James Bagby's Seed Story

I believe, in this team-based project, James has learned how to cooperate with his teammates.  He was surprised at first to find that he actually had to contribute towards the project.  He was even more surprised from the outcome of the story of the seed germination lab.  It was an incredible experience.  James is sure to look forward to what this course has in store for him next semester.

-Henry Tran

Ryann's Seed Story

   Ryann learned to take the role of a leader when her leader was not up to the task. She said she watched as Emily tried her best but still could not prevail and stepped up to the plate to help her teammate out. She was surprised at how a friendship formed from a bond of being a girl sparked between her and Emily.  Ryann laughed everyday at anything and everything. She found a light side to every part of the project and managed to frustrate and amuse her fellow partners. She was grossed out by the way the two boys of her team wanted her and Emily to do most of the work. She managed to whip them into shape though. Ryann stopped for a while and had a take two when Emily snapped at her unexpectedly about taking over her leadership. Emily apologized but slowly made a bigger effort to be more of a leader. This made Ryann happy because she wanted her new friend to become less of a follower. Ryann can not wait for next semester and the rest of her friendship.

Emily's seed story

   Emily Solano says that she probably learned more about leadership throughout the project than she has in any other projects as a leader. She told me that she was surprised when she was picked to be the leader of the group rather than someone else in the group. She laughed when we dropped the pots with the soil and sand with them. Also, she laughed with her new friends (project partners) said some random and funny things. She was grossed out when the boys got off topic sometimes and when she accidentally crushed a bug with her hand when she was scooping up the compost for our project. What made her do a double take was when the the seed in the sand started to grow faster than the others in the compost and the compost/sand mix. She is really looking forward to being with her story of a seed group next semester.

How does your garden grow?

1.Plants grow to become stronger and bigger by a process called mitosis. Mitosis is the process in which calls divide and grow. This process makes it possible for plants to grow bigger. Photosynthesis provides energy to the cell to preform mitosis.

2.My plants would go through a process of replicating DNA to make a replicated strand of RNA. This RNA Would help the cell be Producing the proteins that the nucleus asked for.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

1.  My plants are growing up to be big strong sturdy plants by their cells going through the process of mitosis. When their cells divide and make more cells making it possible for the plant to branch out and become bigger. The process of photosynthesis is preformed in the cell to provide energy so they may go through the process of mitosis to grow.
2.  My plants would go through the process of copying one strand of the DNA to make a complementary strand for RNA. The RNA would then produce the proteins the nucleus had signaled for. The RNA would replace T with U in the base pairing rules. The strand would then be read to make sure the proper proteins are produced.

Thank you for being a friend, Bread! (Show your food some gratitude)

Dear Bread,

I’ve only recently discovered your wonders, although I feel as though I’ve known you forever. Your grains are so soft and you always know how to quench my hunger. I never really appreciated you until you were there housing those poor sandwich ingredients. You really are quite very considerate. I especially appreciate all the vitamin B you give me, I couldn’t be happier. My mom doesn’t like me eating you, she says you’re too much of a carbohydrate. However, I still think you’re one of the best friends I have and I especially love you dipped in clam chowder. Anywho, I know you have friends all over the world and a lot of them to take advantage of you. I just want you to know that I appreciate you for feeding me and the rest of the world. Thank you Bread.

Show your food some gratitude

Henry Tran
Honors Biology Period 4
Bursch
November 26, 2012
Dear Potatoes,
I am thankful for your many health benefits. Without you, i probably would not have been able to enjoy life as it is, without tasting your raw deliciousness.
With your abundance of Vitamin C, I can avoid many terrible symptoms such as scurvy and lung diseases. Also, The Vitamin C you provide is an electron donor to my enzymes. Most importantly, the Vitamin C contributes fairly to my immune system, aiding the immune cells in every need. For your purpose, dear potato, i thank you very much. In addition to these benefits, you are very much delicious, especially when mashed.
Much love,
Henry Tran

show your food some gratitude

Ryann Smith
Mr. Bursch
Honors Biology period 4
25 November 2012

Dear Turkey,
      Thank you for being here for this holiday season. You are what brings a smile to my face on Thanksgiving day and Christmas eve. You are amazing without you my body would not gain as much potassium and calcuim. Without your calcium making my bones become stronger I would probably end up breaking my wrist for a third time. You also provide my body with water and many vitamins like vitamin D. I would finally like to thank you for giving me protein that will help repair and build more body tissue. Thank you for being there every holiday season to help bring a smile to my face. You are the most delicious meatt ever and I would not want to spend a Christmas eve or a Thanksgiving day without you!
Love,
Ryann

Treatment of the Meats (Food Inc Essay)

James Bagby

Period 4

11/20/12

Treatment of the Meat

Currently, over half the food we buy from grocery stores, fast food restaurants, and convenient stores is processed by factories and other corporate heavyweights to make the products Americans consume addictive and cheap, so we’ll buy more and more. What we don’t know is how our food is treated while alive. The caliber of how they are treated is very low and is in need of reform. Animals should have the right to a certain quality of life because they could cause diseases among the public, we should have better quality food, and animals deserve to be treated as animals not products.
In the documentary Food Inc. people saw how unsanitary the American meat industry is. Animals wallow in their own dung until they are slaughtered in order to make meat for companies like Tyson and others. If one animal gets infected with a disease, all the animals around them get this disease. The meat industry has changed into inhumane conditions for all their animals. The industry has changed their view of animals as simply profit nothing else.
In The U.S., childhood obesity and related diseases are at an all time high. Low income families can’t always afford the nutrition their children deserve and need. So often times, they go to the fast food places because of the cheaper prices. The long term effect of these choices are obesity, diabetes, heart problems, etc.  We should all deserve to have higher quality foods so our children will grow up healthy and our adults can lead healthy life styles.
While we must get better conditions for the animals we eat and higher food quality, others might disagree. These people say that most products are bathed in ammonia before further processing. This may be true but, Ammonia is a harmful chemical primarily used for cleaning a household. And animals are not just products, they are living organisms, and deserved to be treated as more than profits. The conditions they currently follow are on the verge of insanity.
Are the only reasons for chickens’ and cows’ existence to be slaughtered? Of course they aren’t; they’re purpose is to produce and provide for the world. If our roles were reversed you would probably wanted to be treated as more than just profits. We cannot stand around and let our money go to waste on products that are addicting and have negative side-effects. So we have to give our animals better more humane treatment in order to thrive.

Food, Inc. Looking at Both Sides

Ryann Smith
Mr.Bursch
Honors Biology period 4
20 November 2012

Healthy Foods

Many Americans nowadays eat unhealthy foods like candy, chips, and fast food. This unhealthy food causes many problems for children and adults alike. An example of this problem is type 2 diabetes. Many people ask the question should access to healthy food be a right for everyone? The answer is yes, healthy food should be a right for everyone. The rationales for this are: it will help lower the rate of obesity in the United States (US) and since healthy food is much more expensive than unhealthy food.
Today in America 35.7 percent (%) of adults and 16.9% of children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese (news.yahoo.com). Obesity raises the risk of many diseases from Diabetes type 2 to endometrial cancer (news.yahoo.com). If having access to healthy food was a right then not as many people would become obese and acquire these diseases. By 2030 every state in the US will reach at least 44% and some will even reach 60% (news.yahoo.com). The new generation of children will be taught bad eating habits and become obese unless someone steps in the help solve the problem. As people can see by this rationale access to healthy food should be a right for everyone.
The cost of organic healthy food is a problem for some people who want to eat healthier. If people had access to organic products then the cost of these products will go down because of how many people buying them. Most people do not know that if the start buying more organic products then the price will start to dwindle and eventually become around the same price of genetically enhanced/engineered products. When these organic products reach the same price as genetically enhanced/engineered products the price will eventually stop dropping because of all of the human labor required to harvest the organic products.
Although the right to access healthy food would help decrease the rate obesity in the US’s population others may argue that they may not like the healthy foods. For example, many people in the United States do not like brussel sprouts and would not buy them if they had a chance to. Having this right does not mean that everyone will buy organic foods if it is instituted. However, decreasing the rate of obese will help create a healthier society for the next generation of children to live in. it is more important to have a the rate of obesity decrease than not eating organic products because people do not like them. Therefore, people should have a right to access healthy foods.
Access to healthy foods should be a right for everyone in the United States because it will help lower the rate of obesity in the country and healthy food is much more expensive than unhealthy foods.

Bibliography
Begley, Sharon. "Fat and Getting Fatter: U.S. Obesity Rates to Soar by 2030." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://news.yahoo.com/fat-getting-fatter-u-obesity-rates-soar-2030-140534331.html>.

Show Your Food Some Gratitude

Emily Solano
Bursch
Honors Biology 1- Period 4
21 November 2012


Dear Turkey,

    Thank you so much for being there for me at Thanksgiving. The feast would not be complete-just like my life- without you. Thank you for the calcium that makes my bones strong. I may be short my bones will not break thanks to you and the milk I drink to wash you down. I will ever be in debt to the service you pay me. Thank you so much. I can not say that enough.  OMG. Thank you for providing potassium for my body! Without it, what would my heart, brain, kidneys, the tissue of my muscles, and other organs do to maintain themselves?? How would my metabolism increase? Oh, what would I do? Thank you so much for giving me the mineral that helps those functions. Thank you for providing protein so I am able to build and repair body tissues. I love my muscles very much and without protein I would not be able to maintain them. The horror to live without them is unimaginable. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Turkey. I love you and the wonders you do for my body.

Sincerely ,

Emily Solano

Food Inc Essay

Henry Tran
Honors Biology 1 Period 4
Bursch
November 21, 2012

Should Access to Healthy Food be a Right for Everyone?

To anyone in the right mind with a heart and soul, the answer to whether healthy food being a right for everyone or not would be a hands-down yes.  Obviously, to them, it makes complete sense to do so.  However, there are some who would have a different answer, especially food companies and restaurant chains.
To these major business companies, it would be that much harder to provide food at a lower price, where everyone can afford it.  Everyone has a different budget, some less than others.  If the companies are forced to keep some foods to an extremely low price where everyone can afford it, it will be severely difficult to maintain a profit.  If they don’t make a profit, then they will eventually be forced to shut down, and therefore many companies will not last very long.
In contrast, the major effect of this proposition would be the change in eating habits.  Many people would resort to the healthy food instead of the cheap junk food.  They will do this because if they eat too much junk food, they will get sick and have to buy expensive medicine.  This is why people would eat healthy food over junk food.  Overall, having healthy food at a price where everyone can afford it is more cost-efficient in the long run.
Also, eating healthy foods will increase one’s health.  If healthy foods are accessible to everyone, then everyone can live healthier.  Living healthier is a good thing because an individual who is healthy will have a higher life expectancy, and they will live longer.
The positive effects of making healthy foods accessible to everyone is much greater than the negative effects. People will be able to eat healthier and not spend any extra money.

Looking at Both Sides of an Issue

Emily Solano
Bursch
Honors Biology 1-Period 4
19 November 2012



     Animals have every right to a good living quality. The animals that feed us need a higher standard than the one they have now. Imagine hundreds of animals dying each day and the cause is solely their living conditions. Now think how we eat their neighbors who survived but just barely. We need to help change the way these animals are raised.

   The quality in which animals live now is disgusting. Hundreds of chickens are stuffed into one house, cattle live in one corral ankle deep in their own waste. Cows deserve to be in an open pasture with massive space to graze. When cooped up together it makes it difficult to move or get away from each other. If one has a disease in a matter of time everyone in that space will have it too. This is all because of the closeness of the animals. The disease is caused by this unsanitary living environment and then spread by it too.

   Chickens are given a steroid to speed up their process of growth. It takes half the time for them to mature and become fatter than a chicken without this chemical. However, the steroids have no affect on the chickens bones. The skeletal structure grows at the rate it was naturally  supposed to and therefore is not able to sustain the hefty weight of the chicken. Because of this they can not take more than a few steps before falling to the ground. For some this means death. Not every chicken lands with their feet tucked under their stomach. Dozens of chickens fall dead each day because they fell on their necks and they broke.
They lie there knowing it is the end and they can do nothing about it.

   The costs to keep these animals in acceptable living conditions is expensive. Some people might say too expensive. But the diseases these animals can develop and pass on will be devastating  to humans if continue to let animals become ill. The diseases are caused by their living environment and the diet they eat. Cattle are meant to graze, not to eat the corn they are fed. The corn causes digestive problems and leads to a sickness called E Coli. This illness is deadly to the human body. With it being spread through our food industry, many different meat products will have to be recalled because of the disease.

  Animals have the right to a higher living standard because of the service they give to us. They live to sustain humans but half of them hold diseases because we are too lazy to fix the problem at the root. We are the cause of the diseases we blame on the animals. We must fix this before it is too late.

  

Cell analogies project by Cole Schroeder and James Bagby

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6j-xTBidMvFRjFsLXByaDZWamc/edit?pli=1

Cell Analogies Project by Emily Solano and Ryann Smith

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lMPh5z4PD4_smT3aPrvHU-6azXGZiJ1AKummQUcCUOo/present?ueb=true#slide=id.p

Cell Project by Henry Tran and Christian Sy

Cell Project of Henry Tran and Christian Sy
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oE3aGvVbamTJWhukxYd0RutCAHLxkRRPt46ZR0wbt-Q/edit

About Our Project

Emily Solano's posted by Ryann
The purpose for this experiment was to see how long it would take for broccoli seeds to germinate. For this experiment we used sand, soil, and a sand/soil mixture to see which would speed up or slow down the germination process. We were trying to see if the environment the seeds were planted in would affect the growth. Also, we were trying to see if the seeds were healthier in the soil, sand, or soil/sand mixture.

About our Project

The purpose of our experiment was to see if broccoli could grow better in sand, soil, or a mixture of sand and soil. The experiment would tell what would help the broccoli grow faster and healthier. Also, we were trying to see if the environment the plants were planted in would effect the growth. Lastly, the purpose of this experiment was to see if we could speed up the germination process of the seeds.

Emzymes

I learned that enzymes function with iron, zinc, or copper. Also, that enzymes are created in the pancreas and that cooked foods strain the pancreas. Finally, I learned that there are more than 5,000 enzymes that have been discovered.

I will probably change my diet a little because the raw foods are better for you that all of the cooked foods. Also, so I can get in the habit of eating better not just now but in the future too.

Enzymes

Three things I learned from this article are:

1. 5,000 enzymes have been discovered.

2. There are three different classifications for enzymes-metabolic, digestive, and food enzymes.

3. Raw foods are necessary to living because of the rich enzymes they provide.

I probably will not change my diet until I am older because I do not control it at the moment, but I will definitely keep in mind that certain types of food are not good for the body.

Enzyme Article Responses

1. Over 5000 enzymes have been discovered. There are 3 kinds of enzymes- digestive, metabolic, and food. Enzymes help start the process for digestion.
2. Raw foods have more enzymes in them than cooked food, and if you eat raw foods, you will live longer because of the enzyme activities.

The effects of different growth media on Broccoli Calabrese

James Bagby

Ryann Smith

Emily Solano

Henry Tran

Period 4

21 September 2012

 The lab team designed and conducted our own experiment about seed germination and growth. We selected our own variables to test in our experiment. We then created a web-based presentation of our experiment.

Purpose:
  The purpose of this lab was to create our own  experiment while studying seed germination.

Hypothesis:
 Our hypothesis was: If Broccoli Calabrese is planted in sand, compost, and a sand-compost mixture, then it will grow faster in the compost.

Materials:
 Our materials consisted of 3-6miniature pots, water, light, a ruler, tape, compost, sand, and a compost-sand mixture.
 
Procedure:
 1. Fill the pot half  of the way with the compost you are using.
 2. Plant three seeds 1 inch away from each other.
 3. Fill the pot with compost until you reach the lip or are a quarter away from the top
 4. Water the seeds with 5 mL of water.
 5. Repeat steps 1-4 with the remaining 2-4 pots. One(or two) with sand, the other(s) with the
     sand-compost mixture.
 6. Record the growth in each seedlings and write observations each day.   

Observations and Data
 

	9-4-12	9-5-12	9-6-12	9-7-12	9-10-12
Sand #1	Started to germinate (1 seed) Watered with 20 mL	Still germinating	Grew 2 cm	Grew another cm	Grew one more cm
Compost #1	“(2 seeds)	“	Grew 1 cm	Grew 1 more cm	Grew 2 cm
Sand-compost#1	Hasn’t started to germinate	Hasn’t started to germinate	Hasn’t started to germinate	Hasn’t started to germinate	Finally germinated
Sand #2	Started to germinate	Still germinating	Grew 2 cm	Grew 3 more cm	Grew 1 cm
Compost#2	“	“	Grew 1 cm	Grew 1cm more	Grew 3 cm
Sand-compost#2	Hasn’t started to germinate	Hasn’t started to germinate	Started to germinate	Grew 3 cm	Grew 2 cm

         

8. Discussion
 The lab results differed from our hypothesis by proving the sand worked the best to germinate and grow the seeds. With these results we can conclude that when working with broccoli calabrese we should use sand instead of compost to get the best product. A factor of our incorrect hypothesis could be the amount of water and light the plants received. To see if this was a major effect we should redo the experiment with different quantities of both those variables.

About Me

My name is Ryann Smith and I live in San Jose, California. I have two brothers and my parents are divorced. When I was younger I used to garden with my mom and brothers before. We grew strawberries and used various tools to grow them. I also remember gardening with my friend Athenna and her family. When I was with them I grew tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, and much more. I learned that you needed to water and check the plants everyday to see their progress. My friends grandmother knows a lot about gardening because she used to live in Venezuela and had to grow all of her own food when she was younger. I love her grandmother like my own grandmother she is the nicest women ever.

About Me

Hello, and welcome to the blog. I am James, the admin. I have always lived in San Jose and probably always will. I know how to plant stuff. I don't really consider myself a gardener, I do consider myself a intellectual I do however want to study philosophy. I planted an apple seed in my dead grass (I was too young to know and also too young to care). I do not know anyone who gardens.

All About Me

My name is Henry Tran.  I was born and raised in San Jose, California.  Currently, I reside in San Jose, California with my parents and my two sisters.

I have never gardened before this lab, nor have I grown food before.  However, I love to cook.  I like to use many different herbs, spices, or seasonings.  I like how each one has a distinct flavor or smell.  Also, I have a lemon tree, an orange tree, and a pomegranate tree in my backyard.  I think my aunt is a very experienced gardener because she has a large backyard and an amazingly beautiful garden.  She grows a variety of flowers of all colors.  She is my sister's mother's father's son's wife.  

About Me

  My name is Emily Solano and I live in San Jose California. I have gardened in my backyard with my mom and we use those products today. We planted herbs that she uses in her cooking now. I remember being given directions by my mom on how to plant the herbs. When I think about gardening I think of my grammy. She has one of the biggest gardens I've ever seen. She grows four types of berries and has three types of apple trees and two cherry trees. I love her garden.

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