Unit 5 Diversity of Life

In this unit we did quite a few labs that definitely helped me understand the content as usual. This unit covered viruses, classification, Linnaeus, the domains, taxonomy, the dichotomous key, kingdoms, vascular vs. non-vascular, evolution, Charles Darwin, phylogenetic trees and much more that I will list later. The first part of this unit we did a lab a Dichotomous Key lab. This lab required us to create a key which helped me understand how it worked and why we use it.  

After this, Mrs.G had two people go up and put the candy in a specific order that would make sense to classify. This was a demonstration of how Linnaeus classified animals. When using the dichotomous key, you figure out unknown animals.      

In the very beginning of the unit, we learned about taxonomy and understood the levels of categories in a society. We remembered these groups by "Dumb Kids Playing on Freeway Get Smushed. Meaning Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. All of these topics are important to learn because if you ever become a scientist or have a job that involves science, you might need to know this. 

Even if you aren't going to have a job that has any science, to get to that field of study you must pass several tests that have math, science or any unrelated topics. 

After we got farther into the unit, we applied this information. We did this by doing a blood type lab, but not with real blood. We used water with dye in it. We crossed the water colors and figured out the outcomes. This was a cool lab which let use literally see the crossing. 

 After this, we had a quiz. This marked about the middle of the unit. We then went into bacteria, viruses, natural selection, adaptations, artificial selections, the lytic and lysogenic cycles, and more. The first lab we did was the peppered moth lab. I was partnered with Andrei, he was the prey and I was the predator. In this lab, I had to hole punch up to 200 holes in dark and white paper. As you can see, this lab was pretty interactive. The lab allowed us to see how a predator sees thing and it represented adaptation well. This lab was good, because the questions let us think and apply the knowledge we learned in the notes.  

 


















We moved onto bacteria and viruses. The first lab we did was the Bacteria lab. This lab let us understand how bacteria grows and basically we learned all about bacteria. In another lab, we controlled how bacteria grows with Clorox, Soap, hand sanitizer and water. This lab was cool and I think very interactive. We got to see bacteria. Another lab we did was bacteria in the school. In this lab I was with Mason, Emma, and Hannah. The lab required us to choose a location at the school and see if there are microorganisms by swabbing it and placing it in a Petri dish with agar. Agar is what bacteria uses to feed on. Our group choose the  water fountain. The put the Petri dishes in an incubator. We then did a virus stimulation lab. This lab was interesting because I was the virus! Everyone put phenolphthalein in their test tube and I put NaOH. This caused half of the class to get the virus. At the end, people knew they got the virus by putting a liquid in their tube that turned pink if they contain the virus.