Hey everybody hope you all had a good weekend. Today class started as usual which was writing down the homework and turning in previous work. We turned in pages 7-8 from the unit packet. UP 73-74 plus 79 were supposed to be stamped today, but since some people had difficulty with it Mrs. Stein said that she will stamp it tomorrow. This means that if you had and questions about the homework you should ask her and have it done by tomorow. After we got done with that business we received our genetics quiz. We went over them and Mrs. Stein answered questions that we had. For those who didn't do so well and received lower then a twelve on the written part, you're in LUCK! Mrs. Stein is allowing students to retake the quiz by Thursday, but first you must get an orange slip and go to the TLC so that you can make correct your quiz. The teacher you worked with will fill out the orange slip and when you retake your quiz in the science office you will hand it to the teacher supervising. Mrs. Stein wrote on your quiz if you were eligible to do a retake, so if you are take advantage of this awesome opportunity. THANKS MRS. STEIN!!! Once we finished talking about quizzes we began a conversation about the movie Dogs we saw on Friday for bio day. Classmates gave their opinion on the movie and explained how this movie is related to genetics. I personally thought that the movie was adorable and I think that it relates to genetics because it shows how one breed of dog could turn into millions of different kinds of dogs. Also how they can take a gene or trait form one dog and put it into another to make the perfect dog for you. Later on we took notes about genetic engineering. The notes were:
What is Genetic Engineering?
• Manipulating DNA for practical purpose:
• DNA sequencing and the Human Genome
• Transgenic organisms have many applications in agriculture
• DNA fingerprinting used in forensics
Genetic Engineering Tools: PCR
• Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) uses DNA polymerase to make copies of DNA
• Gives scientists enough DNA to work with
While taking notes we talked about the bullet points and broadened them. At one point we talked about how we are able to take a gene from a fish and put it in a tomato. I for one thought that was nasty and really weird. What do you think? After taking notes we watched Bill Nye the science guy! The movie was pretty much about genetically modified food. In the movie Bill Nye went out in public and asked random people about their opinion on genetically modified food. The funny this is that he used the same tomato example that Mrs. Stein used in class. Most people didn't care as long as the food tasted good. Also in the movie they gave examples of food that is genetically modifies. One of those examples was a papaya that modifies so that it wouldn't have and bacteria spots on its surface, it looked perfect and fruit isn't usually perfect unless it is modified. Another example was rice. Scientists genetically modified rice so that it would contain vitamin A. Believe it or not they did it to save lives. One in two children dies because of vitamin A deficiency, which is one of the reasons as to why they modified rice. I found no problem with that and thought it was actually a great idea. The movie went on until class was over. Hope you all had a productive day!
Wednesday's Class
Today we first got a stamp for UP 73-74 and 79. We then finished notes on Genetic Engineering Tools
Restriction Enzymes cut DNA at specific sites.... see below!
We talked about how DNA recombination can be used to make things like human growth hormone and insulin. We went over the diagram below. BE SURE you understand it!
We also talked about how gel electrophoresis can be used to separate DNA based on the size of its fragments. This can be used to create a "DNA Fingerprint". Everyone has a different pattern of 'bands' when using gel electrophoresis... therefore, it can be used to investigate evidence from crime scenes or to determine paternity tests.
For the last 10 minutes of class, we watched a 60 Minutes episode about the used of familial searching to find people who commited crimes. It works like this.... if evidence from a crime scene is compared to a database of DNA and it turns up a partial match, that would suggest that the person who commited the crime was RELATED to the person whose DNA partially matched the crime scene sample. In the US there are laws that prevent investigators from disclosing this information and investigating relatives of people who have partial matches. In England, they have solved many terrible crimes using this technology.
Homework
Complete UP 75-78
We are meeting in the science computer lab tomorrow
Test is Friday!
Quiz Retakes by Thursday!!!
EVAN is the last scribe before winter break!!!
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