Day 10: Evolution a New Unit!

We learned about the fossil record and how fossils are made today. We discussed our homework which was to read some chapters out of Your Inner Fish which is about evolution and how the early life forms of fish progressed to being land animals, which eventually evolved to be humans.

This is a picture of the Fossil that the author Neil Shubin found in the Arctic:

This is a transitional fossil discovery. Previously to the discovery of this fossil there was discoveries of ancient fish and a discovery of a type of first reptile called Hynerpeton.

They looked for the fossils in the Arctic and Ellesmere island because of geological research and the historic continental drift showing that the tropical equator continent from 375 million years ago moved north over time. They wanted to explore an unknown region and didn't go looking in the very surveyed east region of Greenland.

The evidence found of evolution in this fossil was immense:

• In the arms of this fish it showed the transition from ray bones in a fish to the formula us humans and other mammals have which is one bone- two bones and lots of phalanges in the front. 
• The Tiktaalik had eyes on the top of his flat head unlike fish to better see with, when not always submerged. 
• The Tiktaalik's ability to push itself up is due to the movement thru the probably rough terrain and escape from predators thus developing an important factor of natural selection and evolution.

Day 9: We took a test.

We had to answer a free response on potatoes and how diffusion affects them.
Then a multiple choice section on the rest of the unit.

Day 8: Review, Quiz and Fire

Today we reviewed all the material we covered over the past few weeks.

We reviewed basic chemistry, water, and organic compounds.

We then took a quiz. The basic chemistry part covered electron configuration and the differences between a covalent bond and polar bonds. The water part covered the bonding of hydrogen and how that effects the properties of water. Then the organic compounds covered what the differences between a carb, a lipid, a protein, and nucleic acid is and how their structural isomers are.

Then there was a fire and so we had to finish class.

Day 7: Who took Jeryll's ipod?

Today we did a lab about Macromolecules and investigated a mystery in a lab. The mystery was who took Jeryll's ipod. We could discover who took his ipod by the evidence that was left behind which referred to what they ate for lunch. We had evidence B the dry and liquid form.

First we did a bunch of tests to see if the substances like vegetable oil, glucose, starch from corn or potatoes, powdered egg whites, and water have the presence of carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and proteins.

This is what some of our tests looked like:

Then we did tests on the foods that the people ate like beans, pretzel, butter, jelly, fat free yogurt. We did the same tests on our evidence B.

This is what some of our tests also looked like:

Then based on all our results The evidence B best matched up with the fat free yogurt. The fat free yogurt was eaten by Ashley in the lunch break and therefore Ashley took Jeryll's ipod.

Day 6: House Case Analysis

Today in class we did our first house case, we were supposed to analyze the symptoms of an 18 year old boy and come up with the diagnosis.

His symptoms were:
Vomit
Severe Headache
Extremely tired
Confusion

And we had to come to class with the three ideas of what his problem could be. I thought he had dehydration primarily and then a concussion and then a migraine.

We got to ask questions about his details about his condition. Concussion could be ruled out because he suffered from no head injuries and migraine could be ruled out because he had no history of migraines in his family and there was no real loss of vision or sensitivity to light.

Then dehydration was ruled out by his actions. Because he drank 3 gallons of water before he ran. # gallons is too much and therefore he could be suffering from Hyponatremia. Also His serum osmolality test was a decreased number. Usually there is a osmolal gap when compounds are in high concentration. This evidence that he in took too much H₂O. 

Day 5: Graphing and Part 1/5 of the lab

Today we started of by constructing graphs out of class data and seeing how the best fit line works for all the data. The best fit line is pretty much the same for each graph. It intersects the x axis at the point of equilibrium when the solution in the dialysis tubing for example is the same molarity as the liquid outside.

Then we proceeded to do the rest of the Diffusion and Osmosis Lab.....

We did Part One with the starch and level of glucose. We put the dialysis tube which was originally clear and full of starch and glucose in the glass full of iodine and water. We saw a color change in the starch tube. Bits of the starch turned a dark blue color and looked like precipitate.

This lab part was a good example of Diffusion and Size. The starch molecules were too big so there was no real diffusion into the solution. But the glucose in the dialysis tube could go thru diffusion because it is small enough molecules to move.

We know the glucose got into the the water in the cup because we tested it with Benedict and saw a color change into orange.

The second part of the lab we took cubes of NaOH and added the element and the solution changed pink and then we let it sit. We took the cubes out later and spilt it in half. This is what it looked like:

Then we knew that some of the solution had gone into the cube of NaOH. If the white bit at the center is too big then it meant none of the nutrients of the solution didn't reach the nucleus. So therefore if the surface area was too big that is a indicator that the substance didn't soak up a lot.

Day 4: Diffusion and Osmosis Lab

Diffusion: All molecules are in motion and diffusion is the movement of molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration.

Osmosis: is a specialized type of diffusion which involves the transport if water thru a permeate membrane from a region of high concentration to a region of low concentration. Only some molecules are allowed to move thru the membrane.

Hypotonic: is a lower solute concentration(more water)
Hypertonic- is a higher solute concentration (less water)

Water moves from Hypotonic to Hypertonic

We began our lab in class

 Part 2: We were to determine the molarity of different color solutions ( red, blue, green, yellow, clear, purple) using dialysis tubes and water.

We placed one tube of each in water for 30 minutes and recorded the mass change. And then got the molarities for each:

Color	Mass Before	Mass After	Percent Change	Molarity
Clear	7.3g	7.9g	8.21%	.2M
Purple	8.1g	9.8g	20.988%	.8M
Yellow	7.6g	9.2g	21.053%	.6M
Red	8.1g	10.3g	27.162%	1M
Blue	7.3g	7.3g	0%	0M
Green	7.4g	8.4g	13.514%	.4M

This is what the tubes looked like afterward they were all more full after other than blue which didn't fill:

We also set up our energy drink (powerade experiment) and we saw what happened to them later that night.

This is what the powerade dialysis tubes looked like when we placed them in the cups of the different color solutions:

This is what the powerade tubes looked like after several hours and there was a color change and a decrease in mass:

 This was the percent mass change for the powerade:

Blue: 9.83%

Clear: -4.91%

Green:-22.95%

Yellow:-32.72%

Purple:-32.75%

Red:-54.09%

The other pair in our group Chris and Daniel peeled potatoes and dropped it in the solutions and waited several hours as well. This is their results:

Blue:21.95%

Clear:5.88%

Green:-36.67%

Yellow:-36%

Purple:-39.13%

Red:-66.67%