In the class Film as Literature, we watched many movies and analyzed them throughout different units. These included narrative, character, mood/tone, music, color, and more. We watched a variety of movies, a spectrum of things from The Princess Bride to Shawshank Redemption. I liked this class a lot because for the most part, I was watching movies that I had never had the chance to see before, movies that I wouldn’t have seen if it weren’t for this class. I was exposed to a much more wide variety of films, and that’s a good thing. I also enjoyed getting to watch films as a class and then discuss them. It’s always interesting to see what other people think about a film, even if our opinions are different. I think my favorite assignment was the Movie Mash-Up assignment. We started by each creating titles for a pre-assigned genre of film. Then, the titles were passed to someone else in the class, and that person had to come up with characters. We switched several more times. By the end, each film had a title, characters, a plot, a cast, and a movie poster, all completed by different people. It was definitely the most fun assignment we had, aside from watching films of course. The only thing I disliked about the class was how few people were in it. Discussions are far less enjoyable when the class has about ten students on a good day, but some people are absent frequently. It’s definitely a class that’s more fun with more people. Overall, I very much enjoyed this course.
Cell Signaling Pathways
The links attached are to the two claymation videos we created on cell signaling in class.
Questions:
- How are these two systems similar? Consider both structural similarities and similarities in how the systems function.
- Both of these systems have plasma membrane receptors. In both pathways, a signal begins to be sent as a signal molecule binds to a receptor within the cell’s membrane. They are also similar in the ways they handle Ca+ (calcium) ions. In both systems, the second messenger (IP3) diffuses through the cytosol of the cell and binds with an IP3-gated calcium channel in the ER (endoplasmic reticulum). The Ca+ ions will then move out of the ER, down their concentration gradient, raising the Ca+ concentration in the cytosol. The ions then activate the next protein in the pathway. This process occurs in both cells.
- How are these two systems different? Consider both structural differences and differences in how the systems function.
- Their overall processes of cell signaling are different. They also have different amounts of receptor proteins in a pathway. G-Protein coupled receptors are visually much more simple, whereas tyrosine kinase receptors have bits of tyrosine attached on one side. Each process will signal for different things to occur as well.
- Both systems can generate elaborate multistep signal transduction pathways. These pathways can greatly amplify the cell’s response to a signal; the more steps in a pathway, the greater the amplification of the signal. Explain how this amplification can occur.
- The example I will use here is the breakdown of glycogen by epinephrine. This amplification occurs as the hormone epinephrine acts through the G-Protein coupled receptor, activating a succession of relay molecules. These include cAMP and two protein kinases. The final protein in the chain is activated by the enzyme glycogen phosphorylase. This enzyme uses an inorganic phosphate molecule to release the monomer glucose from its polymer, glycogen. These are released in the form of glucose-1-phosphate. The hormonal signal is then amplified because the one receptor can activate a hundred molecules of a G-Protein. Each enzyme can act on many substrate molecules.
11.1: Test Your Understanding
Humans have the ability to detect and recognize many different aromatic chemicals by smell. Many of these chemicals are present in concentrations less than 1ppm (part per million) in the air. For example, the majority of humans can detect and recognize chlorine at a concentration of about 0.3ppm .
a. What characteristics of olfactory (smell) receptors would you look for on purpose to explain this ability?
- One should look for a longer signal-transduction pathway. With more steps, more enzymes can pass a signal to even more substrate molecules. This means even a small concentration of an aroma will set off a signal, and it will be passed along quickly enough that the small concentration can be detected strongly. The amplification must be very high for one to be able to recognize the scent of something in such a small concentration with ease.
b. Dogs are known to have a much better sense of smell than humans. Given this, what differences may exist in their olfactory system (as compared to humans)?
- They likely have even more pathways or longer pathways for signal transduction. Aromatic chemicals can be detected very easily by dogs, therefore the amplification of the cell’s response to these signals is greater than that of humans. So, they must have a greater amount of signal transduction pathways or longer signal transduction pathways.
Related Rates Problem
p.206, problem 15
A spherical Tootsie Roll pop you are sucking on is giving up volume at a steady rate of 0.08mL/min . How fast will the radius be decreasing when the Tootsie Roll pop is 20mm across?
Assume that the rate will be negative, since the values (dV/dt) will be decreasing
dV = 0.08mL/min
0.08mL = ?mm
when 1mL = 10mm so 0.08 X 10 = 0.8mm
dV = 0.8mm/min
solve for dr/dt
when d = 20mm, r = 10mm
V = (4/3)πr³
- step one: take the derivative of the volume formula
dV/dt = 4πr²(dr/dt)
- step two: plug in known values
0.8 = 4π(10)²(dr/dt)
- step three: solve for dr/dt
0.8 = 4(100)π(dr/dt)
0.8 = 400π(dr/dt)
0.002π = dr/dt
dr/dt = 0.00628mm/min
AP Biology – Butterfly Lab
For this butterfly lab, we isolated two painted lady butterfly larvae to represent primary consumers. The purpose of the experiment was to determine the efficiency by which the larvae could incorporate the food (in this case, representing primary producers) into their own biomass. We took two plastic cups. Both contained food medium. One only contained the food medium, and the other had the food medium as well as the butterfly larvae. We measured the mass of each cup every few days. Each day we calculated the daily mass loss of each cup. This helped to eventually calculate the mass of the butterfly chrysalises, which in turn allowed us to determine the efficiency by which the larvae incorporated the food medium into its own biomass. Our data led us to the conclusion that the butterfly larvae incorporated food medium into their own biomass with 24% efficiency. Typically, primary consumers can only incorporate food into biomass with 10% efficiency. We worked with an extremely small data sample, only having two larvae, so that could skew the results. Perhaps with a larger data sample, our results would have been more accurate. We are currently in the unit of chapters 51-55 in class. This lab relates to what we’ve been learning in class because it relates to ecology, which is the study of living things and their interactions with one another and their environment, as well as how organisms and their environments change over time.
Fitness Testing
Included here is the link to my fitness testing data sheet.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C1SxUvyYoZnWbX3e7SdwPr5sjp4ewbIazT_chQqAwgU
directions to posting
-click new
-click post
-title it
-click add media (if any) to add videos or documents
-tag (for this class, PE 2018/19)
-add fairview advantage tags that apply
-post it
Atomic Bomb Debate Reflection
I learned that in general, there were many different factors impacting the decision to drop the bomb. The US had to consider how much the cost of human lives were truly worth, as well as how quickly they wanted the fight with Japan to end once and for all. The cohesive purpose of the bomb was to end the war, thus people were not concerned with the fact that it could start another war or it could absolutely devastate the targeted cities and their populations. I do understand why the dropping of the atomic bombs is such a debated topic, however I find it necessary to ultimately take a side. Although it can be debated as to whether or not the dropping of the bombs was truly the right decision, the US was right to drop the atomic bombs because it would have the least loss of American lives, and it was the quickest manner by which to end the war between the US and Japan.
The decision President Truman made is unfair to be judged, because there was great pressure on him to make a decision that would change everyone’s lives. He was very aware of the trauma the bombs would cause, at least on a destruction basis. He had no idea how many Japanese and other lives it would cost. In order to carry out his duty to protect the people of the US as a whole, he had to drop the bomb, therefore causing damage. Truman had to be a strong leader, which means he had a responsibility to make difficult decisions in difficult times. For a person today to be able to judge the decision Truman made, they would have to have been in his shoes. They would have to understand the true pressure that Truman was dealing with. Someone would have to understand where he held governmental power and had what was best for the US without knowing the full extent of the outcome. He dropped the bomb for what he believed would be the best for the majority of people both in general and within his own country. The repercussions were not something he had time to completely consider, because he had very little time to make such a poignant decision.
All is fair in love and war, at least that’s what the saying states. In any case, although all is fair in love and war, a decision is not necessarily morally fair. It was indeed a fair decision to make, the decision of dropping the atomic bombs. It did however paint a very poor picture of the US by their treatment of others in wartime. It showed that the US was willing to make difficult decisions, even if they had to go against what is morally correct to do so. It doesn’t matter who the bomb is targeted at for the decision to be fair or unfair. If a were to drop on an American city, the only true difference is then the location. A similar damage would have occurred. I would react just the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had. In a word, panic. In the event of a parallel situation, where instead Japan dropped bombs on America, it would not change the fact that we were a part of a war, and it would not change the fact that the decision was fair.
Debate Ballot:
Topic: The Atomic Bomb
Winner: Pro
My Team: Pro
Comments: We won because our points were strong and well backed up with facts rather than opinions and what ifs. Our arguments against the con teams’s points were valid and well thought-out. We argued against their weak moral stance with facts, quotes, and military reasons that cannot be argued against with mere morals. Morals are purely subjective, whereas facts are objective. Morals may differ, but facts are always facts. An example would be that the bombing had prevented more overall lives being lost than other options, like invading Japan as a whole. If the US had invaded Japan as a whole, the entire country would have suffered, rather than two cities. In the end, our pro team had much stronger arguments.
Le Project de Vêtements et Réflexion
For this project, we did many things well and some other things poorly. We worked very hard as a group to create a script that expressed all of the things we learned throughout this unit. We had to do a lot of problem solving, including figuring out when we could work on our project, finding props for the video, finding time where we could all meet up to film, and more. It took a lot of communication to make the project go as well as it did. In the future, we should work a bit harder to memorize the entire script rather than memorizing in chunks. The video would’ve been much smoother if we had done it in one take. As a process, we spent a few class periods working on writing the script, as well as writing a bit of it outside of class. We also spent time out of class to practice and film our final video. Overall, this project went very well.