Day 13/14: I Can't See It!/The Parents are Here

So today's blog post is going to be a combination of day 13 and day 14 because day 14 was Parent's Day and we only had half an hour of class.

Day 13: I Can't See It!!

Here we have an artistic shot taken by my me with my iPhone. 

So Day 13, we discussed evolution and the different branches of a species and how the evolutionary process may have occurred. We looked at different sea shells that once belonged to sea snails. And some of these shells were tiny. So we had our handy cheap plastic magnifying glasses.

After we took a look at the majority of the shells, I drew a diagram with the different branches of shells.

In evolutionary terms, we have the common "ancestor" the shell, that relates all these types of shells to each other.

Then that group is split into cone shaped shells and flat shaped shells, which are then split into groups based on size: big, medium, or small.

We could have kept going, splitting the shells into colors, or patterns, but thankfully we didn't.

In blue is the thought map that my teacher wrote up on the board explaining the different variations of species. See, variations are caused by DNA mutations, which cause different species to evolve. These variations can be different, shapes, patterns, colors, and/or sizes. The DNA mutations that cause this are either positive, negative, or neutral mutations and they are there so the species can adapt the their surroundings in order to survive. The survivors, then reproduce to pass on their genetically superior genes to their offspring. Those offspring will then pass on their genes and so forth until there is a species with that same variation.

Now, onto the lab!

We were to look at how a species has adapted to different environments. And what better way to do that than to use a species that you can't really see?

Brine shrimp are these tiny shrimp things that honestly just look like dots. I swear, you need to have some freaky super human eyes if you actually want to see them. So here are pictures I found off the Internet of brine shrimp up close because 1) a picture of grey dots wouldn't be interesting and 2) I forgot to take pictures...

  fully grown brine shrimp

those boring grey eggs (up close!)

We had five different salt solutions in which we were to put at least 20 brine shrimp eggs in to see the different environments the shrimp can live in: 0% salt solution, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%. The interesting thing about brine shrimp is that they have this unique adaptation that keeps them in a dormant state until their surroundings are ideal for life. Of course, the eggs would have to be in a dry, oxygen-free environment and they can stay in this dormant state for many years.

So our test was to see how many brine shrimp can hatch in a specific environment. We put in about 20 eggs (although some of them were over calculated and we ended up putting in forty...oops) into 30mg of different salt solutions. And then we waited.

We had results!!

As predicted, we found that the greater salt solution had more hatchlings. (That's not a real word. I made it up. Deal with it.)

Day 14: The Parents are Here

So at our school, we have this thing called Parent's Day where our parents get to come back to high school and see what it is we do in class. And for most of the day, it's pretty awkward. And our Bio teacher saw the awkwardness and seized an opportunity to make it even worse.

But we'll get back to that in a bit.

As for the brine shrimp, our hypothesis stayed true. The solutions with more salt, had more hatchlings.

Data!!!

So after we scooped up the living brine fish and put them in a beaker full of other living brine fish, we gave the dead ones a traditional viking funeral and watched the water drain them down the sink. (sniffle)

Now, here's the awkward part...

For homework the night before, we were told to read up on three aspects of human evolution: averageness, masculinity, and symmetry. All three of these were ways humans instinctively judge some one's attractiveness. 

You guessed it. We had to judge someone's physical attractiveness with our parents. 

It wasn't too bad, that is until we had to explain the scientific reasoning behind why we thought one person was more attractive than the other. And talking to your dad about attractiveness was not on my To Do List that day, or any other day.

But I survived!! And now I have a short break before school begins. 5 day weekend!!!!

Until next time.