Final Blog

  It's already one year, and I am going to become a sophomore and say "good bye" to my biology class.  I have many achievements for this class, such as getting A's, work on my notebook, accomplish the project, doing the labs, and cooperating with my classmates.  However, I also have some failures in this class, such as going to class late, turning the projects late, and getting bad grades on some tests.  Indeed, I have to thank Ms. Malonek for her discipline and teaching hard for us.  I learned that I always have to be modest and listen to the instruction, so I will never make mistakes in the future.  The knowledge that I learned from my biology class, such as the systems, cells, animals, reactions, or evolutions, will be unforgettable.

Which specimen that we have dissected so far seems most like humans? Why?

  We already dissected several specimen in our biology class, and frog is the speciman that seems most like humans so far.  One of the main reasons is that both frog and human are vertebrate with a cephalizated nervous system.  In addition, frogs have kidneys, gall bladders, livers, spleens, and livers just like what humans have.  Therefore, frogs and humans are close relatives.  Both humans and frogs eat meat, so this can be another reason.  Frogs also have a complete digestive system, and humans have, too.  Unlike some other animals, frogs have lungs instead gills, and the humans do have lungs.  Finally, the similarities between humans and frogs are much more than the differences between them.

Compare two of the organisms that we have dissected Discuss at least 2 similarities and 3 differences

  We dissected many organisms so far, and these organisms have various similarities and differences.  For example, we dissected both crayfish and fish. There are many similarities between crayfish and fish.  Both crayfish and fish have gills which is the respiratory organ that animals use to breath under water.  In addition, another similarities between crayfish and fish is that both of these animals have the whole digestive system, such as esophagus, stomach, big and small intestines and the anus.  Furthermore, both of crayfish and fish are internal fertilization and external reproduction.  On the other hand, there are still some differences between these two animals.  For instance, the crayfish has hard external shell which is made by carapace, but the fish has the soft body, and it is made by the scales.  The crayfish has swimmerets to help swimming, but the fish has fins in order to swim.  The mouth parts of crayfish and fish are also different since the mouth part of crayfish is mandible, yet the fish has jaws.

What was most interesting about this week's dissections?

  For this week, the most interesting dissection is the crayfish because I enjoy to see the different parts of the crayfish, and the most interesting part is to identify all the organs of the crayfish.  In addition, I also use the scissors to cut through body of the crayfish and take off the carapaces of the crayfish.  I counted the number of the gills inside the crayfish, and I cut all the legs and claws off from its body.  In order to see the whole body of the crayfish, I take off all the body segments from the crayfish and use the dissecting needle to touch every organ inside the crayfish's body.  Another thing that surprises me is that the vessel system of the crayfish since the blood stream is filled all over the body of the crayfish.  Although I eat the crayfish all the time, I never realize the interesting things that inside the body of the crayfish.  After the dissection of the crayfish, I carefully examine the whole body system of the crayfish and sketch out the basic anatomy of the crayfish.

What surprised you from the worm's dissection?

  The worm dissection surprised me because its long body and the weired stuffs inside its body.  When I cut the worm from its anus, I saw some black dusts falling off from the worm.  I used the needles to hold the worm, and I felt the smoothness of the skin of the worm.  I saw there are both external and internal tissues and muscles of the worm.  In addition, I can see the vessel system and digestive system of the worm, so I can understand the body system of the worm.  Even though, I did not finish the whole dissection of the worm, I was still surprised by the half of the dissection.  On the other hand, I hope that I can finish the worm dissection and totally comprehend the function of each parts inside the worm.

Alternation of Generations

  Alternation of generation is a word that describes the plant's life cycle.  It is a multicellular diploid form with a multicellular haploid form, and the elements of alternation of generation are two haploid gametes, two diploid gametes, sporangia, and gametangia.  The two processes of alternation of generation are meiosis and fertilization.  Meiosis is reduction of chromosomes from diploid number to haploid number, and fertilization is the fusing of chromosomes from haploid number to diploid number.  Similar to animals, the alternation of generation is also the sexual reproduction of plants, and it is an essential part of plants.  On the other hand, fungi or algae have alternation of generations as well as plants; hence, this is not a unique life cycle of plants.

Why is dissection an important part of a biology curriculum? Which animals and/or plants should be included in biological studies?

  Dissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components.  Dissection is important to the biology curriculum because the students need to understand what looks like inside the organisms, and see the muscle and tissue structures.  The variety of animals or plants need to be included in the biological study because the students have to know the different structures and functions of various kinds of organisms.  For example, mammals, reptiles, fishes, insects, birds, flowers, trees, and fungi can all be the part of biological study for dissection.