Pig Dissection Reflection

     For this lab, we dissected a fetal pig. The essential question was "How can a dissected pig can demonstrate the human anatomy?" This dissection relates to our current unit by this unit was about the different organ systems and the organs in anatomy. This also related to what we were doing in class because we had to find where the organs were and had to also know what their function was in the body. Because a pig is also a mammal, the dissection helped us understand the human anatomy and the importance of all the different organs. One of the best examples was how I learned more about how the digestive worked and where it was located because the one in the pig was very similar to the human one. 

    Personally, my favourite part of dissection was when we had to take the video tutorial because I liked how we had to include a media part to it because it was a new experience because all the other labs, we never did a video. I also liked it because we got to showcase all we had learned throughout the unit. 

     This was a very valuable experience because it really made me practice hands-on labs and also made my team working skills improve. It also improved my skills of teaching others of what we learned in the unit.

20 Time Individual Reflection

 This being my first 20 Time Project I have ever done, I did not really know what to expect and also how to really do it. My goal for this project was to test whether vegetables grown in better conditions actually grew bigger. I chose to do this because I have always loved gardening, so this was a perfect way to do something I enjoy but at the same time it being a project for my biology class. I also felt that it fit well with what we had learned, when we learned about photosynthesis and other things about plants. Through this project, I was trying to both create something and improve myself. In this project, I created an experiment, which then resulted in creating a result, vegetables. I also improved myself by practicing time management and also how to create a lab myself without any guidelines.

   My initial plan to reach my goal was to do a little of research into what vegetables would be suitable for my experiment. I would then go to a local plant nursery to buy their seeds and then I would plant them in two different places, with two different sun orientation. By doing this, I was hoping that the two plants would grow with different light intensity. I was then going to water the two equally on a weekly basis making sure that the other variables were the same. After a few months, I was planning that I could measure their edible parts to see which ones grew the biggest.

    As I soon found out, my plan would quickly change. One of the biggest one is that I first wanted to plant green beans, basil, and carrots. Quickly, I realized that growing green beans would not be possible. A few days later when I went to the store to buy seeds, I was surprised that  they were sold out of both basil and carrots, so I went with the next best thing, radishes. I decided ti make my lab smaller by only growing one vegetable, radishes. Not only was it one of the only seeds left, but it would also help with the time constraints because the due date was coming near. After the rough start, I feel that everything then went according to plan. I watered them every four days, I kept most variables constant, and finally the radishes were growing! When it was time to wrap things up, I realized that weighing their edible parts was not the best thing to do, for they were not fully grown. Instead, I decided to measure their leaves and average it to see which one grew the biggest. Though I finished the experiment at the end, I feel that I could prolong it by trying it again with more vegetables this time. The only difference is that I would be for a longer period and I would also have more freedom with when I finish it. By saying this, I do believe that I might want to make it a some what long term project, at least for another year, maybe.

    Another really important aspect that I got from doing this project is that I learned a ton both in content and in process skills. With the research I have done, I have learned a ton about growing plants, and I also got a lot of hands in learning with plants and how to care for them better. The biggest thing I have learned during this project has to be time management because unlike other projects in the past, I had to create it from top to bottom and also it lasted almost a whole semester. Before this, I had never done a project which lasted so long. I also learned how to be my own leader because I decided to work alone and that resulted in me having to do everything and also having to make the guidelines. If I had the possibility to do this project again, I think that I would not do anything differently because I feel that I reached my goal and finished on time. 20 Time being a project that you decide on your own, there is no wrong or right way to do this, so I feel that I did really well for my first 20 Time Project. I stayed to what my goal was and accomplished it and through the experience, I learned many new things and lessons. Overall, I feel that I did the best I could and would change a thing. I have also learned a lot bout myself during this project. I learned that I work best alone in projects, I am pretty good at managing time, and last but not least, I have found that I do enjoy gardening more than I thought I did.

   As I said before, I think that I might want to prolong my 20 Time by redoing my experiment, but this time do it with a bigger array of plants and also doing it for a longer amount of time. I might start it this new lab this summer and make it finish at the spring of 2018. A reason I would like to do this again is because I truly really enjoyed the process, and I also felt like it improved how I worked at school a lot. Overall 20 Time was a really great experience for me, and I hope that everyone would try it for themselves. Here is my work.

   

Unit 9 Reflection

    This unit was called "What On Earth Evolved?" In this unit, we learned about the taxonomy of different organisms. The first vodcast taught us the basics including the the order of classification, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, and etc... As we went further along we went deeper into each kingdom, to see what makes it up. We learned about the different domains. Within the domains we went deeper into one of the most  important one, Eukarya. In Eukarya, we learned about the main kingdoms in it including: Plantae, Animalia, Protista, and Fungus. Because of how much information was in each kingdom, we decided to focus most of our time for the kingdom Animalia. One of the main ideas was how Animalia have two different types of organisms, vertebrates (meaning with a back bone) and invertebrates (which do not have back bones). The phylum vodcast were divided into invertebrates and vertebrates. One of the most important organism we learned about in these vodcast was the Tiktaalik because this organism was the first one to come out of the water to go on land. This move then eventually led to many different land creatures, us included. This then us to learn about mammalia, the phylum we are in.
     After completing this unit, I still have some unanswered question, even with all the information we were given. I am still curious about the kingdom, Protista. We learned that it was a kingdom in which organisms, which did not fit elsewhere, were put, but I still wonder why scientist are still unable to make a categorize them differently. At the same time, I would have also enjoyed learning more about the Protistas, for I think they seem very interesting. I also felt that this unit did indeed answer some of the unanswered questions and further question from the from the Timeline lab, my reflection of that lab is here.

    Another large part of the unit was the What On Earth Evolved presentations. Everyone in the class was given an organism to research and later present to the class. I decided to go with wheat. Through this project, I learned a lot about my organism and how it helped shape the world. Through this project I was able to better my talking skills and also managing my time. I was also able to research about something that I did find interesting. I felt that I was able to manage my time pretty well in making the presentation, but on the other hand, I feel that I should have practiced the speaking part more because during the presentation I talked too fast. This then resulted in not being able to reach the time goal. Another thing that occurred that was bad was that I got very nervous when I went to talk in front of the class, which caused me to forget/miss important parts that I had memorized. Overall this was a great learning experience, not only for learning more about wheat and other organisms, but also to realize what I am not very strong at. This will definitely make me change my approach to presenting. In summary, this unit was full of interesting things both in subjects and labs/projects.