What to expect this week!

Friday we had our Daily question quiz on the different organelles, this will be the first grade of the next nine weeks.  To review for this I had you guys watch the crash  course video below

This week we are wrapping up our unit on cellular structure and function.  Below are the keystone areas that will be assessed on this exam

Monday we will watch one more wrap up video on the different organelles and how they work together.  Following that you will begin your review for this exam.  This includes some writing prompts that will ultimately be part of your exam. (So don't throw it away!!!)

Tuesday we will review for the test - there will be a review game link that i will provide for you.

Wednesday will be the exam, Thursday we will have make ups and go over it, Friday will be an introduction to the next chapter (the cell membrane and cell transport)

Great job this nine weeks guys!!  I told you I would work you hard, but it is paying off!  Keep it up!

Organelles Wrap up

First, If you didn’t yesterday, I asked you to turn in:

Cell diversity lab (only 4 need completed – everyone needs #6- Bacteria and #7(plant leaf))

SAS questions

Vocabulary Review

 ***This will be the last grade of this nine weeks***

Then to our DQ's

Daily Questions – Thursday October 25^th

Studies of fat cells and thyroid cells show that fat cells have fewer mitochondria than thyroid cells. A biologist would most likely infer that fat tissue….

a. does not require energy

b. Has energy requirements equal to thyroid tissue

c. requires less energy than thyroid tissue.  This question did not require you to know anything about the thyroid or fat cells, but simply what the function of the mitochondria is.  Remember, mitochondria convert organic compounds into usable energy for the cell.  That "Usable" energy comes in the form of ATP

d. requires more energy than thyroid tissue.

After germination, continued plant growth pushes first the shoot and then the leaves through the soil.  We would expect the emergent leaf cells to contain many Chloroplast for photosynthesis.  Because the developing stem must support the plant, we would expect those cells to develop Thick Cell Walls

Again - this question did not require you to know about plant germination and growth, it simply was seeing if you knew some features that were found in plant cells and how their structre relates with the function.

After this we went through the "organelles worksheet." I then showed you the animation from the university of Utah's "Learn Genetics" site on cell size and scale.  This is a great way to put into perspective the things we have been talking about.  Check it out here at http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

Here is another way to look at it!  Check out this video on Youtube to put the microscopic world into perspective!!

Again - just as a reminder - Make sure you check edline to see how you are doing, get the extra credit option and see if there is a Daily Question quiz you would like dropped!  It's hard to believe but we are 1/4 of the way done guys!!!

Half Day - Cell Diverstiy Wrap up

Wednesday October 24th Daily Questions

While looking under the microscope at a plant leaf, tell me three notable features you saw AND what their function is for the cell. (Hint – the notable features would be ones that distinguish it from an animal cell)

The most notabe feature would be that it was GREEN.... Why was it green???  Because it contained CHLOROPLAST.  What is the function of the chloroplast?  This is where photosynthesis occurs in plant cells.  (Solar energy is converted into chemical energy)

A second notable feature on ANY of the plant cells was the cell wall.  This aid in structure and support of plant cells and are not found in animal cells.

The last notable feature was the presence of Central/Contractile vacuoles.  THis looked like big "empty spaces" in many of the plant cells you looked at.  They are actually storage unites for water and nutrients.  Animal cells also have vacuoles but they are MUCH smaller.

When looking at any of the animal tissue cells, what was one notable feature you were able to see and what is it’s function.  Why couldn’t you see this in the bacteria slide?

The only real notable feature about any of the animal tissue was the presence of a nucleus.  The nucleus provides the instructions for all cellular functions because it contains the DNA.  We could not see these on the bacterial slide because bacteria are prokaryotic and do not contain a nucleus.  Remember, this does NOT mean they don't have DNA.  The DNA is found in the cytoplasm in bacterial cells.

The human heart and lungs contain cells that

A.  produce a hormone involved in respiration

B.  Have the same genetic information but perform different specialized functions

C.  use one part of the genetic code to synthesize all enzymes needed by the cell

D.  Contain different number of DNA molecules

Once we got through these questions I instructed you to turn in all the work we have been doing over the past three days in the following order
**Cell Diversity Lab
**SAS Questions
**Vocabulary review (remember, you WILL use letter A)

Don't forget to check Edline for the extra credit option!!!!

Second day of cellular diversity lab

Tuesday October 23^rd

Today we continued with the cellular diversity lab and answering questions from this chapter.  I also announced the extra credit option that is available on edline. If you decide to do that, please get that to me by Friday.  I also added the additional option to make a poster or pamphlet of one of the disorders you chose for an ADDITIONAL 5 bonus points!!  That's up to 20 extra bonus points guys!!  

Tomorrow we will wrap up the activities we have been working on and get all make up work taken care of!!

here were today's Daily Questions:

I look under a microscope and see rigid cell walls and green structures inside cells.  Because of this what can I infer about the cell?  That it is most likely a plant cell.  Just the presence of a cell wall does not automatically make it a plant cell because bacteria also have cell walls.  The presence of the chloroplast does that indicate that it is a plant cell. Some disorders are caused by a lack of lysosomes in the cells of a particular tissue, what would result from this? (what would happen in the cell?)  Since lysosomes aid in breaking down cellular "junk" and removing it from the cell the lack of those would cause a build up of wastes and the cell would become "toxic" If the golgi apparatus was out of order in a cell, what would the direct result of that be regarding protein production and transportation? Since the golgi apparatus is responsible for putting finishing touches on proteins that were made in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, it these were out of order protein that were meant to be shipped out of the cell would not.

Starting cellular diversity activity

Daily Questions for October 22nd

The structures found in a living cell can be compared to the parts of a factory that produces cars. Which part of the factory is most similar to the nucleus of a living cell?

(1) a conveyor belt that transports materials 

(2) a storage bin that holds the pieces needed to assemble a car

(3) the computer room that controls the assembly process

(4) the generator that provides energy for the factory

Certain poisons are toxic to organisms because they interfere with the function of enzymes in mitochondria. This results directly in the inability of the cell to

(1)  store information

(2)  build proteins

(3)  release energy from nutrients

(4)  dispose of metabolic wastes 

To answer these two questions all you really needed to do was look in your notes about the nucleus and the mitochondria.  Remember, the nucleus is in "charge" because it contains the DNA - the DNA provides the instructions for the cell.  The Mitochondria is responsible for transferring energy from  organic molecules into ATP. 

After this I "lectured" on the notes.  You had all of the notes down but we haven't had a discussion on them.  We made it through all the notes then started into our cellular diversity lab.  In this activity you took a look at a variety of tissue samples under the microscope.  Some were plant, animal and also one specimen of bacterial.  Here are similar images to what you looked at under the microscopes.

This was bacteria.  they were VERY Hard to see under
our microscopes because they are SOOO small!!

There were leaf cells

Liver Tissue (Notice the purple dots are the nucleus
and they are surrounded by pink "fluid."  That
would be the cytoplasm which is stained so that we
can see it.)

Lung tissue.   Notice how much space surrounds these cells
these are pockets for air to be trapped.

This is a similar image to the pine stem you looked at.
Most notable features here are the large central vacuoles
and the very present sturdy cell walls.

This was the heart muscle.  These are very hard to see
but again, the purple dots are the nuclei.

This was the image of cork.  Our cork slide was pretty old so
there was a lot of "damaged" parts to the cork.  What you were
to be looking at where these finer features.

Organelles

Today we got through most of the notes on organelles.  Continue to check edline for those if you are absent.  We started today with the following daily questions

Thursday October 18^th

The cell is the basic unit of Structure & Function in all living organisms.

The human body has about 200 different types of cells with VERY different functions.  What determines the function of a liver cell compared to a kidney cell? The structure of the cell.  Remember, all cells have similar structures found in them but they look incredibly different because they have incredibly different functions.  Below are some pictures of different eukaryotic cells.

Liver Cells

Kidney Cells

Lung Cells

 See how each of these cells have VERY different strcutres because they have VERY different functions!!

The main difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells is the presence or absence of what?

 A nucleus.  The term prokaryotic literally means "Before Nucleus" or "Before Kernel" because have no nucleus and they are much more primitive than Eukaryotic cells.  Eukaryotic literally means "True Kernel/Nucleus" because it DOES contain a nucleus.

What are three features of a cell that are common to both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells?

While prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells are very different, they ALL contain DNA, are enclosed in a cell membrane, are filled with cytoplasm and contain ribosomes

Introduction to cells

It has been a while since I made a blog post!!  We have been doing a lot of introductory activities for this chapter including some book work and videos.  We started to get down the notes and today some of you had an open notes quiz on what we took yesterday.  To start the class though we had the following daily questions

After this we continued in the notes through some of the main organelles.  Please check Edline for the complete "Cell Structure and Function" Presentation.

Daily Questions - October 17th

Which sequence lists the levels of organization in the human body from simplest to most complex?

(1) organ system >tissue >cell >organ

(2) tissue >cell >organ >organ system

(3) organ >organ system >tissue >cell

(4) cell >tissue >organ >organ system

Tissue is composed of a group of

(1) similar cells working together

(2) different organs working together

(3) organ systems working together

(4) nuclei in a cell working together

Humans require organ systems to carry out life

processes. Single-celled organisms do not have

organ systems and yet they are able to carry out

life processes. This is because

(1)  human organ systems lack the organelles

       found in single-celled organisms

(2)  a human cell is more efficient than the cell of

       a single-celled organism

(3)  it is not necessary for single-celled organisms

       to maintain homeostasis

(4)  organelles present in single-celled organisms

       act in a manner similar to organ systems

Cell Structure and Function Introduction

Friday you guys survived your first BIG Exam!!  Overall I was very impressed with how well you guys did.  HOPEFULLY you saw the importance of giving me at least those first 15 minutes of class when we go over the daily questions.  I would prefer that you NOT zone out the rest of class, but even if you DO, you will generally catch back up the next day during daily question time.

Today and tomorrow are introductory activies into the next chapter.  Over these next two days you will see a couple videos that QUICKLY go through some of the things we will talk about over the next week as well as a Directed reading through the first two sections of this chapter.

Like the last time I had you guys watch "Crash Course" videos I had you write down Key parts of what he was saying.  We will go through each part in detail as the chapter goes on.

Here were the two videos that I got through

Thursday we will start into more detail about these videos and begin getting notes.  This will be a fairly QUICK chapter - in fact we will probably get through it by the end of next week!!

Review Day

 Today we reviewed for our first exam.  I spent the majority of the time looking at characteristics of life, basic chemistry and water since that was taught first and you may have forgot that!!  I encouraged you also to check out some of the "Crash Course" videos as  a review.  (See Below)

  

There are the "Keystone Anchors" that will be assessed on the exam

 



Wednesday Daily Questions

Today's Daily Questions were all sample Keystone Exam questions and will most definietly show up on your test on friday.

Which statement BEST explains why large changes in pH can affect the functions of plant enzymes? A. Large changes in pH increase the rate of biochemical reactions B. Large changes in pH provide the energy necessary to activate an enzyme C. Large changes in pH can denature an enzyme causing a change in its shape D.  Large changes in pH can cause an enzyme to lower the activation energy
Without enzymes, the chemical reactions in our body woul		a. Happen too quickly                                 C.  require a different pH b.Occur at the same rate as they do now   D.Occur too slowly to support life processes
An enzyme	a. Provides extra energy for a reaction              c. Eliminates the activation energy of a reaction b. Lowers the activation energy of a reaction    d. allows irreversible reactions to occur
Which of the following statements about enzymes is FALSE?		a. are usually proteins                 c. reduces the activation energy of chemical reactions b. can only catalyze a reaction once     d. are greatly affected by pH and temperature
Substance A is converted to substance B in a metabolic reaction.  Which statement BEST describes the role of an enzye during this reaction?			A.  It adjusts the pH of the reaction medium B.  It provides energy to carry out the reaction C.  It dissolves substance A in the reaction medium D.  It speeds up the reaction without being consumed

Today we went through these, then talked through the lab from yesterday and the directed reading activity.  You were to turn in the "Quiz" part of that packet.  Tomorrow we will review and Friday will be the test!!!

Effects of pH and temperature on enzymes

Yesterday we did a lab looking at the effects of pH and temperature on enzyme activity.  We saw through this lab that enzymes will ONLY work at certain pH's and temperatures.  Why?!?!?!?  Because pH and temperature will effect the shape of an enzyme which in turn effects how well it works.  Here were some pics from the labs

Procedure A looked at the effect of temperature on the digestion of lipids.
Each test tube contained a pH indicator (that turns pink at a pH above 8), Olive Oil (a lipid), and a mixture of digestive enzymes. Initial observations were the same for both tubes

One tube was placed at room temperature while the other was placed at body temperature (in an incubator) and set overnight.

Here were final observations

Procedure B also was testing the effect of temperature on enzyme action but this time it looked at enzyme activity on Starch.

Each test tube had a starch solution, a mixture of digestive enzymes, and an iodine solution. The iodine solution turns a dark blue/black in the presence of starch. Here is how all three started.

Test tube 1 placed at 5 degrees Celcius, 2 kept at room temp and
3 placed in the incubator at 37 degrees Celcius (body Temp)

You can see that the one placed in ice is still a dark blue color
while the room temperature is a very pale blue and the body
temperature one is completely clear (meaning there is NO starch
left!!)

And finally we had procedure C which looked at the effect of pH on enzyme activity. In this case we looked at enzymes activity on proteins.
Each test tube received a piece of boiled egg white and pepsin (a proteolytic enzyme). The changing variable in this case was the pH. One test tube had an acid added to it (Hydrochloric acid), The second had pure water (neutral pH) and the third had a base added to it (sodium hydroxide)

Set up

The constant variable here was the temperature. ALL of them made their way into the incubator to work at body temperature over night.

And here were final observations. The protein which was placed in an acidic environment (like that of our stomachs) worked the best and completely digested the egg. The one at a fairly neutral pH did not do much at all while the basic test tube had slight enzyme activity.

Introduction to Enzymes

Today we started with the following Daily questions

Monday October 1^st

What kind of organic molecule are enzymes?

 Proteins

Because they are this specific type of organic molecule, what would you infer determines their function?  Their function is determined by their shape and how the amino acids are folded on top of each other.

What do they aid in?  Biochemical reactions

After these we moved into notes about enzymes. Please see Edline for the notes.  Two KEY things I want you to know about enzymes is their ROLE in biochemical reactions and what factors influence their activity! (See Keystone assessment anchors above)

We will do a lab tomorrow that looks at two of these factors!