Blog #10

Blog #10:
Why is dissection an important part of a biology curriculum? Which animals and/or plants should be included in biological studies?

          Dissection is an important part of the biology curriculum, because it allows students to have hands-on experience with animals or plants, which is especially important for students who are interested in pursuing the medical field as a surgeon or someone like that.  A lot of important information about the environment can be discovered through the examination of the dissected animals' organs and tissues. Science education is a process of exploring different experiences, like dissecting animals, that may lead students into a future profession.
              
             An animal that should be included in biological studies is the frog. The frog is probably the most popular species that students dissect, in different schools around the world. Classroom often use frogs because they can be easily caught, and are small; frogs also have about the same organs as a human. Research scientists dissect frogs to see what effects pollution and climate change are having on frogs. The reason for this is because of the fact that frogs are a lot more sensitive to environmental changes and will show effects much earlier than other species, such as human beings.The dissection of the fetal pig in the labratory is also important because pigs and humans have the same level of metabolism and have similar organs and systems. Even better, fetal pigs are usually inexpensive and easy to buy.

          

Blog #9

Define the different forms of community interaction: competition, commensalism, mutualism, predation, parasitism. Give an example and a picture for each.

           One type of community interaction is competition. Competition is an interaction between species or organisms and the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of the other. Competition can occur when the species are competing in the same area for a limited food supply or when they must share limiting resources. Species less suited to compete for resources either adapt or die out. An example of competition is in the picture below, which shows two male deer competing during mating season.

          Another type of community interaction is commensalism. Commensalism is a relationship between 2 organisms where one organism benefits from the other, but the other organism is not harmed but also does not benefit from the relationship. An example of commensalism is like the relationship between the sun and the plants. The plants benefit from the sun's sunlight, but the sun does not benefit from the plants, nor is it harmed by the plants.

           Mutualism is the relationship between two organisms, where both organisms benefit from each other. An example of mutualism would be like birds flying in formation. They all benefit from each other. When the leading bird gets tired, it flies to the back of the formation and the next bird takes over. They continue this and benefit from this because they can fly longer and farther in formation.

           Predation is an interaction between organisms where the predator feeds on its prey. The act of predation always results in the death of its prey and the eventual absorption of the prey's tissue through consumption. An example of predation would be like a lion, the predator, feeding on a Cape Buffalo, the prey, shown in the below picture.

           The last type of community interaction is parasitsm. Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different specieswhere one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. An example of parasitism is like fleas on a dog. The fleas won't kill the dog, but the dog will have to be cleaned and treated.

Blog #8

Blog #8: Your choice: Talk about something you learned or ask a question about something that is confusing you.

Something I learned about recently is about the food pyramid, which I had to research in my previous blog. I thought I knew about the food pyramid before, but I learned a lot of new things about it. A few years ago, there was an old food pyramid, which showed that proteins was the most important part of the pyramid. This led to obesity in many people, because everyone thought that they could eat a lot of proteins and carbs, like bread. However, no one really understood the food pyrimid serving sizes, so they ate according to the pictures, which weren't always accurate. After all, they were just pictures, and the important thing was learning what to eat, and how much to eat it. So, in 2005 a new food pyramid was created, making the fruit and vegetable part of the pyramid more important to our health. It showed better ways to eat healthy.

Blog #7

Blog #7: Compare and contrast two biomes. Describe them in detail; include pictures of plants and animals you are likely to see.

          The Freshwater Biome accounts for one fifth of Earth and provides half of the drinking water, one third of the water used for irrigation, and nearly ninety percent of the world's bathwater. The biome consists of inland lakes, streams, brooks, creeks, rivers, ditches, sloughs, gutters, puddles and canals. Leeches and catfish are a few of the many animals that the Freshwater Biome supports. 
Source: http://www.idiotica.com/cranium/encyclopedia/content/Freshwater.htm
          
          The Marine Biome are consisted of marine regions, coral reefs, estuaries, and oceans. This is similar to Freshwater Biomes because they both contain bodies of water, but Marine Biomes cover more of Earth's area, about 3/4 of Earth's surface, opposed to Freshwater Biomes which cover only 1/5 of Earth's area.
Source: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/marine.php

 

Blog #6

Blog #6 Which level of the food pyramid is the most important? Support your answer.


In my opinion, fruits and vegetables are the most important  level of the food pyramid. Although people can argue that proteins is the most important, fruits and vegetables can't make you overweight or unhealthy if you eat more than the recommended portion. When the new food pyramid wasn't created yet, people were going by the old food pyramid, which had proteins as the biggest and most important part of the food pyramid. That led many Americans to obesity, which is why the new food pyramid was created: to help people better understand how many servings of each level they should be eating. Fruits and vegetables are most important because they contain carotenes, which enhance our immune systems and helps against diseases. Fruits and vegetables also provide fiber, nutrients, minerals and vitamins, such as Vitamin A, which is good for eyesight and growth, and Vitamin C, which is good for protection against viruses and bacteria and healing wounds.


Sources: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/vitamins_which.htm
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/foodpyramid/a/05_food_pyramid.htm

Blog #5

There have been 5 major extinction events throughout history, are humans impacting the 6th? Why or why not?

I do believe that humans are impacting extinction. Many animals are constantly in danger of being extinct, because of many reasons which include hunting animals for food, and destroying natural habitats. One website even says that a biodiversity expert has warned us that "humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve." If this is true, wildlife is in anger, and humans are the cause. Also, it is becoming increasingly difficult for animals to survive in the climate changes and habitat loss. Unfortunately, almost 17,300 species are considered under threat and a lot would have to be done to stop these species from future extinction. 

Source:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/07/extinction-species-evolve

Blog #4

Describe the three types of selection: directional, stabilizing and disruptive and give an example of each in your own words.

          Directional selection is a type of natural selection where it favors a single phenotype. It occurs in population when there is a shift towards an extreme version of the good trait. An example would be like creating new breeds of dogs over generations. For example, scientists who want dogs who can run fast will look for and select breeds who can run fast, and select the fastest runners from their offspring. Over time, after continuing the process they can produce a dog in a future generation who can run extremely fast.  
          Stabilizing selection is a type of selection where genetic diversity decreases as the population settles on a certain trait. Stabilizing selection favors the normal traits in a population. An example of stabilizing selection is choosing something in the middle, an average point. For example, animals must have certain traits to survive in an environment, so stabilizing selection chooses an average, normal trait for that animal so there are no extremes. The size of an animal would be an example, because in certain habitats, that animal cannot be too big or too small, so stabilizing selection chooses a medium size for that animal.
          Disruptive selection is pretty similar to directional selection; it favors the extreme traits in a population. It is like the opposite of stabilizing selection. It is different from directional selection though, because sudden environmental changes cause sudden forces favoring a particular extreme. Disruptive selection occurs quickly. An example of this would be like the color of an animal. If a mouse had black fur and another had white fur, the offspring could have gray fur. However, the environment they are in may give an advantage to the black and white mice, therefore causing the mouse with gray fur to stand out. As a consequence of the selective environmental pressures the mice population would be disruptively selected for extreme values of the black and white mice, but not the gray mice.