Displaying Science

This year I have grown to be able to take complex scientific knowledge and phrase it in a way that is understandable to anyone in my Biology Class. The most recent supporting project of my growth is the Genetic Disease Simulated Patient Project. The overall goal of this endeavor was to take on the role of a resident physician at DRSS Medical Center. As a resident, our role is to diagnose and provide genetic counseling for a simulated patient or family. Overall concluding with THREE products: a Diagnostic Report, a Genetic Counseling Report, and a Genetic Counseling Consultation. These products were created for our simulated patient and will be presented to and shared with a variety of medical professionals. This project overall aimed to answer the driving question: How can we use our understanding of genetics and probability to manage the risks of passing on genetic diseases? This project strongly supports my ability to display information, with the concluding step being to create a PowerPoint that can display all the information about our patient and use that as background for diagnosing. This powerpoint has to be fairly simplified so it is understandable from the viewer’s stand point. I have to display how I am able to take information and create pedigrees and area models to determine an individuals Genotype or phenotype based off of family records and history. It in addition needs to be displayed in a way that can be redone in other situations. This informational PowerPoint is labeled above.

The Frozen Frog unit is another project that I had to work on simplifying. But instead of simplifying scientific information for other people. I am simplifying that information in a way that I can understand and remember over a long period of time. The overall goal was to answer the question; consequences. But Hyla chrysoscelis somehow avoids this. Several researchers are currently trying to figure out how Hyla chrysoscelis can tolerate being frozen. These researchers need your help! Your mission is to figure out how Hyla chrysoscelis can tolerate being frozen. It was a process that took many steps to understand the process of which we were given information. To first start off this project we had to brainstorm what we knew, wanted to know about the unit. After introduction we were than able to looks at the results of a regular beet cell and a frozen beet cell. The regular beet cell looked no different than it did when first put into the test tube, however, the frozen beet has shed pigment and liquid in the time it has been in the freezer. We were informed that this was a process titled as Cell lysis. Which is a situation that occurs when the cell brakes and is drained of its internal form. We were able to match that experiment to the Hyla chrysoscelis having a way to prevent their cells from lysis. So then our next sub-driving question arose. How can we prevent cells from lysing when they freeze? We were required to design an experiment to help answer that question. As a class we discussed the Data that each group received and then created a poster to represent our studies. What we were able to conclude was that the cells will not lysis when there is less water in the cell to expand. All the materials tested and prevent lysis was by dehydrating the cell. Like sugar and salt. Or encasing the cell tight enough for nothing to expand. By the end of the project we continued research to find the addition information for us to understand scientifically – How the Hyla chrysoscelis were able to control the water in and outside of their cells. I discovered that the cells starts out with an equilibrium in and outside of the cell, meaning that the solution and water in your body is equal. Then when time to freeze the Hyla chrysoscelis increases the amount of solution outside of the cell then the water inside the cell moves out into lower concentration. Causing the amount of water inside the cell to decrease. With the decreasing amount of water the cell shrivels up and enter a stage of Hypertonic. The water inside the cells cannot crystalize enough to lysis. The packet at which I used in this process in listed on the side of the page. Overall I had to reflect and simplify the scientific information to get it all down and make it so my notes were understandable by me for when I look back into them.

The Healthy Living Project was centered on appealing to the younger audience. This project was based off of reducing the risk of obesity in the DRSS community. This goal was achieved though the creation and implementation of a “Healthy Living Day” in order to encourage healthier nutrition and exercise habits among a specific sub-population of the DRSS community. Before the introduction to this project the 10th grade was highlighted on the biological and health impacts of a human’s diet to their body. Which lead us into the project at which we were required to address those factors as justification to any discussions we made as to do with what our Healthy Living Day would imply. We started this project in our group, choosing a set audience of the DRSS to implement healthy habits. Then we were able to come up with an event to fit the audience we have chosen. Once the basic information was set, we created a draft of our proposal presentation. We then practiced our presentation to another groups for constructive feedback. After revising our project we kept practicing till we presented the final proposal presentation. Afterward we were informed that we were approved to create the product that served as our event. We were required to create this product and then post instructions and template to recreate personal copies. This project was another that I had to create a powerpoint to present my idea and get it approved by the teachers of my biology and Wellness class. This powerpoint is also listed on the side and had to be simple yet display advance information that helped support why my group set up the event as we did.