Science - The Great Race

My car consists of two big tires, two small tires, two popsicle sticks, rods to hold the wheels together, and little brackets to hold the rods and wheels in place. First, I took two small yellow rods and glued them on either sides of the popsicle sticks. I then attatched the two wheels in the front by pushing them into the rods. Next, I added a yellow bracket to connect more rods to each side of the back rod. After that, I pushed two big wheels into the extended rods on both sides of the back of the car. To hold the wheels in place, I took two small black clip brackets and pushed them on either sides of the wheels with a little room for the wheels to role around.

My car demonstrates Newtons First Law. Newtons First Law states that "An object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion at constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force". When I hold my car on top of the ramp, it is at rest and has potential energy. When I release the car from my grasp , the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy and the car starts moving. The outside force, or in this case my hand, is what triggers the car and makes it move. After a while, the car will start slowing down. This is because of friction. Friction, in this scenerio, is the unbalanced force. Friction between the wheels of the car and the surface slows the car down and eventually brings it to a halt.

Literature - 5 Fables

The first fable is called The Wolf in Sheep's Clothes. The moral of this fable is looks can be deceiving. The wolf tricked the sheep by leading the lamb away from the sheep and eating them. The next fable was The Four Oxen and the Lion. The moral is that there is power in numbers. When the four oxen were together, the lion couldn't do anything to them. When they separated, they were less powerful so the lion got them easily. The third fable was The Fisher and the Little Fish. The moral is even a little bit is good. Just because something is small doesn't mean it isn't enough. The fourth fable is The Crow and the Pitcher. The moral is that even if you think something is impossible, it probably isn't. The Crow found a way to get water. The last fable is The Fox and the Goat. The moral of this story is don't trust everybody. The fox tricked the goat and pulled him right into a trap.

Literature - Wooden Bowls

This story was very interesting and I really liked it a lot. It shows how anyone will get hurt if you ignore them. It also shows that spending time with family, especially helping out elders, is a very important part of life. Without love and family, you wouldn't have any memories to share with anyone. The part when the old man let out a tear really made me feel bad for him. This connects to cares with responsibility. The little boy was responsible and made his parents realize how badly they were treating their elders. This also connects to empathy because the little boy put himself in the shoes of his grandfather and realized that it wouldn't be good to sit alone and eat. This connects to my life because I have a great-grandmother that lived with me and my family until 2008. She is pretty old but we don't treat her badly. We help her as much as we can. She isn't as confused or weak as that old man is though. My grandparents also stay with us and my family and I also help them out as much as we can. Spending time with family is important.

Science - Ask a Geneticist?

I learned many new things while reading these websites. One thing that was shocking to me was that how simple organisms such as bacteria only have a single chromosome while more complex organisms such as humans have many chromosomes. I also learned a little bitabout the genes of chimpanzees and humans while reading this. I learned that chimpanzees have 48 chromosomes while us humans only have 46. Similar species have similar numbers of chromosomes. We used to have the same number of chromosomes as chimpanzees about 5 to 8 million years ago but as we evolved, our 2 chromosome combined. This was really interesting to me. Another fact that really shocked me was that the number of species you have does not determine the complexity of the species. For example, a goldfish has 94 chromosomes while we only have 46. We are definiely more complex then a goldfish. Another species that has more chromosomes than us is a type of fern. This fern is called an Ophioglossum Reticulatum and it has 1,260 chromosomes!!! We are also obviously more complex then a fern.

Sources: http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=69
http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=184

Science - Basic Genetics

Source: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/tour/

I learned and brushed up on many things from this website about heredity and traits. First of all, heredity is the passing of traits from the parent to the child. We inherit traits from our parents and we pass them down to our children as well. One fact I learned about heredity is that when sperm and egg cells (only have one set of chromosomes each -- 23 each) combine, they make a new single cell called a Zygote. The Zygote has two sets of chromosomes (46 chromosomes). Another thing I learned about heredity is that parents "contribute" chromosomes to each new child of theirs randomly. This is why every child has a unique combinations of traits. Some children will resemble the mother while others resemble the father. Some babies might not resemble either paent. They will be unique -- "a product of the new combination of chromosomes."

Traits and heredity have a lot to do with eachother. A trait is a notable feature or quality in a person. Traits are passed down from generation to generation. There are different kinds of traits. One kind is physical traits. These traits are characteristics of one's physical makeup (ie. hair color, eye color, height). Another kind of trait is behavioral trait. This is basically the characteristics of the way one acts. There is one more type of trait that I actually didn't really know about. I learned more about it by reading this article. This trait is called Predisposition to a Medical Condition. This is basically an increased risk of getting a certain type of disease (ie. Sickle Cell Anemia, Cystic Fibrosis, Heart Disease, Cancer, and Certain kinds of Mental Illness).