Human Body 2.0 - Project Blog (11/14 - 11/18)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/QF6ycw

Summary:

     The spinal cord is one of the most important, if not the most important organ. It sends information and instructions to and from the brain and the body. Without it, the entire body and the brain is virtually useless since the brain and body can no longer communicate with each other. If you split or damage a part of the spinal cord, anything below the damaged area will no longer function temporarily or permanently depending on how severe the damage is. Once damaged badly enough, the spinal cord cannot heal itself the right way. The nerves that were damaged do not know where to heal to, so instead of the damaged nerve re-connecting to a nerve that it split off of, it connects to the wrong nerve. Since the spinal cord is the most important organ in the body, it must need more protection and should have the ability to heal itself. 

Backward Looking - Have you done a similar kind of work in the past (earlier in the year or in a previous grade; in school or out of school)?:

     Yes, I have done a similar assignment to this project which I did in 5th grade. In this assignment I was supposed to write in my blog the organs about a particular body system, the function, how to simulate the function of that body system based on activities we did, how to keep it healthy, and 5 interesting facts (or fun facts) about that body system. The body systems that I wrote about were the Nervous, Skeletal, Muscular, Digestive, Urinary, Cardiovascular, and Respiratory System. Doing this assignment gave me prior knowledge to help me with this project by telling me what each body system is composed of and how they work.

Inward Looking - How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work?:

     I believe that the Human Body 2.0 Project for me went fairly good. The reason why I think that way is because the I thought that the Written Argument and Design Brief went well since we gave as much information as we could give in detail and the rationale of why we wanted to redesign the spine that way. However I personally can't feel the same way for the presentation. I feel like that the presentation was rushed and unpracticed. It did contain almost all the information for our re-design except for the counter argument and rebuttal, but I still think the presentation could have been better.

Outward Looking - Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar?:

     When I observed other people's presentations, some were similar and some were different but mostly similar. Similar to my group, many people proposed their re-design of their body system through slide presentations. When I saw other presentations, I noticed that some groups did their presentations in a different way. Some people used animations or videos to show their re-design. One group that was re-designing the digestive system even added skits and a video to their slide to show what the problem with their original design was, their re-design, and the simulation.

Forward Looking - What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again?

     If I were to do this piece over again, there are two things that I would change about this project.  The two things that I would change about this project is the idea of how to heal the spine and the overall presentation (since as said before, i'm not necessarily proud of it). To heal the spine, rather than having axons stretch to protect the nerves as said in our presentation, I would have DNA to contain instructions for each nerve cell. When a spine is damaged, DNA should tell the damaged nerve cells what specific nerve to connect to when healing. Regarding our presentation, I would change the presentation to a video since a video is easily changeable compared to a live presentation and I would add the problem with the re-design of our spine and how we are going to fix that. 

Spinal Cord Redesign (11/7 - 11/10)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/m24s3G

Summary:

     The spinal cord is the organ in your nervous system that is made up of bundles of nerves. It connects with your brain and the rest of your body. The function of the spinal cord is to send information and instructions from the brain to the rest of your body and give information back to the brain. For example, if you wanted to move your hand, your brain will send a signal that goes through the spinal cord and to the hand telling it to move. If you get injured at a certain body part, say the hand, the hand will send a signal to the brain through the spine to tell the brain that it is injured. The spine is extremely important because it sends instructions and information to and from your brain and your body. Without the spinal cord you wouldn't be able to move or feel anything at all. 

SP6 - Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions:

     This week I constructed explanations about the spinal cord through my team's design brief. With my team, I explained the original function of the spinal cord, which was to send info and instructions to and from the brain and body. We then explained the issues with the spinal cord such as the durability of it and how it  couldn't heal the right way once broken. We designed a solution to the fact that the spinal cord isn't durable by saying that we could encase the spinal cord into something really durable and flexible such as carbyne. If the spinal cord wrapped in carbyne does manage to break itself  (which is very unlikely), there could be instructions in the DNA to tell the damaged nerves in the spinal cord what to and what not to do.

XCC - Structure and Function:

     In our redesign of the spine, the carbyne that supports the spinal cord in a few ways. As said before, carbyne is a very durable and flexible material to use. If it were to be encasing the spinal cord, the chances of the spinal cord breaking and the host being paralyzed is very unlikely. Also, since carbyne is very flexible, it acts as the original design of the spine and spinal cord. For example, in the original design, if you jump, the spine kind of coils to fit the structure if your body when you jump. Since carbyne is also flexible but stronger, it could do the same thing. So if you wrap carbine around the spine, the spine will have no problem adapting to it since it is now well protected and is now flexible so it could adapt to almost any position that the human gets in.

     

Is it healthier to be a Vegetarian or Omnivore? - WAC

By Joshua Santos, 2026-7B

     It is much healthier to be an Omnivore, or someone that eats both vegetables and meat. Omnivores eat meat which provide healthy vitamins that improve system. Humans were also designed to eat meat and do not have the same stomachs as herbivores and cannot get the most out of vegetables and plants. Also, myths regarding meat eaters to live shorter lives or have cardiovascular diseases were in the past proven false thoroughly and many times. Omnivores are not excluded to eating vegetables and plants, so Omnivores eat both meat and plants which both in total provide vitamins and fats that improve the health and performance of the body and healthy and many minerals such as iron.

     Omnivores eat meat which provide healthy vitamins to improve body systems. According to the article ¨Is It Healthier To Be A Vegetarian Or Omnivore?" by ProCon.org, it states that meat provides vitamin B12, which makes the digestive and nervous system more healthier. This agrees with Kris Gunnars in the article ¨7 reasons not to avoid meat (unless you want to)¨, which says that meat provides protein and according to this article, it says: ¨Another thing protein is important for is bone health.¨ These two articles show that meat is necessary for skeletal, digestive, and nervous system health. Also, an article called ¨Is It Healthier To Be A Vegetarian Or Omnivore?¨ by the Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibilities or SENCER says that ¨And yet, meat products contain creatine and carnosine, which are beneficial to the brain and muscles¨"and shows that meat is also healthy for the brain and muscles.

     Humans were not designed to live off of only vegetables. In the article by Kris Gunnars titled ¨7 reasons you should not avoid meat (unless you want to)¨, it clearly says ¨Our digestive systems are well equipped to make full use of the fats, proteins and nutrients from animal foods¨ and ¨Humans have much shorter digestive systems than herbivores and don´t have specialized organs to digest cellulose, the main fiber in plants.¨ By reading these two quotes, I learned that humans were specifically built to benefit from meat and cannot live off of plants and vegetables because they cannot digest cellulose, so humans cannot get the most out of eating plants. Kris Gunnars also illustrated the idea of meat benefiting humans by saying ¨Humans also have canines, with big brains, opposing thumbs and the ability to make tools to hunt. Meat was one of the reasons humans were able to evolve such large, elaborate brains." This information clearly shows that humans were able to evolve from meat which shows meat's usefulness to humans.

     There are many things that are beneficial to being omnivorous. One of them is the ability to eat both meat and vegetables/fruits. That means that omnivores can benefit from vegetables and meat. ProCon.org states in the article "Should people become vegetarian?" that "A vegetarian diet provides a more healthful source of iron than a meat-based diet." and "Eating meat provides a better source of iron than a vegetarian diet." From these two quotes alone, I learned that  a vegetarian diet provides healthier iron while meat provides more iron. If you eat both vegetables and meat, you get more iron and healthy iron as well, which is good for your body. Meat also provides vitamins that are necessary to make your nervous, muscular, digestive and skeletal system healthier as said in "7 reasons not to avoid meat" by Kris Gunnars and "Is it healthier to be a vegetarian or omnivore?" by SENCER. Also, ProCon.org shows in the article "Should people become vegetarian?" that "A vegetarian diet delivers complete nutrition and can provide health benefits." If you combine the complete nutrition, health benefits and healthy iron with the helpful vitamins, proteins, fats, and nutrients which make many of your systems such as the nervous, muscular, skeletal, and digestive system healthy from meat, you can with no doubt see that being an omnivore is much healthier than being vegetarian.

     There are some things people think are beneficial to being vegetarian. Some of these things are 'if you are vegetarian you live longer' and 'eating meat can cause cardiovascular diseases.' Both of these facts were proven false many times. According to the article "Should people become vegetarian?" by ProCon.org, they show that this fact is indeed false saying "Vegetarians do not live longer. This myth stems from the fact that vegetarians tend to be more health conscious overall..." Kris Gunnars also says in the article "7 reasons not to avoid meat" that meat does not cause cardiovascular disease saying "The main reason for these claims is that meat is high in saturated fat." and "Studies now show that saturated fat in the diet is not linked to heart disease." This shows that meat does not cause cardiovascular disease so you should not worry about this disease when eating meat. This article also claims that there are no health benefits to avoiding meat. "Despite the claims, there is no strong evidence that avoiding meat leads to health benefits. True... there are observational studies showing that vegetarians have a lower risk of several diseases. However, these results are largely explained by the fact that vegetarians are more health conscious overall and are more likely to exercise, less likely to smoke, etc."

     In conclusion, being omnivorous is more beneficial than being vegetarian for various reasons. These reasons include the fact that eating meat provides proteins, nutrients vitamins (especially vitamin B12), fat, etc. that make your body more healthier and stronger. Omnivores also don't only eat meat, they also eat vegetables which means that they can benefit from plants that provide healthy iron, a diet filled with iron, nutrients, and carbohydrates. Being vegetarian isn't healthier than being omnivorous as said by "7 reasons you should not avoid meat" by Kris Gunnars. In fact, being vegetarian is worse than being omnivorous due to the fact that you´re only limited to vegetables, you have to find another source of protein, and you do not have vitamin B12 which makes your bones, digestive system, brain and central nervous system and muscles not as healthy and strong in comparison to an omnivore.

Immune System

Image Source: https://goo.gl/WccWO1

Immune System:

Function:
The function of the Immune System is to fight bad bacteria, viruses, diseases, chemicals, etc. that end up in the body.

Organs:

     The organs associated with the Immune System are the leukocytes which fight off foreign bacteria in your body, the spleen which filters out blood and helps fight off bacteria and viruses, lymph nodes and tonsils which filter out harmful bacteria and waste in your body (these are found in many places in your body), the bone marrow which produces the leukocytes, and the thymus which teaches the leukocytes how to do their job.

Interactions w/ other Systems:

     The Immune System works with the Integumentary System (skin) because the Integumentary System is the first line of defense when met with a pathogen. The skin blocks off harmful pathogens so the Immune System doesn't have to deal with it. The Immune System is also part of the Lymph System; they are basically one system. The Lymph System removes cell waste and the Immune System removes pathogens.

Analogy:

Image Source: https://goo.gl/6o81wW

Explanation: 

     The analogy for the Immune System is an airport baggage scanner. The function of an airport baggage scanner is to scan people's bags and search for (potentially) harmful items such as water bottles, harmful food/liquids, and weapons to ensure that the airplane flight and the people in the airplane are safe. The Immune Systems job is similar. The function of the Immune System is to wipe out any harmful substances or pathogens that are inside the body. This is to ensure that the organism isn't harmed by any pathogens or substances that may do so.

Structure and Function:

      The organ that I chose for this section was the lymphatic vessels. These organs are tiny tubes that carry lymphs produced by lymph nodes. It is similar to the veins and arteries in the Circulatory System. The lymphatic vessels have tiny open holes which allow lymphs to escape into the body. This allows it to do its function because the lymphs go to the body´s cells to collect their waste, then go back to the lymphatic vessels. These vessels also have valves inside of them, which act as a gate. These valves are there to prevent reverse or irregular flow.

Sources:

"The Immune System - in More Detail." The Immune System - in More Detail. NobelPrize.org, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. <http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/immunity/immune-detail.html>.

Nemours. "Your Immune System." KidsHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's Health. The Nemours Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. <http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/immune.html>.

"Lymph Node." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Aug. 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymph_node>.

Immune System - BrainPOP. Perf. Tim and Moby. BrainPOP. BrainPOP, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. <https://www.brainpop.com/health/bodysystems/immunesystem/>.

Lymphatic System - BrainPOp. Perf. Tim and Moby. BrainPOP. BrainPOP, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. <https://www.brainpop.com/health/bodysystems/lymphaticsystem/>.

Mitosis (10/10 - 10/13)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/fDKOK7

Summary:

      Cell replication, or also known as Mitosis, is a process in where one cell replicates itself to make another copy of itself. Mitosis is used for things such as healing. When you have a wound, your body closes it off by replicating cells and covering up the wound. There are 6 stages of Mitosis: Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, and Cytokinesis. The first phase- the interphase, is where the cell grows to its mature and proper size and makes sure that it has the right amount of organelles. The cell also makes a copy of its DNA and Centrioles. The next step is the metaphase. In the metaphase, the nucleus replicates itself and the centrioles go to opposite sides of the cell and create spindle fibers which go across the cell. The spindle fibers stretch and pull therefore having all chromosomes line up at the equator of the cell, each being attached to a spindle fiber. The next phase is the anaphase. In the anaphase, the centrioles pull, splitting the chromosomes into chromatids and pulling them to opposite ends of the cell. Once that is done, the Telophase happens. In the telophase, the centrioles pull away from each other until the cell is nearly split. For each newly replicated cell a nucleus is created. The final step of Mitosis is cytokinesis where the cells pinch inward dividing the cytoplasm into two. The DNA is also replicated in this step.

SP6 - Constructing Explanations:

     This week I evaluated information to explain each process of the Cell Cycle/Mitosis. I also explained how mitosis works through a flip-book. In the flip-book it showed the 6 stages of the Cell Cycle animated (kind of). It showed what happened in each step and how each step leads up to the cell eventually splitting into two. Prior to making the flip book, I did some research about Mitosis using Gizmo to simulate cell division. One part of my research I illustrated each step of cell division, explained what happened in each step, This infornation helped me out when making the flip book later on.

XCC - Stability and Change:

       One system I've noticed was the Cell Cycle. This system occurs normally when the body is physically injured. Once the body is injured, cells split themselves into two and duplicate them selves to cover up the wound. When the wound is fully healed, cells will stop duplicating. This is one of the systems I identified this week. This system is usually stable for everybody. However, it can go unstable. The Cell Cycle is usually monitored and is controlled. butut if it not controlled, the cells will duplicate at a fast rate without ever stopping. This causes many diseases including cancer and is deadly to those who have it. 

The Osmosis Experiment (10/3 - 10/7)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/18VsrL

Summary: 

     Osmosis is the movement of cells from a lower concentration to a higher concentration. For example, if you put an egg into a certain liquid, the egg will grow or shrink depending on the solute-solvent ratio on the outside the egg and inside the egg. If the egg has more solutes in the inside than in the outside, the water or liquid will go in the egg to make the solute-solvent ratio equal to the outside. If the egg has less solutes in the inside than the outside, the water inside the egg will go out of it to make the solvent-solute ratio equal. If the solvents in the inside of the egg is equal to the solvents on the outside, nothing will happen since they are already equal. Another thing kind of related to osmosis is mitosis, which is the splitting of cells. When you get injured, how does your body heal itself? Mitosis is the answer to that. In an injury, cells split and create more of themselves to fill in the cut/injury. If the splitting malfunctions, it non-stop rapidly grows into the body and causes what is known as cancer.

SP3 - Conducting Investigations:

    This week, I conducted investigations when I first identified the question : Is a skinned egg soaking in Gatorade a Hypertonic, Hypotonic, or Isotonic solution. Then my team and I created the hypothesis that the answer to my question was a hypotonic solution where the Gatorade goes inside the egg and the egg gets bigger. After that, we identified the variables. The manipulated variable was the liquid we were soaking the egg in, which was the Gatorade. The responding variable was the size of the egg. The controlled variable is the jar since nothing would happen to it since it is holding everything. After my team and I gathered all this information, we started on the experiment. We first recorded the initial weight of the egg and recorded it. We then put it in a jar and filled the jar with Gatorade. In the past 24 hours, the egg got bigger, just as we predicted.

XCC - Cause and Effect:

      A Cause and Effect relationship I noticed with the Egg Experiment was why the egg got bigger. The reason the egg got bigger was because it had more solutes (salt, sugar, etc.) inside. The Gatorade, however, had only about 30 calories inside it which meant that it had not a lot of solutes. When we put the Gatorade and the Egg inside the jar, the Gatorade went inside the egg to equalize the amount of solvents inside of it. This makes sense because if you add more of a solvent that has very little solutes in it to an egg with more solutes but very little solvents, the solvent-solute ratio will dilute in the poured in solvent. This is how the egg got bigger after being put in the Gatorade.

Respiration, Photosynthesis, Diffusion and Osmosis - (9/26 -9/30)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/s75hvN

Summary:

      Diffusion is the movement of particles moving from a high concentration to a low concentration. For example, if you drop a drop of food coloring into water, the food coloring will stay in one place shortly. That place currently has a high concentration of food coloring. But as time goes by, the food coloring will move around and dissolve in the water until everywhere in the water has an equal amount of food coloring in it. Osmosis is the kind of the opposite of diffusion. Osmosis is when particles move from a low concentration to a high concentration. For example, imagine that you have a bag. That bag is filled with water and a little bit of salt. If you put that bag into a jar of water that has a lot of salt in it, the salt from the bag will move out of the bag into the jar with more salt. The bag with a lower concentration of particles move into a higher concentration of that particle. The opposite happens when there is less salt in the outside and more salt in the inside. 

 

SP6 - Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions: 

     This week, I mostly explained things such as the photosynthesis cycle instead of designing solutions. I explained how photosynthesis and respiration work together to function through creating a fold able of the two processes. One half of the fold able said the name of the process, the important information about it such as the function, organelle the process happens in, and the formulas for the products and reactants. Another thing that was added in the fold able was an illustration which explained what starts the process, what the outcome is of the processes, and how both processes work together. I also filled out a worksheet explaining the outcomes of scenarios using Osmosis and Diffusion, such as "If you put a bag of 97% water and 3% salt into a Beaker with 90% water and 10% salt, where will the water move?". I explained how osmosis and diffusion play roles in scenarios such as the example. 

 

XCC - Scale, Proportion, Quantity:

     One thing I noticed this week was that Diffusion and Osmosis depend on the quantity of the concentrations of the solvents and solutes and the size of the item that is hosting the solvents and solutes. Think back to that food coloring and water example in the summary. In that case, the food coloring dissolved until it was equally spread around the jar of water. If it was tried in real life, you could see that after the food coloring was dissolved in the jar of water, the water turned into the color of the food coloring dropped in. Now instead of having a jar of water, what if you added a drop of food coloring into a lake? The food coloring would still be equally spread across the water, but the lake would not even change color because each water molecule holds a very small amount of food coloring. What I am saying here is that the scale of the host (anything that holds the water) determines how much of the solute is spread around each water molecule. The same goes for osmosis. If the cell or the water around it is bigger, it affects which direction the water goes.