16 Frog/ hyla arenicolor cope; We coexist. Frogs eat bugs that are pests
17 Fish/ ictalorus punctatus Fish also eat bugs. They are a food source.
18 Bees/ apis mellifera Bees pollinate plants and help spread the growth of plants.
19 Fruit in juice Apple/ malus domestica Domesticated food source.
20 Grapes Food
21 Jack rabbits/ lepus spp Prey for lager animals.
22 Snakes/ crotalus atrox Prey and predator.
23 Scorpions Pests, but they do eat other bugs so predators as well.
24 Cock roaches/ periplanta linaeus Pests
25 Road runner/ geococcyx Preditor/prey
26 tumble weeds Plant
27 thorns from varies plants. Pest because they hurt when you step on them.
28 Rice Food source.
29 Tea from tea leaves Domesticated for use in tea.
30 Pork/swine Domesticated for food.
31 Grasshopper/ trimerotrpis melanoptera Pest that eats plants but is also prey for birds.
32 Cottonwood tree/ populus fremontiwats Provides shade and habitat for other species.
33 Humans homosapiens. We coexist working together and sometimes against eachother.

Pictures:
Scorpion: http://g.msn.com/9SE/1?http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/images/scorpion_big_jpg_image.sp.html&&DI=6244&IG=9b6c10fbb5a54af196261e2377882486&POS=27&CM=IMG&CE=27&CS=AWP&SR=27
Black Widow: http://g.msn.com/9SE/1?http://www.backyardstyle.com/shop/pest-control-spiders.php&&DI=6244&IG=93d0e42d9b414382bd61eea938a9a7b4&POS=49&CM=IMG&CE=49&CS=AWP&SR=49
Pig: http://www.knowledgerush.com/wiki_image/b/b0/Pig_litter.jpg

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Unit 4 Compendium review 2


Unit 4 Compendium review 2
• Deep Time Evolutionary History
• Natural Selection
• Human Ecology

(picture of differant skeletons)

Deep time evolutionary history:
The basic principles of evolution are that life started out billions of years ago as single cells. That evolved over a very long time. The got more elaborate over time. Eventually they formed different organisms and creatures. These things evolved over thousands and thousands of years and adapted generation after generation; until we ended up with all the different species that we have today. This is kind of a really quick summarization of a very detailed in-depth topic. We can see the evidence of these evolved creatures by looking at skeletal findings. There have been all kinds of finds of animals that don’t exist today. Some are similar to animals that we have today; so possibly today’s version is an adaptation to the ancient version. There are some skeletons that resemble a number of different animals. This has led researches to ponder if this one animal adapted into several different types of animals over the years. Humans are most comparable to chimpanzee fossils. There have been a lot of findings of ape like fossils that also resemble some human characteristics. It is believed that humans adapted or evolved from a chimpanzee like creature over millions of years. Since chimpanzees and other monkey’s are our closest skeletal matches they could be our very distant cousins.


Natural Selection:
Darwin first described natural selection or adaptation. Natural selection is when a species over time changes to adapt to its environment. For example if a monkey had really long arms it might be better suited to get fruit from trees making it live longer than the others. So this trait would be sure to pass on to future generations. It’s kind of like the bad traits get bred out of a species because they have to survive in order to have off spring. Generations also change to adapt to their surroundings. For example they might change to acquire food better. They slowly over time pass their new ability on to the next generation. Darwin reasoned that this is why there are many different variations to the same species of bird. They each descended from a different adaptation.
Human Ecology:
Biological landscape is our environment. Everything interacts with one another. We breathe out carbon dioxide and trees/plants take it up and give off oxygen. It’s a continuous cycle. Animals eat plants then they leave behind wastes that get used up by plants. They eventually die and decompose putting phosphate ions back into the environment. The environment interacts constantly with each member. Humans on the other hand change the environment we live in. We domesticate it by put roads, houses and factories in. All of these different things let of chemicals which effect the environment. Our vehicles and factories burn fossil-fuel which causes air pollution putting acid into the air and our water. Chemicals used to poison bugs get into our waters and are evaporated then turned into rain. There are all kinds of chemicals being let back into our environment. Most can cause harm to our ecosystem. Researchers are still studying all the different ways we could be damaging our environment. They believe that the chemicals that are released into the air are damaging the ozone layer. The ozone layer is like a protective bubble around our plant that maintains our environments temperature. They are worried that if this ozone layer thins the suns rays will make our world hotter causing the glaciers to melt over filling the oceans and flooding different parts of the world.


Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Unit 4 ethical issue


Ethical Issue Who Should reproduce?

Picture of large family in Ethiopia
This question can mean many different things depending on what country we are talking about. Here at home in America we have the education to know how to prevent ourselves from getting pregnant. We all for the most part want the “American Dream” to grow up and live better than our parents did. (Most of us anyways) We want to be able to live comfortably. We are also a materialistic country so we put a high important on possessions that other country’s don’t. So, more people are choosing careers and money over humbleness and children. In other country’s some third world country’s they don’t have the resources we have for birth control or the education on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. It also could be part of their culture to have large families. So they believe it is tradition that they must continue.

Arguing that one American child use so much more energy; than a child in a third world country just isn’t even comparable. A lot of the people in these countries don’t have running water or electricity. If their whole country became modernized then they of course would use more energy. In our country I think it should be up to the parents how many children they can afford. That should be what the decision is based on. Can I afford three kids without government help? Food stamps etc. If not what can I do to further my means so that I can afford the number of children I’ve wanted? In other countries these questions are a lot different. Their lifestyles are a lot different. Some countries still have children die from illnesses that we just don’t see happen here; like dying from malnutrition, diarrhea and pneumonia. So maybe they have more children than they want incase some of them don’t make it. They might also have large numbers of children to help with the farming and livestock in some areas.

They only real suggestions I have on this subject is that we need to help these third world countries get more education, medical supplies and clean drinking water. It would do the whole world good to help out countries that are suffering with things we haven’t had to deal with in decades. Do I think that we will eventually run out of resources to support our ever growing population? I hope not. I think as technology gets better and better we will figure out ways to compensate for the large number of individuals.
Picture: http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=Ethiopia&mkt=en-US#focal=2e204390b2d54cfcef7918089d0e22c6&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bath.ac.uk%2Fpr%2Freleases%2Fimages%2FWeD_Ethiopia.jpg

Monday, July 23, 2007

Unit 4 online lab 2





FOR YOUR WRITE-UP:Post the two screen shots: one should have the world simulation compared with a lower fertility rate country or region; one should have the world simulation compared with a higher fertility rate country or region.Answer the following questions:

1. What was your high fertility rate country and what was its fertility rate?Rowanda was my high fertility rate with 8.30.

2. What was your low fertility rate country and what was its fertility rate?Romania was my low with 1.80.

3. The initial demographic "shape" of your high fertility rate country should have been a pyramid, with high population in young age groups. Explain why high fertility rate results in a high percentage of young people in the population. How does this affect future population growth?
High fertility rates mean there are more people having kids and when their kids are old enough to have children of their own a lot of their parents are still fertile. This leaves a huge range of fertile people.

4. Your low fertility rate country might have had a more oval-shaped curve with high population in middle age groups. This is especially exaggerated if the fertility rate is below 2.00. Explain why low fertility rate leads to lots of middle-aged people. The lower fertility rate means that there are more people in that end of the age scale. This means they aren’t overly populated by fertile people.

5. Write ten adjectives or descriptive phrases for what you might expect life, people's attitudes, conditions on the streets, etc. will be like in each of those situations. Imagine a situation with lots of middle-aged and older people in the population and write ten quick "brain-storm" descriptors for you think it would be like (Prescott, Arizona?). Then do the same for a situation with lots of children in the population.
A Place with lots of young people might have:
More crime
Loud parties
Drug problems
Car accidents
Loitering
More drinking and driving
Bar fights
Loud music
Loud cars
Smoking in public

A Place with a lot of older people might be:
Well maintained
Quite
Curfew
No public smoking
Not a lot of people out after dark
Yards and houses kept nice
Dogs on leash
Long lines at the grocery store while they pay with a checkJ
Less crime
Less noise with less traffic commuting

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Fetal developement lab



6 weeks
This Lab project is on the developement stages of pregnancy.

1) Fertilization: Is the most important part of fetal development. It happens when a sperm finally reaches an egg. It’s what makes everything else possible. This happens on day one. Or two weeks into a woman’s cycle.
2) Implantation occurs somewhere between 7-12 days after fertilization. The egg must be attached to the mother’s womb in order to grow and survive.
3) Placenta formation occurs at about 13 days. This is very important because the placenta provides blood and nourishment to the fetus.
4) At 23-25 days the heart is forming and starting to beat. Again the human heart is vital.
5) At 31-35 days the heart is forming the 4 chambers and limbs are present. These limbs will eventually turn it arms and legs. Arms and legs are essential to our lifestyle.
6) 42-44 days and the teeth buds begin to form. Ears are also recognizable at this stage. Our senses are important.
7) 44-48 days and the kidneys start to produce urine. We need vital organs to survive.
8) Fingers and toes are present at 53-54 days.
9) 54-56 days the penis and clitoris are forming. This is important to be able to continue the circle of life.
10)At 61-68 days the brain structure is complete and the brain will grow larger. The brain is obviously a huge mile stone.
11)At 12 weeks the babies genitals are fully visible. The baby starts moving around.
12)The fetus is able to hear at 22 weeks.
13)At 26 weeks the lungs are able to breathe oxygen and the eyes have lashes. Lung development is critical.
14)At 32 weeks the baby is almost 4 lbs. It can open its own eyes when awake or close them when sleeping.
15)At forty weeks the baby is ready to be born.









8 weeks





12 weeks





15 weeks
18 weeks
29 weeks
36 weeks

Unit 4 Review 1


Unit III Compendium review 1

How is a new organism started? Why do we develop and age?)

Human Life Cycle
Meiosis eggs and sperm
Fetal development and birth.
This is a pic of a sperm reaching the egg, fertilizing it.

Human Life Cycle:

As humans we are born an infant and grow into a child. Eventually we hit puberty which is the onset of maturing into an adult. It isn’t till after puberty that a person can reproduce. For girls this happens between the ages of 11 and 13. For boys it’s between 14 and 16. After a human has reached adulthood they can reproduce until the reach 45-55 for women. Men can usually still reproduce into their senor years.



Meiosis eggs and sperm:

Usually cells reproduce in a process called mitosis. In normal mitosis new cells are made as an exact copy of the original carrying 46 chromosomes. Human reproduction involves a different kind of cell division, meiosis. Meiosis takes place in the reproductive organs, the testes and the ovaries. In meiosis each person only produces 23 chromosomes. The mother’s is in an egg or ovum, and the father’s is in sperm. After a sperm enters an egg it is called a zygote. So once the two combine the new cell has 46 chromosomes.

Sperm are produced in the male’s testes. Sperm have three parts the head which contains the nucleus, the middle which is made up of mitochondria and the tail that is a flagellum. The mitochondria and the flagellum help the sperm propel its way up the vaginal canal threw the cervix of a woman and to find the egg. Once it reaches the egg its tail breaks of and the head enters the egg.

Eggs are produced in a women’s ovary. When a woman ovulates (usually once a month) the ovary releases an egg. Once the egg is released it if swept up by the oviduct and sent down toward the uterus. The egg will only for 6-24 hours unless it is fertilized. Once it is fertilized it is called a zygote. After several days the fertilized egg will attach or implant it’s self into the wall or lining of the uterus.
This is a pic of the inside of a women's uterus. The fetus is attaching it's self to the wall.



Fetal development and birth:

After a fertilized egg implants it’s self into the uterine wall it becomes an embryo. A pregnancy is calculated from the first day of the last menstrual cycle. So when the egg is implanted is actually considered 2 weeks pregnant. An average pregnancy last 40 weeks. A women doesn’t relies she is pregnant until the third week when she misses her period. The heart can be heard beating at 4 weeks. The buds of curtain systems form. In the fifth week a woman uterus is growing larger. By six weeks fingers and toes are present. The child has a skeleton but it is only cartilage. At 2 mths the uterus has grown large enough to be felt over the pubic bone. The embryo is only about 1 ½ inches in length. At three months the uterus has got very large. By four months the mother can feel slight movement and the baby is inches long. At 5 months it is usually obvious that the woman is pregnant. By seven months the eyes have opened and the uterus is close to reaching the rib cage. At 8 mths the baby is gaining about a pound a week. Finally at nine months the baby is fully developed and ready to be born.


Work Cited:
All Pictures were taken from: http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=Ovum&mkt=en-US#
Madder, Sylvia S. “Human Biology” 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.