The Fisher and the Little Fish

The fisherman only got one, small little fish, but he kept it knowing that if he threw it back he might not get anything. The moral of the story is, don't throw away something because it is small or useless, keep it because you might not get anything bigger or better. The fisherman might not have gotten another fish if he let the small one go so he kept it.

The Crow and the Pitcher

If you fail at first, try and try again. I believe that this the maxim of the story. The crow at first couldn't reach the water, but he innovated and came up with a brilliant idea to get the water. If he had given up at first, he would have been dead without water. It is only because that he tried again and came up a new idea did he finally succeed.

The Fox and the Goat

I think that the moral of the story is to not always trust anyone and everyone you meet because they might want to trick you and deceive you. This sheep resembles my character in a way. I always believe what people tell me and I get duped. We both will just have to learn from our mistakes... If the sheep had not trusted the fox then the sheep would be safe from harm.

Genetics Post 2

Even though I have done genetics I never knew a lot of these facts. I learned a hoard of new things that I never knew! One thing I learned was that chimps and humans ( on the genetic level) are almost exactly alike except for a few minor differences in DNA. Another important thing I learned was that there isn't a relationship between the number or chromosomes and the number of genes. From the second link I learned that our chromosomes are not one big strand because our bodies are so complex and because we have a tremendous amount of DNA in our bodies. Other organisms like bacteria keep all their DNA in one strand. They do this because they reproduce asexually meaning when they reproduce each bacteria gets half the copy of the same DNA. In the third link I found something out that added on to this concept. We have an enormous genome compared to those bacteria. Since our genome is so big we divide it all up into our 46 chromosomes. After reading the links I was really shocked. It taught me so much!


animefreak44

Wooden Bowl response =(

This short story was about an old grandfather who was very clumsy. He always made a mess when he ate with the family. After a while the husband and wife got tired of him ruining things so they gave him a small table in a corner and give him a wooden bowl to eat in. The child of the couple took this example and started making a wooden bowl for his parents for when he grew up, just like what the parents did to the grandfather. This sad story is related to empathy in C.A.R.E.S. The couple thought the grandfather was annoying because he spilled everything over the table so they isolated him. This actually shows a lack of empathy. The couldn't stand that he was spilling but didn't realize that he wasn't doing it on purpose. Frankly, they were just treating him rottenly. The granddson though just followed the parents example and did the same thing to his parents, he made wooden bowls for them too. This sparked the empathy in the couple and they both finally realized that they were treating the grandfather so badly. This act showed them to treat others the way you want to be treated, the golden rule Without the son they would have never realized that they were treating him so badly.


animefreak44

Basic Genetics Hw =)

After going to the website I learned a couple of things. One thing I learned was about traits is that there are three types. Physical traits (phenotype), behavioral traits, and predisposition to a medical condition. What I learned is that all of these traits can be influenced by an environment even physical traits. Physical traits such as hair color can be easily changed by exposure to sun or hair dyes. Behavioral traits can be influenced by your surroundings also. People can have a huge effect on someones behavior. Risk of getting a medical condition can be effected by out environment too. For example exercising and eating healthy will lower the risk of heart disease. Another thing I learned about traits is how they are inherited. Each of the parents pass one of their alleles to their children. The two combined decides what trait they have. The combination is different every time they have a baby too.

What I learned from heredity is that parents randomly pass chromosomes to their babies. They provide one full set of chromosomes to their babies. The thing is that any of these chromosomes can be from any of the two sets of chromosomes that the parents have. Another thing is that the baby can only have one of each chromosome. Every child inherits unique chromosomes. Since all the children have different chromosomes from their parents some will look like the father and and some will look like the mother. When these babies grow up and start families of their own and have children they pass some of their own chromosomes to their children. This continues generation after generation.


This has been a great review and it has also taught me some new things.


animefreak44

Class Post - Owl Pellets

Over the course of the past week we have learned all about owls. We got into groups and dissected owl pellets. Owl pellets are basically the owls waste in the form of a pellet. The contents of the pellet are bones and fur along with some stomach acids. The process of excretion for an owl is known as regurgitation. Owls aren't able to digest very big animals so they either eat small animals or eat only part of an animal. The owl cannot digest the bones or fur of an animal, so they take the nourishment from the meat of the animal and leaves the rest to be excreted. This process takes about 24 hours to complete. The owl has two stomachs: the proventriculus and the ventriculus, or gizzard. In the proventriculus is where the digestion starts to happen. In the ventriculus the owl pellet is formed. The pellet is then stored in the gizzard for several hours. Then it is brought back up to the proventriculus and then it is regurgitated.

Our teacher got us owl pellets to dissect. This was part of a lab. We got into groups of two and three. But before we could dissect we needed to learn more about owls, so we got some worksheets about owls and how the owl pellet is formed. After looking over the worksheets and answering a few questions, we started the "lab". The first thing we did was measure our pellet. Our pellet was fairly small. Next we started to dissect the owl pellet with our tools. Our teacher told us to separate the fur from the bones. We picked through the pellet for two days until we didn't find any more bones. Then our teacher told us to use the bones we found and try to create a complete skeleton of an animal. Our group only found a couple of bones so it was kind of tough to put together a skeleton. Also most of our bones were crushed. We used a sheet to help us arrange the bones. Once we put the bones in order, we glued it down on to piece of paper in the shape of a skeleton. To me that was the most fun part about this whole lab. We learned about all the ones about what the owl ate and how it looked too. The final part of out lab was to answer the analysis questions which in my opinion was very easy to finish. After doing all of those steps we finally finished the Owl Pellet Lab.

After finishing the lab I wanted to learn something new I didn't already no from learning from the lab. I went to various sites and learned two things. Before I thought that the owls only regurgitate to get rid of the fur and bones. But now I learned that regurgitation is helpful. Actually the pellet helps clean the esophagus. It is proven that raptors that eat just the meat of animal are not as healthy as raptors that eat their food whole. I also learned about a useful safety procedure while researching the owl pellets. It is said that the rodents inside the pellet may carry disease. One should always sterilize the pellet in the microwave before studying.

http://www.kidwings.com/owlpellets/flash/v4/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellet_%28ornithology%29


My favorite part about this lab was building the skeleton of the rodent that we found. It was my favorite part of the lab because I learned all about the different bones of the rodent. Also I learned exactly how a rodent looks. This part was also the hardest part of the lab because our group didn't have too many bones, so it was hard to put it all together in the end. Most of our bones were crushed too which made it hard to identify them. This lab was very amusing because I learned so many things about owls and how they form their pellets. With all this information I could become an owl expert! There was one drawback in this lab for me only. This lab was repetitious for me. this was my third time doing this lab. Once in third grade, once in sixth grade, and now. In third grade we didn't do this lab so thoroughly. In sixth grade we did exactly what we did this past week. I forgot most of what I did learn, but this lab was a great refresher course!

animefreak44