Thursday, 5 December 2013

Angiosperm

Angisperms have adapted to life on land by allowin a more efficient way to become pollinated and fertilized. For example, the plant has evolved to have bigger plants and brighter colours for the plant so that the insects are attracted to the plant. The seed in angiosperms are dispersed usually by wind and water. Plans such as pollen ones are dispersed with wind as they are light and breeze. Fruit such as coconut are dispersed by water. This is true because when a coconut falls from the tree it may get swept with the water and land elsewhere to grow again. The purpose of the fruit is to protect the seed and make sure it becomes dispersed

Gymnosperms

Gymnosperms have adapted To different environments by a few things. They have a seed which allows for fertilization to become more successful because it is more protected. They have developed stronger vascular tissue for example evergreen trees. Trees such as the pine are thin which reduces transpiration which I water loss through the leafs. The difference between fertilization and pollination is that in pollination, the male sex part is the pollen which gets transferred to stigma. In fertilization, it is where the pollen or sperm meets the egg and they join to form a new life

Ferns

I found my ferns in an environment with moist soil and lots of sunlight. They are found in moist environments because for ideal conditions for reproduction where it needs the sperm to meet up with the egg. Ferns need water to uptake and give out to the whole plant through the xylem vessels in order for the plant to be healthy. It also needs water to transport spores. Mosses and ferns are different because ferns have a vascular system which involves xylem and phloem while moss have no xylem and phloem but have a sporphytic stage

Moss

I found the moss in a damp area which was the stream at the back of Sullivan heights on the ground and also on the bigger rocks. They are found near wet environments because they are small in size and have very thinness of tissue. They need a constant supply of water up through the rhizomes. They also have no cuticle to prevent water loss so they need the moist environment. They grow so low to the ground because it is a plant that needs the water to be up taken constantly. It thrives off the moistness

Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Pollination

Pollination is the movement of the male sex part which is the pollen from the stigma down the style and into the ovule to become fertilized and create a new flower. The differences between cross pollination and self pollination is that in self pollination the anthers transfer pollen froth e same flower onto the stigma. In cross pollination different animals such as bees transfer the sticky pollen onto a different flower of the same species. Self pollination is good because the flower does not rely on insects for transferring the pollen. Cross pollination is good because if the flowers anthers do not have much pollen on them they will not successfully fertilize the flower.

Dissecting Tulips

Today in class we dissected  flowers. 
Below are a few of the parts that make up the flower

Monday, 2 December 2013

Monocot and dicots - roots

This is a picture of a Dicot in a root. I know that this is a Dicot because of the arrangement of the vascular bundle which is on the outside against the epidermis. This is different to the monocot root which has the vascular bundle in the centre coming through instead of on the outside 

Thursday, 28 November 2013

Mimosa Pudica

File:Mimosa Pudica.gifThis plant is like no other. It reacts to touch! If any animal or thing in general comes into contact with the plant, it will shrink back and become smaller. Other names for this plant that are commonly used are; Shrinking plant, Sleepy Plant and the "Touch me not". The reason that the leafs on the plant shrink back is because to protect themselves against predators who would want to eat the plant. You can find this amazing plant in South America and Central America. Grows in shady conditions.

My Super cool plant


My unique and strange plant s called the Dracunculus Vulgaris. What makes this plant so extraordinary and interesting is that this plant releases an odour of raw meat which attracts flies to the plant in order for them to pollinate the plant. The plant is found in Northern Europe and North America. Despite its weird strategy to attract flies and that odour, this plant is commonly found around and is not harmful to humans. There are many different names for this plant such as Dragon Arum, Voodoo Lily. Snake lily and also the Stink Lily. It's amazing how plants have adapted in order to become fertilized. Below is a video on the plant and how the plant functions.

Difference between PineCones and Acorns

Acorns and Pine Cones come from two different trees and this is the main difference between them. Acorns are produced by Oak trees and Pine Cones from Pine trees. One similarity of both of them is that they both have a primary job to disperse seeds. Acorns are smaller and much harder than the female pine cone which is larger and more prickly and also softer. Pine cones are dispersed to reproduce when they become large and the wind takes them off the pine tree. Acorns are dispersed much the same by having wind blow them to optimum distance in order to become fertilized
.

Thursday, 14 November 2013

Mid-term evaluation

Classification and Taxonomy
So far in the Biology course I have shown an okay understanding of Classification. I got 8/15 on my classification quiz, however I think I could have done much better since it was the first quiz and if I were to do it right now my mark would be different in a positive way. I lost most marks on 

What I learned from Classification: I learned that it is the organization of animals into 7 different categories
1.Kingdom
2.Phyllum
3.Class
4.Order
5.Family
6.Genus
7.Species
I also learned about how organisms can be classified as either prokaryotic or eukaryotic
 Eukaryotic meaning that the organism is more complex, has a nucleus and
organelles ex. Humans. Prokaryotic is quite the
opposite with the organism having no nucleus or organelles ex.Bacteria. http://asadssupercoolbilogy.blogspot.ca/2013/09/kpcofgs-of-pantcher.html


Evolution
in the evolution topic i learnt about how factors such as Natural Selection can bring about Evolution to animals in an environment. The main thing about the whole natural selection topic which is most important is that it is survival of the fittest and the animal that is most well adapted to the environment will survive. i have attached an assignment about how certain animals have evolved to survive and this assignment gave me a great deal of information on the topic. i received 5/5 on the questions and on the quiz i got 17/20. proving that i know my stuff on Evolution. I have also attached an assignment on the different types of selection in an environment and which is most common. that worksheet helped me understand evolution the best and helped me get good at it. Me and my group made a video all about DNA and how it changes with Evolution. By doing this video it gave me an even clearer understanding of Evolution and how it occurs.http://asadssupercoolbilogy.blogspot.ca/2013/10/our-video.html
















Viruses
During the Virus topic I learnt about the structure of a virus and all the components that make the virus up. I achieved a 17.5/20 on my Virus test which shows that I understand the topic well. Below I have attached a blog post on a virus I have studied thoroughly through, which was Swine Flu. Because I had studied why a virus effects certain things and how to prevent them from attacking, i was able to achieve the mark I did on the Quiz.http://asadssupercoolbilogy.blogspot.ca/2013/10/the-swine-flu.html

Bacteria
This was one of my favorite topics so far in the course of Biology 11. I learned a great deal about how the bacteria functions and all the parts that make up the bacteria such as cell wall, cytoplasm, the dna and more. I compared the differences between the Virus and Bacteria and how they are also similar. Doing this helped me achieve a solid mark for my Bacteria quiz and allowed me to understand what Bacteria is. The biggest assignment that made me learn how bacteria grow and colonize was the agaar plate experiment that was done in the lab taking tests from different areas in the school and leaving it for a day. Below I have attached some results from the lab. I learnt and was fascinated by the 3 different shapes of bacteria; Staphlo, Bacilium and Coccus.

Protists
This was a very interesting topic to learn. Mainly because of the great deal of time spent finding different moving organisms under the microscopes. I compared the Protists and Bacteria and what makes up each cell and this helped me understand the whole topic alot more easier. I learnt that Protists live near aquatic areas and that the area needs to be moist for ideal conditions. I also learnt that Protists use binary fission as a means to reproduce which helps them reproduce quickly rather than the normal process of Meiosis. I happened to find a funny yet informative video on Protists and how they live and what they do. The class enjoyed this video as much as I do. http://asadssupercoolbilogy.blogspot.ca/2013/10/my-protist-research.html

Last remarks
I would like to say that Biology has always been one of my favorite subjects. I moved from a school where the sciences are very hard, since it was a British school (Doha College). A lot of the stuff that we learn in class such as the whole Evolution topic and the Taxonomy are all stuff I have learnt. I know my marks should be higher than they are right now but I think the reason for my marks not being where I ideally want them to be is because I'm taking it too easy. When I was living in Qatar I was being pushed to work hard and study but when I come to this class I dont feel the urge. I'm not blaming the teacher but I'm trying to say that I am old enough to push my self to do good because I find much of the stuff very easy. I love participating in class and giving my own input on what I think about a topic and enjoy discussing interesting things. I get along with all the people in my class and enjoy socializing (which needs to be cut down a bit). I am really trying to do my best in school and I have been doing well in all my other classes. Based on my quizzes and blogpost as well as completed assignments, I think I deserve a 76%. I have lots of room to improve in this course and I'm willing to put the effort into doing it as I know that I can achieve my goal of an A for sure :)

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Hitler bug

The hitler bug is called Anophthalmua hitleri. It is a species of blind cave beetle found in Slovenia. Species name was made a dedication to Adolf Hitler who had recently become Chancellor of Germany. Hitler thanked the german who made the species named after him. Has no special characteristics.
kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Anthropoda
Class: insecta
Order: coleopatra
Family: caribadae
Genus: anophthalmus

Glowing mice

Some mice have been genetically modified to assist in the study of human diseases. One way of genetically modifying the mice is to do a pro nuclear injection into a single cell of a mouse embryo where it spreads. There are transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein. Which glows green under blue light.
http://www.forbes.com/2001/07/26/0726gfp.html

Monday, 28 October 2013

Algae

We looked at green algae today in the lab, we found many gyros which basically took up the whole slide. The green is visable from the outer side of the slide and this allows us to clearly view the algae

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

My protist research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cttqYJp2fos&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thursday, 17 October 2013

Bacteria destroying test

Abby, shimmi, brittany and my self gathered bacteria from the PE staff room and put it in the container. We then used water, sanitizer, bleach and a control. These were used to test to see which things would destroy the bacteria. So far after a day, we have seen that the bleach has destroyed it the most.
I think that we could not do the same test with viruses because viruses effect living things even though they reproduce. Maybe if there was some living things inside the agaar plates

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Bacteria growing

Top left: staff room
Top right: mr d room
Bottom left: hand rail
Bottom right: pe room

Monday, 7 October 2013

The swine flu

The swine flu or H1N1, was transmitted to the world by pigs. They carried the virus which then lead to humans being effected by it. The effects Swine flu were similar to the ones of influenza, for example, fever, colds, coughs, sore throats, headaches, body aches and fatigue. Over 18000 people had died since the virus came out in April 2009, if there were no vaccines there would have been over 500000 deaths worldwide due to Swine Flu. Countries worldwide were affected by the virus. All continents had cases of swineflue related deaths and illness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_influenza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8083179.stm

Our video

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=c4-feed-u&v=SrOxuslfrdM

Virus

The general structure of a virus is extremely small in height and diameter and enclosed in a protein shell or coat. The genetic material at makes up the virus can be the following; Double stranded DNA, Double stranded RNA, single stranded DNA and Single stranded RNA? This genetic material is dependent on the type of virus and its nature
Some examples of plant viruses found on earth are lettuce mosaic virus, grapevine fanleaf virus and the bushy stunt virus, some examples of animal viruses include, small pox, scurvy, and the plague. I think that viruses are very much alive because they target certain animals and plants so that they can get energy or nutrition from it. But i think that the viruses may not be alive as well because most viruses are transmitted by other animals or plants so it may be that its just a natural thing rather than alive. There are many beneficial viruses as a matter of fact. Viruses spread their genes and they can take over the host of bacterias which then is a positive for humans but also a negative because the virus will spread in a way

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Why do male Lions have Manes?\

I think that lions have a mane because it makes them more appealing to other tigers and this increases the chance of offspring. I also think that they have their manes because it shows who is dominant in their pride. If you have a really big mane then you would be considered the larger and more succesful in the pride. Over the years, lions mane has increased in size as the ones with larger manes tend to produce more offspring and those offspring have larger manes and this trend is carried on over the years and therefore this is an example of natural selection.

Monday, 16 September 2013

Question?!

We have seen how all seen how animals from the same family and genus is the same, but why aren't all of those animals look exactly the same? How have the animals evolved, explain?

Panthera Leo


Panthera Leo


Acinonyx jubatus


Felus catus


Felis concolor


Lupus familiralis


Similarities and differences of the KPCOFGS

What i found out about the different animals such as Lions and Cheetahs was that everything was the same with them besides the genus and species. The lion and cheetah are both mammals and felidae but lion has a different genus which is Panthera. This also works for the panther and the cat and this is because all of these animals are all cats so they come from the family. The dog, however, is very different because it comes from a different family which is Canidae. The dog relates to other animals such as Wolfs and hyenas.

Kpcofgs of dogs


Kpcofgs of panther


Kpcofgs of cats


Kpcofgs of Cheetah


Kpcofgs of Lion


Thursday, 5 September 2013

Why are all or most plants green?

Most plants are green because they have green chloroplasts. These chloroplasts are the main site of photosynthesis within the plant. They absorb sunlight as the plant needs to grow. Plants that dont contain green pigments in the plant usually have less amounts of energy being generated or in alot of cases they arent classified as plants since they contain no chloryphyll.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAQYpra4aUs
http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/081496.html