Save the Bay Reflection

Our class went on a field trip to the wetlands of the San Francisco Bay last tuesday. Save the Bay is an organization which specializes in restoration of the San Francisco Bay using both specialists and volunteers (i.e. citizen science). Since the early 1900s, the wetlands have been reduced 90%. This has greatly affected the wildlife, endangering many native species.

The Wetlands of the San Francisco Bay, courtesy of R. Girard

Here is what I learned:

1. Pickleweed evolved to be able to live in salt water. This directly relates to evolution and adaptation, which we learned about in Unit 1. Genetically, most species of wildlife has mutated somewhere along the line in order to adapt to the environment.

This is a picture of Pickleweed, courtesy of R. Girard

2. The California drought has been one of the worst droughts in the history of California, and has greatly affected the wildlife and the statistics of information that Save the Bay collects.

3. The San Francisco Bay is the second biggest estuary in the country, after the Chesapeake Bay. As an estuary, the San Francisco Bay harvests both freshwater and saltwater plants, thus increasing specie diversity.

Courtesy of R. Girard

Citizen Science is a branch of science where data and information is taken and recorded by citizens of the general public. Citizen science, while maybe not all as accurate as science performed by a professional, is important because there is a lack of scientists but a surplus of discoveries to be made. Generally, the more information collected the better for scientific purposes and projects, and citizen science encourages this. By taking this data, not only did collect data for the Save the Bay organization which can potentially go to new project and statistics, but I also gained respect for the San Francisco Bay and Save the Bay.

This is our class getting ready to partake in citizen science (photo courtesy of R. Girard)

In my small group, I was the data collector. I highly enjoyed this position; being the scribe and organizing data is my specialty. We tested soil salinity, moisture, pH, conductivity, and biodiversity.

Here is a picture of my group and me collecting data (courtesy of R. Girard)

Overall, I had a ton of fun on this field trip. I always look for an excuse to get out of the standard classroom and this trip enabled my classmates and me to do so. Assisting on this Save the Bay project made me feel like we were doing a lab, except this time I was really able to connect a lab-like experience with real life experiences. I will always remember Ms. Cerels getting stung by a wasp, which I think is safe to say was a traumatizing moment for everyone involved. If I could change one thing about the field trip, I would have it on a day where the weather is a little bit better, because the fresh rain arose the wasps and made them a little bit angry. I really liked my leader, Mugwart (aka Brian), and for some reason the fact that this was his first time working on this specific project too calmed me down and made the experience more enjoyable. I definitely think this field trip was worthwhile and would love to go again.

Save the Bay: Pre-Trip

On Wednesday, November 17th, our class is going on a field trip  to work with the organization Save the Bay to help do some research and learn about the environment and what we can do to preserve it. I personally am a huge fan of field trips – they are just as fun during 12th grade as they were during kindergarten. I believe that getting out of the classroom and having more of a hands-on approach to learning makes the material more memorable. Also, I think just changing up the environment and the normal schedule of a student makes the experience special and thus leaves more of a positive connotation. Field trips are similar to labs in the sense that they both demonstrate real life applications of whatever material is being studied to the real world.

I personally am really excited to observe the animals in the wetlands and learn about preventive measures to save the environment. As an animal lover I am primarily concerned with the negative effects pollution has on wildlife. I would like to learn more about how severely human activity is hurting the environment and what the future looks like for our planet if we do not make drastic changes to the way we treat it. Obviously, I would like to positively affect the environment. I don’t think anyone has the intention of having a negative impact on the environment (or at least I hope not), but I know the third option, apathy, may unfortunately be the dominant choice. Humans are naturally selfish beings, and many people simply do not care enough about what happens to the planet to make any efforts to improve its condition. I hope on this field trip to learn some basic ways that even one person can make a difference in order to try and solve this problem.

Visit http://blog.savesfbay.org to learn more about Save the Bay!

Making Meiosis Move

I collaborated with Abi Grassler to create a moving project that demonstrates the steps of meiosis in gamete cells. We used craft supplies – mainly Pipe Cleaners – to symbolize various organelles and depict the changes made and steps taken during meiosis. We then took pictures on an IPad, and used the Stop Motion application to string these pictures together in a motion film. You can view this video below:

Meiosis is a form of sexual reproduction and cell division. Unlike mitosis, which creates clones of the parent cell, meiosis creates genetic diversity – especially through crossing over, which occurs during Prophase I. Meiosis is similar to mitosis in that the cell goes through similar phases in both processes. However, meiosis goes through two divisions, producing four daughter cells, as opposed to mitosis which divides only once and produces two.

While Abi and I enjoyed using Stop Motion and taking pictures to create an animation of meiosis, using the craft supplies was challenging. Both Abi and I were originally unclear about the general process of meiosis, and we found that this confusion (on top of the struggle of using Pipe Cleaners and the time crunch) resulted in a lot of difficulties. However we did our best, and we are both really happy with the outcome of our project!

Work Cited:

Reece, Jane B., Lisa A. Urry, Michael L. Cain, Steven A. Wasserman, Peter V. Minorsky, and Robert B. Jackson. Campbell Biology. AP Edition ed. Vol. 10. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2014. Print.

The Miracle of Mitosis – Cell Division

Title: Examining Cells from the Tip of an Onion Root to Determine the Time the Average Cell Spends in Each Phase of Mitosis

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to determine how long cells spend in each phase of mitosis

Introduction: Mitosis is the process in which a cell divides, splitting the nucleus, and creating two identical daughter cells. Mitosis can be broken down into five major phases: Prophase, Prometaphase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase. The cell spends most of cell life in Interphase, however, which is a time for cell growth and DNA replication. Interphase takes part during the G2 cycle. During Interphase, a nuclear envelope encloses the nucleus, which contains one or more nucleoli/nucleolus. The cetrosomes have duplicated, and chromosomes cannot be seen yet. The chromosomes begin to become apparent during Prophase, the first phase of cell division, where the chromatin fibers condense and tightly coil. The nucleoli disappear during this phase and the mitotic spindle begins to form. Though prometaphase is the next phase, where the nuclear envelope begins to disintegrate and the kinetochores attach to the centromere, for the sake of this lab we did not identify this phase because it is so short and hard to distinguish. Next, during metaphase, the nuclear envelope completely dissolves and the centrosomes are now at opposite polls of the cells. The chromosomes line up in the middle at the metaphase plate, and the sister chromatids are attached to the kinetochore microtubules coming from opposite poles. Anaphase comes next, which is when the spindle fibers begin to shorten and the two sister chromatids of each pair start to part, moving toward opposite ends of the cells. The cell begins to elongate, and by the end of anaphase the two ends of the cell have equivalent and complete collections of chromosomes. The last phase is telophase,  which is when two daughter nuclei form in the cell and the envelopes begin to reform. The nucleolus split, and the cleavage furrow begins to form. After telophase is cytokinesis, which is not technically a phase because cytokinesis is the splitting of the cell, and mitosis refers to the division of the nucleus. Each stage of mitosis takes different amount of time, and while the observation of a complete cell cycle (24 hours) under a microscope is impossible, scientists can get a idea of the time spent in each stage by studying an onion root cell, and counting how many cells within the onion root are in each stage, thus creating an average percentage of cells per phase.

Method:

1. Take a sample of an onion root tip and put it under an electric microscope to observe.

2. Count and record how many cells there are total in the section of the cell you are looking at.

3. Identify which phase each cell is in, and record the data.

4. Once you have a count of how many cells are in each phase, divide the cells in each phase over the total amount of cells to find the average percent of cells in each phase. Then, by multiplying that percentage by the number of minutes in an hour (1440 minutes), find the amount of time the cells spend in each phase.

5. Record all date. Compare the percent of cells in each stage to find approximately how much time each phase would take by looking at the percentages relative to each other.

Data:

Here is a picture of the Onion root tip that I took through the microscope

Possible Errors:

Because we are fortunate enough to live in a age of advanced technology, I was able to use my phone to take a picture through the microscope. This thus magnified my view of the onion root tip, lowering the cell count. While this made the cells easier to observe/manage, but minimizing the amount of cells I now realize I also minimized my data accuracy. Therefore, the percent of cells in each stage, as well as the time a cell spends in each phase, is more of an average. The more data one has the higher chances of accuracy, and because I only had two points of data that also takes away from the accuracy of the results.

Works Cited:

“Online Onion Root Tips.” Online Onion Root Tips. The Biology Project, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014. <http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/activities/cell_cycle/cell_cycle.html&gt;.