U of T and ROM Halloween Trip

U of T Auditorium:

The 2 speakers, who won the Gairdner award, spoke about their experiences in the field of science. They had very different speaking styles.
The 1st speaker spoke to the audience about his experieces in science and gave advices. One of the advices is to don't be afraid to be wrong and experiment, by telling his story of making the wrong hypothesis, but still help millions with his conclusion. He also encouraged students to get involved with arts and literature.  He also used a funny approach which really engaged the audience.
The 2nd speaker used slides as an visual aid for her speech. She talked about experiences in the lab, but she also spoke about the topic of her research more, so sometimes it seemed more like a chromosome lesson. Her story also mentioned the advice of taking constructive criticism.
Overall, the speehes were inspirational, and there were many things to take away from it.

ROM:


The Largest Cast Dinosaur model in Canada

The ultimate message of the Rom tour was that in order to protect endangered species, we need to learn about them, like where they live, their habits, what they eat, and their predators.

Over the course of about 8 interesting exhibits, the story of the Passenger Pigeons  was the one that truck me the most. It was a case that marked the 100 aniversary of the extinction of Passenger Pigeons. This showed that even a species with a population of billions was be terminated with the activities of mankind in the course of only 1 decade. And the moral was to protect the species that are endangered now and not to give to the theory of "it will never go extinct because of the shear number", because it was seen in this example. And to conserve species so that the next generations can be able to experience what we have.

Passenger Pigeons; 100 Years of Silence

Leaf Pigmentation: Chemiosmosis Notes

Chemiosmosis- Hydrogen ions moving from high to low concentration through a membrane.

 

1) PSII removes electron bond from H2O (photolysis) after being stimulated by sunlight, breaking up O and H2.

2) Losing electrons means being oxidized, gaining is being reduced.

3) PQ  takes the electrons from PSII, then b6f is reduced and allows Hydrogen to move out to the thylakoid lumen.

4) PC reduces from b6f, then PSI is activated by sunlight and is reduced as well.

5) Electron then pass through Fd , FNR then NADP.

6) The bond between the two hydrogen atoms separate and one bonds to NADP to form NADPH.

7) A takes 2 phosphates to form ADP, and spins with ATP synthase.

8) Hydrogen moves through and slows the ATP synthase and ADP down, breaking off ADP and allows 1 phosphate to attach to ADP, forming ATP.

9) ATP synthase help move Hydogen ions.
10) PSII consists of proteins.

Note: Highlighted phrases refer to the movement of Hydrogen ions.

Fetal Pig Dissection lab

In this lab, we looked at the body systems in a pig, specifically, the endocrine, reproductive, and nervous system.

The pig that we had was small compared to the others', the same size as the metal tray, about 17cm. We concluded that it was a female, because there was a genital papilla and a urogenital opening. The pig had 4 toes on each leg. 

(Top) The liver was the largest organ in the body, but comparable with the intestine, located beneath the diaphram. (Middle) The stomach was filled with a brown fluid. (Bottom) The pancreas was withing the intestines.

(Top) Small intestine and large intestine was below the liver. (Bottom) A part of the liver.

The heart was surrounded by the lungs. The aorta, vena cavas, and pulmonary veins and arteries were clearly visible.

(Top) The kidneys were accidentally cut in half, but in doing so, we could see the nephrons in the kidney bean-shaped kidney. It was located behind the intestines. (Bottom) Ovaries, also kidney-shaped, had what appears to be thin fallopian tubes attached. It was located below the large intestine and the bladder.

The Brain was mushy when we cut open the hard skull. It is suspected the this is because it had not fully developed yet.                                               It is believed that only one group had their pig brain intact.===>

The eyeball was about .5 cm, and had a film on the outside.

Through the dissection activity, we learned most about the locations and appearence of the organs in the systems we learned in class, in a body similiar to a human's.