To teach you about cell structure I tried the site bubbl.us. I DO NOT RECOMMEND TRYING IT. I got so frustrated trying to organize all my bubbles. I think I got it organized enough to where you could read it.
I went to a site where I found out a lot about animal cells. There was a lot of information that I could not get on my web so I am posting the site here.
I also went to a website to find out information about plant cells. I learned a lot! Here is the link to the site.
And here is my huge web about cell structure:
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Microscope Week
I think my favorite thing so far has been one kind of pond water. There was so much in it! We saw a little guy that sucked up everything in its area and it kept getting bigger and bigger. It was amazing to see.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Carbohydrates- The book is used!
So it took me awhile to get Carbohydrates down. I did about half a lab(I missed the other half because I was sick), took a quiz.....twice (I bombed the first time and got a B the second time....I would have aced it but I mixed two sugars up even though I knew what they were! I'm still mad at myself for that!), and now I am doing this blog post. I learned a little from each activity I did but most of the learning came out of yes......reading the book. I'm starting to think our Biology book is useful in this class. I still think I can learn a lot more about carbohydrates. I may understand them now but I still see myself studying a lot before that final comes. But for now here is all the information I read about last night and learned the past few weeks in class.
The three elements in all carbohydrates are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Most of the carbohydrates have a carbon to hydrogen to oxygen ratio of 1:2:1(fact from the book!). There are two times the number of hydrogen atoms then oxygen atoms. The word carbohydrate has single sugar molecules and also sugar chains. The length of the chains can go anywhere from a few sugars to hundreds of sugars. The long chains are called polymers.
Carbohydrates are made up of saccharides. There are three type of saccharides: mono, di, and poly. Two of the most common examples of monosaccharides are glucose and fructose. (FUN FACT: Glucose is a hexagon of carbon elements and fructose is a pentagon of carbons.) Some examples of disaccharides are sucrose and lactose. Some examples of polysaccharides are starch and cellulose.
Monosaccharides have only a single sugar molecule. They are called simple sugars. The molecular formula for a monosaccharide is some multiple of CH(2)O. This suggests that every carbon is bonded to an H and an -OH. That is not strictly correct. (In the above line the 2 is supposed to be a small 2 near the bottom of the H but I did not know how to do that on the computer.) Sugars have a lot of hydroxyl groups and because of this polar functional group they are soluble in water. (another fact from the book! see how useful it is?!)
Monosaccharides often do not stay mono. Monosaccharides bond together and make disaccharides. This happens during a dehydration reaction. For example glucose and fructose make sucrose. Or two glucoses can combine and make maltose. (okay so just for a little funny story...I learned the underlined facts when Mr. Ludwig and Michael were arguing about it after school!) Sucrose is another name for table sugar. It is a disaccharide of special interest because sucrose is the form in which sugar is transported in plants. (FUN FACT: Sucrose is the sugar used to sweeten our food)
Polysaccharides are polymers of monosaccharides or many monosaccharides combined together. Another way to describe them is complex carbohydrates. There are some types of polysaccharides that function as short- term energy storing molecules. These have to be storage molecules because they are not as soluble in water and they are much larger than a normal sugar. Also, because they are bigger they cannot easily pass through the plasma membrane. The polysaccahride is broken down to release sugar molecules when an organism needs energy. Starch is often found in plants and glycogen is used in animals. The complex carbohydrate cellulose is used in plants to form a cell wall.
I hope dear reader(I'm pretty positive this is Mr. Ludwig, but for anyone else too) that you learned a few things about carbohydrates today. But even a little more I hoped you learn that you can learn things from anywhere. Any resource you have use it! It can be an experiment, a quiz, an article on the computer, the book, or even a conversation between your teacher and a really smart kid!
The three elements in all carbohydrates are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Most of the carbohydrates have a carbon to hydrogen to oxygen ratio of 1:2:1(fact from the book!). There are two times the number of hydrogen atoms then oxygen atoms. The word carbohydrate has single sugar molecules and also sugar chains. The length of the chains can go anywhere from a few sugars to hundreds of sugars. The long chains are called polymers.
Carbohydrates are made up of saccharides. There are three type of saccharides: mono, di, and poly. Two of the most common examples of monosaccharides are glucose and fructose. (FUN FACT: Glucose is a hexagon of carbon elements and fructose is a pentagon of carbons.) Some examples of disaccharides are sucrose and lactose. Some examples of polysaccharides are starch and cellulose.
Monosaccharides have only a single sugar molecule. They are called simple sugars. The molecular formula for a monosaccharide is some multiple of CH(2)O. This suggests that every carbon is bonded to an H and an -OH. That is not strictly correct. (In the above line the 2 is supposed to be a small 2 near the bottom of the H but I did not know how to do that on the computer.) Sugars have a lot of hydroxyl groups and because of this polar functional group they are soluble in water. (another fact from the book! see how useful it is?!)
Monosaccharides often do not stay mono. Monosaccharides bond together and make disaccharides. This happens during a dehydration reaction. For example glucose and fructose make sucrose. Or two glucoses can combine and make maltose. (okay so just for a little funny story...I learned the underlined facts when Mr. Ludwig and Michael were arguing about it after school!) Sucrose is another name for table sugar. It is a disaccharide of special interest because sucrose is the form in which sugar is transported in plants. (FUN FACT: Sucrose is the sugar used to sweeten our food)
Polysaccharides are polymers of monosaccharides or many monosaccharides combined together. Another way to describe them is complex carbohydrates. There are some types of polysaccharides that function as short- term energy storing molecules. These have to be storage molecules because they are not as soluble in water and they are much larger than a normal sugar. Also, because they are bigger they cannot easily pass through the plasma membrane. The polysaccahride is broken down to release sugar molecules when an organism needs energy. Starch is often found in plants and glycogen is used in animals. The complex carbohydrate cellulose is used in plants to form a cell wall.
I hope dear reader(I'm pretty positive this is Mr. Ludwig, but for anyone else too) that you learned a few things about carbohydrates today. But even a little more I hoped you learn that you can learn things from anywhere. Any resource you have use it! It can be an experiment, a quiz, an article on the computer, the book, or even a conversation between your teacher and a really smart kid!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Fruit Loops-Protein Molecules and Collagens
In class we did an activity where we stringed fruit loops together on a string. Can you guess what this is supposed to represent? Protein Molecules!! This was probably the best way Mr. Ludwig could of taught protein molecules to me because I love fruit loops! (one of my favorite parts was eating them afterwords)
This is what I learned:
Protein Molecules have 20 different amino acids. (we didn't have 20 different colors to represent them but that's where a highschoolers imagination comes to play). Amino acids are molecules. They are composed of an amino group and an acidic group. There is a third group known as the R group. (this group has everything else that comes in and joins the protein). This group is what gives the proteins different characteristics.
When you combine amino acids you get peptides. Peptides are a covalent bond between the acid group of one amino acid and an amino group of another amino acid. When you combine peptides you get polypeptides.
Proteins can have many different functions. For example they can be enzymes, provide support, transport substances, defend the body, and regulate metabolism.
After we made strands of protein molecules we combined with other people to make different kinds of proteins. Sierra, Sidney, and I braided ours together and made an example of collagen. This was not the only way you could combine them. Other groups in class combined theirs to make globular protein. You can tell the difference between them because a collagen is a strand and a globular protein is a huge glob.
Collagen is a type of protein. It is made of fibers and it connects and supports body tissues. Tissues it connects are skin, bone, tendons, muscles, and cartilage. Collagen is present supporting internal body organs and is can be found in teeth. Actually there are 25 types of collagen in the human body. Some people say it is the glue that holds the human body together. If a body didn't have collagen we would fall apart! (but the collagen in our body isn't made of fruit loops! :-) ) Collagen is very strong and is different from many other proteins.
Collagen can be found inside and outside the cell walls. It's fibers play a major part in the external structure of cells. Collagen plays a major part in the body and can be used in medicine. The organ collagen is mainly associated with is the skin. It helps provide skin with flexibility, strength, and resilience. Collagen loses its structure when it is heated.
There are several types of collagen.
Type 1: is the long, simple chain we made in class. It has three polypeptide chains. It can weave together and make fibrils. Fibrils are the space between cells.
Type 4: This is pretty much like type 1. You add a head on one end and a tail on the other end. When you get four type 4's together the heads come together in the middle and the tails spread out in like the shape of an X. They form a dense mat of them.
I only know about these two types of collagen because the guy that taught it to me only knew about these two. ;-)
This is what I learned:
Protein Molecules have 20 different amino acids. (we didn't have 20 different colors to represent them but that's where a highschoolers imagination comes to play). Amino acids are molecules. They are composed of an amino group and an acidic group. There is a third group known as the R group. (this group has everything else that comes in and joins the protein). This group is what gives the proteins different characteristics.
When you combine amino acids you get peptides. Peptides are a covalent bond between the acid group of one amino acid and an amino group of another amino acid. When you combine peptides you get polypeptides.
Proteins can have many different functions. For example they can be enzymes, provide support, transport substances, defend the body, and regulate metabolism.
Collagen can be found inside and outside the cell walls. It's fibers play a major part in the external structure of cells. Collagen plays a major part in the body and can be used in medicine. The organ collagen is mainly associated with is the skin. It helps provide skin with flexibility, strength, and resilience. Collagen loses its structure when it is heated.
There are several types of collagen.
Type 1: is the long, simple chain we made in class. It has three polypeptide chains. It can weave together and make fibrils. Fibrils are the space between cells.
Type 4: This is pretty much like type 1. You add a head on one end and a tail on the other end. When you get four type 4's together the heads come together in the middle and the tails spread out in like the shape of an X. They form a dense mat of them.
I only know about these two types of collagen because the guy that taught it to me only knew about these two. ;-)
Fluid Mosaic Model
I learned so much while doing this poster. There are many parts in a membrane. On our poster we had the transmembrane protein, cytoplasm, glycoprotein, and many other parts! One thing I learned while researching cells was that Glyco means sugar. So anything that has glyco attached to it means it has sugar on it. For example a glycolipid is a lipid with sugar attached. It is the same with a glycoprotein.
Another part of the cell is the transmembrane protein. When I first tried to Google this I came up very confused. The definition I found did not help me understand at all. Then Mr. Ludwig said to break down the word into parts and figure out each part and then I will be able to understand the word as a whole. Well I know trans means across, like the trans continental is a train that goes across the country. Across being the key word. So a transmembrane protein is a protein that goes across the membrane.
So I wrote the first part of my blog and got to thinking this is all I know! I only know the parts of the membrane and what glyco and trans means. So this kind of scared me but thankfully today in class Mr. Ludwig said that was the point. Last week we were learning the parts of the membrane and this week we are learning the functions of everything. So stayed tuned for a continuing blog!
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