Ecology, Different types of Behavior

1. The Fixed Action Pattern (FAP) is a behavior that cannot be learned, it is inherited. It follows a regular pattern. For example: A bird notices ond of her eggs outside the nest. She will roll the egg back in her nest in a specific pattern and if the egg falls, she will still move the "invisible" egg. The reason she doesn't stop after the egg falls is because this behavior requires an action that is carried out to completion (regardless if there is an egg there or not). A specific stimulus initiates the action.

2. Imprinting behavior can be both inherited and learned. However it's usually irreversible. It is acquired during a "sensitive/critical" period. There is a limited time in which a behavior can be learned. This is why they say that learning things or multiple languages as an adult than learning it as a child.

3. Classical Conditioning is a type of associative learning (seeing a connection btwn 2+ events). It occurs when an animal performs a specific behavior in response to a substituted Stimulus.

ex. Pavlov's dog

you ring the bell, dog doesn't respond

you ring bell, give dog food, dog eats food (unconditioned response)

you ring bell, not give dog food, dog responds (conditioned response)

4. Operant Conditioning (Trial and Error) is a type of associative learning as well. The behavior is linked to environmental response. If the response is desirable/positive, the behavior is repeated, if it isnt (negative) the behavior is avoided

ex. Birds that avoid eating a butterfly with a specific pattern because they tasted it, did not like it, and decided to not eat it again.

Lynn attempting to relate this to herself : It's like me with Gatorade, except the trial and error is repetitive because i WANT to like it so bad! but I never do :P Humans just never learn

5. Spatial Learning is another type of associative learning. When an animal associates attributes of a location such as landmarks hoping to be able to return home. The reward for this behavior is GETTING HOME and feeling successful.

ex. When you drive back from a place you've never been to, you try looking for familiar things you had seen on the way to this mysterious place.

6. Habituation is a learning behavior which allows animals to turn off background noises to disregard meaningless stimuli. It could also be getting used to something new after a while.

ex. when humans observe other animals (such as monkeys), in order for them to really catch the monkey's true behavior, they need to have the monkeys get used to their (human) presence through habituation, otherwise the reason for the monkey's actions could be either natural or only because of the new humans in their home.

7. Observational Learning is when animals copy behavior of other animals without having experienced any positive reinforcement.

ex. a child copying a parent's actions of aggression regardless of reward or consequence. It was studied that if a child observes violence and aggression, he/she will emulate those actions. The actions are STILL done if there are no consequences. If there is a reward, the child is more aggressive than the one that had no consequences. And if there is a consequence, the child is less aggressive. HOWEVER, they were all aggressive anyway!

8. Insight (luck) occurs when an animal is exposed to a new situation without prior experience. It has a desirable outcome.

Yes this was a lot longer than recommended, but it's helping me review for the ap exam too! I love blogging :)

Ovulation!

Let's begin with the basics. The gonads (organs that make gametes) for females are the ovaries. Each ovary is protected by a protective capsule and consists of follicles. Each follicle consists of one egg surrounded by follicle cells that help nourish and protect the egg. One follicle matures and releases its egg during the menstrual cycle. Once the cell is released, it travels through the oviduct (fallopian tube). The oviduct contains cilia to move the egg through the fallopian tube. A sperm cell has the opportunity to fertilize this egg as it travels through the oviduct, if it doesn't, the egg will travel through the uterus, break the uterine wall that was built to support a child, and exit through the cervix through the vagina and out (as blood).

When the egg is released from the follicle, the follicular tissue that remains forms a solid mass called the corpus luteum which helps secrete estrogen and progesterone (hormone that helps maintain the uterin lining)

Reproduction is so awesome!!!!!

A sperm's journey

Sperm is formed and created in the seminiferous tubules in the testes. It then travels to the epididymis where the sperm becomes motile and fertilize an egg. When it's time for ejaculation, the sperm is propelled through the muscular vas deferns, behind the bladder and makes three pitstops where extra fluid is secreted. It first stops at the seminal vesicles where a yellowish fluid is secreted. Then it stops at the prostate gland where a thin milky prostatic fluid is secreted. The bulbourethral gland then secrets another fluid that neutralizes acidic urine that stayed in the urethra. I'd like to point out that the sperm doesnt actually "STOP" at the three glands, it keeps moving. The alkalinity of the semen then helps neutralize the acidic environment of the vagina. THAT'S THE SPERM'S VOYAGE! wooo! I love talking about this stuff :)
Here's a picture to help :)

http://www.pitt.edu/~anat/GU/Male/Image.jpg

Behavior in Bees

Worker bees must communicate with one another about the location of food sources, which may change as a flowers blooms or dies. One way bees do this is by performing a dance. When a worker returns to the hive, it is suddenly surrounded by other worker bees, which sense its movements. There is a round dance that seems to communicate simply that there is food nearby. If the food is farther from the hive, a worker will appear to communicate both the direction and distance of the food through a waggle type dance. Because it is often dark inside the hive, other bees follow the dancing bee's movements mainly through sound, taste, and touch.

Behavior

Most of the time behavior is thought to be the visible result of an animal’s muscular activity, like when a predator chases its prey. However only some behaviors have muscular activity involved but it is less obvious. As when a toad uses muscles to force air from its lungs and shape the sounds in its throat, producing a noise. Nonmuscular activities are also considered behaviors. Another example occurs when an animal secretes a hormone that attracts a mate of the opposite sex. Learning can be considered a behavioral process. A popular example is scientist Pavlov found that if he rang a bell every time he put the meat powder in the dog's mouth, the dog eventually salivated upon hearing the bell alone. Behavior is simply everything an animal does and how it does it.

Spinal Nerves (sensory and motor )

There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves and each has a dorsal root and a ventral root. The dorsal root is sensory (all neurons conduct impulses into the spinal cord) while the ventral root is motor ( all neurons conduct impulses out of the spinal cord). The dorsal root has a ganglion that contains the cell bodies of the sensory neurons that pass through the dorsal root. Each spinal nerve includes numerous sensory, or afferent, and motor, or efferent, neurons. Some of these neurons are classified as somatic, and this conduct impulses to or form the "somatic" structures ( skin, skeletal muscles, tendons, and joints). Other neurons are "visceral", and these conduct impulses to or from the visceral structures (smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and glands). Therefore, all neurons in spinal nerves and the peripheral nervous system are placed in one of the four categories somatic afferent, somatic efferent, visceral afferent, visceral efferent. Somatic affernt neurons are sensory neurons that conduct impules initiated in receptors in the skin, skeletal muscles, tendons, and joints. Receptors in the skin are responsible for sensing things such as touch, temperature, pressure and pain called exteroceptors. Receptors in skeletal muscles, tendons, and joints, provide info about body position and movement and are called propioceptors.They are unipolar. Somatic efferent neurons are motor neurons that conduct impulses from the spinal cord to skeletal muscles. These neurons are multipolar. Visceral afferent are sensory neurons that conduct impulses initiated in the receptors in the smooth and cardiac muscle. They are reffered to as enteroceptors or visceroceptors. They are unipolar. Visceral efferent are motor neurons that conduct impulses to smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and glands. They make up the autonomic nervous system. Some begin in the brain and some in the spinal cord. It always takes two visceral efferent neurons to conduct an impulse from the spinal cord or brian in some cases to a muscle or gland.

Stress Depletes Neurotransmitters

When dealing with daily stress the brain uses feel good transmitters called endorphins. When large amounts of endorphins are needed to handle stress, the ratio of many of the other transmitters, one to another, becomes upset causing a chemical imbalance. When we start to feel stress like a sense of urgency and anxiety more stress is caused as a result. Harmful chemicals are released in our bodies that do damage, causing even more stress. This is called the "stress cycle". Emotional fatigue can be a result, and be experienced and felt as depression. The body responds to emotional stess exactly as it responds to physical danger. We are usually unaware of this not felling at all as our bodies are constantly reacting to different emotions. Responding to this mental and emotional struggles with a "fight or flight" response. Which is designed to prepare our bodies for immediate danger. We really don't fight or flee, instead the high energy chemicals produced in many everyday situations boil inside of us, potentially taking years off our lives. Almost all body functions and organs react to stress. The body responds to stress with a series of physiological changes that include increased secretion of adrenaline, elevation of blood pressyrem accerleration of the heartbeat, and greater tension in the muscles, etc. Stress creates an excellent breeding ground for illness. Increased adrenaline production causes the body to step up its metabolism of proteins, fats, and carbs to quickly produce energy for the body to use. the pituitary gland stimulates the release of hormones cortisone and cortisol. These two hormones have the effect of inhibiting the functioning of disease fighting white blood cells and suppressing the immune response. This complex of physical changes known as the "fight or flight" response is also the reason that stress can lead to nutrional deficiencies. Researchers estimate that stress contributes to as many as 8O % og all major illnesses that include cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic diseases, skin disorders, and all kinds of infections. Studies by the American Medical Association have shown stress to be a factor in over 75% of all illnesses today. Research linking stress to a variety of diseases and illnesses had been the subject of more than 20,000 scientific studies...interesting huh? So let's all try to cool down and not get so stress about Ap bio anymore... we don't want to get sick lol =]

Types of Sensory Receptors

Sensory receptors are organized into five groups; mechanoreceptors, chemoreceptors, electromagnetic receptors, thermoreceptors, and pain receptors. Mechanoreceptors are receptors stimulated by physical stimuli. They respond to mechanical energy pressure such as pressure, touch, stretch, motion, and sound. Chemoreceptors include general receptors that monitor solute concentration and specific receptors that respond to important molecules. Response to different forms electromagnetic energy is caused by electromagnetic receptors. The forms of electromagnetic energy can be visible light, electricity, and magnetism. Thermoreceptors are found in the skin and hypothalamus. These receptors respond to either heat or cold and help maintain body temperature. Pain receptors are naked dendrites in the epidermis. They respond to excess heat, pressure, or chemicals released by injured or inflamed cells.

Conjoined Twins

I am super fascinated in human development. I actually want to pursue a career in Obstetrics. We know that a woman releases an egg, which can then be fertilized by a sperm. Sometimes women have more than one baby at a time. TWINS!!! This occurs two ways, when the fertilized egg divides and separates you have identical twins (same sex) or the woman may release two eggs at the same time that are fertilized by separate sperm, then you have fraternal twins. But there are some instances where the one egg of identical twins doesn’t quite separate equally. These children are called conjoined twins. Conjoined twins are extremely rare, they occur in one and every 200,000 births. Male conjoined twins are more likely to occur in the womb than female, but for some reason female conjoined twins are more likely to survive. About 70% of female conjoined twins born are female. And nobody knows why? Although having conjoined twins is a serious matter, their prognosis is become a lot brighter than in recent years. They can live well into their 60’s, and 200 separations have been performed, where 75% of the time one or both twins survive. Hopefully someday scientists can figure out ways to prevent the conjoining of twins, and give the children longer lives : )

Circulatory System

Diffusion alone is not sufficient enough for the transporting of substance over long distances. The time it takes for a substance to diffuse from one place to another over a long distance is proportional to the square of that distance. The circulatory system solves this problem. The circulatory system rapidly transports fluids in bulk throughout the body. This system exchanges gases, absorbs nutrients, and disposes waste. The vertebrate circulation is called the cardiovascular system. The heart pumps blood through the blood vessel channels and delivers it to various parts of the body. Arteries carry blood away from the heart. They divide up into aterioles which are small blood vessels. From aterioles capillaries are formed. They are the smallest vessel to carry oxygenated blood. Different species of vertebrates have slightly different heart forms. Fish have a two chambered heart. Amphibians and reptiles have a three chambered heart. Mammal and birds have a four chambered heart. These hearts may have different structures but they all provide basically the same function.

The path blood flows through the body !

Deoxygenated blood passes through the superior and inferior vena cava into the right atrium of the heart. Blood then flows into the right ventricle, which pumps it to the lungs via the pulmonary arteries. Oxygenated in the lungs, the blood flows through the pulmonary veins back into the left atrium of the heart, then into the left ventricle, from which it is pumped to the entire body via the aorta. Arteries carry blood away from the hear, breaking down into a network of arterioles. Veins arise from a network of venules to bring blood toward the heart. Between arterioles and venules are capillaries, tiny vessesla where cellular exchange (gases, nutrients, wastes) occurs. The lymphatic system returns lost fluid to the blood. Lymph fluid can intermingle with blood along lymph capillaries, which run alongside circulatory capillaries. Lymph nodes filter the lymph fluid by the action of white blood cells, protective cells that attack and isolate foreign bodies. Hope you enjoyed the quick overview of the circulatory system =]

I have a COLD!

When we learned about the immune system we learned that the body has many defense mechanisms in order to protect itself. For example mucus! Mucus coats your body cavities that are exposed to the environment like your GI tract, respiratory tract, and reproductive tract. This mucus can help trap particles, fight pathogens, and moisten the air that we take in. But I have a cold and I want to know why my nose doesn’t stop running! Well basically my airways are inflamed. Woooo! So like I mentioned before mucus helps fight off pathogens, like the common cold. Your immune system activates the inflammation when it detects a pathogen, and it increases its mucus production. Even though I have to use a tissue every 4 seconds, and my nose turns bright red this mucus is helping my body fight the cold. GO MUCUS!!!!

But I think I am going to go take some cold medicine : )

Storing Protein for Growth!!

We all know that our bodies require certain amounts of proteins. Certain animals like the Adelie penguin from Antarctica molt or grow new feathers yearly. Their feathers are like puffy winter coats that help them sustain a constant body temperature. So when they don’t have this insulation they cannot go into the freezing ocean to feed or swim, they must remain on land. So how do they survive the time period of about the 20 days it takes for them to restore their feathers? Before the penguin molts it amplifies its muscle mass (A JACKED PENGUIN : D ). Then during those 20 days where the feathers are growing back the penguin survives by breaking down the extra muscle protein. This extra protein provides the penguin with the amino acids it needs to grow new feathers. What an awesome adaptation!

A cool picture of a molting King Penguin : http://www.galenfrysinger.com/penguins.htm

Tropisms!!!!!!

WOOOO!!! Let's discuss TROPISMS! First, let's define what the word means.

Tropism- The growth of a biological organism, usually plants, in response to environmental stimulus. A definition never really hits it on the nail, so we'll discuss three types of tropisms.

1. Phototropism (no, there is no "h" in the word) is a plant's response to light. When the shoots grow towards the light, it's called positive phototropism. When the shoots grow away from the light, it's called negative phototropism. When the apical meristems on all sides of the plant absorb equal amounts of light the plant grows evenly; however, when light is only absorbed by apical meristems on one side of the plant, it will grow towards the light.

http://www.yksd.com/distanceedcourses/Courses09/Biology/lessons/FourthQuarter/Chapter13/13-1/images/II17phototropism1.gif

2. Geotropism is a plant's response to gravity, the roots always grow down through the soil from the seed no matter how you plant it.

http://www.omegagarden.com/images/photos/geotropism.jpg

In this image you will see 3 types of Geotropism.

• The first seed, which is planted sideways shows Transversal Geotropism, where the root extends sideways and pushes down through the soil due to gravity.
• The second seed, which is planted upside down shows Negative Geotropism, where the root pushes up and then pushes back down into the soil due to gravity.
• The third seed is planted normally, it shows Positive Geotropism, where the root grows straight down and pushes through the soil due to gravity once again.

3. Thigmotropism is the plant's response to touch or contact.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/images/flytrap.gif

I thought this image was a very good example of thigmotropism. As you can see, once the insect makes contact with the plant, the plant traps the insect for some good old NUTRITION!
That's really as simple as it gets. Some other plants use thigmotropism to protect themselves from predators who feed on their surfaces by closing their leaves.

Success!

Plant Growth

One of the things that seems most interesting when it comes to plant growth is indeterminate growth! Unlike humans, plants are able to start, speed up, or completely stop growth depending on weather. If the weather is not suitable for the plant to grow in, a certain plant hormone called Abscisic Acid will slow down growth. This hormone is more abundant during times of stress (like harsh weather). It makes sure that the seed doesn't germinate (develop) at the wrong time, and protects growing plants by suspending growth temporarily.

Plants have other hormones that are involved in growth as well. Cytokinins for example stimulate cell division and influences organ development. This hormone however, has no effect if used independently; it needs to be used with Auxin (another hormone) to be effective and activate growth. The amount of Cytokinins and Auxin determines whether the roots and shoots develop.

Auxin is a growth hormone that elongates the cells of a plant; it breaks down cell walls to make them more flexible for stretching and elongation. When Ethylene (a plant gas that makes fruits age faster and more ripe) works with auxin, it inhibits elongation of roots, stems, and leaves; meaning growth is slowed down. However, when one apple is rotting, for example, it will release Ethylene, exposing the gas to the environment and other apples. The other apples will therefore age faster, become more ripe, and eventually rot as well.

Lastly, the Gibberlin hormone promotes growth in embryo's of seeds and helps break their dormancy at the appropriate time. BASICALLY, these hormones can either speed up, slow down, stop growth or break dormancy of seeds and plants. Imagine if humans had these hormones!!!!!!!! I would love to speed up the next two months and get over with the AP exams !!! The stress!!!!! Hope this blog was informative! :D

Overview Of Cytokinins

The cytokinin hormones promote cell division (cytokinesis) and tissue growth (organogenesis or organ development). This depends on the presence of auxins (another plant hormone) to determine the level of their activity. Without auxin cytokinins do not function. When the ratio of cytokinins to auxins is relatively high, stem and leaf growth is stimulated. When, on the other hand, the ratio of cytokinins to auxins is relatively low, root growth is stimulated instead. The balance between these hormones makes sure that the plant invests in both root and shoot growth, so that neither becomes too large or small for the other. Cytokinins are also involved in the development of cholorplats, fruits, and flowers. Also, they have been shown to delay senescence (aging), especially in leaves, which is one reason that florists use cytokinins on freshly cut flowers. Coconut milk has a high level of cytokinin present and a little trick to keep your plant's alive longer is to spray coconut milk on them. This is a way florists use the cytokinins on their plants to delay their aging process. Try it out sometime and see how much longer your flowers stay alive. :-)

Plants Are Metropolises. Organic, Green Metropolises.

It's no mystery that in terms of overall structure, what separates plant cells from the cells of other organisms is the cell wall. Knowing that, it's also no mystery that those walls play huge parts in plant cell function and differentiation. Such is so for the 'chyma cells. While parenchymas happen to be the seeming structurally blandest and yet the most functionally flexible with their thin primary walls and lack of secondary walls, their smaller counterparts, elongating collenchyma and lignin-secured sclerenchyma have thick cell walls perfect for their rolls as support cells. The other half of the spectrum belongs to cells that are essentially advanced delivery shoots. Thick-walled tracheids and vessels are tubes that are dead at maturity, and use "end walls" to transport water. Their cousins, or whatever you'd call them, ribosome and nucleus-lacking sieve-tubes, use similar "end walls" to transport various nutrients such as sugar. Just imagine what life would be like if our cities cleaned themselves, protected themselves, repaired themselves, and transported materials themselves like plants do.

Hormones

I made a new post. Easier to say that than to post it here.

Transport of Water

Water is essential in a plant. There are two pathways water can take to move toward the center of the roots. One pathway is symplast. Water in this pathway moves from the cytoplasm through the plasmodesmata to the cytoplasm of the next cell. Another pathway is apoplast. This is when water moves through intracellular spaces from one cell to another without entering the cells. However, when the water reaches the endodermis in the apoplast pathway it can no longer continue into the vascular cylinder. It can only do this by traveling through the symplast pathway. This occurs because of casparian strip. This strip is made of suberin walls which blocks the apoplast pathway.

Sugar Transport in Plants!

The pressure flow theory! The pressure flow theory is the mechanism by which sugars are transported through the phloem from the leaves (sources) to the roots (sinks). Leaves are called the sources because the sugars are made there and the roots are called the sinks because the sugars are stored there. At the sources, sugar molecules are transported into the sieve-elements (phloem cells) through active transport (the movement of a substance across a biological membrane against its concentration gradient with the help of energy input). Water flows the sugar molecules into the sieve elements through osmosis (since water passively diffuses into areas of higher solute concentration). This water creates tugor pressure (the force directed against a cell wall after the entering of water and swelling of a walled cell due to osmosis). This forces the sugars as well as fluids down the phloem tubes toward the sinks. When at the sinks, the sugars are actively removed from the phloem therefore creating the water to flow osmotically. This is so that the conditions of high water potential and low tugor pressure, which causes the pressure flow process, which enables and creates the transport of sugars throughout the plant so that the sugars can be used for the plant's metabolism. I hope this helped everyone better understand the pressure flow theory and the transport of sugar in plants !

Photosynthetic Chasms of Wonderment

I recalled the day of class when Ms. Aber asked us to discuss what adjustments would have to be made and what would be the mental repercussions of switching bodies with plants. Then I asked myself, what if we didn't switch bodies with plants, but by various mechanisms of karma--probably the same ones which made it possible for plants to have conscious thought--we switched lifestyles with plants? What if plants were physically permitted to move about even with the fragility of their limbs under their weight, and we had to stay in one place our entire lives? Would you be able to process the concept of plants simply walking and/or sliding to springs and fountains and literally just soak their roots in them for a bit? Would you or they ever get used to the idea of trees running from giraffes? How would they know where to go? Eyelessness! Would we begin to leave our self-induced evolutionary stasis and find new limbs selected for us? Or, being masters of adaptation, would human beings just change the direction of technology to adjust to the new condition? Or...would we become......EXTINCT!

Opening And Closing of the Stomata

At first I did not fully understand the opening and closing factors of the stomata. We understand that the stoma are pores on the epidermal layer of leaves, where gas exchange occurs. This gas exchange is where the plant takes in carbon dioxide and releases water and oxygen. We must now understand how these pores open and close and the contributing factors. The kidney shaped guard cells are the cells that physically open and close the stomata. When Potassium ions (K+) diffuse into the guard cells from the surrounding cells, this sends a signal to open the stomata. This is due to the concentration gradient that is formed by the K+ when there are less free water molecules inside the guard cells. (We know water flows from areas of high concentration to low). The opposite happens in order to close the stomata. This time the K+ diffuse out of the guard cells, again forming a concentration gradient in the opposite direction. What was stomata with me? :D This concept is easy now!!

Dermal Tissue Systems make me jealous...

Ok. this is a combination of the three posts I've made on my own before I could post to the class blog.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Today i heard the phrase, her/his "periderm is worse than " his/her "bite". (I can't remember the gender.) Puns make the world go round. With that in mind, I scoured the internet for biology puns...

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jcdverha/scijokes/4_3.html#subindex

I think some of them are just downright nerdy, don't you?

Of course, the best puns are the ones you come up with yourself...so let me take a crack at this:

"What did the DNA say to the RNA? We don't need U here."

Ok, I can't think of any others. :(

Perhaps I'm not cut out to be a comedian.

Oh well, pass me a gamma-radiation sterilized scalpel and I'll make a wet-slide of that apple I wanted to eat.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Roots. Roots seem to be the best thing since sliced bread for plants. Not only do they absorb nutrients and water, they can perform so many other functions. They can store nutrients and organic materials. They keep the plant from blowing away and the topsoil from vanishing with the wind. They can be big and sociopathic(taproots) or small and in such numbers as to make them just clumps of awesome. And they can be tasty. Onions, potatoes, stuff like that. All roots. Ginger. Root. Root beer. No brainer, comes from a root. Seriously, we should get some of these. We should all lay down roots. (literally).

Or not. I like moving around too much to do that.

Dermal Tissue Systems make me jealous...

Ok, it might just be me, but plants have WAYY better defense than we do. We have...skin. And when that skin tears..it just gets patched up. Plants(like trees) get BARK! WOOD! Way better than our little fleshy stuff.

I just can't help thinking that animals got the short end of the evolutionary stick. Heterotrophic. Dependence on sexual reproduction. Soft skin.

We don't even get pretty flowers on our heads!

Seriously...we should revolt and become sentient plants. We could be lazy all day, we could make our own food, we wouldn't have messy relationship issues because we never even have to see the organisms we mate with...

That'd be simple as 1, 2, 3.

Of course...it'd be pretty boring too.

How to become an author...

Alright, here's the scoop. To participate, float me an e-mail that you would like to start contributing to the class blog and an e-mail address to use for that account. In that invitation, you will be prompted to create a Google account. If you already have one, then fantastic. You are a step ahead! Sign in and voila! Start contributing to the AP Biology blog by clicking on the New Post button.

Extra Credit!!!!

This is a completely "borrowed" idea from other AP Biology teachers except I am SO much nicer in that instead of this being a mandatory assignment, contributions to the blog will be extra credit opportunities. So, folks, here's the rules:

1. AP Biology related. While I am a friend to all the sciences, this is, you know, AP biology, so your post has to be related to what we are studying. Yes, you can discuss things we haven't discussed yet. I know you have all read ahead in the book :)

2. A minimum of 100 words. Stop giving me dirty looks. This has been 100 words.

3. So a 100 words of what? You can summarize a topic we've been discussing, you can ask a question and explain exactly what you don't understand about something, you can look up an article (provide the link) and talk about why it is cool or not cool or just kind of cool, you can find an awesome, trippy movie and embed it, you can find neat-o pics and discuss them, you can look up experiments and talk about how you want/don't want to do them in class, you can read about scientists and then form an opinion about them. The really cool part, now pay attention here, is that blogging is a very informal writing environment. Write in your voice. Go for a spell check, but go ahead and LOL and exclamation point away. Get excited about science and show it here. Essentially, nerd out.

4. How will I grade this? First of all, don't copy paste. I catch it. You know I do. And it is super easy for me to catch it on the blog. I will check to see that you wrote at least 100 words, I will check out the article, movie, pics, etc, then read the summary to make sure that you know what you are talking about. And if it all checks out, then bingo boingo 100% in that extra credit category. Sweet, right?

Have fun, kiddos.