What I learned in Biology Today. 12/9/16
Today I took the exam, and I got at 47/60 which is a 78 percent. This for me is not that great considering the time I studied for it. I made a lot of mistakes on things like the stroma and thylakoids. For at least 5 of the questions I got wrong were due to me overthinking and me getting it right the first time, but changing it the second time when I went to check it. I learned a lot about the chloroplasts and about NADP+. What I learned the most in my opinion would be to not overthink it and trust myself so I don't loose easy points.

Steven Nakamura

In class today, we created a vacuum and took out oxygen from small circles in leaves. We put baking soda in the water to give the plant carbon dioxide, and soap to make it more thick. After, we took out all of the oxygen using a syringe and clogging the top part. We then put the leaves outside in the new liquid containing the soap and baking soda and saw how long it took for them to rise. In about 18 minutes, we had 11/20 rise. In our next experiment, we will test things like temperature, light color and intensity, and new factors to determine what helps the plant the least and most.

#wongleaf

Steven Nakamura

In this lab, we tested what color would make spinach, lettuce, and radishes grow the tallest. We hypothesized that green would be the best color but it was really blue. Blue and red were the best colors and green was the worst by far. Orange and violet were average. Spinach was the plant that grew the most out of the other 2.

These are my elodea life cells under low and high power magnification. The first is under low, and the second is under high power. You can see the cell walls, nucleus and cytoplasm in the two of the pictures.

list of things
rubber bands- use to tie things together like sticks for transportation
band aids- in case I get hurt and I don't want to get infected
flashlight- if I can't make a fire and need to go out at night
matches- for fire so I can have clean water and food, and make fire for warmth
nails- in case I need to hang something up like a trap or food
tweezers- if I get a splinter and need help to heal myself
id- If I find my way back then I would be able to live again.

the place I thought I would be would be the forest. specifically like somewhere like the Santa Cruz forest, where it gets pretty cold, which is why I brought so many matches.

On Wednesday, I finished the virtual ecology lab. I learned how there are fewer organisms per each chain, and how they are a lot more on the bottom. It starts with plants, and then herbivores, and then carnivores, then the leader of the chain. There are less energy and numbers the higher you go up. I also learned that sunlight is the most important thing to most plants and that it really is keeping us all alive. Also, depending on the type of environment, the heterotrophs will change.

In class, I completed the virtual lab using PH and substrates. I learned that the higher you go, the higher product, and that sometimes the product will stay the same like in 4 and 8 grams. I also learned that temperature is very important when you're doing an experiment, especially concerning living things. Also, enzymes need a certain PH and temperature to keep a stable environment.

Today in class we made a hydrometer. I added a lot of rocks to the hydrometer and had clay on the top. It floated in the water. It was difficult to get some of the rocks into the hydrometer and to get it standing straight up to measure. You can use the tool to find the density of various liquids.

Today in Biology, we learned to use a microscope. My lab partner and I examined a leaf under 40x. We were able to see how many cells there are and how little the cells are.

we are our bacteria meme

My First Blog Entry: Stuff I Still Don't Know!

Steven Nakamura

Some questions I still have about biology are mainly about plants. I want to understand why they can make their own food, how they can live for so long, how they can breathe carbon dioxide etc. I want to know why we can't do things that plants can. I am also intrigued by the human body. I want to know why things like disease and sickness happen. I want to learn the different things the inner body parts are made to do. I find interest in these things because my middle school biology was not great and I did not learn much from that class.