Cells Final Project

My goal for the project was to create a comic book in 13 days. I wanted to create something that would help 10 to 12 year old people to understand what I am learning in Science classes. As I like drawing I though a comic book would be the best way, as kids usually learn best when they have some visual source. I knew it would take a lot of time to do a comic book, because I did one in other class and it gave me a lot of work. I planed what I had to do in the following 13 days very well, I would spend some time doing a brief research over the topics, other creating the characters, some days planing the story, creating the lines, making a draft, drawing the final version, painting the final version and finally revising and making the final touches. However I did not follow my plan, and everything sort of went wrong. I had trouble managing my time and left all my work for the last few days of the additional week that was given. Then I realized that I didn't have enough time to do a comic book. But when I realized that it was late, I had done half of the comic book. Instead of continuing doing the comic book I started doing an story. I am proud of the story I created because by reading it kids can understand what I am learning now really easily. The story I created goes around a boy called Little Toby and it shows the effects of a diet poor in proteins and fats, it also help them to understand the role of nutrients. Further in the story the readers will learn about photosynthesis, cells, organelles... It doesn't take much to read the story that can be sometimes even funny. Who said that learning needs to be boring?! In the other hand I didn't manage to accomplish my goals and I kind of fail in this part, but I made a really good project that I hope will help many 10 to 12 year olds to understand what they will learn in 9th grade.

Egg Lab

In the last week we had to observe two eggs without shell in different solutions. We were divided in groups, the solutions my group chose to the eggs were Distilled Water and Alcohol. In the first day of the experiment I miss class because I was sick, but in the other two days I was there helping my group. We predicted that the eggs would get bigger and some chemical reaction would happen due to diffusion and osmosis. For three days we measured the eggs' circumference, the remaining solution and weighed the eggs. We were suppose to start with 80 milliliters of each solution, but my group started with 100 milliliters so I am not able to make an average with the other groups that used the same solutions. That is why I am doing just the tables and graphs from the information that I have from my group.

The eggs changed a lot in the three days they were in the solutions. In the first day they were ordinary eggs with no shell. In the second day the egg in Distilled Water was yellow and the other in the Alcohol was white. Although just in the third day we could see what had really happened to the eggs, as we opened them. The egg in Distilled Water was yellowish, more transparent, bigger, it popped right away as we touched the knife revealing a more liquify egg. The egg in the Alcohol was white, harder to cut and when we cut it we face with some bubbles and with a solid egg that looked like it was boiled.

In the pictures bellow we can see how the eggs looked like in the third day. 

By these pictures we can perceive how diffusion and osmosis work; the eggs were the same but the solutions were different what made all the difference. The molecules of water cross the egg membrane increasing its size and making it more liquify. Also the egg exchange materials with the Distilled Water that we couldn't notice because we were measuring the egg along the process. We predicted that the egg would get bigger and that some chemical reaction would happen, the egg increased its size and changed into another substance. By seeing the egg that was in Alcohol we can notice that as the solution was different the exchange was made of different particles. The particles of alcohol that crossed the egg membrane made a chemical reaction in which the egg turned solid and with a boiled egg appearance. We can tell that diffusion and osmosis occurred by the diverse results we got from the both eggs. Also as you will see above there were changes in the circumference, mass of the eggs and volume of the solutions. There is the possibility of errors as we did these experiments in class, but we worked hard to identify any error and make the information accurate as possible.


The tables and graphs below show how the eggs changed along the process according to my group.


                 Volume of Distilled Water (milliliters)
Day 1                         100
Day 2                          82
Day 3                          70



                    Circumference of Egg in Distilled Water (centimeters)
Day 1                15.5
Day 2                 16
Day 3                 17

                  
                Egg in Distilled Water Mass (grames)
Day 1                     74,7
Day 2                     80,9
Day 3                     68,9

There is clearly an error in the egg mass, because as its circumference got bigger the mass should have got bigger too. What may have happened is that we weighted the egg in the beginning and just wrote the results at the end, what led us to forget some number.


                      Volume of Alcohol (milliliters)
Day 1                      100
Day 2                       80
Day 3                       64.8

         

              Circumference of Egg in Alcohol (centimeters)

Day 1                15

Day 2                15

Day 3                15

               Egg in Alcohol Mass (grames)

Day 1                     65.9

Day 2                     65

Day 3                     64.8

My Cell Speech

In class we were divided in groups, and each group was given a type of eukaryotic cell. The members of the group would receive an organelle, having to give a speech to defend why his organelle was the most important for the cell. My group was given an eukaryotic animal cell, and as the captain I had to decide which was the best speech and which was the worse. Some group members had an easier work than others because their organelle played a larger role in the cell; however some couldn't clearly express their thoughts, and others didn't make a good research. I had to choose what was the speech that convince me the most of the organelle's importance. In general the speeches were good, there were few errors in some speeches but nothing serious. The most persuasive speech was Victor's; he was clear, had a lot of details and good reasons, and got right into the point. The weakest speech wasn't so bad, it just didn't contain quality examples and the speaker wasn't confident of what he was saying. There were also creative speeches, Deborah made a rap song which was original and nice because she got "out of the box". I liked being the captain, I didn't have to make a speech, had the power to decide, and could learn more about each organelle from an eukaryotic animal cell. 

What Kind of Cell Would I like To Be

If I could be a cell, I would be a prokaryotic cell. I would like to be a prokaryotic cell because they are very simple single cells, they don't have organelles. Although they are very simple, they perform many important functions; serve as decomposers, agents of fermentation, play an important role in our own digestive system. They are really small and some of them use sulfur instead of oxygen in their metabolism. Some of them have a capsule that is an additional protection that also helps the cell adhere to surfaces and nutrients. They have flagella, structures made of protein, that enables them to move. Prokaryotic cells divide by binary function and are the most primitive forms of life on Earth. 

If I was a prokaryotic cell I wouldn't have to rely on others cells and would be able to move. I wouldn't depend on oxygen to live and although I would be simple and small I would be essential for life on Earth. I also would be resistant and be the oldest organism on Earth, which proves that I am the perfect organism as I am on Earth for so much time. 

"Meals on Wheels" Project

In this week we had to work in groups and analyze 3 menus to see in each of the categories they fit in; one week quick weight loss menu or healthy and balanced menu that fits a long term weight loss program. The menus were very distinct and by doing some research we were able to identify what nutrients were missing, and what nutrients were in exaggerated amounts in the menus. 

We had some difficulties when we started the project, but with the teacher's help we were able to do it and actually learn. This project was a great opportunity to experience what a nutritionist does and see if we liked, so maybe in the future we will know if that is what we want to do. In the presentation below you can see what we learned while doing this project.

 ...

With this project I could learn a lot about proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. I could learn how to apply them in a diet and why they are essential to our bodies. I also could practice my leadership skills, as I was the leader of he group. I think it was a great project and we should definitely do more things like this, where we can learn, help our group members and also receive help from them. 

What was the purpose of these first two days of school and what are my plans for this year?

The first two days of school meant a fresh start, it meant that we would need to work hard because this year will already reflect in our future. I always thought science was the hardest class but these first two days were pretty fun. 

In the first science class of the year we did the marshmallow challenge where we needed to work in groups of four to manage to put a marshmallow in the top of a tower made of spaghetti. To complete this challenge we only had 1 marshmallow, 20 sticks of spaghettis, one yard of tape and one yard of string.  We only had 18 minutes to complete this challenge with our group mates. It was kind of hard because my group started with the wrong foot cutting almost all the spaghetti sticks. We managed to build a tower, at the end it was to high for its bad structure and as we just included the marshmallow at the end it immediately went wrong. The whole tower fell and there was no time to fix it.



At the end of the challenge we saw some numbers about it and we discovered that kindergarten students do better than average adults. The thing is that they start building up by using the marshmallow while adults leave the marshmallow for the end having less time to fix if anything goes wrong. 

In the second day we saw a video that teached us to be persistent in anything we do and that to something work out there is no other way to be done than by working our ass off. At the end of class the teacher read something that inspired me; she read that to be really good at something you need to have 10,000 hours of practice. This theory was proven and anyone known because it was really good at something, Bill Gates, The Beatles, Tiger Woods, Beethoven, had these 10,000 hours of practice.

I think these two first had the purpose to introduce the course, letting us know not only what we will study but also what we need to do to succeed in it. It inspired us to work well and start the year with the right foot. Also we had the chance to work with our class mates and get to know how they work and what will be expected of group work this year. 


My plans for this year are to work really hard and learn the much as I can because I have a really good teacher and science is a really interesting subject. I hope that I will finish the year or semester with a good grade by being focused, persistent and hard working. I will try to take advantage from this course and try my best so that by the end I will be proud of myself.