end of the year MPX reflection

After watching my POL, I’ve noticed both good and bad things about it. First, lets start off with the good. The first thing I noticed about my presentation is that I had a very good script. The audio part of my presentation was very good. From the way I talked, to the way I was very good at my flow and presentation. I also noticed that even though I was looking at my script a lot, I still connected with my audience very well. I thought my strengths were my confidence and my flow throughout my whole presentation. However, i also had many things that i still needed to work on. for example, I was not as prepared as i should have been, and my visual was a little lacking. being prepared is one of the best things when you present infront of a large crowd. being prepared gives you confidence, which then makes it a lot easier to talk from the top of your head, an also eliminated the use of a script. for my POL, i took the abstract approach and did not just state what i learned and how i learned it. my project was a little hard for people to understand, so i used visuals to give the listeners hints to push them in the right direction. my content was not specific when you listened to it, but after you looked at the visuals and put the two together, it made it a lot easier to figure out. my artifacts were actually not the main part of the project. the script and the storyline made the project what it was. The artifacts were good tie ins for transitioning to the next part of the story.  even though my POL did not have the best visuals, i think that i partly made it up by  making my script very abstract and also gave it a story that corresponded to the struggles i had to face throughout the year.  

After looking at several  of my classmates POL’s, I came the the conclusion that Justin Davis’s POL was almost perfect. Many people had either better visuals, or better scripts than him, but his was overall the best. I thought that his was overall the best because he never used any script, and had a very good visual which made it easy to follow what he was saying and what topic he was going to talk about next. He was talking from the heart and using his experiences from MPX to give examples of what he learned and what helped him to learn it. He also talked about how he felt like he was directly influencing his further learning by making and maintaining the hydroponics system. he also did very good when he was asked questions by the adults who had listened to his project. some other people who i though had very good presentations were Mahina, Kendall, and Chris. Mahina had very good visuals and story, but she was lacking on the presentation side of it. Kendall had a very unique approach to the project, but did not have a concrete presentation or story. Chris made the best use of prezi by making a very good and interesting visual, but did not have the best script. As i said before, all of them were very good at some part of the presentation, but because it was so good, it kind of overshadowed other parts of their projects. Even though some peoples were not as good as others, I thought that everyone did a very good job on preparing and making their presentations. 

I thought that the MPX program was a very good and unique way to make school fun and interesting while still learning the same things as traditional students. For me, there were very good things about this project and very bad things about this project. The best thing was defiantly no tests and the actual word of the year for MPX, sustainability. From planning our system,  going out and buying the supplies, trying to build the system, failing multiple times, learning the hard way that water flow makes a big difference, to finally finishing the system, growing the plants, to the cooking. All of those memories will defiantly help me in the future. I think that overall the bet thing about the MPX program was that instead of just learning things from a textbook, we actually tried them in real life. Im sure that if we were just learning about sustainability from books, I would have no interest in them. The other thing that I really thought was good about MPX was the growing of our plants. I had never really grown plants before, especially in a Hydroponics system. Since i was a newbie at growing plants, i had to learn everything from scratch. growing the plants showed me directly that the work you put into taking care of the plants and making sure they have the best nutrients will either reward, or give you nothing. Now moving on to the next part of the review, the bad of MPX, i will be talking about mostly the work ethic and homework. I as a student and person have very bad organization and time management. Even now, the last project of the year I'm turing in with minutes left. THe one thing i did not benefit from was the fact that we had a very relaxed schedule. most of the work and studying was done by yourself, and at your own pace. This was both good and bad for me. It was good because I had full control over my work habits and ethics. even though this was good, it was also my worst enemy. After a little, i became lazy about doing my work, always putting it off for later. This eventually piled up all of the homework i had and made me dangerously behind. THis then led to me always getting behind and having to catch up, then get dragged down on the way by another looming project. I also feel like not having as many tests has made me a horrible studier. Ive noticed that i have not been anywhere as good at studying or paying attention as last year. Not talking tests and having no set in stone schedule has made me very lazy and disorganized as a student. other than that, i have really enjoyed MPX as a whole. 

MPX humanities letter to the past blog

Dear kai,
 Starting 9th grade will be a turning point in your life. It's when school starts to matter. If I could give you one piece of advice, it would be to actually start trying and caring. Because this has probably been the worst grades I have ever gotten in my life. For some reason I honestly just stopped caring about my grades and stopped trying to get good grades altogether. Even if school ruins your life and takes time away from things that really matter to you and your dreams, still do it. If it makes your parents happy And not fighting all of the time like they are for me, your future self, do it. Honestly all that school has ever done for me is make me more antisocial and depressed. It will be the same for you. But, even if it is, still stick with it. And also remember if everyone laughs and mocks your dreams never let them prove themselves right. Oh and another piece of advice is to not take Japanese. That class, and the teacher are horrible. Finally, just turn in everything on time. I have literally turned in twice as many things late than on time. Even this paper is a couple days late, and I probably won't get credit for it.

As I already stated before, the main things to do in this upcoming year are not to procrastinate, and to turn in everything on time. As long as you do that, you'll be fine. The trick to both of these is time management. As long as you manage your time well, and keep a strict, well thought out schedule, you'll be getting all A's. However, if you slip up, you have to make sure you get right back on schedule as soon as possible. One of the things I greatly struggled on this past year was getting behind, hence turning things in late. I was out sick a lot, so I would always miss a lot of school, which piled up the homework and made school much more stressful then it had to be. You may still miss school a lot, but just remember that you have get the homework you missed done as fast as possible, or you'll be caught in a never ending circle of catching up.

Since I have only been talking about bad things, let's move on to what you should be looking forward to. One of the funniest things you will do in MPX is the cooking, and growing. KCC is literally one of the funnest places you will probably ever get to cook at. There are big flat screen TVs everywhere to watch what the instructor is doing, there are multiple sections for each of the teams to cook in, and the best thing of all was that you got to eat what you made. Being able to literally taste the fruits of you labor was a good experience, especially because I have always liked to cook, but never had the chance to work in an environment like that before. Not only was the cooking really fun, but the actual making of the hydroponics system, and the growing of the plants was awesome too. I had never really even known about the hydroponics systems at all or even heard about growing plants in just water. Until MPX, that is. Being able to have full control over what we were building and what plants we would grow was awesome. I think the best part was actually watching the plants grow. The work you put into the hydroponics system directly affected the plants life, growth, and output.

MPX stem Humanities MPIornchef blog

Critical thinking and problem solving

Collaboration

Content knowledge

blog post on your feeling about the year long project and actual event.  What especially did you learn about yourself?  What were some personal Challenges?

During the year long project I learned a lot about myself that I did not know beforehand. I had never experienced anything like the sustainability project before, so It was a big surprise for me when we were told about the curriculum. Being uneducated in the field, I did not know what to expect, so I went into the school year with an open mind. If I had to choose one thing that I learned about myself the most from the project, it would probably have to be how little I knew about Hawaii’s food crisis, and how unsustainable we are as a community. Having most of our food imported, we depend too much on the mainland for our food and resources. Studies show that if we were cut off from the mainland, we would run out of food within a week. I felt that the year long project taught me different ways to grow food and also how to cook. For me, some personal challenges were getting motivated to do work and finishing my homework on time. The only problem I had with the MPX program was that if you didn't organize and stay on a set schedule, it would be very hard to do well throughout the year.

Adding on to what I learned, my understanding of critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, and content knowledge were greatly improved from this project. My critical thinking and problem solving was greatly improved because of the numerous times I had to fix something on our system on the fly. Not only did I have to be able to take action quickly, I also had to have a good knowledge of every component of the system. 

Traditional courses do not use collaboration as much as MPX, so I was not completely ready to be randomly put into a group that I would have to spend the rest of my school year with. However, being put into this situation helped me in the long run. 

I’ve always wanted to learn how to properly cook, but I had no idea where to start. This project really helped me get the skills I always wanted. getting the knowledge to further my cooking was one of my favorite things about this project.

Animal farm project reflection

Interpretation
 Literary analysis
Making inferences and drawing conclusions

From doing the animal farm project, I learned three main skills that will greatly affect my school career. The first skill I learned was interpretation. Animal farm was a book overflowing with allegory and rhetoric writing. To understand the book fully, you had to use you imagination to the extent of "living" in each and every decision, opinion, and action made. Since this book was an allegory, the moral, or hidden meaning of the book was not just given to the reader. The reader had to really put him or herself into the shoes of the characters to truly understand the lessons learned from the story. It was defiantly not easy to understand the book if you weren't reading carefully.

The second thing I learned was literary analysis. This second skill kind of ties into the first, because interpreting means making an opinion on something, but to make an opinion, you need to analyze first. Reading the book and understanding why something happens or what is going on is what I learned from this project. Since we pretty much had to make a summary of the book, we had to really understand what we were reading, so we could correctly make our project.

The third skill that I improved on was my making inferences and drawing conclusions. An inference is a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning. Because of the project, I had to really understand what I was reading, then reach a conclusion on if the decision was right or wrong. Coincidentally, drawing conclusions was the most important thing I learned from the project. We not only had to draw for the actual project literally, but we also had to mentally draw conclusions to fully understand the book.

Animal farm part 4 humanities

How is this allegorical tale also a rhetorical tale?
The author used rhetorical writing to really make you understand the situation, and used allegorical writing to tie the story into the Russian revolution.

 What is Orwell trying to persuade the audience to see or understand?
That sometimes the bad guys aren't actually the bad guys, and the good guys aren't always the good guys. Orwell is also trying to tell us that sometimes following some one or something blindly can bring you to your demise.

 What is Orwell cautioning his audience against?
I think that Orwell is cautioning his audience to not always have blind faith in something or someone, because even if you think that you are doing the right thing, you might actually be the one making everything worse.  Just like the animals in the book. They thought that they were helping themselves out, but in reality, they were not only hurting themselves, but also others.

 How does the story of Boxer act as a persuasive argument against tyranny?
Boxer was an act against tyranny because even though he was looked at as a leader, he never abused the position or the power he had.

What are the lessons to be learned from Napoleon’s behavior?
There was a quote from a poem that fitted what happened to Napoleon. "Too many choices can destroy a man" even though Napoleon has pure intentions in the beginning, he was given too many choices, decisions, and an overload of power far too quickly.

What is the warning contained in the changes to the list of commandments?
You see it all the time, even in our community. Small, "unnoticeable" changes to our laws. Most do not affect our everyday life, but overtime, they build up, and up, until we are surrounded by a world that is not what it used to be. I think that Orwell was trying to tell the audience that sometimes you cannot trust the people closest to you.

 What is the lesson contained in the final, single commandment: All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others?
Even though we are all human beings with the same right to live, some of use are worlds apart from others. From social statuses, to knowledge. Even though we always say that every human has the right to live, some of us make it seem like others aren't even human.

KCC dry run cooking blog humanities

Today, our cooking dry run actually went much better than I had expected. First off, we were much more organized, and neat. This was thanks to the guidelines and instructions we made to prepare for the cook off. Also, before we started, we got together and had a team meeting to make sure everyone knew what they had to do, and that we were all on the same page. One of the things I stressed before the dry run was our organization. Organization was the key to our success. Being organized forced us to be neat, on time, and on point. Another big thing that made our dry run successful was out thinking on the fly. Because my group only had guidelines, and not necessarily instructions, we had to figure out the small detail on our own. For example, if one person finished their task before everyone else, what they would do, and so on.

To be completely honest, we had almost everything go how we wanted it to go. We only had two errors that kept us from a good grading from the chefs. One was that we did not know when we were supposed to put our chicken into the oven. Since all we could do was guess, there was only a small chance we could have gotten the timing right. Even though our timing was off by 5 minutes, we were marked very harshly for being late. Another thing was that we did not taste our food altogether after we made it. Since we were running a little late, we did not have time, and we had to take our chances.

One of the changes that we will be making is to our dish is how we make our marinara sauce. The main thing that was wrong with our sauce was that the tomato taste was a little too overpowering. Chef Matt told us that we could easily change that by adding spices and Rebs to add to the original flavor to make it not as overpowering.

Animal farm part three humanities

Part two animal farm project Humanities

         How is Orwell’s Animal Farm an allegorical retelling of the end of feudalism and the rise and consolidation of communism in Russia?                                                             Animal Farm is retelling of the end of feudalism and the rise and consolidation of communism by the animals, who are shown as leaders,  All the animals are equals, except for the ones who have been chosen as leaders.  The people who fought and promised to be good, ended up becoming exactly what they were overthrowing in the end.
          How does Orwell parallel Czarist Russia and the life of the Russian peasantry in the characters and events of Animal Farm?                                                                             Orwell parallels Czarist Russia and the life of Russian peasantry by having the animals who act as the leaders, and then the ones who are the peasants.  An example of this is the pigs, they’re the only ones that are educated, and wear a green ribbon tied around their tails to symbolize luxury. The peasants, were of equal social standing, such as the peasantry in Czarist Russia
        What internal feud within the Communist party is paralleled in the struggle for power between Napoleon and Snowball.                                                                                        The power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball is a parallel of the struggle between Leon Trosky and Joseph Stalin.
         During the Stalinist period the Communist State repeatedly set industrial and agricultural production goals that were often difficult or impossible to reach. These goals played a major role in the government’s Five Year Plan and similar plans. How are these plans represented in Orwell’s novella?                                                                                    These plans are represented through things such as food, and the building of the windmill.  The building of the windmill reflects the governments Five Year Plan.  The windmill is something like motivation, once it is built, the animals will not have to work as hard, which gives them motivation to work harder to complete it quicker.          
         How does Napoleon gradually begin to abuse his power? Why do the other animals of Manor Farm allow him to encroach upon their rights and freedoms?                           Napoleon begins to abuse his power by giving more privileges and authority to the pigs.  When the dogs get brought into the story, it is realized that all of the animals except the pigs are basically Napoleons’ personal slaves.  All of the original rights and freedoms the animals had are lost.  The other animals allow him to encroach upon their rights and freedoms because they are unaware of this.
        How does Napoleon respond to criticism or resistance? Is there a parallel to his behavior in the history of Soviet Union?                                                                        Napolean responds badly to criticism or resistance.  He then begins to blame all of his flaws on Snowball, and attacks or murders the people who decide to resist him.  This is a parallel of Trosky and Stalin, who acted the same as Napoleon and Snowball.
         In the last paragraphs of the novella Napoleon, amongst the other human farmers, is heard to give a toast to the prosperity of Manor Farm. Contained within this scene is the irony that makes Napoleon’s behavior so ghastly. Describe the irony inherent in Napoleon’s behavior, and explain how it corresponds to the behavior of the party elite in the Soviet Union.                                                                                                                               Napoleons behavior is ironic because he starts acting like Snowball. Even though he ran Snowball out of Animal Farm.  Napoleon starts to act out the things he promised he would not allow anymore.  He began to act almost identical to Mr.Jones.

Works Cited
BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
"Documents on the Russian Revolution." Documents on the Russian Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
"Internet History Sourcebooks." Internet History Sourcebooks. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
"Russian Revolution." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
"Russian Revolution." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.

Part one animal farm humanities

         How is Orwell’s Animal Farm an allegorical retelling of the end of feudalism and the rise and consolidation of communism in Russia?                                                             Animal Farm is retelling of the end of feudalism and the rise and consolidation of communism by the animals, who are shown as leaders,  All the animals are equals, except for the ones who have been chosen as leaders.  The people who fought and promised to be good, ended up becoming exactly what they were overthrowing in the end.
          How does Orwell parallel Czarist Russia and the life of the Russian peasantry in the characters and events of Animal Farm?                                                                             Orwell parallels Czarist Russia and the life of Russian peasantry by having the animals who act as the leaders, and then the ones who are the peasants.  An example of this is the pigs, they’re the only ones that are educated, and wear a green ribbon tied around their tails to symbolize luxury. The peasants, were of equal social standing, such as the peasantry in Czarist Russia
        What internal feud within the Communist party is paralleled in the struggle for power between Napoleon and Snowball.                                                                                        The power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball is a parallel of the struggle between Leon Trosky and Joseph Stalin.
         During the Stalinist period the Communist State repeatedly set industrial and agricultural production goals that were often difficult or impossible to reach. These goals played a major role in the government’s Five Year Plan and similar plans. How are these plans represented in Orwell’s novella?                                                                                    These plans are represented through things such as food, and the building of the windmill.  The building of the windmill reflects the governments Five Year Plan.  The windmill is something like motivation, once it is built, the animals will not have to work as hard, which gives them motivation to work harder to complete it quicker.          
         How does Napoleon gradually begin to abuse his power? Why do the other animals of Manor Farm allow him to encroach upon their rights and freedoms?                           Napoleon begins to abuse his power by giving more privileges and authority to the pigs.  When the dogs get brought into the story, it is realized that all of the animals except the pigs are basically Napoleons’ personal slaves.  All of the original rights and freedoms the animals had are lost.  The other animals allow him to encroach upon their rights and freedoms because they are unaware of this.
        How does Napoleon respond to criticism or resistance? Is there a parallel to his behavior in the history of Soviet Union?                                                                        Napolean responds badly to criticism or resistance.  He then begins to blame all of his flaws on Snowball, and attacks or murders the people who decide to resist him.  This is a parallel of Trosky and Stalin, who acted the same as Napoleon and Snowball.
         In the last paragraphs of the novella Napoleon, amongst the other human farmers, is heard to give a toast to the prosperity of Manor Farm. Contained within this scene is the irony that makes Napoleon’s behavior so ghastly. Describe the irony inherent in Napoleon’s behavior, and explain how it corresponds to the behavior of the party elite in the Soviet Union.                                                                                                                               Napoleons behavior is ironic because he starts acting like Snowball. Even though he ran Snowball out of Animal Farm.  Napoleon starts to act out the things he promised he would not allow anymore.  He began to act almost identical to Mr.Jones.

Three interesting facts about DNA MPX STEM

On the last homework assignment, we were told to research DNA, to get the general knowledge of what DNA is, and what it is used for. Now, we are asked to narrow down our research to find some pieces of information that we do not currently know. For starters, I did not know that it was Rosalind Franklin’s discovery of the chemical structure of DNA that led to Crick and Watson’s double helix model. Currently, crick and Watson are credited for the discovery of the double helix model, without credit to Rosalind. Even though she played a major role in the discovery of it. If she had been alive longer, maybe she would have. Rosalind died at a young age die to the massive amounts of radiation she was exposed to constantly.

I was surprised to find out that red blood cells do not contain DNA. Every single part of your body contains DNA, except for red blood cells. It's funny, I would've thought that red blood cells would have DNA in them, because in a lot of crime and investigation tv shows the people use the bad persons blood to figure out stuff about them...I think. Either way I was very surprised because I would've thought that would be one of the parts of your body that would most likely have DNA in it.

The final, and most fascinating face that I now know is that a fast typist, working eight hours a day, would take 50 years to type out the human genome. 50 YEARS! That's absolutely crazy! It's truly amazing that our cells are copying any multiplying at a crazy rate, and every time they multiply themselves they have to copy the code perfectly every single time. Our cells do it almost perfectly throughout our whole lives.

DNA research MPX STEM

DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid.

DNA is found inside every cell in our body (apart from red blood cells).

Humans have roughly 100,000,000,000,000 (100 trillion cells).

If you unravelled all of your DNA from all of your cells and laid out the DNA end to
end, the strand would stretch from the Earth to the Sun hundreds of times

DNA is tightly coiled up and structured into 46 chromosomes.

DNA is made up of 4 building blocks The four letters in the DNA alphabet A, C, G and T are used to carry the instructions for making all organisms

 it was Rosalind Franklin’s discovery of the chemical structure of DNA that led to Crick and Watson’s double helix model.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) was first isolated by the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher in 1869.

Any two people share about 99.9 per cent of their DNA. It’s the other 0.1 per cent that makes us different from each other.

A fast typist, working eight hours a day, would take 50 years to type out the human genome.

Biological information is replicated as the two strands are separated. A significant portion of DNA (more than 98% for humans) is non-coding, meaning that these sections do not serve a function of encoding proteins.

The two strands of DNA run in opposite directions to each other and are therefore anti-parallel, one backbone being 3′ (three prime) and the other 5′ (five prime). This refers to the direction the 3rd and 5th carbon on the sugar molecule is facing.

Within cells, DNA is organized into long structures called chromosomes.

Scientists use DNA as a molecular tool to explore physical laws and theories

CNV reflection humanities

I feel that the dramatic element that worked well for us was the character development. Because our adaption to the book was to the point, we took out a lot of the background story and plot build up. We figured that the most important part of a adaptation is keeping its characters traits and character virtually the same, so we kept as much character as possible in the adaptation.
In our adaptation of the play, we did not really move around any parts of the plot in any way. We wanted it to be in the most chronological order that we could possibly make it in, so we tried to keep everything that happened in the book exactly like our adaptation. However, we did take out some events that happened in the book. It would be impossible to make an under ten minute video about a whole books plot, in depth.
We felt that the characterization of our adaptation reflected more of the characters traits and character, more than the actual book it's self. What I mean is that the actual characters were more identical to the characters in the actual book, than the plot and events were to its book counterpart.
Our play filled out all of the requirements, because the events that took place in the book were specifically chosen to be in our adaptation because of their importance in both the plot, and the elements of a good play/book. From beginning to end, each scene has a purpose for both the plot and the requirements of a play.
For the adaptation, there were defiantly things that both my partner and I were proud of, and not so proud of.  We were proud of the scene we depicted of the plane crashing, and Julie parachuting our of the plane. However. We were not so proud of the voices we had to do for Maddie and Julie. It was pretty weird.

Boot camp reflection

In today's bootcamp how did you do? What did you do good and what did you do bad

At today's bootcamp, there were defiantly some things that were good and bad. For the very first 10-20 minutes I thought we started off rather slow and did not have much communication, but I felt that we kept our space relatively clean. However, this did not last long. We warmed up slowly to the speed and bustle of the kitchen, but when we finally got into the groove of things, our communication and speed of working. We improved on those two, but unfortunately did not keep our organization up to par. I think we were all so caught up in the moment, we forgot to clean up after ourselves.

One of the things that I thought I did well was following the directions and cutting everything well. I was the head prep person, so I cut most of the vegetables and herbs. This meant I had to know the right was, and how much to cut each ingredient. Being able to do so may not see. Like much, but it it is actually one of the most important jobs in the kitchen. The prep must cut and measure everything out for the dish. If the prep does anything wrong down the line, like cutting up vegetables too big or too small, the dish will be ruined. Also, if they cut too much of a ingredient up, or use the wrong ingredient, it will ruin the whole dish.

During the cooking lesson, I understood that I also made some costly mistakes during our boot camp. One of the things I did wrong was I did not go above and beyond the duties of my job. As the prep, all your really told to do is cut things. And that will definitely not take up 2 and a half hours. Many times I was sitting around, not really doing much. What I should have been doing was looking for things that I could do that would help my group out in the long run.        

MPX humanities cook off rubric reflection

Looking through the rubric, there are defiantly things we need to work on, and also things that we are relatively doing well. Some things we are doing well are keeping our space sanitized, and being able to finish all of our dishes on time. For sanitation, we have the perfect person for the job. Leo always makes sure that any dishes that we use are washed, and that everything is neatly organized. Moreover, we all as a group take special care to make sure there is no food left on any of the tables, and that we keep everything in an orderly fashion. Personally, I made sure that there was no cross contamination from any of the knifes, and made sure that I washed my hands after touching non food surfaces or food in general.

Some things that I think I need to work on are reading the directions and food measurements to help with serving Methods. By doing this I can help cut Dow the time it takes us to make the food, which  in turn will help us with our overall presentation grade. Another thing that I could defiantly improve on is my pan frying. This would help with the the presentation, and make the whole experience a little more smoothly sailing. Overall, getting better at my pan frying would help the whole group work better, incase I am the only one for some reason that has to do pan frying, I can.

In preparation for the April cook off, I will be helping my parents cook, and sometimes be cooking dinner by my self. Looking for ways to improve our dish is a must, and also tasting all of the spices and the herbs that I can.      

2-1-14 video notes MPX STEM

While watching the meiosis video, I learned very important pieces of information that would help my partner and I's infographic. The first thing that I learned was that meiosis is what keeps humans from literally being clones of their parents. It also keeps adapting and natural selection alive. Meiosis makes sure that the DNA of both the mother and the father, as well as the other DNA in the cell, are always mixing and trading information. With out meiosis, we would stay the same forever, and never be able to adapt if we need to. Natural selection has been working since the beginning of time, all thanks to meiosis.

Another thing I learned about meiosis is that the only difference between mitosis and meiosis is that meiosis goes through the same process as mitosis, but twice. Doing this makes sure that the DNA has enough differences, to keep it from making the person have the exact same traits as their parents. The second phase of meiosis is literally putting a II after the name of the Phase. They didn't need to call it anything different because the second phase is the exact same thing as the first phase. Going through two phases to expand the possibilities of DNA combinations is what makes meiosis so fascinating.

Finally, I learned that because meiosis is practically mitosis, only twice, the outcome ends with four cells, not only two. Meiosis goes through the mitosis phases twice, and because at the end of mitosis you end up with two cells, meiosis leaves you with four. Because of this, the possibilities of variety in the cells are twice as much as mitosis, which keeps the process of natural selection and adaptability alive. There are four cells produces from meiosis, and there is always one dominant cell. This dominant cell is the only one useful, and will be the one that creates the human.

1-31-14 humanities food blog

While cooking the cous cous, I came across some  problems with the recipe. First off, some of the directions were a little hard to understand, so I had to read over the directions a couple of times before I started cooking. Also, the quantities for the salt were way too much than should have been in it. Poky gut feelin told me that the amount of salt that was put into the dish was not the right amount. I should have went with my gut feeling and put in the amount I thought it was.  Other than that, the recipe went pretty well. The cous cous I used for the recipe was a little different than the cous cous we used at KCC, but it still tasted the same. When I was cooking the vegetables, I used a lower hear, is the vegetables would not be as crisp on the outside, and more overall cooked. Also, I noticed that the vegetables weren't as oily as when we cooked it at KCC. Because we were cooking at home, the dish came out a little different than as when we did it at KCC.

As for the dressing, I chose to do the vinaigrette. This also came out a little different than when we did it at KCC. I used regular, pre-diced garlic instead if cutting up fresh garlic. As for the granola, I used Hawaiian granola, which is pretty much granola with a little added seeds and nuts. One thing that was really weird about the dressing was the next day there was almost whip cream like foam sitting on the top of the dressing from shaking it up so much the day before. The dressing that I took home from KCC didn't do that. I think that its because I used a different ingredient than the actual recipe said to use.

All in all, the two dishes I chose to do went pretty smoothly. the cous cous, despite it being very salty at first, was pretty good when i finished it, because I put sugar in it to calm down the salty flavor. As for the dressing, everything went pretty well.    

World War Two final reflection humanities

Over the course of the World War Two project, I have learned valuable skills that will help me throughout the rest of my high school career. One of the things that I learned from this project is about World War Two in general. I had no prior knowledge about the actual events that happened during the war. I learned about many important people that changed the tide in the war, and also read some civilian reports about when armies invaded their villages and cities. One of the craziest things that I learned about World War Two was how selfish, and influential hitler was. Controlling the largest monstrosity, the third reich.

I learned adaptability through the multiple struggles finding the person I wanted to do the
Project on. In the beginning I wanted to do hitler, because the battle of Berlin was when hitler committed suicide. But, after getting some help, I learned that one of the most influential people in the overtaking of Germany was Joseph Stalin. Berlin was the final push to end the war, and he made sure it was done well. Sending his troops to encircle the Berlin, then collapsing on the remaining German army.

Lastly, I learned how to analyze. I had to read many articles on how and what the battle of Berlin  did for the war, and the people of the world. There were many resources which all had very different sides, some being bias. Learning how to take all of the information given, and turning it into valid information was what I learned from this project. For example, I read journals of people in Berlin when it was taken over. They called the soviet soldiers savages. On the other hand, the solver soldiers said the exact same thing about the Germans. This led me to understand what both sides of the war thought about each other, which helped me further understand all aspects of the war. All in all, this project taught us students thoroughly about World War Two, and the influential people that changed the tides of the war.

   

Mitosis MPX STEM

http://www.cellsalive.com/mitosis.htm
http://www.biology4kids.com/files/cell2_mitosis.html
http://www.life.umd.edu/cbmg/faculty/wolniak/wolniakmitosis.html
http://www.life.umd.edu/cbmg/faculty/wolniak/wolniakmitosis.html



MITOSIS - WHEN CELLS SPLIT APART
Eventually cells need to duplicate. There are two main methods of replication, mitosis and meiosis. This tutorial will talk about mitosis.

The big idea to remember is that mitosis is the simple duplication of a cell and all of its parts. It duplicates its DNA and the two new cells (daughter cells) have the same pieces and genetic code. Two identical copies come from one original. Start with one; get two that are the same. You get the idea.

Beyond the idea that two identical cells are created, there are certain steps in the process. There are five (5) basic phases in the life-cycle of a cell. You should remember the term PMATI (pronounced PeeMahtEee). PMATI is the acronym for the phases of a cell's existence. It breaks down to.

Events during Mitosis
Interphase: Cells may appear inactive during this stage, but they are quite the opposite. This is the longest period of the complete cell cycle during which DNA replicates, the centrioles divide, and proteins are actively produced. For a complete description of the events during Interphase, read about the Cell Cycle.
Prophase: During this first mitotic stage, the nucleolus fades and chromatin condenses into chromosomes. Each replicated chromosome comprises two chromatids, both with the same genetic information. Microtubules of the cytoskeleton, responsible for cell shape, motility and attachment to other cells during interphase, disassemble. And the building blocks of these microtubules are used to grow the mitotic spindle from the region of the centrosomes.
Prometaphase: In this stage the nuclear envelope breaks down so there is no longer a recognizable nucleus. Some mitotic spindle fibers elongate from the centrosomes and attach to kinetochores, protein bundles at the centromere region on the chromosomes where sister chromatids are joined. Other spindle fibers elongate but instead of attaching to chromosomes, overlap each other at the cell center.
Metaphase: Tension applied by the spindle fibers aligns all chromosomes in one plane at the center of the cell.
Anaphase: Spindle fibers shorten, the kinetochores separate, and the chromatids  are pulled apart and begin moving to the cell poles.
Telophase: The daughter chromosomes arrive at the poles and the spindle fibers that have pulled them apart disappear.
Cytokinesis: The spindle fibers not attached to chromosomes begin breaking down until only that portion of overlap is left. It is in this region that a contractile ring cleaves the cell into two daughter cells. Microtubules then reorganize into a new cytoskeleton for the return to interphase.