week of 12/15/08

• monday:

on monday we watched a Bill Nye science movie!! some notes that i took are:

• chromosomes are an organization of DNA
• "ose" means sugar, "tase" breaks down the sugar
• Wattson and Crick shot a beam of light through crystalized DNA and took x-rays-they were not the first to do this

tuesday:

on tuesday we finished wathcing the movie. i got some more notes which are:

• everything has a genetic code
• RNA interference-scientists insert thier own DNA that they made into the cell that tells the RNA to stop so they can observe the cell

wednesday:

on wednesday Mr. Finley showed us the results for our DNA test to find the criminal who stole his moon rock. we also answered a set of questions about the data and answered them.

question: What is it that I'm looking at?

answer: we are looking at the results for our gel electrophoresis

question: what does this mean?

answer:this means that one of the DNA samples matches up to the criminals DNA

question: Does it indicate that someone is guilty?

answer: this could indicate that someone is guilty because we can try to match up the students DNA with the criminals DNA. however, we can't be positive that our results are right because when mr. finley and the AP biology students handled the criminals hair, they could have contaminated it. so even if a students DNA matched up with the criminals DNA, it might not be 100% true because it could have mr. finley's or the AP biology students DNA mixed with the criminals DNA.

question: how does it do this?

answer: it does this by showing the students DNa vs. the criminals DNA

question: identify the similarities and differences in the data

answer: my DNA is exactly the same as the criminals DNA, and Nick's DNA is extremely similar to the criminals DNA exept for one line

question: write a conclusion

answer: i can conclude that i did the crime becasue the segmants of DNA from the criminal match up exactly with my segmants of DNA. the bandnumbers from the criminalsDNA are the same as the band numbers from mine. Also, i fit the description the witnesses gave. lastly, if you comparethe suspects DNA to the criminals DNA, mine is the only one that is exactly the same.

Thursday:

on thursday we first read about how DNA reproduces and then we read about photosynthesis and answered questions

Friday:

on friday we discussed the process of photosynthesis some more and learned that photo means light and synthesis means created-so therefore photosynthesis is created by light

~*Mary*~