Hi!

       Blue eyes, brown hair... Got those from mom... Oh hey guys sorry just looking at family pictures. 

       You may be wondering what family pictures have to do with science. Well we are going to talk about genetics, genetics is the science of genes and heredity. Heredity is why we look like our parents, because we inherit traits from our parents. The passing down of traits from our parents to us is the basis of heredity. Genes encode the traits that we inherit. 

       Have you ever wondered why some children have different eye colors than their parent? Well some genes are recessive and some are dominant. Dominant genes take over recessive, so if a person has genes for brown eyes and blue eyes (the brown eye gene is dominant) then they will have brown eyes. 

        There are some traits that are always copied and passed down. The traits that are always passed down are called genotypes. A physical trait that is passed down (like eye, hair color) is called a phenotype. You now know that there is much more to genetics and heredity than just getting half of your moms genes and half of your dads. The environment that you grow up in also has a lot to do with how you turn out. 

       I have some more super smart vocabulary! So, an allele is one of a pair of genes that contains important traits. Homozygous is having 2 forms of the same gene, one inherited from each parent. Heterozygous is the exact opposite, its having 2 different forms of a gene, one inherited from each parent. 

       Now we are going to talk about how scientists show how we inherit traits. The punnett square is a diagram that is used to predict an outcome of a cross/breeding. A scientist named Gregor Mendel made the punett square. He was the first to discover recessive and dominant genes, he experimented with peas! Gregor was is considered the father of genetics since he was the first one to really experiment with it. 

Hope you learned tons of cool vocab and facts about genetics!
Click here for more about genetics
Click here for a game on genetics! 
Have a Great Day!!! :D 

Muttation! AH!

       OMG that muttation is so creepy! Sorry just watching The Hunger Games (AKA the best movie ever!), if you haven't seen it, then I recommend it and you haven't lived.  

        

       No, this blog isn't going to be about the Hunger Games movie (sadly). The word is just similar... we are going to be talking about mutation. A DNA mutation is a change in the nucleotide sequence of a gene. So the genes aren't normal, they are altered or different. 

       So how does a mutation occur? Well, a mutation happens when something goes wrong in the cell division. Then, most of the time the cell fixes it before it divides. But if the problem isn't fixed then the mutation can spread. 

        NO!!! How could she die? ....... Oh sorry just watching a terrible version of The Hulk. Have you ever wondered if you could be a super hero if you were exposed to a lot of radiation or something? Well, I did when I was little. Sorry to tell you that that can't happen in real life, only on T.V. Being exposed to radiation does cause mutations but probably not the best ones, harmful ones. 

   
       Mutations cause a lot of syndromes and disorders like down syndrome. Down syndrome, in most people is when they have an extra chromosome. Down Syndrome   Another mutation is sickle cell anemia, sickle cell is when the red blood cell are shaped differently and it causes really bad pain. Its a genetic blood disease, meaning if your parents have it, you most likely have it too.

       


       
       Autism is another mutation. Autism is when kids can't communicate well with other people. But, what makes autism different is that no one knows what causes it, its a scary mystery and over the years the number of kids that have it has increased. 

       Thanks so much for reading it! Hope you liked it!

But I can't leave you without links, now can I?

Click here for more on mutations

Click here for more on Down syndrome

Click here for more on Autism

You..... Yes you

      

DNA!

 

       Hey so what are we going to talk about today? Well today we will be talking about DNA! :D hehehe it sorta rhymed! 

       Like I said in the intro today we are talking about DNA. What is DNA? (I don't know) Well you are lucky because my teacher taught me so I can teacher you about it. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the hereditary material in your cells, in other words the material in your cells that makes you, you. Most DNA is located in the nucleus of the cell. In DNA, there are 4 bases, adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine. Adenine and thymine pair up, guanine and cytosine pair up. 

       


Now we are going to talk about some very important people to science. First person is Rosalind Franklin. She was a biophysicist, who really researched DNA and found out more things about it. She understood how genetic info passed from parents to children. Oh whoops I forgot to tell you what time she lived in. Well, Rosalind was born in 1920. 






        Next person is Maurice Wilkins, he was a physicist and molecular biologist. He worked with our next two people, James Watson (hey Emma Watson! I don't think they are related but I love her :D ) and Francis Crick and Rosalind. These people won the 1962 Nobel Prize for  Physiology or Medicine. They won this because of their discoveries on molecular structure and DNA. So that raps up our important biologists for today. 

  
       Well you now know that you are made of both of your parents genes or DNA. We know how cells divide to replicate but how does DNA replicate. Well, during Interphase of cell division, when everything is replicating the DNA breaks apart and the base pairs are broken. 

      The first step to this long process is separating the 2 strands of base pairs. The strands form shapes looking like forks. Next, the base pairs bind to the new strands. Finally, they try to repair any problems in the DNA. 

   


          Now we are going to talk about junk DNA.What is junk DNA? Well only 2% of your DNA is different and the other 98% is unknown.... oohhh spooky

Now we are going to talk about RNA and DNA. (what is RNA?) Well, RNA or in the long scientific way, ribonucleic acid is an important type of molecule. It is usually forgotten and most people only know about DNA. We know that DNA is double stranded but RNA is usually single-stranded and can be in several shapes. Also, RNA has ribose, while DNA has deoxyribose. DNA has thymine as one of its bases out of the four but RNA has uracil instead.   

Thanks so much for reading! Hope you liked it ;D 

But I couldn't leave you without links ;) 

Click here to learn more about RNA

Click here to learn more about important people 

Click here for a fun game with DNA

Black History month: Fight for equal education

       Imagine you are just a little girl or boy, having to walk 10 miles to your small,one room school.You pass a lot of all white schools that are big and nice. When you finally get to your school, you notice the broken steps, hole in the roof and windows that are stuck open. You walk in and see 100 black kids in your class crammed into a tiny room. The school doesn't have a heater so, you have to chop wood and build a fire in an old burning stove. 

       Well one little girl had a big dream to have a real education. Her name was Ruby Bridges, she was born on September 8,1954 in Tyler town, Mississippi. At the time she was born white people wanted to be separate from black people because they thought they were too good for them. 

She was one of the first black children to go to an all white school. Her dad didn't want her to go to an all white school because of the angry people who wanted white people and black people separated. Although her mom wanted her to go to an all white school to get a better education and have a brighter future. Her mom knew what it was like if she didn't have a good education. Her mom didn't have a good education and had to work very hard, the day before she gave birth to Ruby she carried ninety pounds of cotton on her back. She didn't want her baby girl to have that hard of a life, so she wanted to send her to William Frantz School. 

       It wasn't easy, getting Ruby into the school. Her dad got fired because his boss didn't think one of his employee's children should go to an all white school. People threatened to poison Ruby if she went to their school. But Ruby got in by taking a very challenging test. On the first day of first grade U.S marshals had to take Ruby to and from school with her mom, to protect her from angry white people. All her mom and Ruby did that day was wait in the office. The first day many parents refused to let their children go to school with a black kid, they were holding signs and yelling. 

       The second day Ruby and her mom sat in the classroom, although none of the white parents let their students be in the same room as her. Her teacher started to teach and was very sweet to Ruby and her mom. The third day her mom didn't go with her. For the rest of the year she was the only student in her class and on her floor. The teachers thought she shouldn't be taught with the white children. At first this didn't bother Ruby but after a while she began to wonder why she wasn't with the other kids. 

       Ruby graduated and became a travels agent. She was one of the first African Americans to go to an all white school and get a good education. This really helped other African Americans with getting better educations and help with the relationships between white and black people.  She didn't think it was such a big accomplishment till years later. After her brothers death due to a drug-related shooting, she realized that she actually did help. She started volunteering at her old school, helping troubled, small African Americans. She started the foundation Ruby Bridges Foundation, traveling to school explaning the importance of a good education! :D

       Imagine what it would be like to be Ruby Bridges and at first have to go to an old run down, crowded school because your different colored skin. Nowadays we really take advantage of a good education. We complain a lot about homework or tests, when Ruby would have gladly taken our places! I really like Ruby Bridges and think she really made a difference in education, that most people were scarred to do. 

      

       Like I said in the title its Black History Month.Yesterday my class went on a field trip to the Atlanta History Center to conclude the month. It was very fun and I learned a lot! I really liked when we got to act like soldiers and go through what their life was life. We got to learn about how the soldiers lived and that a lot of what they did relied on luck or fate. If they would get caught... If they got hurt what would happen. We also learned that the civil war was one of the most bloodiest wars in American History. Some people were just uneducated and thought differently, like they thought that the "slaves" deserved less and were more like children. I recommend you visit the museum! It was so much fun! 

Thanks for reading my blog!

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       Hey guys, so today we are going to continue to talk about ...CELLS! Yes, cells but I am going to teach or help you review on how cells reproduce.

        
        Well first of all 1 cell divides to make 2 identical copies called daughter cells. This is called mitosis. There are 4 phases to mitosis: prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. 

     

  
Now first the cell has to go through interphase before it can start the cell cycle of reproduction. In Interphase the cell gets bigger and so does some of its organelles. They get bigger because they are about to be cut into 2 and they should both be the size of normal cells. Interphase is technically not part of the cell cycle but plays a part in it, without it the cell cycle would be thrown off path and would have to change. 

       The first stage in mitosis is prophase, where the chromosomes, in the cell are visible. The spindle fibers attach to the centromeres, in the chromosomes and attach to the ends of the cells. The next stage is metaphase, where the chromosomes line up in a straight line across the cell. 



























       Aw my hands really hurt because I just played tug of war at the shreiner field day. The third stage of mitosis is anaphase and here the spindle fibers "play a game of tug of war"using the chromosomes. Man these spindles are probably really strong!(except the fact that they are microscopic ;) The spindle fibers pull the chromosomes to the opposite ends of the cell. 

       You are now going to learn about the last stage of mitosis, telophase. Here the cell membrane begins to "pinch"(hehe aubrey) to divide the cytoplasm and the 2 new daughter cells. But the cell isn't completely divided into 2 cells, they are still attached together. So the next step is called cytokinesis. Cytokinesis is like interphase, where it plays a part in mitosis but is not considered part of the 4 steps. Here the cell fully splits on half, creating 2 daughter cells.

I can't let you go witout some links now can I? 
 Click here for games and quizzes on the blog topics
Click here for a video on mitosis

Thanks for reading my blog! Write what you think.

Hey Have A great day! (me?) YES U!!! :D

:D moving cellular material

Hey guys! Guess what we are going to talk about today? CELLS!...(ughhh) come on its going to be interesting and fun! :D (font colors match the background, Hunger games!)

       Okay, so the first question I am going to answer is: How do materials enter and leave the cell. Well, the cell has a protective layer called the cell membrane that regulates what comes in and what leaves. Endocytosis is the process where the cell absorbs molecules. 

        There are two different ways for molecules to come in and out of the membrane, active and passive transport. Active transport is when the cell uses energy to transport molecules.  Passive transport  is moving molecules across the cell membrane without using energy.  Facilitated diffusion is a type of passive transport, its when molecules pass through the membrane spontaneously, through proteins.

 (Diffusion/ Aubrey above)

          Diffusion is when  molecules move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration to even it out, or reversed. So when you spray air freshener for awhile you can only smell it in 1 area but then once the molecules move you can smell it a little bit farther away.  Facilated diffusion is when Osmosis is when water moves across the membrane.

       How does cell size affect the transport of materials? Well, when a cell gets bigger its volume "grows" very fast and its hard for the cell membrane to keep up with all the materials wanting to come in and leave. For example at a concert, you have a ticket but when there are a lot of people the guards can't keep up with everyone.

 Thanks for reading my blog!  Hope you learned something!  Here are some links.  Have a great day! 

Here is a link with games on cells... 
Here is a link on tutorial for games

CELLS! :O

       Hey guys, so as you know this is a science blog we are going to talk about science! Who would have thought, right? Today our topic is cells. Did you know you are made of cells? Well mostly everything living is made of cells. 

       What is a cell?  Well a cell is structural unit and we are made of them. Basically everything alive is made of them. They come in all shapes and sizes and have jobs to do. They are so small we can only see most of them through a microscope.          
       There are 2 kinds of cells, prokaryotic and eukaryotic.  Prokaryotic cells have no cell membrane and less structures inside.They are also only one celled organisms, like bacteria.   Eukaryotic cells are the type we our made of because they are multicellular and  have a membrane. Both animal and plant cells are eukaryotic.

        Left are the plant organelles, right are the animal organelles.

        There are animal and plant cells.  They have relatively the same organelles. Organelles are the structures found inside of cells. Plant cells have a cell wall instead of a membrane.  The animal cells have a membrane.  As you know we are animals, so we are made of animal cells.  Plants are made of plant cells and there are more types of cells, like fungi cells...  I am only going to talk about the animal and plant cell. 

      All organelles have jobs to do for the cell.  The cell is kind of like a factory with different stations/organelles to get different things done.  But of course the factory has to have a wall like a protector, well so do cells.  Cell membrane protects cell from the outside and controls what goes in and out.  Cytoplasm fills up the cell.  Its a jelly-like material that holds everything in its place (in the cell).  Of course these workers/organelles need a boss and in this case its the nucleus of the cell.  The nucleus controls all the organelles and the entire cell.  It gives orders and also holds the DNA.





       There are more organelles in the cell, like the mitochondria.  The mitochondria is the shape of a kidney bean and acts as the power unit.  It breaks down the food and releases the energy.  Protein is food for the cell.  The organelle that makes the protein, are the ribosomes.  




        The lysosomes of the cell also breaks down food but it acts as more of a janitor.   It breaks down cell waste and worn out parts.  But where are all the materials held?   Well the answer is in the vacuole.  The vacuole hangs onto the water, waste products and food until they are needed.








      Chromosomes are the structures, where the DNA and some protein is found. The endoplasmic reticulum/ER works as a packaging unit of the cell.  It works with the golgi bodies and the ribosomes of a cell.  There are 2 different types of ERs the smooth and the rough.  The smooth acts as a storage organelle.  The rough ER package the protein.  I have already told you what the ribosomes are but you must be confused on the new organelle, the golgi bodies.  They help with the packaging of the protein. 

Here is a link for more about plant and animal cells. Its kind of long but explains and gives details for a lot.      
THANKS FOR READING!!! :D

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