Unit 6 Reflection

This unit focused primarily on the components of the skeletal system. This unit included topics such as the different functions of the bones as well as how the cells within the bones help with those functions as well as how bones repair themselves. The different cells, osteocytes, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts, work together to break bones and reform them in a process that is called bone remodeling. We also learned about the different types of bones and how their form fit their function in the skeletal system such as short bones, flat bones, and irregular bones. The disorders of the skeletal system taught us how bones can lose their density or shape and cause complications for our health.  We also learned about the different classifications of bone fractures like complete fractures, fissure fractures, and comminuted fractures. After learning how bones can break in different ways, we learned how the bone repaired itself as well to show how the body responded to this type of damage by learning about each step in the process.
This unit made me more curious about how people can get hip or knee replacements and I wonder how that works in the body.
During this unit, I found that the more hands on labs were very helpful in understanding what the skeleton looked like. The owl pellet lab was especially helpful because it gave a sense of what the different skeleton parts looked like and it was a unique experience to relate the skeleton of the animal to that of a human. This unit I also kept toward my goals of being healthier in general by exercising more and sleeping more as well as staying more organized. I feel like I am making more progress with my lower stress.

Constructed Rat Skeleton

Sorting out the bones

Owl Pellet Lab

In this lab we dissected an owl pellet by locating bones and attempting to reconstruct the skeleton of the animal in the pellet. First we separated the fur from the bones and sorted them into similar piles. After finding as many bones as possible we then tried to reconstruct the skeleton using diagrams that were provided to us and at the same time attempting to identify the animal.
With the bones that we found we identified the animal as a rat. Our first source of evidence was the fur in the pellet which meant that the animal could not have been a bird. The shape of the front teeth, which were long,that were found on the skull also gave us clues that it was a rat. We used more identifiers from the packet given to us and saw even more evidence that the animal was a rat because of the shape and size of the skull, which was 3.0 cm long and 2.1 cm wide, as well as the more rounded shape of the molars. The skull was elongated and fit the size description. With all of these details and using process of elimination, we concluded that the animal was a rat.
The skeleton that we constructed had a few similarities to a human skeleton as you can see from the picture at the bottom. The skull like the human skull consisted of different plates and had the same basic features. There is also a similarity in the spine where the vertebrates are very similar in shape and make the spine in a similar way as the human spine with multiple vertebrate connecting to each other. There are also similarities between the rat's paws and the human's feet and hands. They have the same basic structure of the carpals, metacarpals, and carpals.
There are differences as well. The limbs of the rat have different proportions with the humerus being longer than the radius and the femur being longer than the tibia while the reverse is true in humans. The rat skeleton has a longer chain of vertebrate because of the tail while human vertebrates do not continue past the pelvis.  A final difference is that even though the skull of the rat has the same basic features it is more elongated shape with the eye sockets being larger compared the eye sockets of the human skull.

Unit 5 Reflection

This unit focused on metabolism and the different types of the body's systems that affect it. We learned about subjects such as fuel metabolism by studying how the body uses certain molecules and biochemical pathways to meet energy demands. There are three main stages. The fed state is where food is being absorbed. The fasting state is when molecules are being broken down and stored. The starvation state is when the body starts using secondary energy supplies in order to keep functioning. We also discussed how metabolism could be disrupted by diabetes. Type 1 causes the immune system to attack beta cells and require people to take insulin shots. Type 2 begins as insulin resistance and leads to the body not being able to respond properly to insulin at all. The endocrine system controls processes that are involved in equilibrium with the use of hormones, which are controlled by specialized organs. The lymphatic system's purpose is for lipid absorption, immunity, and fluid recovery. The lymph flows like blood with the use of lymph vessels.
During this unit, I felt like I was able to learn a lot of different subjects that I could apply to me own life, but I still need to work on my active learning because I am not retaining as much information I should be.
I really enjoyed the activity of creating the model of the digestive system because it helped me visualize how long it was ,and how the different parts compared to each other.
http://ezanatandphys.blogspot.com/2016/01/digestive-system-lab-questions.html
I also enjoyed the readings and the different articles we had to read about metabolism because it gave me a more real world and in depth perspective on what we were learning in class.
For this unit, I still want to learn more about how different foods can affect metabolism and still wonder how age can affect it.
I have been working on my new year goal of being healthier by sleeping more than I used to and by exercising more consistently, but for my other goal I still need to work on keeping up with my classes and staying organized.

Posters to review stages of metabolism and the organs and hormones associated with them.

Digestive System Lab Questions

1. In this lab the length of the parts of the digestive system were estimated by using different lengths that could be measured outside of the body. Using these lengths and different color string, we created a model of our own digestive systems. It helped us visualize the length of each part and the entire digestive system.

Digestive Organ	Color and Length(cm)
Mouth	blue 13 cm
Esophagus	red 52.3 cm
Stomach	green 19 cm
Small Intestine	711.2 cm
Large Intestine	blue 177.8 cm
Total	973.3 cm

2. My digestive system is about 5.5 times longer than my height. It is able to fit inside my abdomen because it is folded multiple times, so it takes up less space.

3. I predict that it takes about 12 hours for food to move through the entire digestive system. The actual number is about 24 hours. Factors that affect this time is what is being digested ,and the health of the person. 

4. Digestion is basically breaking down food into smaller parts. Organs that help with digestion are the mouth, saliva glands, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, and gall bladder. Organs that help with absorption, which is how nutrients are taken from food, are the small intestine and large intestine.

5. I still want to learn how different types of foods are treated by the digestive system. 

New Year's Goals

This semester I will put in the effort to be healthier. Because I am a second semester senior, there is less pressure to get high grades, so I will have the opportunity to live a healthier life style. While getting consistent exercise, I will keep track of the type of foods I eat and make sure that I get enough sleep. This means that I will make sure to manage my time better in order to weed out any type of procrastination that will cause me to sleep past midnight. I will make sure to get the same amount of sleep every night.
For this class another goal I have is to make sure I become a more active learner. This means not only listening in class and doing the assignments but also reviewing what I learn each day and taking the time to connect what I learn in class to things outside of class. I will take the time to read through the notes and make flash cards of concepts that I have a hard time grasping. This type of learning will help me actually learn and retain material while getting more out of the class. Active learning will also help during nights before the test which usually meant a night of desperate cramming, but because I will have retained the information I needed I won't have to stay up late studying. With this type of learning I will gain a deeper understanding of the material in class.

Monday Wellness Reflection

Google presentation
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WWzaWb2RQ7YcG55BDnSo3QJGA0eIsu8jf6HVvTlWeTI/edit?usp=sharing

Our Monday Wellness topic was sitting. We chose this topic because last year we had a lot of experience with sitting for long periods of time often for studying and were curious about how sitting for too long could affect our health. We were also curious about the correct way to sit ,and how form can have long term effects on health. I think that this topic is important because with technology today and the workload of students we are encouraged to sit more and for longer periods of time.

While we were doing research for our presentation, we learned about different health aspects of sitting and were surprised about the large part it played in a person's health. Originally we thought we would be learning a lot about how bad posture and sitting for too long would affect the spine, but there was too much information on both posture and sitting other than the spine that we had to somewhat separate the topics. For posture it was interesting to learn about how with a good posture people actually feel better about themselves and have a better mood, so posture doesn't only affect the physical aspect of health, but also the social aspect. It was also very useful to learn about the small steps to actually have good posture. For sitting it was interesting to learn about different studies and how the results showed that sitting for too long is actually connected to many health problems such as diabetes and cancer. At first it was scary to learn about these risks, but we also learned how easy it was to avoid these health risks by putting in the effort to sit less and become more active or take breaks from sitting with stretches.

I think our topic is important to health and wellness because during the school year students spend a lot of time sitting. Sometimes they do not have a choice when they are studying or in a classroom. It is important that students learn about how sitting too much and bad posture can affect them in the long term,  Students can take active steps to improving their sitting habits by taking breaks when they can to do stretches and to not slouch so much when they are in class. By following some of the things we taught them, they can live healthier lives because of the different pillars of health that sitting affects.

On a scale from 1-10 I would give our presentation an 8 because I feel that we learned a lot from our topic and we put in the effort to meet during the weekend to prepare. We also made sure to get evidence from different studies to back up our facts and connected it to our unit on health. It also took time to think of ways to make the presentation more interactive with our audience, but in the end we were able to come up with the before and after pictures that the students could use to see how they needed to improve their posture. However, our presentation was not long enough and we should have added more to our activities.  Overall, I think our presentation was very informative and relatable.  

Sheep's Heart Dissection Lab