Ultimate Unit Reflection

Survival Unit Reflection

12/08/10

Reflect on what has helped you in understanding the "big idea" of the unit.

The big idea of the unit came from the works I have finished and the presentations of others. By learning the presentation of each one of my classmates, I linked the information to create a big idea for this unit. The distinct subject dealing with survival was a huge impact towards the survival unit. The big idea I can imagine is the combination of survival links we have watched, learned, heard. By what I mean, all the principals of this unit came from videos we watched such as Food Inc. and Human Foot Print. The video accounted for how many/much stuffs and moneys do we spend or use in total in years, decades, and centuries. Although I think that the crew in the video utilized so many materials to produce a great film, it was bit freaky. People don't tend to check how much/many stuffs they use in a life time but looking at a graph, it would be a shock of our lives. It is very grievous to see how many animals are suffering for us however the big idea is people don't care (majorities). If this continues, the world would likely to burst soon into tears and future humans will maintain the poor earth. In-order to stop, it would take years but we could create more campaigns (which we already have).

(What is a necessity and how does an organism ensure survival of its species within its environment?)

There are a lot of necessities for animals or humans to ensure their survival. In-order to survive, we need to obtain food. However this is the problem; if an organism needs food to survive then this organism has to compete against the other niche in the ecosystem to dominate a certain food. Or if an organism is a prey it should need adaptations to survive in a certain environment. The main necessities are the different adaptations among the species and food (food is delicacy), beyond what its needed, the needs or components of the biotic factors are water, oxygen, cells, reproduction, and has to excrete waste etc. These are the component factors which biotic factors maintain.


How did the unit question allow us to view survival through The Area of Interaction: Environments:(FOR EXAMPLE: The effects of one environment on another, the roles our environments play in the lives and well-being of humankind, and the effects of our actions, attitudes and constructs, such as sustainable development and conservation.)

The earth naturally suffers due to human causes, humans are species which are intelligent but intelligent to develop the world and devastate the world. We basically used how much we produced but today I assume that we use more than what it is needed because of overpopulation in a small area. This leads to harm earth, if everyone lived as much as an average person with enough care about the circumstances then we will be left with much more foods, lands, materials etc. We “people “kill animals to obtain some kind of meat everyday and increase the happiness of ourselves however we should imagine what would happen if there were no meat or even fruits/vegetables due to our harm in the earth. We pollute the earth and alter the earth, we consume mass-produced meat, and we can do whatever we want however it won’t be like that if you are trying to support the earth to be sustained.


What would you have liked to do more of? Less of?

First of all, reviewing and watching sources of videos were engaging especially the experiments in the film. The film explained facts that were needed and appropriate for our grade level and it was fun to all of us. The packaging project influencing human needs, supply and demand was a topic which was quite of piquing my interest that is why I had a great Choco-Pie poster with a bad pie condition. Nevertheless, in my opinion we reflected so much about what it should be needed. For example, Food Inc. and Human Foot Print reflection made me cranky since it covered so much of my precious time. It wasn't bad but too much for what I think is needed. Overall, I think I did well and I hope I would receive perfect grade in this unit/grade.


In your point of view, how well did we investigate the unit question, concept, and area of interaction? Include this in your reflection as well and give specific examples to support your opinions.

By studying straightforward I basically think that the concept wasn't too bad. Our classmates and I investigated the unit's main question simply well. We could have improved in some criterion for example adding clear and adjusting our works but I was even impressed with my works, this might be my best work/unit in science class. We looked at some ecological views from some perspective and what they think about the problem (the peasants from the video) and we investigated the abilities to improve to alter the world in to eco-green.

Graph:

The bubbl graph about my knowledge about this quarter/semester explained everything I wanted to express. Rather than just adding stuffs, I add tons of information since then I would look like as if I put a lot of effort to this. Although quality has much standard than quantity, this graph showed both of them all in one. It took a lot of time to sort out stuff (and I forgot to save it so I had to do it again). It might not be as so good as the previous one I did but I hope this accounts for what I have learned, also I added the main ideas and spread it out for others to see it clearly. In conclusion, I basically thought that this unit was awesome since it was exciting to learn something I was NEVER interested in.

Green Plastic Video Reflection

Questions:

How are these plastics being developed?

Plastics used every day in our lives come from what is called "oil substance" or what I believe corn crops, sugar substances. The green plastics we see today are carbon containing compounds. The combination of molecules of polyactic acid creates oligomers which produces green plastic resources. The good parts about the green plastics are that it is eco friendly which means it is available to recycle or reused.

What makes these plastics "green?"

For instance corn crops are resources that are eco friendly to our world. No matter how much we use, the corn usage plastics are not going to damage the world (probably). By producing green plastics, it won't require too much money and process of damaging our circumstances. These are recyclable and biodegradable; also I think the video mentioned that 10 years later 20% of the entire plastics will be bio-plastic/eco friendly ones.

What are some issues with plastics that were mentioned?

As we receive benefits/advantages we also take disadvantages, the problem that people have to fix is being efficient. It is good to produce crops such as corns but if we produce more than what is needed then there will be no food left for us to consume. Another reason is to grow the corn crops, people need to give a lot of materials. What I mean is that, it takes too much credit to grow crops such as packaging, growing crop materials, fertilizers etc. If we tend to utilize the bio-plastics all the time then there will be no space for us to live unless we live with crops. By harvesting the crops, there will be a lot of necessity. Tractors have to use up oils which will produce carbons, the world will be polluted.

How might these green plastics change packaging practices?

This now links to Human Footprint video. In present days, people tend to use so many materials, which later on the amount of packaging and tools we use will dominate the world. By using bio-plastic materials, we can reduce the amount of paper bags and save the world. Although this might not be the best idea, we can save more money and we can develop further for the green plastic project.

Choco-Pie Packaging Message

Dear, Directors of Orion Choco-Pie Company

Your efficient works has improved the recycling process. I've notice that the recycling project of your company is turning successful these days. The Orion Company reducing 30% of gas, 39% of water, 20% starch, and 22% electricity is a supportive supply to Green World. As a result the production and the recycling project of Choco-Pie will be a huge impact to the Korean Economy. As a recommendation, you should utilize/produce less wrapping paper or not at all since it is just useless. Besides the wrapping paper issue, I really envy your company.


P.S. You should tell other Nutrition Companies to recycle as much as they produce products.
Why don't you just directly export to Serbia for a person like me to purchase (Probably Serbian people will like Choco-Pie better than moon pie)

Sincerely
Anonymous (Kyle)

Food Inc. Reflection

Food Inc. Reflection

Nov. 28th 2010

Food Inc. Reflection

1) The Food Inc. video was not much of an impact to me since I never abide by the rules of thinking about the poor chickens or cows etc. As far as I know about my religion, devout person of Christianity doesn’t really care about consuming meat (only vegetarian). It is great that technology is developed to alter the lives of us however treating the animals harshly should be disallowed (ex stuffing animal “chicks” all in one whole”). When technology is a part of our lives, there are ways to harvest crops, support animals which tell that the technology would make the farming system better.

2) Food Inc. gives clear information about the negative impact upon the animals and farmers however it gives a positive upon us, the consumers today. The technology is an efficient tool but nothing good for our Earth.

The technology seems to pollute the earth and make troubles; therefore we should try to reduce gases by utilizing no technology materials. As our class watched the part where the woman’s son died due to salmonella disease, it is not always safe to consume any nutrition.

3) Everyday fresh choices of nutrition arrive in markets for consumers to purchase; foods look nice and the market seems much organized but it would be arduous for us to live without all these materials when no more food crops can be available. The stores today have varieties of products which grabs the consumer’s attention. Many products come from various farm animals and more but there won’t be use when too much products compete for more profit. Consumers today choose the best product for safety purposes, if they don’t want to buy a certain product then the industries providing the foods will bankrupt. We like to buy organic materials for our “safety.” We don’t want to produce the “bads” for our own good, someday too much products in the stores will be the causes of our survival.

4) This links to the other video “Human Footprint.” Humans (us) tend to use up too many resources than what we anticipate. The food Inc explained the usages of all these materials in our lives and what will be the effects beyond. Humans are the creatures who eat up the earth, in other words dominate the world. When we use up the left resources of Earth, the earth will be on the verge of extinction. The earth won’t be necessarily extinct but anyway we can support the Earth but living like well and sustain humans do.

5) All of the humans now a day’s look forward to the How part since why is not too much economical. What I want to say is that industries and business companies usually want advantages from their jobs. What we need to do is to find more and better solutions for our lives. Probably all the reasons started because of technology devices in our routines and this is why all of us need to think back.

6) Natural farming is the freedom farming and an affectionate farming to animals by giving them rooms to bunch up and live, give light resources. On the other hand, Industrial farming is the farming style of threatening the animals. Animals with no light has to live in a stack not knowing where they move and industries give animals twice or more foods to increase their size. It is not secure to rely on the Industrial farming style which KFC does (but it is still delicious). A good farming style would be consuming an average chicken. However both should be needed for the wise world since the problem is the “livestock” of the nation. The video mentioned that both styles of farming would be necessary, if not we wouldn’t be able to obtain meat.

7) In Korean lives, it isn’t much of deal because we don’t prefer the technology usages too much. According to Korean farming, we would be growing fatter than now but no impacts would be made until decades. In the present, food companies like to add what they call “Stuffs not healthy and secure for our lives” since it attracts attention and most of all it will taste good (Again KFC). The specific reason beyond is because of stuffed chemicals inside the animals. Faster we cause us to be unhealthier; more mass production will be affecting the lives of ours.

8) I didn’t really mind about the costs in the video since once again I don’t really mind but I took quick mind notes about the health cost of mass production and cultural costs. Health cost is one of the menaces of our routines because as much as we live like this, more viruses will occur. Technology destroyed the cultural cost of healthy lives. Some environmental costs are companies who try to alter the ways of organic farming which leads to ethical cost. Companies love earning profits by utilizing the technology and this would be the reason no one can stop it. When farmers need money they have to follow the industries worse farming skills.

Notes: The video seem to be engaging in the first parts where they linked it to our daily routines however as soon as the video kept moving on it was more like business deals of peasants.

Current Event 8: Somatic Cells

Nov. 24th 10

Science Daily
Date is unknown (it was approx 30 days ago)
Internet Web
Science Daily Team

Once we know the meaning of the cell (as what we did last year) it is time to move on to a unique cell called Somatic cells. Somatic cells are the entire cells forming some kind of organism. However Somatic cells don’t cover germ cells since in germ cells, the DNA is much circular shape than Somatic Cells. When doctors utilize an instrument called probe to examine the parts in our body, they could notice the Somatic cells which contains 23 “homologous” pairs of chromosomes and 46 normal chromosomes. The Somatic Cells come from Greek term “soma” which translated body. All of the cells in organism’s body, excluding reproductive cells, are Somatic Cells. Somatic Cells are probably a common language in milk companies; since lower SCC (Somatic Cell Counts) milks tend to give more cheeses. Less/Lower Somatic Cells will save milk sections in stores.

For Mammals, mammals contain germline cells also known as ova which “fuse” to produce zygote cells. Besides, ova and “gametocytes” are Somatic Cells; the examples of those are bones, blood and tissues etc are made up of Somatic Cells. As I mentioned on the top Gametocytes are eukaryotic cells which contains bunch of cells on the other hand prokaryote contains one. Though this cell is not too much a deal for us (except when we get to a high level in biology), it is a knowledge we should know. This topic was bit difficult to comprehend it was efficient to learn about this topic. The Milk problem will be some type of discussion for farmers over the region because milk is one of their highest incomes (for average farmers).

Bibliography: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/s/somatic_cell.htm