3rd Blog, Friday May 23, Tara Landsbergen, 3/3

What We Did Today:

• Talked about aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and factors that affect them
  
• Crossword on ecosystems
• Questions, Pg. 107 #1, 2, 3, 4, 7

Thoughts and Opinions:

• What different organisms can withstand different levels of acidity in aquatic ecosystems?

Above and Beyond:

• Trout- pH 5.0
• Bass- pH 5.5
• Perch- pH 4.5
• Frogs- pH 4.0
• Salamanders- pH 5.0
• Clams- pH 6.0
• Crayfish- pH 5.5
• Snails- pH 6.0
• Mayfly- pH 5.5

Hayley's Blog Continued

Thursday May 8 2008 Hayley Tarnasky 3/3

What did we do today?..........:

• Hmmmmmm......
• What 2 hormones associate with osmoregulation? We were asked this question and the answer is simple: ADH and aldosterone
• Where do these hormones come from? Hypothalamus and adrenal gland
• Read Page 387-390 and made notes (tons and tons and tons)
• Nephritis- inflammation of the Nephron
• Kidney Stones: caused by precipitation of mineral solutes from the blood
• Dialysis: exchange of substances across a semi-permeable membrane
• Two types: Hemo and Peritoneal
• Transplants: nothing can surpass the real kidneys
• Xenotransplants: from one species to another
• Page 392 2,3,4,8,9
• Watched a video on Hummingbird metabolisms and i thought it was cruel when they caught them but then i realized that they were simply using them for scientific research
• Then we got to play Jeopardy and it was a relief to see my team on the positive spectrum this time

My opinion and any unanswered questions:

• I thought this class was one of the better ones because for once i actually understood so that was nice
• What is the metabolism of a Hummingbird?

Esma put your hands in the air!!!:

• The metabolism of a hummingbird is roughly 100 times that of an elephant!!! Wow!! Thats one bird that does not need Red Bull ( although it already had wings)

Daniel's Blog, May 5/08

What we did today:

• Talked about money for the field trip
• Breathing rates
• we took the respiratory system test
• listened to the AMAZING rap song
• saw Hayle's extensive web page
• And to top it off, we witnessed Mr. Challonger mess up a lawyer joke

Thoughts/Opinions

• i want to go see the body works exhibit, but the money and the long trip on the stinky cheese wagon make me decide otherwise
• I wonder what the average breathing rate of a healthy adult is?
• I thought the test was easy as long as you payed attention in class. i didnt even study lol
• Props to the gals on the rap song. way to go. Craig-the-Retard sucks and should never sing again.

Above and Beyond

• The average rate that a healthy adult breaths is 12 breaths per minute.
• the average adult pair of lungs can hold 6 litres of air

Thursday, May 2nd, 2008 3/3

What We Did Today:

• Pop quiz on respiratory system. I think. Unless that was the day before, which is also possible.
• Learned more stuff about the respiratory system - partial pressures, reviewed the mechanics of breathing, etc.
• Finished watching Osmosis Jones.

Thoughts / Opinions:

• I hate these bullet points.
• How do these cilia in your trachea work, do they just hang out and stick around or do they wiggle or what do they doooo?
  

Above and Beyond!:

• According to http://www.lung.ca/children/grades4_6/respiratory/how_we_breathe.html, "Millions of tiny hairs called CILIA act like tiny brooms to sweep out the bad stuff caught in the mucus. Each cilium sweeps back and forth about ten times every second! That's 36,000 every hour, 24 hours a day! They do this to keep your lungs clean."
  
• I also just noticed that this is grades 4-6, so I guess I'm behind on these things and should have known?
• Oh, I also found out that you have like six hundred million alveoli in your lungs. That's six hundred million grape-like sacs. That's almost disgusting.