Hey guys. Lot's to talk about this week. We had a quiz last Wednesday, which I got a 96 on. The question I missed was worded weird and I didn't really understand it. Oh well. I think I have a pretty good grasp on what we are doing in this chapter, but I do need to study more in advance than the night before. I also need to work on my labs because that was one of the areas that was bringing my grades down. So I definitely need to work on answering the question completely because on some of the labs, I answered part of the question, but not all of it. Anyway, we started a lab this week about fungi, as it is tha next part of our chapter, Viruses, Bacteria, Protists, and Fungi. We brought in jars of varying sizes and different types of food to make a mold terrarium. 

Let's Make  A Mold Terrarium

Materials

• A jar or tuba-wear container
• 5 different foods
• masking tape 
• Recording sheet

Procedure

• Cut up all the different foods into small pieces(run them under water if they are dry)
• Place them into the container try to not let them touch.
• Seal the container with masking tape. 
• DO NOT OPEN THIS CONTAINER AGAIN. SOME OF THE MOLD MAY BE PATHOGENIC
• Put it in a dark place
• Let it sit for a day. 
• The next day, look to see if any mold is growing. Continuously do this for 10 days.

This is called a bacteriophage. It is a virus that invades bacteria.

Hey y'all. Hope you guys had a amazing thanksgiving. Comment about the food you ate in the comments section. I know I did. Turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, pistacchio salad and ham. My dad bought a whole 18 pound ham for my sister because she doesn't like turkey. The real star of the show was the pie. This week, we started learning about viruses and bacteria. I have a lab you can try at home as well. I find it funny that we waited until cold and flu season to start this section in our book. One thing I found that was interesting was that viruses are not actually living, but are like little grains of sand. They look like robots with two main parts. The protein coat which allows it to attach to cells and the inner core which contains either DNA or RNA but never both. There are no cures for viruses but you can prevent them with vaccines. Vaccines contain a weakened strain of the virus which puts your immune system on alert for the actual threat. Bacteria are very different. There are both good and bad bacteria. The good bacteria help clean up oil spills help digestion and produce food. The bad bacteria cause infection, and illness. You can prevent illness by washing you hands and staying away from sick people. If you do get an illness, you can use antibiotics to kill it. Did two labs that show the growth of bacteria. Here is the one you can do at home. The Bacteria Lab

The bacteria lab

Materials:

• A q-tip
• Petri dish
• Agar
• water
• A dark warm place

Procedure

• Mix the agar with the water
• Pour into the bottom of the petri dish
• Close the dish. It should gain the consistency of jello.
• With the q-tip, swipe it across a surface
• Open the lid of the petri dish to a 45 degree angle
• Swipe the q-tip across the agar, but don't break the surface
• Close the lid and tape it shut. do not open it again as some of the bacteria may be pathogenic
• Place the side of the container with the agar upside down in the warm dark place.
• Over the next four days, you will begin to see white spots appear. These are bacteria colonies
• Count them and record them at two day intervals.

Happy almost Thanksgiving everyone! What's your favorite thanksgiving dish? I know mine is stuffing and Green Bean Casserole. Not much to talk about this week but a few of my classmates did something special this week. We only had one lab and a test. The lab wasn't the most interesting but I am pretty sure I got a good grade on it, so I am happy. I know I got a good grade on my science test. I don't know the exact grade but my teacher told me I got an A. I really hope it's a 100%! I studied more than I usually do, and I think it payed off. The lab this week was on RNA and creating a protein chain. We used marshmallows toothpicks and licorice to make the DNA and then split it and joined with another group to make the protein chain. Again, not the most interesting lab, but easy none-the-less. I liked it for the most part. The notes this week weren't that hard to understand, ad I even got my vocabulary for the next chapter finished after my test.

These are what the marshmallows we used look like.
Very festive looking

Hey y'all. Gettin' colder right? Need some hot chocolate? I know I do. Went on a totally fun camping trip for BSA this weekend and I just got back today. This is our yearly shooting trip where we shoot 22 Rifles and 12 gauge shotguns. As a prize, the person who had the best grouping got to shoot a military grade SCAR S assault rifle and an AK-74 assault rifle. We also do a huge Pig picking' on Saturday night where our host cooks a wild boar that he shoots, mac and cheese and a bunch of other amazing southern dishes. Wish I could show you guys the pictures. Sciencey stuff now. We had a DNA helix project due Tuesday that i think I got a 91% on. I messed up because I forgot to label the deoxyribose, phosphates and hydrogen bongs on my key. Oops. Should have read the directions more carefully. This week, we also had a quiz, which I should have studied more for. I really need to remember to tie a string around my finger so that I know to study. We did no labs this week except for a small one where we were learning about KAryotypes, which is where they take a small sample of an unborn fetus and test it for gender and genetic disorders which was difficult and I messed up my first one, which was the normal person's DNA sequence. The second one, there was an extra chromosome in one of the sections, which causes a certain disorder. I have an extra gender chromosome, which is Klinefelter Syndrome. Klinefelter Syndrome affects males and holds back cognitive and physical developement. You can check out this and other genetic disorders at http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/.

Hey people. Blog time again. Very little to talk about this week. We only had 2 labs this week. We learned about Punnett's square and the different kinds of alleles. If you will look back into last weeks blog entry, you will see the definition of an allele. I didn't understand how to use the Punnett's square at first because I was absent the day my teacher had explained how to use it, but I quickly figured it out. As for the lab, we were using Punnett's square to make potato babies. It was hilarious seeing the results and some of them were ridiculous. On Monday though, we got very scientific. We even had to wear goggles and aprons. We extracted DNA from wheat germ, which took a long time and was not that interesting, so I am not going to tell you about it. I think I could do better with these by putting more links up, but I also need to hear feedback. Need to know what you like and what you don't like. COMMENT please. Thanks for reading. Sorry for it not being very interesting, but it was mostly just learning.

Boo! Hey everybody! Hope y'all had a good halloween. I know I did. Tell me about how your halloween was in the comments. I would love to hear about it. Anyway. We are studying heredity and genetics right now. So interesting. On

my last test I think I got like an 89. Ugh. I should have studied a lot more than I did. Thats always a problem for me. I wait until the last possible moment to do things, and then I do a really bad job. Well jokes on me. Remember, procrastinating get you nowhere. But enough of my pity party. I think I understand the material for this chapter fairly well, and I should because it is one of the events I am doing for Science Olympiad. This is the first year that I am doing it, and I am doing events that I know really well. I am participating in Road Scholar, which is studying maps, heredity, or the study of what traits you get from your parents, and water quality, which is PH level, soil content, and pollutants. I am so excited! We did some really fun halloween labs on Thursday, and we had Friday off. But right now, I am going to do some quick vocab for you.

Heredity- The passing of traits from parent to offspring

Trait-A characteristic that and organism can pass onto it's offspring through it's genes

Genetics- Scientific study of heredity

Fertilization- The joining of a sperm and an egg

Purebred- The offspring of many generations that have the same traits

Gene- The set of information that controls a trait; a segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait

Alleles- The different forms of a gene

Dominate Alleles- An allele whose trait always shows up in the organism when the allele is present

Recessive Allele- An allele that is masked when a dominate allele is present

Hybrid- An organism that has two different alleles for a trait; an organism that is heterozygous(don't ask me how to pronounce that) for a particular trait

The Halloween Goo lab:

Materials

• Borax
• Liquid glue
• Water 
• Large cup
• Small cup
• 2 spoons
• Food coloring

Procedure:

• Dump all the glue into the large cup
• Go over to a sink and fill the glue bottle(s) up and screw on the cap. Shake it until all the glue is off the side then pour the water into the cup with the glue.
• Fill the small cup with water
• Spoon some borax into the small cup and stir until most of it dissolve. It doesn't have to be perfect.
• Next, pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and stir.
• After it is nice and gooey, you can add some food coloring. Stir in in with a spoon.

OK guys. This week was interesting to say the least. End of the quarter and report cards coming out. Oh boy. I have a 91 in science, not where I want to be, but I am still doing better than I was this time last year. A couple of things to talk about, including labs. So we are learning about the division of cells, photosynthesis, which I gave the formula for last week, and cellular respiration. All very interesting. All very complex. I have a test on Wednesday on this chapter and I really need to study. So first off, we did a flip book on the division of cells. Mine turned out okay, even though it didn't flip very well. On Friday, we observed onion roots and the division of cells. When the root was cut the cells were in different stages of division, which I thought was so cool. We also did a chromatography lab which I thought was king of cool. That is also the lab we are going to talk about.

The Spinach Chromatography Lab:
 Our question: Do green leaves contain other pigments?


Materials: 

Isopropyl alcohol(Rubbing alcohol)

Scissors 

Spinach

Chromatography paper(Filter paper)

Paperclip

Beaker

Tape

Ruler

Pencil

Colored Pencils

Quarter

Procedure: 

• . Obtain a strip of chromatography paper.  
•  Use a ruler to measure and draw a light pencil line 2-cm above the bottom of the paper strip. 
•  Here is the tricky part! Place the edge of the spinach leaf over the pencil line and using the edge of a coin gently press on the spinach leaf to create a single green line over the pencil line. You want this line to be thin and concentrated with the pigment from the spinach leaf. Therefore, repeat this edging process carefully about 3-4 times. Be sure not to press too hard or you will poke a hole through the paper.  
•  Tape the top of the paper strip to a pencil so that the end of the strip with the green line hangs down. The pencil should be able to sit across the top of the beaker with the bottom of the paper strip just touching the bottom of the beaker. Cut off any excess paper from the TOP of the strip if it is too long.  
•  Remove the pencil/paper strip contraption from the beaker for the moment. Record observations in data table.  
•  Carefully add isopropyl alcohol to the beaker until it reaches a depth of 1-cm in the beaker.
• Lay the pencil across the top of the beaker with the paper strip extending into the alcohol. MAKE SURE THAT THE LEVEL OF THE ALCOHOL IS BELOW THE GREEN LINE ON YOUR PAPER STRIP! IF THE ALCOHOL IS GOING TO COVER THE GREEN LINE, POUR OUT SOME ALCOHOL BEFORE YOU GET THE GREEN LINE WET!  
•  Observe as the alcohol gets absorbed and travels up the paper by capillary action. This may take up to 20 minutes. Do not touch your experiment during this time.  
•  When the alcohol has absorbed to approximately 1-cm below the pencil, you may remove the pencil/paper strip from the beaker to dry on your counter. With a pencil, mark the distance the alcohol has traveled on the paper, as well as the distance each pigment has traveled.  
•  Using colored pencils, draw your results in the data table. 
•  
•  Using a ruler and the following formula, measure the Rf values of each pigment.  
• Since the fastest molecules will travel the greatest distance, or to the highest point along the strip, 
• the relative distances can be measured, and the flow rate (migration) of the molecules (Rf) can be 
• calculated by using the following formula:  
•  Rf = Distance pigment traveled 
•  Distance solvent traveled 

Hey guys and girls. Not much to  talk about this week. We only had one lab. We had a quiz on osmosis compounds elements and macromolecules on thursday, and I got  a 91%, the worst test or quiz grade I have had this year. I really should have studied more. Next time, instead of 15 minutes I will do it for an hour. We have now moved onto photosynthesis and all the stuff related to it. The chemical formula for photosynthesis is 6H2O + 6CO2 -> C6H12O6 + 6O2. So it is 6 water molecules + 6 carbon dioxide molecules and then add light and you get C6H12O6, which is sugar + O2, which is oxygen. The carbon dioxide comes in through a small opening in the leaf called a stomata, which oxygen also comes out of. The carbon dioxide mixes with the water that comes in through the roots and light transforms into food. The light is caught by chlorophyll. Pigment is a substance that adds color to the plant.

Hey everyone. We are learning about different macromolecules just like last week. I really understand this topic, but I do need to study more. And I was out lats week so i need to catch up on my labs. I am not really sure how much I missed in class, but I am sure I will find out tomorrow. We had one lab this week, and it was about eggs. So here is the lab.

The Egg Osmosis lab:

Materials needed:

• 1 egg
• scale
• observation sheet should include days 1, 3, 4, and 5 and have the sections mass of the egg and volume of liquid in the beaker
• white vinegar
• corn syrup
• 1 200 milliliter beaker

Procedure:

• Weigh your egg on the scale. Make sure it doesn't fall off
• To the beaker add 200 milliliters of white vinegar 
• place the egg in the vinegar and put it on a shelf
• Leave it there for a day
• On day 3, take down your beaker from your shelf and observe it
• After you record your findings, take the egg out of the beaker ( if the yoke is no longer in its shell, re-do the first four steps) 
• Weigh it carefully because it is very fragile 
• Pour 200 milliliters of corn syrup into the beaker
• leave it out for a day

I have no idea what happens next because I wasn't there for the end of the experiment. So i guess record your findings after it has been sitting in the corn syrup.

By the way this is what it should look like on day three









These are pictures of different types of cells with different amounts of water coming in and out of them. An isotonic cell is healthy. A hypotonic cell has too much water going in and none coming out, so it pops like a balloon. Another unhealthy cell is an hypertonic cell. It has water coming out of it, but none coming in, so it shrivels like a raisin.

Hey everyone. I know last weeks blog was very short and boring. I was tired when I did my post and I am sorry. OK so we did a lab this week, and I took a test on which I got a 95%. The lab was on differrent types of macromolecules and which solutions help to find them. I really enjoed this lab because we got to use chemicals. I really need to work on asking question on tests because I have gotten bad grades on several tests because I didn’t ask questions about things I didn’t understand.

Here are some definitions.

Lipids- Lipids are a wide-ranging group of organic compounds found in all living organisms, including humans, plants, and animals. Lipids are the body's reserve supply of energy. Unlike other organic compounds, lipids are soluble in alcohol, ether, and other organic substances but not in water.

Proteins- Proteins are compounds composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which are arranged as strands of amino acids. They play an essential role in the cellular maintenance, growth, and functioning of the human body. Serving as the basic structural molecule of all the tissues in the body, protein makes up nearly 17 percent of the total body weight. To understand protein's role and function in the human body, it is important to understand its basic structure and composition.

Carbohydrates- Carbohydrates are compounds that consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, linked together by energy- containing bonds. There are two types of carbohydrates: complex and simple. The complex carbohydrates, such as starch and fiber, are classified as polysaccharides. Simple carbohydrates are known as sugars and they are classified as mono- or disaccharides, depending on the number of sugars present. Monosaccharides consist of only one sugar; disaccharides have two sugar molecules bonded together.

Glucose-Glucose is a carbohydrate, and is the most important simple sugar in human metabolism. Glucose is called a simple sugar or a monosaccharide because it is one of the smallest units which has the characteristics of this class of carbohydrates. Glucose is also sometimes called dextrose. Corn syrup is primarily glucose. Glucose is one of the primary molecules which serve as energy sources for plants and animals. It is found in the sap of plants, and is found in the human bloodstream where it is referred to as "blood sugar". The normal concentration of glucose in the blood is about 0.1%, but it becomes much higher in persons suffering from diabetes.

Hey everybody. No labs to do at home this week, but lots to talk about. I have  a project due tuesday about the parts of a cell. I am making it out of jell-o. It's going to be fun, and taste very good! This week, we mostly talked about the parts of a microscope, did a microscope lab, and reviewed the parts of a cell. I still need to study quite bit for my test on tuesday or Wednesday, but it think i will do fairly well The microscope lab was kind of boring, but it was teaching us how to use a microscope for the most part. I missed the start of another lab because I was out friday, so I will have to make that up. I really hate missing school because I get so behind.

Lots to talk about, but sadly no labs. I went to Kanuga, or Mountain Trail Outdoor School. So much fun! Up near Hendersonville, N.C in the mountains. The weather was really nice. It was really sunny and cool, and the classes were great. The classes my class took were the climbing tower, high ropes, pond and stream ecology, creatures we love to hate, and outdoor living skills. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jfg4d8gzxiv6mb2/vcid1lH8fn Here are all the pictures of me and my classmates in our classes in Kanuga. The classes were really interesting and fun. I loved the hiking and the cabins, but the shower heads were a little low. I really need to work on my upper-body strength because I could only get about half way up the climbing wall! I was so disappointed when I could not go any farther. I did get over my fear of heights though, so that is good. I was the first to start a fire in the outdoor living skills class with flint and steel, and I got to touch a opossum in the animals we love to hates class. I really enjoyed the experience! All my friends from public school went, and I thought I would miss the opportunity.

here is a link to their website http://www.kanuga.org/camps-and-outdoor-education/mountain-trail-outdoor-school/

Hey everyone! Not many labs this week, but we did finish a quiz. I got a ninety-five, but there is still room to improve and work on my class skills. As for this week, we are going to the Mountain Trail Outdoor School up near Hendersonville, N.C. I am so excited because all my friends in public school said it was amazing, as has my sister. The middle school is going as are all but 2 of the teachers. This ought to be soo much fun. Our science unit there will be pond and stream ecology, so that will be fun. I am afraid of heights, so I hope to get over that, and I hope to also forge more of a relationship with the kids at my school and with my teachers. The weather is supposed to be chilly, so I am happy about that! To the labs! We finished our spontaneous generation lab, and it smelled terrible, and it was full of fat maggots. Gross! I had a good time observing them though. I can't give any labs, so I will be giving several links to fun science sites.

• http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/resources.html
• http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/ I really love this site. I used it to get an idea for my 5th grade science fair.
• http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html

Here is an article for all of you news readers like me

• http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_36/b4145036678131.htm

Here is a link that I find so very interesting because it reminds me of Jurassic Park

• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323699704578328251335196648.html

Here are some pictures of things we are studying such as cells, homeostasis and other biological pieces

This is a prokaryote, a cell that has no nucleus.

 A diagram of what stimuli do to your body.

A regular cell with a nucleus called a eukaryote which most organisms are sorted under.

I know I am doing two blog posts this week. I am getting caught up for school, because I got behind. So last week! Not much actually happened, except for one lab and the start of another. We also got introduced to the first real biology terms later in this post, I will give you the list. On the note of the labs the one that we only recently started on Friday was the only one that was really noteworthy, since it involves maggots and raw meat. Yes folks, maggots. Fly larvae. It is supposed to teach about the idea of spontaneous generation, the mistaken idea that a living thing can come from a non-living thing. The other one was stimulus response. Rather boring so I have decided to not put it on here.

Spontaneous Generation Lab

Materials 

• 3 beakers
• Plastic wrap
• Gauze 
• Rubber bands
• Tape(masking tape)
• 1 piece of paper and a pencil
• Raw meat(please let parents handle the meat kids)

Procedure

• Create a data table with three rows and fourteen columns
• Place three pieces of raw meat inside each beaker
• Label them beaker A B and C
• Over the top of beaker A, place a strip of gauze over the opening. make sure the holes in the gauze aren't too big. Place the rubber band around the beaker so it will keep the gauze down.
• On top of beaker B place nothing.
• On top of beaker C place the plastic wrap over the opening and put the rubber band on it so that the plastic wrap stays.
• Put these outside
• The next day, check these containers. Do so on a daily basis.
• In your table, if you see maggots put a +. If you don't see any maggots, put a 0.
• Make sure to check each container!
• After the experiment is over, throw away the meat AND WASH THE CONTAINER THOROUGHLY!

What you have done

You have just proven the theory of spontaneous generation incorrect. In the plastic wrap covered beaker, you should have no maggots. That is because they couldn't get inside the beaker to lay their eggs. In the uncovered beaker, there should be maggots.

Here are those definitions I promised you earlier

• Organism- any living thing
• Cell- basic unit of structure within the body
• Unicellular- a single celled organism
• Multicellular- multiple celled organism with a complex structure
• Stimulus- something that causes an organism to react
• Response- the reaction to the stimulus
• Development- how something grows and changes
• Spontaneous Generation- the mistaken idea that living things can grow from non-living things
  
• Autotroph- an organism that can make its own food
• Heterotroph- an organism that cannot make its own food and eats other organisms to survive
• Homeostasis- The stable internal organs and cells of the body

Hey again! Sorry for the belated post! This week we did several labs, but only one was really interesting. I had my first test and I got a 96%. We were basically reviewing the scientific method, and did several labs based on studying it. Here is a link to my school website so that you can see my fellow students blogs www.wilmingtonacademy.org.

Here was that interesting lab: The Bubble Lab

Materials: 

• Dish detergent 
• Milliliter type measurer
• Cups
• Water
• Straw
• Paper and a pencil
• Towel
• Stopwatch

Procedure: 

• Create a question
• Make a hypothesis.
• Create a table that looks somewhat like this

• 	Trial 1	Trial 2
  Solution 1
  Solution 2

  Solution one should have ten mL of dish detergent and 100 mL of water
• Solution two should have 100 mL of water and fifteen mL of detergent
• After you mix the detergent with the water pour one solution across the table and spread it around
• Take the drinking straw and put one end in the puddle of solution
• Begin to blow the bubble and as you do so, start the stopwatch
• Stop the stopwatch as the bubble pops and record your findings
• Do this for each solution three times

 Did you notice how solution 2 seemed to last longer than solution 1? This is most likely because the bubble is more elastic due to the detergent to water ratio. I would like you to leave comments on your findings. I am very interested to find if someone got a different result.

I also encourage you to get a subscription to National Geographic. It has many interesting articles on biology, chemistry and many other advances in research and science. One example is how they brought back and extinct type of goat by regrowing its organs from old stem cells. It stayed alive for only 18  minutes, but they still brought it back! This and many other articles can be found in the magazine and on their website, http://www.nationalgeographic.com 

Hey there! Welcome to my science blog! I will be posting new info and stories weekly, as well as fun labs and projects that you can try at home. Certain pieces of information with be displayed in different colors. Cool projects with displayed in this color green. Materials will be displayed in this color yellow. Procedures will be displayed in this red and the end result in this purple. Everything else, unless an article from a magazine which will be in orange, will be in black.


Cool things from the first day:

• Potato gun using density and air pressure
• Seeing which type of soap floats: ivory or normal soap
• Melting ivory soap in a microwave to see how gases expand

Those are several things you can try at home! Heres how to start the potato gun lab.

You will need:

• A clear plastic tube
• 1 or 2 potatoes 
• One slightly smaller tube

Procedure:

• Stick one end of the tube into the potato
• Take the tube out of the potato, and make sure the opening is full of potato.
• Stick the other end  in, and repeat the same process as last time.
• After both ends are filled, put the slightly smaller tube up to one end.
• Push the piece of potato up the tube. You will start to feel more pressure.
• Once the other piece of potato you are pushing gets to a certain point, the other will shoot out of the end.

What you just witnessed:

• You demonstrated air density. As the space between the two pieces of potato got smaller, the air became more tightly compact, and once it got to a certain point, the other piece had to get shot out.

The ivory soap lab:

What you will need:

• 2-3 bars of ivory soap and 2 bars of normal bar soap.
• A microwave(Kids ask for permission)
• A bucket of water.
• a glass dish.

Procedure:

• Place the bucket of water on a porch or in your backyard
• Make a prediction. Which will float?
• Place both bars of soap in the bucket at the same time.
• Was your prediction correct?

Procedure for part two of this lab:

• Place the bar of normal soap inside one of the glass dishes.
• Place the glass container containing the normal bar soap inside the microwave
• Make a  prediction as to whether or not it will grow.
• Turn the microwave on, and watch.
• After two minutes, what happened to the soap?
• Next, do the same to the ivory soap. What was the same between the two soaps? What was different?

What just happened:

• You just demonstrated the different levels of air in the two soaps. The ivory soap has more air trapped inside of it, which makes it more buoyant so it floats, while the normal soap is more dense, and sinks. Also, gas expands. Soooo... when you put a bar of regular soap into the microwave, since it hardly has any trapped air in it, it hardly expands. On the contrary, ivory soap has lots of air trapped inside it, so it expands quite a bit.