Final Cells Project

About three to four weeks ago, our class has received a Final Cells Project. In this project, we had to promote our informational product with the company name call Zoinks!  There were variety of options, Games, Books, Comic Books, etc... however, my plan was to create a book that included both comic and story. 

Basic summary: There are four characters. J, T, BB and Guider. J, and T are the students that joins the mission of investing the efficiency of the cancer vaccine. 

BB is the mad but genius scientist that creates the vaccine for cancer and the creator of spaceship and Guider. 

Guider is a robot that guides J, T to the bone marrow. It also provides the weapon form of vaccine to J, and T.

Basically, the story line is about these 3 people trying to cure the cancer virus in the cancer patient's body...

How I got this Idea: One day, in my portuguese class, our teacher Mrs. Adriana, assigned us to read a portuguese book; and as I went to the elementary library, I found a book call 'Capitao Cueca' the portuguese version of captain underpants. In this book, it included features of comic books, and a flip-o-rama. Soon my Idea producing part of the brain went 'Bling!' I then fused with the concept of our body, where nutrients' functioning, and variety of chemical reactions can be explained.

My goals for this project were simple two things, entertaining and informational. Since it was about a adventure, I wanted to make the story line interesting and keep the readers hooked. 

As it was the Final cells project, it required lots of information about what we've learned so far. Therefore, I wanted the story to include accurate and rich details of cell related informations. 

When I was doing this project, I think the story went fairly well with my actual plan. 

I first researched about the human body, by borrowing the science text book call 'Human Biology and Health' from Mr. Widhalm. Later then, I spent about 2 weeks planning where to connect and fit the information in my story.... As I went on, I ended up writing the whole story down on my notebook... In my final step of copying all the text in the computer, I suffered with the process of editing ....  Overall, other then the grammar editing process, there weren't really a change compared to my original plan. 

Passive and Active transportation

Found helpful video about Passive and Active transportation


Click! 

Egg's Water Transfer Lab

Data Table of Corn syrup dipped Egg 

Cornsyrup	weight (cm)	Circumference (cm)	Liquid left (ml)
Day 1	67.85	16.5	80
Day2	65.85	15.4	84
Day3	59.4	14.8	88

Graph: 'Sweet' Egg's changes

Data table of Alcohol dipped Egg

Alcohol	Weight (grams)	Circumference (cm)	Liquid left (ml)
Day1	63.4	14.75	80
Day2	65.2	15	75.5
Day3	70.35	16.85	68

Graph: 'Drunken' Egg's changes

This 'egg's water transfer lab' was about osmosis testing experiment. (*Osmosis is a diffusion-like molecule transferring procedure that is only consisted with water. Moreover, water moves from high concentration to lower concentration.)Corn syrup and Alcohol are like two opposite liquids that contain clearly different amount of water.


Osmosis video Click! 


*As a result, Corn syrup dipped Egg has its mass dropped. In contrast, Alcohol dipped Egg had its mass increased.* (will be explained later.) 


Few weeks ago our class started a new chapter call 'diffusion'. And as we started to learn about diffusion, facilitated-diffusion, and osmosis, Ms.Silva assigned us to start our Egg osmosis lab, which I renamed it to 'Egg's face change lab'. Luckily, this lab was simple, we just had to choose our liquids to carry out our experiments, and keep track of Egg's changes. 
The goal of this investigation was to define what had happened to the both eggs, and try to understand why. Moreover, my personal goal was to learn more about the confusing osmosis through experiments. 
Day1: When I entered my science class, strong smell of vinegar stung my nose. Resisting the smell, my group was chosen. 
Emyr, Pedro and I chose two good looking eggs (: One had mass of 67.6 grams and circumference of 16.5 cm. The other one had 68.3 grams with 15.5 cm of circumference. It was amazing how the eggs kept its shape without the shell. 
To describe the egg's feature, it had white blurry looking color, vaguely looking york, soft texture, Bouncy, Cold, and smelly. As I wrote the feature down, our group measured 80ml of corn syrup, and alcohol. We then dipped the eggs inside the cup. To prevent weird things from going in, we covered the top with a paper... 
*I predicted that the egg will change its color due to different types of solution. At that time, I didn't expect the eggs to change its shape and mass. 


Day2: About 24 hours passed since we left the egg inside the two liquids. Surprised, when I took the eggs out from the cups, they both were 'dyed'. One that was dipped inside the corn syrup had light brownish color. And one that was dipped in alcohol seemed to have paler (more white) color. Surprised, we measured its mass and circumferences. 
Egg that was dipped into the corn syrup had its mass and circumference decreased. 57.3grams and 15.8cm. However, 80ml of corn syrup was increased to 86ml. 
Contrasting to corn syrup one, Alcohol dipped egg had its mass and circumferences increased. 73.4grams and 17cm. However, alcohol dropped from 80ml to 72ml. 
When we took both of the eggs out, they both had their distinct smell, alcohol and corn syrup mixed with vinegar... gross;;;.....


Day3: We haven't checked the egg from about 72 hours. I wonder how the eggs have changed after the weekend.... (: 
When we took the eggs out, their colors had significantly changed. Corn syrup dipped egg now had darker Brownish color, and Alcohol dipped Egg now had 'thicker' white color. Taking them out, we could vaguely make out that they had different sizes. 
Corn syrup dipped egg had 53.2grams of mass, 14.2 cm of circumference, and 88ml of the liquid (corn syrup) left. 
Alcohol dipped egg had 75.2grams of mass, 17.4cm of circumference, and 69ml of water left. 
Finally, all the groups got chances to cut their eggs, the result was surely astonishing. 
Alcohol dipped egg had its inside turned into solid-like stage. However, corn syrup dipped egg was 'tougher' to cut. It had its whitish part liquid and york part a half-solid state. . . 
Now this result gave me a question of "How did osmosis, affected the inside of the egg?"........


To sum up, different from the start, the eggs ended up with two totally different color. One with Brown and one with pale white. Moreover, I could say that my prediction was partially correct; however, eggs also had changes in their mass. As you see in the graph, due to the osmosis, the water inside the eggs changed and occurred mass and shape changes. Surprisingly, both eggs had opposite results. Corn syrup one had its mass decreased throughout the experiment; however, alcohol one had its mass increased. . . Also, as mentioned previously, their inside has changed too........ 


Cornsyrup dipped egg had its shape kind of 'crunched' and its mass dropped. This is due to the water coming out from the egg, and spreading out to the cornsyrup which has lower water concentration. 
Alcohol dipped egg had its shape 'roundy' and its mass included. Water that was in the alcohol moved inside the egg, filling 'extra-more'. With the extra water mass, egg's mass increased. 


Video of osmosis lab Click!


explanation: As people already know, corn syrup is very sticky, which means it contains low amount of water. As corn syrup contained lower amount of water then an egg, water inside the egg, which has higher concentration, moved outside of its egg. (osmosis) When this occurred, the egg kept on getting its water drained, and that lead to its mass drop. And as the mass decreased, its circumference dropped too. 
80ml of Alcohol contains more water then 80ml of Corn syrup and an egg. Therefore, water that was contained in the alcohol moved into the egg which had the lower concentration of water. Moreover, that lead to extension of Egg's mass and circumference. 


*Just my guess, but I think the alcohol dipped Egg might've popped. Different from plant cells, egg contains animal eukaryotic cells which can outbreak(explode) after containing certain limits of water. amount. 


I also guess that there were some special molecules in the alcohol that made the protein-full whitish part to clump together and make a solid figure... 


While carrying out the experiment, I found possible error sources. 
Measuring, mis-doing procedures. 
On the mass-measuring scale, there was like a plate that weighted about 31grams. Moreover, when Emyr was measuring them, he forgot to subtract 31grams. If I didn't catch this, my data could've turn out as a 'mis-data'. Also, measuring the left liquid was also a concern. When we were measuring the liquids, we putted them into graduated cylinder. Moreover, some of the students read them in a wrong way. Their eye level should've matched the 'cylinder water' level. 
Also, when writing the data results, some of the people got confused because they just wrote Egg 1 and Egg 2 instead of Corn syrup- Egg and Alcohol-Egg. 
Procedure mistakes: pouring the liquids out for each time, accidentally putting an egg into a wrong plastic cup, accidentally popping the egg.. etc.. :P In order to prevent this problem from occurring we really should be careful and read the instructions more attentively. . . 


Team work evaluation: 
First, our team seemed to work pretty good. We were working together, engaged looking the egg, observing, measuring etc... however, as we did things quickly we started to walk around the classroom and talked to other students. Not only this, our group once had measured the eggs' mass wrong; moreover, this could've caused the misleading data. As the time passed, I started to work separately to Emyr and Pedro. In my case, I didn't like the way how they worked. Pedro and Emyr constantly spoke in Portuguese, and ordered me lots of things to do while in the process of writing the observations down. Angry, I started to work away from them. However, even though I worked 'away' from them, I still supported them by suggesting the way of measuring, writing the observations, etc... 


By doing the Osmosis lab, I learned its concept clearly with visual supports. First, I didn't understand the way how water moved in and out; moreover, as we did the osmosis lab, I was able to see the physical changes that the eggs went through with the process of osmosis. Now, I'm positive that I can explain osmosis to the others. 

Boat speech- endoplasmic reticulum

"Boat captain, you should save me the great endoplasmic reticulum. I am the most important organelle that is consisted with two types. Rough endoplasmic reticulum, and smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Basically, my job is known as carrying proteins and other materials to golgi appartus and other organelles. Well to be more specific, ribosomes that are attached in the wall of rough endoplasmic reticulum produces proteins and gets send to Golgi appartus. Golgi appartus is a place where it packages the received materials, and distributes them to other organelles. However, other part of me, the smooth endoplasmic reticulum is consisted with tubules and vesicles. Moreover, The network of SER allows increased surface area for the action or storage of key enzymes and the products of these enzymes. 
With all these vital functions of me the great endoplasmic reticulum, your body will have problem having enough protein production. 
Well, because of the diffusion law, you'll have to take extra more protein rich food to cover the amounts that endoplasmic does not produce. Therefore, make sure to save me ;) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endoplasmic_reticulum

Quiz reflection

Last week, we took a quiz about cells. 

Eukaryotic (plant, animal) and prokaryotic. The quiz was pretty simple, however, it required our knowledge of their functions and structures. 

I thought I did well on the test, because I asked my doubts on the day before. 

unfortunately, the result was lower that I expected. I got comparing and labeling part right, however, I've got connection part wrong. 

The question asked us to right down connections between ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, and golgi appartus. I already knew that ribosomes and rough endoplasmic reticulum produce protein for cell's energy. However, I got my points taken off in the part describing soft endoplasmic reticulum and golgi appartus. 

Also, at the last part, I didn't read the question carefully and again got my points taken off. 

I felt ashamed, I was too self-confident with myself. 

After this happening, it made me to reflect upon my usual behavior in the class. 

"I should be more attentive." 

what cell I want to be

People usually don't ask, which cell do you want to be? However, despite of the fact that no one asked, I'm going to answer this question anyways.
I've learned two types of cells during the science class. Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic. Prokaryotic is basically a simple cell that has 3 layers of protection. Moreover, they usually work as virus. 
In contrast, eukaryotic cell is more complexed form of cells that includes variety of organelles that makes cells alive and do different functions. 
Furthermore, there are two types of eukaryotic cells, animal and plant. 

Animal cell is has softer feature compared to plant cells. Moreover, cell membranes in animal cell carries out several procedures: Diffusion, Facilitated diffusion, and Osmosis. 


*Diffusion, Facilitated diffusion, and Osmosis*
Diffusion: Main method of small molecules moving through the cell membrane. Passive transport would be are high concentration to lower concentration. Active transport would be the opposite.  Molecules are always moving, and as they move the collide to each other. Moreover, collision will cause molecules to push away from one another. The substance of the molecule will spread until they get evenly throughout the area. 
Facilitated diffusion: Membrane has thin two layers of fat, and weird looking chamber. Moreover, facilitated diffusion would be transporting through the 'weird looking' chamber. The protein molecules fit to the right spot, and changes channels shape to make bigger molecules to move out. 
Osmosis : Osmosis is basically the diffusion process that is consisted only with water molecules. 


Organelles that are contained in the animal cell is endoplasmic reticulum, nucleus, mitochondria, vacuole, centriole, golgi appartus, and ribosomes. 
Different from animal cell, plant cell has a hard layer of protection call cell wall, and different kind of 'powerhouse' call chloroplast. 


To get to the point, I want to be an animal cell. 
Different from plant cell, Animal cell has softer surface and makes it look like it has jelly-ish feeling of texture. Also, even without a sunlight it produces protein from ribosomes and mitochondria producing ATP for cells surviving purpose. 
Animal cell also includes centrioles that produces structure like inner-skeleton to keep the basic shape of the cell. Contrasting to Plant cell, It doesn't need any fancy big looking cover to maintain its shape. 
with these 'Awesome' reasons I 'd want to be an animal cell. mhaha 'ㅅ' 

Facts about Prokaryotic cells

• cells that lack a membrane-bound nucleus
• has few internal structures
• they have chromosomal DNA
• Three major shapes - rod shaped, spherical, and spiral
• unicellular
• prokaryote came from greek word before
• Belongs to two taxonomic domains: Bacteria and the archaea.
• pilli- used as attachment purpose when exchange plasmids for asexual reproduction.
• three layers of protection
• plasma small DNA loop

Contrary to Eukaryotic cells 

• no nucleus 
• ribosomes are smaller than eukaryotic cells
• genomes of it held within irregular DNA.
• have larger surface area to volume. It provides them higher metabolic and higher growth rate. 

Common with Eukaryotic cells

• DNA 
• flagellum- used as movement purpose
• both has ribosomes. (produce protein.)
• cytoplasm
• cell membrane

Nutritional project

The nutrition project

Lately, our class has been working on the "nutrients project." 


The project started by our science teacher substituting as a professor in 'meal analyzing' company. She assigned us as 'nutritionist' groups so we can cooperate and successfully analyze the meals that our 'professor' gave us to analyze. Our group members of meals on wheels were: Gui, Filipe, Marina, and me. Winning the 'rock paper scissor' match, Filipe became our team leader. According to the instructions, our group started by choosing a group leader. 
Our group leader Felipe, then gave each of us our roles to cover. Moreover, we all had our parts of nutrients to research. Once we were done with the research, we had to analyze the menu, and decide whether it's appropriate or not. 

'OUR GOAL 'was to analyze the 3 menus and find which one was good for long-term or short-term. 

Among three menus, first one was claimed to be good for short-term diet. Sources of Fibers such as toast, vegetables, and potatoes are mentioned, however, it lacks proper amount of fat, and protein. 

Menu 2) we came up with a statement that menu 2 included the most balanced diet. With the balanced combination of chicken, toast, fish, almonds, etc... it provides variety sources of fats, protein, carbs, fiber and vitamin/minerals. Menu3) Among all, this menu had unusual extreme sources of fats. This menu was just too much. It overall contained too much calories which would definitely lead you to be fat. Therefore, our team presented that this menu is an improper diet. 

WHAT I LEARNED: 

My job area of research was Carbohydrates. Moreover, as I researched, I found a important piece of information that  fiber is one of the complex carbs, that  have important role on diet. Furthermore, Fiber is consisted with two types, Soluble and Insoluble. Soluble fibers can be found in oatmeals, and insoluble fibers can be found in wheat, vegetable etc... Soluble fibers dissolve in water, in contrast, insoluble fibers only dissolve in fat. Insoluble fibers are essential in preventing constipation. 

Here is the ppt that our group made: 
Showing our analyzed file. TOP SECRET (Click)


Self evaluation: I would like to give myself a 5. 
I didn't give myself a 4 because I accomplished more than basic by discussing, researching, and improving. I discussed about how we are going to present. I researched my area of nutrient, however, I went further and found essential material that also aids important role in dieting. 
However, I didn't give 6 to myself because to be honest, I played around with the computer. Moreover, I took responsibility of my work and spent extra time working at home. 

Among the areas of Leadership, organizational, time management, and teamwork, teamwork was the hardest. As we all had different opinions, one had to persuade others in order to make things in action. 
I don't think Time management, didn't work out well for me. To be honest with myself, I had desire within myself that made me, myself to be off-task. 
In contrast, leadership and organizational areas worked out well with the role division and Felipe's lead. Marina also had a big role in organizational area by trying to draw connections with nutrients and its effects. 

Dr.Tae

During the class, we've watched interesting video that had taught us funny message. It was about Dr.Tae practicing his skateboarding skills. Moreover, while trying out his new skill, he had failed 53 times. As a result, he left us a message that putting effort is what that makes thing succeed. He also left a funny message saying "Work you ass off."

Jaewon's e-portfolio

Welcome ppl....
okay. so it might be random, but as it is my homework, let me start by introducing with the question of
What was the purpose of these first two days of school and what are my plans for this year?”

well our school Chapel started at August 4th Thursday. So as it is mentioned, we had first two days of school, day1 and day 2. Moreover, in my opinion, these days were just tasting a bit of how 9th grade would be look like. Well, as I already experienced the two days, 9th grade seems not as difficult as I thought it would be. However, I can see that we've got more assignments to do. Meaning, 9th grade seems little bit "busier" than 8th grade.
To get to the point, my main goal for this year is to really improve and develop my reading skills, so I can be a better writer. To be more specific, reading at least a book in a month. At the end of the year, I would really want to see myself being a good writer with advanced "expressioning" and vocabularies.
Well, for science, my goal is to enlarge my knowledge of Biology.The reason why I chose Biology among other areas of science is that it is simply interesting. When I first encountered subject "Biology" it just hooked me with the idea of cells all working together, and making action of moving, working, thinking, etc.