Unit 5 Reflection

This unit covered the digestive system, fuel metabolism, endocrine system, and the lymphatic system. There are six main functions for the digestive system: ingestion, secretion, mixing/propulsion, digestion, absorption, and defecation. The digestion of food begins in the mouth where the tongue and teeth begin the digestion to transform the food into bolus. From the mouth, the bolus moves to the pharynx and down the esophagus to the stomach. After passing through the stomach and becoming chyme, the chyme enters the small intestine, which is separated into the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. It then heads through the large intestine, which is composed of the ascending colon, transverse colon, and descending colon. It then goes through the rectum and exits the body through anus. The three stages of digestion are the fed state, where food is mostly absorbed; the fasting stage, where all the glucose in the bloodstream is used up; and the starvation stage, where the body solely relies on fat or protein for energy. Diabetes is a condition when the body cannot properly regulate its glucose levels. In type one diabetes, the body is unable to produce its own insulin. In type two diabetes, the body does not respond to insulin properly. The endocrine system is used to help send send signals throughout the body with hormones. The main functions of the lymphatic system are immunity, lipid absorption, and fluid recovery.

This unit went okay for me. These topics were more confusing to me than some of the other ones were in the past. The concept of the GLUT-4 transporters and how they worked. I also found it difficult to understand some of the concepts in fuel metabolism because there are many different ways that the body can get its energy from. However, I did understand the endocrine system well because in AP biology we covered cell to cell communications last semester so that helped me understand the concept a lot faster than I normally would.

During this unit, we did the Digestion System Lab, where we cut string to the approximate size of our own digestive systems. In this lab, I learned how long our digestive system actually was. It was surprising because it was much longer than I was tall and I did not expect it to be that long. We also read an article titled Does Your Metabolism Need an Overhaul? that explained how our muscles are what actually controls the metabolism the most. I found this article interesting because it explained how people can still have diabetes even when they are skinny since they would be doing cardio instead of working out their muscles.

I want to learn more about how our metabolism seems to slow down as we grow older. Adults are not able to eat the same way that they did when they were younger and I am curious to know what factors contribute to the slow down of metabolism.

I have not been doing well on my new years goal at all. I have not been working out everyday since I've been lazy and tired. To fix this I need to motivate myself more into working harder. I also wanted to connect to what we learn to how it relates to me in my everyday life. The digestive system really relates to what I do on a day to day basis because I always eat food. Also, learning that metabolism is directly related to working out your muscles has made me realize that I should also work my muscles out as well.

Digestive System Lab

In this lab, the goal was to visualize the actual length of the digestive tract. To do this, we measured different parts of our body to roughly determine what the actual length of the different parts of the system were. For example, to determine the length of the small intestine, we measured our height in inches and multiplied that measure by four. This lab enabled me to really understand the huge length of our digestive tract because it measures out to be much longer than we are tall. My digestive system is about 8 times longer than I am tall, so it is indeed a lot taller than I am. It is able to fit inside of me because it folds tightly together to conserve space. These folds increase the surface area of the tract to increase the rate of diffusion. I think that it will take about an hour for food to fully go through the whole digestive system. I was very wrong in my assumption. According to verywell.com, it takes about 50 hours for food to pass through the whole digestive system. This is very surprising to me because that seems like a very long time for it go through. That is way more time than it will take for a person to eat their next meal. So basically, a person will always have food inside of their body if they eat three meals per day. Factors that will influence the time it takes include absorption of the nutrients and the amount of fiber in the body. Digestion is different than absorption because digestion is mainly about breaking down food into smaller bits, while absorption is about taking in the nutrients form the food. Digestion includes the mouth, stomach, and liver. These organs work together to help break down food into its monomers. Absorption involves the small and large intestine. The intestines take in nutrients from the food as it passes through. This is why they are so long. I want to learn why metabolism slows down as a person grows older.

Digestive Organ	Color and length (cm)
Mouth	Maroon 10 cm
Esophagus	Purple 41 cm
Stomach	Green 17 cm
Small intestine	White 640 cm
Large intestine	Purple 159 cm
Total	867 cm

New Year Goals

This semester I will improve on taking what I learn in this class and use that knowledge to better understand how it affects me in my daily life. In order to do this, I will think deeply about the unit as a whole and extract information the is prevalent to me as a person. After doing that, I will analyze how the actions I take either comply or differ from the topics explored and adjust my daily routine based on that. At the end of each unit I will assess how well I made changes based on what was learned.

I will also get into better shape for sports. In order to reach this, I will do some sort of physical activity everyday. I will make sure that I run at least once over the weekends and run when a practice is cancelled. If the weather is not the prime condition, then I will do core work. Also, to help with this goal I will eat healthier. I will cut down on the number of sweats that I eat, and replace them with a healthier option such as fruits.

Unit 4 Reflection

Unit 4 primarily about the integumentary system and the immune system. Some of the essential understandings included how the body protects itself from invader, and the different barriers it has to prevents the pathogens from taking over. Other understandings were how the body can prevent itself from getting infected with the same antigen again, and how it fights cancer.

The overall theme of this unit is that the body uses different mechanisms and barriers to fight and protect itself. For example, the body has three different barriers to keep pathogens out. The first two barriers of the body together are known as the innate response. The first barrier is the skin, which is composed of the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. The skin is the outermost barrier and covers the body to prevent any pathogens from getting inside of the body. The skin also contains the appendages glands, nails, and hair to help. Hair and nails provide extra protection from things such as UV light or rocks. The glands are used to create an environment that is unsuitable for the bacteria to live in, causing them to die. The second barrier consists of many different mechanisms to prevent infection. This barrier includes inflammation, natural killer cells, phagocytes, interferons, compliments, and fever. The third barrier is called adaptive immunity. This includes all the specific cells that target and kill the invading bacteria. Two processes of this immunity is the cell mediated response and the humoral response. The main difference between these two responses is that the cell mediated involves T cells, while the humoral response involves B cells. Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of body cells, while tumors are the actual extra masses of tissue. They can either be benign, which are noncancerous, or malignant, which are cancerous. Tumors can be treated and they should be if they are malignant because they can go through metastasis, where they spread to other parts of the body. One common possibility of treatment for cancer is chemotherapy, which can result in the loss of hair.

My strengths in this unit is the immune system because I just learned it in AP biology earlier this year, so this is mostly review for me. However, that may also be one of my weaknesses because I can overestimate how well I know the topic and not know enough for the test. Overall, I believe my greatest weakness is thinking that I do not need that much time to study some topics in general and as a result I do not do as well as I would like to. I also feel like the integumentary system is one of my other weaknesses. I feel like some of the layers of skin and distinguishing the glands are tricky for me. I feel like one success for me this unit is that I understand the immune system a lot better. This unit has reenforced some of the topics that we went over in biology that were confusing. I also learned about how I work okay in groups, but can easily become distracted.

I feel that I understand our body's defense much better than before. One thing that I will definitely take from the debate is by staying on top of the work so there is no last minute cramming and everyone knows their jobs. One thing that I want to know more about is how the memory T cells and memory B cells are different besides the fact that they take part in different responses. How do their functions differentiate?

Based on my scores, my preferred style is kinesthetic. It is a whole four points greater than the next highest category. This does not surprise me because I like to be active and struggle to stay focused on one thing when I study. It was more obvious when I was younger because I would not sit still, but I guess it is not something you really grow out of. Based on this learning style, I can do more interactive studying that is more interesting than just straight memorization from a paper. I could make memory matching games out of vocabulary and its definition to make studying more interactive.  

Wellness Day Reflection

Link to presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ndzrEX3UAvps-eBjMwcg0tAQO5QCVYckR9GxP0szpto/edit?usp=sharing

In this project my partner was Divya, and we chose the topic of core strengthening. We chose this topic because we both knew that the core played an essential role in the body, but did not know to what extent it did. As an athlete, I myself, also wanted to understand the importances of the core. It is interesting to understand why we do so much core at practices, when to the common eye it seems that the core is not used that much in soccer. However, I learned that this is a common misconception and is not the case. The core makes up much of the body. Just like it sounds, it is the center of the body. Something interesting that I learned was that the core included more muscles than just the abdominal muscles. The core includes the glutes, back, and upper legs as well as the abdominal muscles. I was surprised that the core included the upper legs because normally people would not think that the core would be a part of the legs. Because of this, the core has lots of control over leg control and balance. Also, I was surprised that the core correlated towards better posture since it seems like sitting or standing up straight does not require much muscle strength. I also learned that there are different ways to exercise the core, such as isometric, concentric, and eccentric contractions. Isometric contractions are used when a person holds a certain position for a set amount of time. One example of an exercise that uses this type of contraction are planks because in a plank you hold the push-up like position. Concentric contractions are the initial contraction of the muscles, so that the muscles shorten. An example of this type of contraction is when you go up in a sit-up, since the muscles contract by shortening. Eccentric contractions are when the muscle comes out of the concentric stage, and elongates back again. An example of this is when you go back down to your back in a sit-up. The core is essential to health and wellness because it is the center to the body and holds it all together. Without the core, people would be unbalanced and have no control over their body. The core allows people to be active by just reducing chances of injury in general. Having a solid core allows people to fulfill the exercise pillar of health. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give myself a 9.5 on this project. I believe that we did an excellent job on this, but it was not perfect of course. I believe that the presentation itself was complete. We were able to explain the core and how it was important very well. However, the activity itself was a little less than perfect. It seemed a little disorganized and chaotic. Some of the instruction confused some people, so that was a drawback. Also when we demonstrated the exercises, we forgot to grab a mat for ourselves, so we were forced to do it on the tile. Besides those few things, I think that we were successful in teaching the class about the core.

Unit 3 Reflection

The cardiovascular system works together in unison to deliver oxygenated blood throughout the body. It moves oxygenated and deoxygenated blood throughout the body. Without it people would not be able to survive. Cardiovascular health is basically the overall health of your cardiovascular system. Heart disease and strokes are often caused by blood clots in the different vessels getting clogged, which increases the blood pressure in that area, and prevents blood flow.

Heart walk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHQEsz4CwBg

To promote my cardiovascular health I can go running and do more physical activities in general. I want to know more about how people today are solving these health problems. I feel like as a person I have grown with this new knowledge about the severities of heart disease and the symptoms of them. I am definitely more aware about what I am doing and how it may affect my overall health. I found it difficult to learn about the specific types of white blood cells. One of my goals for the rest of this semester is to be able to maintain a steady grade in this class.

Heart Dissection Lab

 Dissection Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1KRKKvoVIM&app=desktop

1. The purpose of the pericardium is to hold the heart in place, provide protection, and reduce friction of heart. 

2. The main difference between the arteries and veins is that the arteries appear to be larger, as they are thicker and need to carry blood towards the body.  The veins are there to return blood to the heart.
3. I think that the function of the auricle is that it reenforces the strength of the vessels, so that more blood can be pumped inside of the heart. It allows the heart to expand more.
4. The main visible difference on the outside of the heart between the atria and ventricles was that the ventricles were skinnier, and because of that smaller.
5. a) The coronary sinus was located on the posterior of the heart, right behind the layer of fat.
b) The inferior vena cava was not exactly visible because it was cut off and vacuum sealed. However, it should have been on the right portion of the inferior part of the heart.
c) The tricuspid valve was located in the right side of the heart, and connects the right atrium to the right ventricle. It has three flaps that are pushed open and closed to push blood through to the next chamber. It is connected to the chordate tendinae, which prevent the valve from inverting. These cord like tendons are anchored down onto the papillary muscles.
6. Picture of drawing of tricuspid valve:

7. The anchoring of the valves is important because it prevents them from inverting and closes them tight. The chordate tendinae are strong enough to slam shut the valves.
8. The bicuspid valve is similar to the tricuspid valve in form and function, except for the fact that it has two flaps, where as the tricuspid valve contains three.
9. The semi-lunar valves are important because it prevents the back flow of the blood back to the heart.
10. a) The swelling would occur in the feet or ankles because the blood that flows to the right side of the heart is coming from the body. If the right valve is messed up, the back flow of blood would go back towards the ankle, causing it to swell.
b) If there were on the left side of the heart, there could be a back flow of blood in the lungs, which would cause swelling in the lungs, and ultimately make it much more difficult to breath and send oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
11. When we cut into the aorta, we examined the two different coronary arteries. We also located the left semilunar valve, which led down through the aorta to the inside of the heart. We were able to stick the probe through and physically see where it went. The chordate tendinae are really strong, and are can open and close the valves. The papillary muscles seem to be strong and sturdy. The chordate tendinae are attached to the papillary muscles.
12. The left side of the heart primarily deals with oxygenated blood. It receives the reoxygenated blood from the lungs and then transports to the body to be used. The right side of the heart receives deoxygenated blood from the rest of the body. It sends the deoxygenated blood to the lungs, where it returns to form the lungs to the left side of the heart.
13.

Cross Section of Interior of Heart

Anterior side of Heart

Posterior Side of Heart