Saturday, 28 July 2012

Classification

Why do we need to classify organisms?
· Easier to identifrey similarities and differences.
· Can identify organism through the charcteristics of it

How many species are there?
50 billion(my guess)
157
100 trillion
1.4, 8.7, 1.7 million
100 million
The answer is... 13 billion known species of organisms.
This is only 5% of all organisms that ever live!
New organisms are still being identified.

What is classification?
· Classification à arrangement of organisms/groups based on their similarities
· Also known as taxonomy.
· Taxonomists are scientists that identify and name organism.

Benefits of classifying
· Accurately & uniformly named organisms.
· Prevents misnomers such as starfish & jellyfish that aren’t really fish
· Uses same language (Latin or some Greek) for all names.

Human in scientificàHomo sapiens sapiens

When did scientists begin classifying living things?

· 2000 years ago, Aristotle was the first taxonomist.
· He divided organisms into plants & animals.
· He subdivided by the habitat.
· John Ray, a botanist, was the first to use Latin name
· His names were very long descriptions telling their characteristics.
· 18th century taxonomist
· Classified by structure
· Developed naming system


Problems in Classifying organisms
· Species are always changing
· Inter-breeding

Standardized Naming
· Binomial nomenclature used
· Genus species
· Latin or Greek
· Italicized in print
· Capitalize genus, but NOT species.
· Underline when writing

For example: Turdus migratorius
When written: Turdus migratorius

Rules for naming
The international code for binomial nomenclature contains the rules for naming organisms. International Naming Congresses must approve all names. This prevents repeated names.
       
 Classification groups
· Taxon (tax-plural) is a category into which related organisms are placed.
· There is a hierarchy of groups (taxa) form broadest to most specific.
· Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order,

Domains
· Broadest, most inclusive taxon
· Three domains
· Archaea and Eubacteria are unicellular prokaryotes (no nucleus or membrane-bound organelles)
· Eukarya are more complex and have a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles.
Taxons
· Most genera (plural) contain a number of similar species, with the exception of HOMO that only contains modern humans.

Kingdom, phylum  (chordateàbackbone), class ( mammalia àmammals), order, family, genus à finer characteristics, speciesàinternal structures
(king Philip came over for gooseberry soup)

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Bio Report


1.   What do you want to find out? (Aim/Purpose/Research question)
The aim of the experiment
To find out if mealworms respond to sound.
2.   What is the tentative explanation of your research question? (Hypothesis)
The mealworms
Mealworms would respond to sound by moving away from it due to the vibration caused when sound is produced.

3.   In an investigation, there is only one variable to be changed. Which variable will you change in this investigation? (Independent Variable)
The independent variable

Presence of sound and frequency.

4.     All the other variables must be kept constant. List a few important variables that will affect the results greatly. (Controlled Variables)
The controlled variables

Location of the mealworms, the items used to produce sound, the distance between the mealworms and the instruments, the type of mealworms and the number of mealworms
5.     What results will you measure? (Dependent Variable)
The dependent variable

The response by the mealworms to the sound being produced.
6.     State the assumptions that you have made
The assumptions are mealworms will respond to the instrument used to produce sound, the force used to use the instruments is the same, the condition of the mealworms are the same


7.     List the materials and apparatus that you will need to carry out the investigation.
(Materials and Apparatus)
Materials and Apparatus:
C  5 mealworms
C  Tuning fork
C  Castanet
C  Five mealworms
CPlastic container
C  ______________________

C  _______________________
C  _______________________
C  _______________________
C  _______________________
C  _______________________



8.     List the steps that you will take to carry out the investigation. (Procedure) Include drawing of setup.
Procedure:
  
Step 1: Place the castanet close to the mealworms and clack it.
Step 2: Repeat this for three times placing the castanet near each mealworm.
Step3: Observe and record the reaction of each mealworm.
Step4: Then, switch to tuning fork.
Step5: Hit the tuning fork against a rubber bung.
Step6: Repeat this for three times placing the hitting the tuning fork near each mealworm.
Step7: Observe and record the reaction of each mealworm.
Step8: Repeat this experiment thrice to ensure reliability and accuracy and to avoid human reaction error.


9.     Data collection and organization. (Results)
The data can be presented in the form of tables and/or graphs.
Results: The mealworms did not respond to the castanet but they responded to the tuning fork hen it was moved nearer to them. Some of the mealworms moved away from the tuning fork when it was located near to them.




10.   Explain what your data means. (Data Analysis)
What did you observe and give reasons to your observations.
Data Analysis:

 Dependent Variable: The number of mealworms moved away from the instrument
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Castanet
0
0
0
Tuning fork
3
4
3


11.   What can you deduce from the discussion of your data analysis? (Conclusion)
State if your data support your hypothesis? If not, what would you do? In other words, how can you further improve your design? What do you think have been carried out incorrectly and affected the data collected?
Conclusion: Mealworms only respond to sounds of higher frequencies.
                                                                  
Length of mealworm: 3.9cm
Number of segments: 10 segments
Colour: Different shades of brown.
Other observable characteristics: The head and the end of its body is between dark brown and black. There are two feelers sticking out on its head. It has 2 legs in each of the first three segments excluding the head.

 
 













Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Get a Grip!


List of different ways of holding different objects with one hand
  • ·      Grip
  • ·      Grab
  • ·      Cripping with thumb and index finger.
  • ·      Four fingers at 1 side of the object and thumb at the other side.
  • ·      Four fingers curled around the object (small/thin/long), thumb curled in contac with other four fingers.
  • ·      Palm and four fingers curling around the object
  • ·      Index and midlle finger “pinching”. (scissors)
and etc. . .
Observation and Drawing of how I hold my water bottle.


Four fingers are at one side of the water bottle and my thumb is at the other side. The water bottle is facing front. It is bent towards the left. 

Observation of how the gorrila move about and use their arms, legs, hands and feet
Gorillas have larger muscles in their arms than in their legs. This is primarily due to the fact that they use their increased arm strenth for bending and gathering foliage and for defence. Gorillas most often walk quadrupedally (four-footed) with limited bipedal (two-footed) movements. Gorillas and chimpanzees have a distinctive walk called knucle-walking. The walk derived its name because they walk on their knuckles, not on their palms.
Thumb and big toe of gorillas oppose the other digits (fingers/toes), enabling them to grasp and manipulate objects.







Questions on primates move.
Why do primates mostly walk on their knuckles instead of palms?
Will there be a difference of strength and effort put in by the gorilla when they walk with their knuckles instead of palms?
Do primates use their tails to move around?
How long can they walk on their knuckles?
A. In what way do you think the thumb is important to the way humans use their hands?
It helps in grasping things as it helps to support the object we are trying to hold. Even though it is not opposing the other four fingers, without it, we will be unable to do a lot of things with our hand.
B.  Look back at your record of observations of the way other primates use their hands?
   1.   In what ways do they use their thumbs?
   They use their thumbs to grasp things such as tree branch.









1.   How are those ways different from what you just discovered about how humans use their thumbs?
Primates use their opposable thumb for movement purposes wile human use their opposable thumb to hold on something which is mainly for support.