This semester in honors biology has not been a walk in the park. My experience in honors biology has been very stressful. Project after project and test after test. It just never ended. I've learned many thing about myself here in honors biology. I've learned that I will not be going into the medical field, I will not be attending a 4 year university, and I will continue pursing my dream to become a marine. In this class it was very difficult keeping up with each task and turning in everything on time.My favorite thing about honors biology was all the dissections! I really enjoyed the pig and frog but not so much the worm. It was a little harder to identify things inside the worm because it was so much smaller. I also liked the very first unit about cells. Making the cell model was a lot of fun. This class has taught me many things about myself and about life. I've learned many responsibility characteristics and I've learned how to manage many different tasks at once. I would recommend this class to any responsible, hard-working, smart kid. I think that's the only characteristics that will allow you to pass this class. There are many different units in honors biology that force you to use you brain and think outside of the box. Some unit are a little easier than others but for the most part you have to do a lot of thinking. This has not been one of those classes that I have just loved and might have wanted to take again. Honestly, my mom makes me do this. I absolutely hate school and anything that has to do with it. My lovely mother decided that she would relive her high school years by signing up for my classes without considering what I wanted to take or that she didn't think to sign me up for any AG classes. With that being said I hope to never have to do another stupid blog post again. bye.

This week in biology it was very stressful! We completed our very tough lab practical which I am not happy to announce that I made a 56 on. I guess I could have done a lot better because there were some people that made hundreds. There isn't a retake on it so it will remain a failing grade on my progress report. We also done lots of dissections! The pig dissection was my absolute favorite with the frog being my second favorite. The worm dissection wasn't difficult but it was tough to see all the little parts inside the worm.

This week in biology we presented our classification projects. I done my project on trees. I learned many things about trees and various ways to classify them and learn their names. I got many of my leaves from the beach when I went on vacation. I know no one else will have a palm tree leaf! I also got most of my apple tree leaves from my grandpas field where there are many different kinds of apple trees. I got most of my birch and pines from the woods around my house. And even the rhododendron tree from in-front of my house. Other places i got the leaves were the Parkway and at Crouse park.This was not a very challenging project but took a lot of effort and thinking. I started doing my project on cows but came 4 short of having the minimum of 30 different species. I wanted to get an "A" on the project and in order to do that I had to have at least 30 different cows. I am very interested in cows so I would have loved to do that! I was also allowed to do cross-bred cows so that helped me out some but still 4 short. I have yet to present my project but hope to receive greater than a "B".  The picture is one off of my grandpas land.

This week in biology we held our presidential press conferences. My favorite "president" was Branden. I though his group had really prepared him well and just done a great job! My group received a "B" which I am pretty happy about. We could have done better, if we would have had more data. I think Mr. Vogler might have us do another press conference like this. I thought it was so much fun!! We also get to dissect earth worms on Friday and I am sooooo excited!!! 

This week in biology Mr. Vogler threw alot at us! We had a unit 3 vocab test and a unit 3 test! I made good grades on both of those so I am very happy with myself. I guess that means Monday we are moving on to unit 4! This year has flown by....thankfully. My group for the press conference is coming over soon so we can get VERY prepared for all those questions!! We are also going to work on a giant project that is due at the end of the semester.

This week in biology we done some different things on pedigrees and karyotyping. I missed that day so I had a lot of catching up to do. We also got out early this week for Easter.  We didn't have very much of a spring break because of all the times we were out this winter for snow. But back to Biology.... It's getting more hard now because of the genetics and stuff. I am still maintaining a B average which I am satisfied with knowing this is a hard class and because it's honors biology!

This week in biology we learning a lot on karyotyping and pedigrees. Pedigrees are charts or graphs you can use to find out if a genetic trait is going to be passed down to you from your family members or parents. We have also learned some on punnett squares and dominant and recessive genes. We learned about multiple alleles and dihybred or monohybred crosses. We also had a mid-term this week and I was sooooo nervous about it. But I just took it and made an 89%!!!!!! That's satisfying to me.

This week in biology we presented our projects about different syndromes and diseases. My partner was Tonya. I really enjoyed having her as a partner; we work well together. Our project was on Fragile X Syndrome. I have a cousin with fragile x so it was great to get to know more about the syndrome. My cousins mom loaned me a book about the entire syndrome so I didn't have very much research to do at all. I really liked watching all the presentations about different things. I thought most people did a very good job on their projects.

DNA Structure and Replication: Crash Course Biology #10 (+playlist)

This week in biology we talked a lot about DNA and RNA. DNA can be soooo confusing. And we haven't even got very in depth with it yet. We are also learning how to work and understand Punnett squares; The small and large ones. They aren't. Dry difficult to use but they are confusing to understand. We also have our very important fragile x project due this Tuesday. I'm not very nervous about that. My cousin has fragile x that's why I picked this syndrome. 

This week in biology we have learned a ton on DNA and RNA! I am starting to get it but boy it is confusing!! We had to read an article about genetically modifying embryos before placed into the placenta. In some ways I find this acceptable but in others I find it plain wrong! I think its okay to go ahead and fix the baby before its born if it has a special need or knows that it will have a disease. But I think it is way to far to pick the sex of your baby. To me, that's messing with God.

Great Barrier Reef Model

This week in biology we presented out ecosystems projects. My group done the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem. We went first and made a 99% on ours!! All the groups done an outstanding job. I think its really great to get to learn about different habitats and places around the world or even close to home here in NC. I think we had the coolest ecosystem; where nemo lives!! I really liked the way all of the groups presented their projects. The whole class presented in different ways and had different diagrams and models!

This week in biology we've worked on our ecosystem projects very much. I'm learned so much about the great barrier reef and surrounding areas. My group put me in charge of the location of our ecosystem and the relationship in regards to North Carolina. I also get the cover the geography of our region. We also watched Jurassic Park and done a web quest about the movie. I thought the movie was very good and interesting. It will open your eyes about turning science fiction into science facts.

This week in biology we done a lab with microscopes! Its so crazy how large they can magnify a cell. We looked at various plant and animal cells, as well as my very own cheek cell. It was really cool trying to find different cells in a slide and trying to locate nuclei and different organelles. I loved working with microscopes! I also got to view my hair under a microscope. This lab taught me how to use a microscope and how to find different organelles under higher and lower powers.

This week in biology we presented our cell model projects. Which we made a 97% on!! I thought everyone's projects were great and really creative. They gave me a better understanding on how cells function and the key role of all the organelles in them. We also had a pop quiz on vocab that I passed with a 100! We are still learning about photosynthesis and cellular respiration. We have a new project coming up about ecosystems which i'm really excited about because my group is doing an ecosystem off the coast of the Outer Banks!

In biology this week we learned about photosynthesis and cellular respiration. I learned that all energy comes from the sun, and if the sun were to magically disappear we would all die. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration both have word equations. Photosynthesis is: Carbon Dioxide+Water-->Glucose+Oxygen. And Cellular respiration is: Glucose+Oxygen-->Carbon Dioxide+Water+Energy. Everything on the left side of the arrow are the reactants and everything on the right side are the products. I also learned that an autotroph is a plant and makes its own food. A heterotroph doesn't make its own food, like humans. Everything takes place in the Mitochondria. There are 2 types of respiration. Aerobic and Anaerobic. Aerobic is with oxygen and Anaerobic is without oxygen.

This week it was extremely help to have learned so much about carbs, proteins, lipids, and Nucleic acid. My dad has decided that he needed to go on a really hardcore diet. Cutting out carbs and most lipids. Little did he know, he needed all that, but not too much. I explained to him that in order to have energy you have to eat Carbohydrates and that Lipids help to protect your cells and store energy for later use. I learned that Proteins are not your main source of energy but are a supplier. I also learned that Nucleic acid is a helping factor for determining DNA and RNA. I don't really know that much about what Nucleic acids is or what it does.