Impact

My thoughts and game plan

            Transitioning from being in 10^th grade to 11^th, I did not know what to expect. I did know however that the classes I was going to be taking were completely chosen by me. I put myself in a position to take a 3 AP classes; AP Biology, AP English Language and Compositions and AP US History and I needed to take Pre-calculus honors and world history honors. I picked rigorous courses and as a learner I quickly learned that being an AP student is nothing to joke around about because there is so much to do in a short amount of time. The goal at the end of the year is to be prepared to take the AP exam in may and in order to be prepared we needed to commit ourselves to take on the responsibility and actually work to understand most of the content in the curriculum. As learner AP classes have impacted me to view simple assignments as important assignments that should be taken seriously and fulfilled on time.

            Next year as a senior in high school I will be taking AP calculus and AP Literature, which are both very difficult classes. As a student my goals for next year beyond my goals I set for junior year because, I want to succeed and pass both classes with high honor grades. Sure this year I never got a grade below a C+ but it came very close so in order to prevent that, I want to make sure that I am fully committed and check my self at a minimum of once a week to make sure that everything is in order. I plan on changing my habits of sometimes leaving assignments to do last minute, which came out poorly done so next year I plan on getting my work done as soon as possible

Novel coronavirus

Novel coronavirus

            Viruses are extremely dangerous if contacted because they have no cure. Sure there are vaccines that help slow the rate in which a virus reproduces but, the sad truth is that there is no cure. A new virus however has emerged from Saudi Arabia knew as the corona virus which, similar to HIV it is retrovirus so it binds to a host cell and it injects its viral genome into the cell there the enzyme called reverse transcriptase, begins the process of converting the virus’s RNA into DNA which then is implanted into the cells nucleolus. In the nucleolus the DNA of the virus is added to the DNA of the cell and causes the cell to then create new viruses, which move out the cell to infect other host cells. This new virus as stated in the article, is “a threat to the entire world”. Due to he fact that this is a new virus there really is not any information about it making it very difficult to determine its origins and how exactly people are getting infected. Within the last week a total of 44 people nation wide have been infected with virus and more than half have died because of it. Most of the patients were from the Middle East, but cases have been found as far as France. The threat this virus imposes is that it has symptoms that are similar to the common cold but can reach to have the symptoms of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) but this virus is nothing like SARS. The Novel coronavirus attacks the respiratory system and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that the symptoms of the coronavirus include; severe fever and cough that lead to pneumonia and kidney failure.

            In Biology were learned about viruses and how exactly they reproduce. We leaned about their life cycles and how the virus infects a cell in five steps, attachment, injection, replication, assembly and release. This article connects directly to the concept we learned in biology because of the fact that we specifically studied viruses and how they manage to reproduce successfully. Considering that the novel coronavirus is a new virus that has emerged it is a great threat towards humanity because almost everything about this new virus is unknown.

            The reason why I chose this article is because in biology I found leaning of viruses interesting and I actually understood how viruses work to significantly hurt the host. This article is relevant to me because its something new of a topic I enjoy learning about and it’s a concept that all of us should pay attentions to.  

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/28/health/france-coronavirus-death/index.html?hpt=he_c1

The Park

This park is right next to my house and is full of vegetation. The grass tress and other plants are constantly taking in carbon dioxide to perform the process of photosynthesis where they create their own energy to survive. I connected this picture to topic of cellular respiration because of the fact that photosynthesis is the opposite of cellular respiration.

Towards the Top!!!

This is my Grandfathers rose bush which he planted when he bought the house several years ago. This rose bush however displays plant adaptation because of the one rose at the top. most of the rose bush doesn't receive sunlight because a house is blocking it but the plant grew to the point where it finally received sunlight. this demonstrates plant adaptation because it managed to grow high enough to obtain sunlight to perform photosynthesis

"The Spinning Seed"

The tree next to my house drops these spinning seeds every spring. I managed to come connect this helicopter seed to the topic adaptation. As something adapts to its environment its ability to survive in the given environment increases. The helicopter seed is an example of plant adaptation because of the fact that the seed of that tree travels greater distance to spread and grow producing more trees, which would increase the population the specific tree.

Oil Sitting On Top Of Water

This is a cup of water with oil sitting on the top. This picture displays the property of a substance being hydrophobic. In Biology were learned about the structure of a cell and how the inner membrane on a cell is made by phospholipid bilayer in order to protect the cell. It allows only some molecule to pass through into the cell. The phospholipids have hydrophobic tails which which repel water and the oil has a similar property because it doesn't mix with water,

            Self Reflection As a Bio Student

            This year in school year, I decided to challenge myself by taking three AP courses. Although biology has never really appealed to me I decided to take the class anyways. During the school I realized AP biology is not an easy class because there are so many different concepts that requires in depth thinking and application in order to understand what is going.

            It took me some time to realize that Biology is not the class where you can fake your through, its either you know it or you don’t. My inability to realize this reflected heavily on my performance in the class because of the fact that I personally feel like I could have performed and gotten prepared better for the AP exam. Even though I was able to understand some of the content the class had to offer there is always room for improvement, so in retrospect I wish I would have applied my self to take the extra steps to review as much as possible so that I could have understood the different concepts of the class which would have prepared me well for the AP exam. Although I felt like my work ethic in preparing for the AP exam was not the best at my grades were decent enough for me to feel confident that I performed well in the class. For the 3 quarters of the class I was able to maintain grades above a C+, which for an AP class I consider all right. My performance in the class could have been better and like stated before there is always room for improvement. I think that I could have stayed after school more often or take the initiative to investigate the concepts of the class at home so when I returned to class the next day I would genius. For this year overall I don’t feel that I was performing at my highest potential even though that I was able to maintain my grades up I still feel that my work in AP bio could have been better.