ap biology – Kaitlyn's Ap Biology Site

Henrietta Lacks

Over spring break I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot. I had previously heard of the story last year and was immediately intrigued. Basically the story is, an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks was treated for cervical cancer at John Hopkins. A sample of the cancerous tissue was sent to a lab and scientist, George Gey discovered that these cancerous cells kept dividing in the lab. However, neither Henrietta or her family knew about this sample and the experimentation that was going on. The cells were a great medical and scientific breakthrough, but Henrietta’s name was not associated with the cells. So Rebecca Skloot wanted to bring the truth to light and share the story of Henrietta.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but I think I liked the movie better. Although the book focused more on the science side and the movie focused more on the family of Henrietta and their relationships the movie was more emotional to me. The book evoked anger but the movie evoked sympathy. To be quite honest I would be awfully mad if a doctor used one of my family’s cells for research and not tell me about it.

So I want to pose a question to you, how would you feel if your family member’s cells were taken without consent?

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Click here to buy the book!

May 17, 2018May 19, 2018 by kaitlynoshiro Tags: ap bio, ap biology, book, cells, cool, hela, henrietta, henrietta lacks, lacks, movie 2 Comments

AP Biology Exam Reflection

Over the 2017-2018 school year, I have been a part of the AP Biology class. This class was special because I was in the class every day rather than normal block schedule. Because I had the class every day I felt that our class got an advantage to the AP test in comparison to other AP courses at the school. We ultimately got the most time to prepare for the AP Biology exam on May 14.

With that being said, after taking the AP Bio exam I am feeling confident that I passed. The multiple choice part of the exam was very much like our tests in class so I felt good with that part. However, for the short answer questions, I felt that I was rushing to get everything I wanted to say down on the page. Also for one of the questions, there was only half a page designated for the answer which I struggled trying to condense my thoughts to fit on the lines. Overall, I felt prepared for the exam through all of our preparation in class with practicing tips and tricks and the material. If you have a chance to take AP Biology, I highly recommend taking the class, biology is super interesting!

Exam

May 17, 2018 by kaitlynoshiro Tags: ap, ap bio, ap bio test, ap biology, ap biology test, ap test, bio, biology, reflection, test, work 2 Comments

CSM Cadaver Lab

Our final field trip with the AP Bio 2018 team was to visit the anatomy and physiology department at the local junior college. The department actually receives cadavers from a university in San Francisco. We were told that to respect the deceased we could not take pictures and that people actually donate their body to science. We were only there for around an hour which we packed a lot of information in that time. We split into groups and rotated through stations. The first station I went to was to see the cadaver. I was surprised at how the human body looked like after being preserved in chemicals. In previous science classes I have dissected fetal pigs, frogs, rats, and a cow’s eye so I was familiar with the smell of the preservative and seeing the organs of something that was living at one point. However, I did not know that the nails of a deceased person still grow after they have died. Next we saw the three different types of muscles (skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle tissue) under a microscope and learned about the organs in our body. Lastly, our group saw the brain of the cadaver in the very first station. I did not want to hold the brain because frankly I thought it’s weird and a little creepy, but from what my group members said, the brain was heavier than what they expected and very dense. I surprisingly enjoyed this field trip because I do not think I would have had another opportunity to see a cadaver. So for future AP Bio students, if you every get this opportunity, take it!

Below are pictures relevant to our field trip!

College_of_San_Mateo_(7352632808) — College of San Mateo

414_Skeletal_Smooth_Cardiac — Three types of muscle tissue, can you guess each type (cardiac, skeletal, smooth)?

May 4, 2018May 8, 2018 by kaitlynoshiro Tags: ap biology, apbio, cadaver, cadaver lab, cool, csm, field trip, lab 2 Comments

Save The Bay Reflection

AP Biology went on another field trip this week to wetlands in Palo Alto. Save The Bay is an organization that helps cities around the Bay Area restore wetlands. The wetlands in the Bay Area serve an important purpose as a habitat for a diverse set of species and help protect the area from floods. Save The Bay restores the wetlands by planting native plants around the wetlands and removing invasive species of plants as well.

I learned so much of the history of the Bay Area wetlands through documentaries we watched in class before our field trip and from our amazing guides. I also learned about the diverse species that are only seen in the Bay Area. The history of California has always been interesting but I have never learned about the ocean we live so close to. While watching the documentary I was surprised and proud that the people who founded Save The Bay were three women who wanted to protect the waters from the trash that had been dumped.

If you are ever in the Bay Area, I would definitely suggest to volunteer at Save The Bay. The work that we did was not hard at all but very tedious. We first had to calculate the biotic factors in a quadrat that was provided. We counted every species that was in the quadrat and then calculated the Simpson’s Biodiversity index to see how diverse each plot was. Then we calculated the abiotic factors of each plot through measuring the soil moisture, pH, and salinity. The work is easy enough for anyone to volunteer.

Link: Save The Bay

April 26, 2018May 8, 2018 by kaitlynoshiro Tags: ap bio, ap biology, cool, field, field trip, fun, marsh, save the bay, work 2 Comments

Botany of Desire Reflection

Botany of Desire is a documentary by PBS which discusses human interaction with plants. There are four main chapters of the documentary: How Sweet, Beauty, Cannabis, and Potato. The first chapter, How Sweet, talks about apples and their history within the United States. Throughout time, apples have once been sold with a wide variety, but now there are only a handful of apple species we eat. In the past, wild apple trees were abundant and those apples, because of their bitterness, were used to make hard cider. Apple orchards are only growing a monoculture, one variety, of apples because those are the apples that will be sold and eaten. However, there are still people who grow, what they call, antique varieties of apples. Because most of these apples are not sweet enough to be on the market, the growers use the apples to make hard cider.

The next chapter is Beauty which discusses flowers, specifically tulips. In the past there was a tulip bulb market because tulips were a sign of high status and wealth. However, the tulip trade was hurting the European economy so tulips were now seen negatively. Today, tulips are still seen as beautiful and there are now breeders that create new varieties of tulips, these breeders are called human bees. There are tulip farms all around the world and flowers are a multi-billion dollar trade.

Following flowers, the discussion about cannabis is presented. Cannabis, also known as weed, marijuana, or pot, has been a controversial topic for the past several decades. According to the documentary 15 million Americans smoke cannabis per month. Another interesting fact about intoxicants that was presented in the chapter was that in every society there are about 1-2 intoxicants accepted and promoted but the rest are condemned such as alcohol is widely accepted in Western society. Because marijuana farms in Mexico were being taken down by United States forces, marijuana growers mixed two cannabis plants to make the new version, short to be able to grow the plant inside and unintentionally made the plant more potent.

Lastly, the discussion ends on potatoes. Potatoes are a substantial food source since 1/2 acre of land for growing potatoes can provide enough for a family to survive for a year. Thus potatoes were adapted by Europe to end the famine. However, the single potato species in Ireland were destroyed by a disease and led Ireland into an awful famine killing many people. To avoid this famine to ever happen again, scientists genetically modified potatoes and now use an abundance of pesticides. However, the moral of the documentary evidenced by each chapter, is for farmers and society to stay away from monoculture.