20 Time Final Post

          My 20 Time project was about memory and this blog post will bring some closure and showcase my final product. This is also a chance to evaluate myself and what I did during this process. What I did in my 20 Time project was solve a question about memory which was "how and why do we forget?" I devised an experiment to test this question using two test subjects and a deck of 30 cards with matching pairs. Then, I made my test subjects play concentration to test how well they remember where each card is exactly. I recorded when they got a pair and when they didn't and I recorded where they picked the cards and why. After, I interviewed my test subjects to see what they thought of it and what they experienced.
          My final product of this project was the data and conclusions that I have produced from my experiment. The data is in the following table.

Turns:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Person 1

NP

NP

NP

NP

P

P

NP

NP

NP

NP

NP

NP

P

NP

NP

P

NP

Person 2

NP

NP

NP

P

NP

NP

NP

NP

P

NP

NP

P

P

NP

NP

NP

P

Turns:	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Person 1	NP	P	P	NP	NP	P	P	P
Person 2	NP	NP	NP	NP	P	NP	NP	NP

Key: NP = no pair, P = pair

The conclusions that I have drawn from this is that over time, the short-term memory starts to decay and memories get forgotten easily and that the short-term memory can only hold around 5-9 items at a time.

This table shows the turns that each person took and whether they got a pair or not. It took 25 turns and person 1 won with 9 pairs while person 2 lost with 6 pairs. 

          In Forgetfulness Blog Post 1, I had set my goals for what I want to do in this project, however, I was very unsure about what to do or where to start for my project. By the time of Forgetfulness Blog Post 2, I was sure about what to do, but the problem was how to go about doing what I wanted. By the time of Forgetfulness Blog Post 3, I was completely sure about what I was going to do, how I was going to do it, and why I was going to do it. Some more evidence of what I did are in these google docs: 20 Time Experiment and 20 Time Research. How I would evaluate myself is by going through all of my work and seeing how well I have done everything up until now. I feel that my effort throughout this project, whether it be research, the experiment, or everything in between, has been my best effort. I have produced something that has satisfied my curiosity in this area and I have sacrificed a lot of time towards this project, and for all of those reasons, I believe I deserve an A 

Pig Dissection Lab

           The purpose of this lab was to observe the internal and external organs of a pig. This dissection relates to what I learned in this unit because I learned about all of the organs and organ systems in the vodcasts. I was able to observe these organs and organ systems in real life when I dissected the pig. For example, I could see all of the organs of the digestive system and the sequence of how food is digested in the body. I could also see the respiratory system and what organs were in that system such as the lungs, diaphragm, and the trachea.
          My favorite part of the dissection was when we cut open the belly to expose the thoracic and abdominal cavities. I was surprised to see the shape of each of the organs and the colors of them. It looked unlike the diagrams I have seen, but it was accurate to what I saw in the pig. At first, I was grossed out by the inside of the pig, but over time, I was able to look into it and observe all of the organs. I think this dissection was a valuable experience because it opened my eyes to see something that I have never seen before and to experience how the body works and looks in real life. Below is the youtube video that I made of the dissection and the explanation of each organ system.

20 Time Individual Reflection

          My 20 time project was about how and why we forget. I conducted research about this topic, then I made and did an experiment to test memory and memory loss. I chose this challenge because I was very  interested in this when I thought of it. Also, it has helped me learn how my memory works in the context of remembering formulas for math or concepts for biology. For this project, I was mostly focused on self-improvement of my knowledge of memory and my learning process. 

          My initial plan for this project was discussed in 20 Time Blogpost 1. It was to research this topic to see what it was about, since I didn't know much about how memory worked. Then, the next step was to create an experiment to test what I learned. After that was to conduct the experiment and collect data, then analyze it. I would say that I stuck relatively well to my initial plan explained above. My successes were that I made and conducted a successful experiment. I didn't have any failures, but there might have been inconveniences such as time management and conflicts. My biggest obstacle would be getting started because this was such a vague project with no set deadlines or goals. It was different than what I usually do for projects. However, I managed to finish most of what I wanted to accomplish in the first place. 

          What I learned was about the complex processes of how our brains memorize and forget information. I also learned how to create an experiment. Some soft skills, or life skills, that I learned were time management and resolving conflict issues. If I had a chance to do this again, I would manage my time better and I would plan around my schedule to fit 20 time in to get more work done. What I have learned about myself is that I can improve on my time management and that I have learned about how I forget and what I can do to improve my memory. For now, I think this challenge is done and I don't have any intention of continuing it. 

Unit 9 Reflection

          In this unit we learned about the study and organization of organisms called taxonomy. The themes and essential understandings were the defining characteristics of the different taxonomic groups. The different taxonomic groups starting from largest to smallest are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. The three domains are Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. In bacteria, there are gram-positive (thick cell wall) and gram-negative bacteria (not thick cell wall). Archaea was discovered in the 1970's in extreme environments and are called extremophiles. Eukarya has many kingdoms: Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. Fungi are organisms that reproduce using spores, have a fruiting body with hyphae and mycellium, and consume decayed, organic material. The different types of fungi are club fungi, sac fungi, and bread molds. Plantae are organisms that use photosynthesis or chemosynthesis to produce their own food, and they are called autotrophs. The different phyla of plants are mosses, ferns, gymnosperms (cone bearing plants), and angiosperms (flower bearing plants). Animalia are organisms that are heterotrophic and are animals. The different phyla of animals are Porifera (sponges), Cnidaria (jellyfish and coral), Platyhelminthes (flatworms), Molluska (oysters, clams, etc.), Annelida (segmented worms), Echinodermata (sea stars), Arthropoda (insects and crustaceans), and Chordata (vertebrates). Within the phylum Chordata, there are the classes Agnatha (jawless fish), Condricthyes (cartilaginous fish), Osteicthyes (bony fish), Amphibia (amphibians), Reptilia (reptiles), Aves (birds), and Mammalia (mammals).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Simplified_tree.png

            What I want to learn more about is how did structures such as a jaw or a backbone form when there was no organism with those traits. Also I want to learn more about how life colonized land from the water. Some unanswered questions that I have are that why is the nerve cord hollow, and why do some chordates lose their notochord, hollow backbone, pharyngeal slits, and tail?
          In this unit we did a project of making a scaled Geologic Timeline. We started from the beginning of the creation of the earth to the present and we included all of the historical events, periods, eras, and biological events that occurred during earth's history. My experience was that it helped me see the expanse of earth's history, what exactly happened in the distant past, and what led to the evolution of the species we see today. It was also a good collaboration experience because I had to work in a group.

Picture of our Geologic Timeline

          Also in this unit I made and did a presentation about an organism from the book What on Earth Evolved: 100 Species That Changed the World by Christopher Lloyd. The organism that I chose was Penicillium, the fungus responsible for the discovery and production of antibiotics. This organism has impacted the earth by helping humans gain strength against bacteria that would kill off humans easily. It has also impacted the world by allowing bacteria to evolve at a rapid pace, making it that we have to produce new antibiotics every year to keep up with the constant evolution of the bacteria. Below is my presentation.

Geologic Timeline Individual Reflection

          In class, we made a scaled timeline of Earth's history from the creation of Earth to the present. Three major events that happened in Earth's history were the creation of Earth, the formation of life, and the evolution of humans. The creation of the Earth is important because that is when Earth is formed. That leads to all the changes that happened after that. The formation of life is important because that led to all of the evolution of life that led to the extreme diversity in life and changed the planet. The evolution of humans is important because they are the most advanced organisms that have developed technology that is changing the Earth to this day.

          The scale of Earth's history is very large. What surprised me the most was the length of some of the eras, especially the periods in Precambrian era. Also what surprised me was the large amount of evolution and speciation that occurred all throughout Earth's history. My thoughts on human's impact on the Earth in such a short amount of time is that it is hard to comprehend. We have just been on this planet for about 200,000 years and the Earth has changed dramatically, whether it is climate change, or the urbanization of the world.
Some questions I have are why are the Precambrian eras and periods extremely long compared to the Post-Cambrian eras and periods. Also, I wonder what led to all 5 of the mass extinctions that happened.

Forgetfulness Project Post 3

          My 20 time project is about how and why we forget. Also it is about figuring out how the human memory system works. What I have learned about my topic so far are the types of memory, what causes us to forget, theories of forgetting, memory retrieval, and types of short-term memory experiments. The types of memory are sensory, short-term (working), and long-term memory. Some examples of what causes us to forget are retrieval failure from the long-term and failure of encoding the memory into the long-term. Some theories of forgetting are the decay theory, the interference theory, the retrieval failure theory, and the cue-dependent theory. Memory retrieval is when a memory is brought from long-term to the working memory.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/
Human_Brain_Symbol.svg/1000px-Human_Brain_Symbol.svg.png

         What I have learned about myself is that I have expanded my knowledge about this topic a lot since the beginning of my 20 time project. Back then, I didn't know that there were so many things that go on in forming memory and how it all works. When I started this project, I thought I was going to learn only about how people forget, but that has led me to how memory overall works, and that has made me realize many things about myself, such as my memory patterns and what sticks in my mind and what doesn't. I have used this information to help me remember more things, such as for tests and projects.
          Some setbacks that I have had were learning the information and then applying it in the experiment. Also, I had trouble with analyzing the data from the experiment and relating that information with the information that I had researched. However, I was able to eventually see why both the experiment's information and the research's information matched or didn't match and I was able to make my review and relate process better. The next steps are to conduct a couple more experiments to broaden my data and information to produce more concise and developed findings. Next is to collect and analyze the data into a concise and easy to understand way to present, which will also give me the ability to compare and contrast the data collected. What I can apply this to in school is by understanding how my memory works and how to take advantage of that to help me remember information for tests, quizzes, project, etc.

Unit 8 Reflection

          In this unit we learned about evolution. The themes and essential understandings were that evolution changes populations, not individuals, and what triggers evolution. Evolution occurs when there are different traits in a species, and the individuals who have the best trait to deal with what the environment pressures them with, then the individuals with the more favorable trait pass on their genes while the individuals with the less favorable genes die off and don't pass on their genes. Eventually, the population will look more like the individuals with the more favorable trait, meaning that the population has evolved. When a population's trait frequency changes, or its allele frequency for a particular trait changes, then it is said that the population has evolved.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/
6/69/Human_evolution.svg/800px-Human_evolution.svg.png

          We did two labs in this unit, the Bird Beak Lab and the Hunger Games Lab. In the bird beak lab, we observed different traits of bird beaks and we saw which phenotype did the best at collecting food. The birds with the better beak for collecting food survived and produced more offspring than the birds that didn't have a good beak to collect food. Eventually, the population of the birds became more and more like the birds with the better beak. The allele frequency of that beak phenotype increased in the population, while the others decreased, so the bird population evolved to have the better beak phenotype. In the Hunger Games Lab, we also observed different bird beaks and their abilities to collect food. Those whose beak allowed to get more food produced more offspring and survived, and those who didn't died off. From that data, we could see that the allele frequency shifted to a higher percentage of the better beak to collect food, which means that the population evolved that trait.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb
/Timeline_evolution_of_life.svg/1280px-Timeline_evolution_of_life.svg.png

         What I want to learn more about is how the traits that die off evolved in the first place, and what traits ended up surviving through natural selection all these years to make the present organisms and traits we see today. Also, I wonder about what traits and species died off over Earth's history and what caused those species and traits to die off. In the Unit 7 Reflection, I talked about my assertiveness and how I can improve and make it better. So far I feel I am assertive enough to tackle the jobs at hand. What I am doing well is that I am being assertive in the first place. What I need to do better is to be even more assertive, because I feel that I am being assertive in a passive way.