For the protein project, I was in a group with Rachel Houlihan, Jake Schmidt, and Aaron Simon. We had to a protein and then explain how it went through Central Dogma to start from DNA into a protein. We did our project on the sex hormone binding globulin. We talked about how it's made, what it's used for. We included all the steps of it turning into a protein. Link to the project is below.
Quinton Graybeal, Addie Seymour, and Hannah Perky were in my group for the homeostasis project. For this project, we had to take one example of homeostasis and prove that it occurs. We chose the acid level homeostasis because we were curious about how your body was able to control the amount of acidity in your body. To do this, we had three test subjects drink a full Red Bull and take their pH levels every five minutes. We chose Red Bull because it was the most acid thing that we could consume that we could obtain and wasn't harmful. We tested our pH every five minutes until it was back to normal. All 3 of the subjects were back to normal after 10 minutes, but test subject 2&3's acidity went down below their normal at 5 minutes. This surprised us. We think it was because when the body went to fix the acidity it may have sent too much basic blood to make sure it got all of the unneeded acidity and end up overdoing it and then fixing that mistake by the 10 minute mark. A link is below to our project.
Quinton Graybeal, Addie Seymour, and Hannah Perky were in my group for the homeostasis project. For this project, we had to take one example of homeostasis and prove that it occurs. We chose the acid level homeostasis because we were curious about how your body was able to control the amount of acidity in your body. To do this, we had three test subjects drink a full Red Bull and take their pH levels every five minutes. We chose Red Bull because it was the most acid thing that we could consume that we could obtain and wasn't harmful. We tested our pH every five minutes until it was back to normal. All 3 of the subjects were back to normal after 10 minutes, but test subject 2&3's acidity went down below their normal at 5 minutes. This surprised us. We think it was because when the body went to fix the acidity it may have sent too much basic blood to make sure it got all of the unneeded acidity and end up overdoing it and then fixing that mistake by the 10 minute mark. A link is below to our project.
Protein project slide show |
homeostasis project slide show |
PROTEIN CONCEPTS
- Central Dogma - the flow of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA to proteins
- Protein - macromolecules with one or more polypeptide chains
- Protein synthesis - the process by which cells generate new proteins
- DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid; found in the nucleus, contains all the genteic instruction to create proteins
- RNA - a nucleic acid that carries instructions from DNA for protein synthesis
- Transcription - the first step in protein synthesis in which the DNA is transcribed into mRNA.
- Translation - the second step of protein syntheses in which the mRNA becomes a specific protein
- Folding - the last step before polypeptide chain becomes a protein in which the chain of amino acids fold to complete the protein making process
HOMEOSTASIS CONCEPTS
- Homeostasis - the tendency for our body to always return to an equilibrium, ocuurs in organs and cells, etc.
- Acid -a chemical substance that neutralizes alkalis, dissolves some metals, and turns litmus red; typically, a corrosive or sour-tasting liquid of this kind. Has a high concentration of hydrogen ions.
- Acidity -the level of acid in substances
- pH- is a measure of the hydorgen ion concentration of a solution. Solutions with a high concentration of hydrogen ions have a low pH and solutions with a low concentrations of H+ ions have a high pH.
- pH strips- strips used to tell the pH of a liquid.
REFLECTION
Overall, the two projects went very well. I took two different roles in the two projects. In the protein one, I wasn't much of a leader and I did what I was told to do. But, in the homeostasis project, I was by far the main leader of the project. One thing I learned about myself is that I can be a good group leader if given the chance. Also, I learned that you can be much more efficient in your group if you have everybody working on the same "page" and no one is slacking off. In the protein project, I could have tried to be more of a leader. In the homeostasis project, it would have helped our group if I made sure everyone was on task.
TWO PEAKS
Overall, the two projects went very well. I took two different roles in the two projects. In the protein one, I wasn't much of a leader and I did what I was told to do. But, in the homeostasis project, I was by far the main leader of the project. One thing I learned about myself is that I can be a good group leader if given the chance. Also, I learned that you can be much more efficient in your group if you have everybody working on the same "page" and no one is slacking off. In the protein project, I could have tried to be more of a leader. In the homeostasis project, it would have helped our group if I made sure everyone was on task.
TWO PEAKS
- PROTEIN- For this project, our whole group was able to work together well and get stuff done. Once we got going, it was a breeze to get through it.
- HOMEOSTASIS- Our testing part of the project went together very well and efficiently. Everybody was on task and working hard on this.
- Protein- Our group took a little too much time deciding on which protein we were going to use. This lost us valuable time that we couldve been using to improve our final product.
- Homeostasis- This was a difficult project to come up with a plan for. Their were a lot of different variables that we had to find and this cost us valuable time, as we were rushing to finish our presentation for the project at the end.