unit 6 reflection

This unit was about the skeletal system, bones and joints. Some essential understandings were naming bones and joints. There are different categories of bones (long bones, short bones, flat bones, and irregular). As for joints, they can be characterized by their motion and the material they are blinded with. For describing motion these words are used: Synarthroses (immovable), Amphiarthroses (slightly movable), and Diarthroses (movable). For describing material these words are used: Fibrous (can be synarthroses, amphiarthroses, and diarthroses), Cartilagenous (can be synarthroses, and amphiarthroses), and synovial (can only be diarthroses). Synovial can only be diarthroses because synovial joins are always movable. Common synovial joints can be described as ball and socket joints, hinge joints, and sliding joints.  Another major understanding for this unit is bone remodeling. there are two cells that assist in bone remodeling. One is osteoblasts (that are made by osteoprogenitor cells and turn into osteocytes). Osteoblasts build up bones and also secrete collagen. Then there are osteoclasts which break down bones. We also learned how to classify different bone fractures. A complete fracture is when the bone is broken completely through while a incomplete (greenstick) fracture is one that is not broken all the way through. A simple fracture doesn't tear through skin, but a complex fracture does go through skin. This is why a complex greenstick fracture cannot exist. A comminuted fracture is one that is broken into 3 or more pieces. 

In this unit we did an owl pellet dissection. Here is the link to that: http://nimishaapblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/owl-pellet-dissection.html

I am still confused about and wondering about the skull and how the bones in the skull are fused. 

Checking back on my New Year's goals, I am keeping up with my work. However, I am not going to bed very early and I am definitely not getting 8 hours of sleep a night. I think I need to manage my time better and one way I can do that is by turning off my phone while doing homework. 

Served to Scale -- blog post #1

20% Time is where students are given 20% of class time to work on a project of their choice. In our class we get to use our Mondays to work on the project. The essential question I asked myself is: "What are changes I can make to recipes to make them healthier?" 

For my 20% Time project, I want to make a blog to explore that question. I chose this project because I enjoy food and I want to help my friends (who have misconceptions on dieting) eat healthier. I also want to become a better cook and food photographer so this project will help me achieve that goal. My goal for this next week is to find a recipe to share on my blog. I want to start off with my mom's banana bread because it's my favorite and I would love to share that recipe with more people. I will measure my progress and achievement by how many recipes I have made and how much I get done in the week. So far, I have created a separate blog for "Served to Scale." On the website I will be sharing recipes and general tips for health. I want to make these posts interesting and write them as a story, so they will be more than just a recipe. I am waiting until after I finish my first post to publish it. Moving forward, I want to start posting and adding to my blog. I am also considering sharing my smoothie recipe as my second post. 

Owl Pellet dissection

Today in class we dissected an owl pellet to look at the bones of the owl's prey. My partner and I believe that the organism that the owl ate was a rat. We came to this conclusion through the following steps. First we examined the organism's teeth. Our packet said that if the organism has teeth, the organism is not a bird. Then we examined the teeth and there is a gap between the front teeth or back teeth (as seen in the pictures).

there is a small gap between the front teeth and back teeth

Finally we measured the length of the skull and it was greater than 25mm. Our skull was 32 mm. These pieces of evidence led us to believe that the organism was a rat.

















3 ways that human bones are similar to the ones we found in the dissections is that the bones are hard. They do not break easily, similar to human bones. The organism also had many of the same bones as we do, such as a cranium, mandible, humerus, femur, and more. Another similarity is that the organism had many ribs just like humans do.
3 differences between the organism and humans is that the shape of the skull is different. There tail bone area is also different from that of humans because rats have a tail and humans do not. The last difference is the size of the bones, humans have much larger bones because the size of our body is much bigger than that of a rat.