Monomers and Polymers Video

Monomers and Polymers Video

Plight of the Bees by Amber Christensen

Plight of the Bees

Throughout the world there are many sacred animals to a variety of human cultures. One animal, humans tend to not recognize as being important is a bee. Bees are considered to only be known as producing honey and pollinating crops. Recently in the past decade, the number of bees have dramatically decreased and no one has really noticed. I think in order for everyone to take action and pay attention to this dramatic decline in bees is, there would need to be a vast decrease in the production of crops and the loss of honey.  

One reason I believe that its going to take a dramatic loss in crops for people to notice how important bees are is because if we lose a fair amount of our commonly consumed crops, people would notice that its due to the bees not pollinating the crops for them to actually grow. Once there is a loss of the crops, people will look towards what is the reason behind to be able to fix this issue. Since farmers do not control the main reason behind how crops grow, people will start to pay attention to bees and their purpose of helping the production of plants.

My second reason behind my idea that it would take a mass amount of the loss of crops is that if bees were to be completely extinct, all the plants that bees pollinate would die also and that would result in less oxygen because plants create oxygen. The reason that’s important is because humans need oxygen to live off of.

My final reason it is important for people to start looking at bees and how important they are including the deduction of crops is that not only do they pollinate plants but produce honeycombs. Humans take those honeycombs to produce honey which is very commonly used food item throughout. Many ways we use honey besides consuming it as is, but we also use it as a natural sweetener for tea or to create a glaze for meat. If bees were to completely die off, humans would wake up and see that honey is a key product in their daily diet which will help them see how important bees are.

This is why I believe its going to take a large decline in crops and honey in order for humans to “wake up” and see how important bees truly are. Once it happens, humans will start to take action in help saving bees from extinction.

Plight of bees

                                                               Plight of bees

When you see a bee you usually run, hide or even kill it,but if it weren’t for bees our ecosystem would be crashed to the ground in the speed of light. Bee’s help this earth in many ways by pollinating and giving us our source of honey. If bee’s die we will no longer have help with pollination or creating honey. What’s it going to take for you to wake up and make a change?
               Bees pollinate tons of plants like celery, onion, broccoli, cucumber, strawberry, watermelon and of course flowers such as daisies,tulips,and roses. Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in the reproduction of plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. Pollination is like humans having a baby, if no one reproduces at all the population then will get smaller and smaller then become extinct while with bees if we have none they can’t pollinate. Therefore if they can’t pollinate we will not have our fruits and vegetable and flowers and if we don’t have those then the animals the bees pollinate will start to slowly die.Another fact is that if both plants and animals are gone humans will end up dying.
  If there is no bees there will be no honey. Honey is used in various foods, beverages, sweeteners, and flavoring. For example, honey can be by itself,used on bread,put in tea,with a banana,put into cereal,etc. Honey has also been used by humans as medicine taken by mouth and put on topically to treat various things such as gastric disturbances, ulcers, wounds, and burns. Another great thing about honey is that it never spoils.
Some would say bees reproduce quickly. Although that may be true,many bees are required to pollinate so much plant, fruit, and nut life. Which means even if you do kill one bee you’re interfering with the bee’s process and that one bee could have pollinated that fruit,vegetable or even flower.In my opinion we all should leave bees alone and let them pollinate, and produce honey they are no harm to us.
               To conclude bees are very helpful for everyday life. Bees can make honey, pollinate crops and flowers, and help medically. Bees should not be killed because they are not harmful at all in reality they are just helping us and making life easier by pollinating something we don’t need to do. If nobody takes their stand and leave the bees alone, or become beekeepers to help the bees, we are going to soonly have an extinction of bees which means there will be no honey.That also means some medicines honey gives us we wont have, no honey combs to get wax from to make candles, some of the foods we have now will not be here, eventually the animals that eat those fruits, plants, and nut they won’t have and die and the ecosystem will come crashing down so take your stand and don’t kill bees.

Works Cited:
Queen of the sun.Dir.Taggart Siegle.2010.video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees

Colony collapse disorder essay by Cameron DeHart

Cameron  DeHart
Mr. Bursch
Honors Bio., P. 5
28 November 2013

Colony Collapse Disorder

Colony collapse disorder is a problem that many disregard completely. This is happening with bees all around North America. People will see hives going about their normal routines one day and the next, gone. This is what colony collapse is, and it is ruining the farming industry. The honeybee is one of the biggest agricultural tools. They are the biggest pollinator that there is in the world. While there are other pollinators such as hummingbirds and butterfly's, bees are responsible for a majority of the pollination done. one reason that they are disappearing is because of humans. Without them, we would not have majority of the fruits and vegetables we have today.
Colony collapse disorder, is when colonies will do just that-collapse. There has been so much colony collapse in the U.S. that they have had laws passed to bring bees from foreign countries. However, many people do not realize the dire situation bees are in. Another thing that causes colony collapse disorder is pesticides.Pesticides that are meant to kill the "pests" are not killing the bees. However, what the pesticides are doing is making them forget how to locate the hive, causing death. Another thing is that there are these mites called varroa mites. These extremely small and flat 1.5 mm wide oval-shaped mites that suck the blood of the honeybee broodlings and adults, decreasing the health and longevity of the bee. We are using pesticides to get rid of the mites, preventing the honeybees from letting adaptation and nature take its course. Furthermore, the mites are also adapting faster to the pesticides. In fact, the mites have adapted so well to the pesticides that some variations of pesticides actually make the mites are better off with the pesticides than not.
Many people will have this issue made aware to them when a tomato for example at the local store costs ten dollars a pound due to extreme shortages of pollination, leading to extreme shortages in food. Even though people may know of the problem, it may not have affected them directly yet, so the problem feels "distant" and not an immediate issue that needs to be dealt with a sense of urgency. I believe when people are affected by colony collapse, the issue will be solved. Humans have historically acted off of a basis of necessity, so if people do not feel that the issue is necessary because it does not affect them directly.
Many people will disagree with the reasons I am using to support this. A common thought is since we have enough resources now, colony collapse disorder must be exaggerated and its not really an issue. This is not true because we are starting to see a huge decrease in this recent decade. They have not become extinct yet, but if we continue the way we are, the future of the bee is uncertain. While there are other pollinators, bees pollinate more than other animal in the world. Along with the fact that some plants solely depend on the honey bee to get their nectar.
In conclusion, bees need saving if we the human race want to continue as a prosperous species. To begin we are the main cause that they disappear. North Americas major farming industry will cease to exist without the honeybee. The bees and humans have a symbiotic relationship, so in killing them, the only person that were really hurting is us.


Works Cited
Queen of the Sun. Dir. Taggart Siegel.2010.DVD
Ric Bessin.ca.uky.edu.UK Entomology.2013.Web. 28 November 2013.
wikipedia.org.Wikipedia.2013.Web. 29 November 2013

Wise Use of Resources Re:

Creator: Jacob Sligar

Presentation: Wise Use of our Resources Fossil fuels

Location:https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11zGwfMr02ju9nIXXAQEW-4glzUGWIYGpxSbMoKoQrEY/edit#slide=id.p

      Initially, I already knew that humans rely on a large amount of fossil fuels for multiple reasons. However, when reading your presentation the amount we use was almost double what I had previously thought. The products made with fossil fuels effects my topic of deforestation because the fumes gave off from the burning, and creation of fossil fuels could cause global warming. If carbon dioxide levels rise, and more places are destroyed by deforestation, then global warming will have nothing to combat it.  A question I have about your post is what is the best alternative to fossil fuels, possibly made so an everyday car can use it without engine damage?


Presentation: Wise Use of Our Resources Global Warming

Location: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dGPIyuz5eQvIc5w_ylwjF-e44WOmf5Hn3Al6GelUurI/edit#slide=id.p

Creator: Morgan Tong


        Looking at your pictures of things caused by global warming, like deforestation, melting icebergs, etc., I see global warming is an immediate threat. Your topic relates with deforestation, the topic I chose to research, because deforestation contributes to dramatic changes in Earths climate. A question I have is how does global warming cause natural disasters, and what are more natural disasters are caused by global warming? Overall, your presentation really put how large this global warming problem at hand is. However, there is ways humans can help improve the current state of global warming. 

Wise Use of Our Resources Deforestation Presentation By Cameron DeHart

Can be viewed  HERE!!!

Global Warming Resources Presentation By: Amber Christensen

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tKblRRPKVyERHsOcahkHR-v9GWaacovHN_Wt6o-UfDU/edit#slide=id.p

Wise Use Of Our Resources Responses

      Presentation:Wise Use Of Our Resources:Global Warming  Location:Wise Use Of Our Resources
      Created by:Sofia Diaz
      The first thing I noticed from looking at your presentation was the neatness and what causes global warming.I didn't know global warming was this bad until I saw why and what is happening.You have great pictures that can draw thousands of words to my head.My topic was also global warming but by looking at yours I also learned some new things that I didn't know about global warming.I learned that if global warming keeps happening there will be shifting precipitation patters which causes animals to move homes.I would like to know the several greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming?

    Presentation:Wise Use Of Our Resources: Deforestation
    Location:https:Wise Us Of Our Resources
    Created by: Jacky Guan
    The first thing I noticed about deforestation is that it is a type of global warming.I learned that when you deforest trees it causes the carbon dioxide level rise and the oxygen level to lower.If we keep cutting down forests we are going to have less and less trees with more carbon dioxide while we could just go to technology and try to save trees and build on to forests.I can make a connection with deforestation to global warming because deforestation is one of the causes of global warming.I want to know why deforestation will break the ozone layer and how it goes down and deep so far to do that?
   

   

Wise Use Of Our Resources by Alyana Carrell

Wise Use Of Our Resources
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-9eaEgV6f64AIV17HMYAQOK2ASbBb8ljpbRyjxOh9cE/edit?usp=sharing

Plants as of 11/12/13

Our Plant as of 11/12/13

Plant Status Update 5 By Cameron DeHart

     I have noticed new anatomical structures growing on our plant. Many small leaves have been sprouting at the top of our plant, which shows signs of health and growth, which is good news considering our plant was the "runt" compared to other groups bean plants.
 
     I believe the main limiting factor of our bean plant growing much more is space. Our plant is in competition with many other bean plants in the planter box that it is located in. I believe that the max amount of bean plants that could grow in that planter given no other species coexisted there would be somewhere around 60-75 individual plants.

Plant status update #5 by Alyana Carrell

   There are two new anatomical structures i've noticed, there are tons of new sprouting leaves at the top of our plant. The plant itself has gotten way taller and wider.
    Our plant can increase numbers by more seeds,water,sun,and nutrients.You would need more seeds to expand the plant.
    Some factors that limit the bean plant from growing more in each garden box is the the competition in other plant fighting for nutrients,water,and sun.Another factor would be the insects eating the plants.
   I think the carrying capacity of one garden box is for phaseolus vulgaris would be around 50 because lots of other growing plants are near and if there are so many plants some wont get tons of nutrients,water or sun as the others so I think a lower amount of plants will be better.

Plant status update 4 By Cameron DeHart

Our plant relies on many abiotic factors to survive. Some of the factors are water, various minerals, radiation, and oxygen. Without one of any of these abiotic factors, our plant would die. Therefore, I see all of these factors as equally important.

From my observations, Our groups plant is in a form of competition for space, and resources to continue to grow and survive. However, it is quite different from a competition you would see from to animals.

Plants do not contain the ability to attain what it needs independently. As I stated earlier, a plant relies on another being or natural process to supply it with the nutrients it needs. However, plants have adapted to this by storing water and minerals for times when resources may be less abundant.

More interactions our plant has is mutualism because insects can eat our plant and both species benefit from it.

There is evidence that a form of succession goes on in the garden ecosystem. Soil in the beds before we planted means that there was already secondary succession in the gardens ecosystem.

Plant Status Update #5 by Amber Christensen

Recent changes in our plant have started to show since our last update. Anatomical structures shown on the plant were caterpillars, ladybugs, and signs of other species acting upon the plant. The factors that limit the plant include the amount of liquid given to the plant and the amount of sunlight produced within the plant to help it grow. I think the number of plants a garden box can grow until it reaches its maximum capacity is 10 large plants. Below is a picture of our plant at its current state.

 

Plant Status Update #4

Since the last update, there has been some recent changes starting to show from the control group. The control group has grown drastically since last time. Some insects have eaten our plant, but its still living. The stem to the plant has grown from more than 1-2 inches.

Plant Update #2

Since the first time we updated you on the plants, 4 out of 5 died and the control group is still living. From when we first planted the control group it was very small. Until recently, its grown drastically. I predict that if it continues to grow at this rate it will blossom.

The Plant As of: 10/24//13

Plant Status Update #3 By Cameron DeHart

After checking on our plant for the third time, I have noticed the plant start to catch up to the other ones as far as height and girth. Many of the plants had been devoured by insects, with many holes and brown spots on them, although our plant has only suffered one hole on a leaf from an insect. I believe this is because the insect did not want to eat our plant because it was malnourished. This is not the case anymore, because our plant has grown at least 4 inches since the last time I checked up on it.

Plant Status Update #4

 by Alyana Carrell

Some abiotic factors our plant needs for survival are water, soil, temperature, wind, light,and radiation. If we did not have these abiotic factors our plants would not be alive. Abiotic factors our a very big deal for our plant and if we didn't have one of the abiotic factors it would affect our plant tremendously.

I know that our plant is competing with other plants because some days our plant doesn't look as healthy as the other plants in the garden. I think our plant is competing for water, photosynthesis. Some other plants cover our plant which makes it not receive the right amount of water, and photosynthesis.

There is not really ever a winner or a loser between plants. I know that there is no winner or loser because one day lets say John's plant gets lots of water and mine gets none the next day mine will get some. Plants store there nutrients so they never really use them so its okay if another plant gets a lot of water. In my opinion no plant ever is a winner or loser because you can never control how much water or photosynthesis they get.

More interactions our plant has is mutualism because insects can eat our plant and both species benefit from it.

There was evidence that some sort of succession was happening in the gardens ecosystem. Soil in the beds before we planted means that there was already secondary succession in the gardens ecosystem.

Plant Status Update #2 By Cameron DeHart

when we planted our plant's four of the plants ended up dying, and the control group lived. However, even our control group was significantly smaller than other groups control plant when it was time to plant it into soil. I have noticed a fair amount of growth since the last time I checked the plant, but our plant is still dwarfed by other plants.

Plant Status Update #3 by Alyana Carrell

Since the last time I checked the plant it had grown tremendously. The plant went from very little/nothing to medium length of a plant. We had noticed that maybe some sort of insect might have bit the plant because there is holes. The plant itself has grown about four to five inches since last time. The water cycle is a big thing with the plant they take any kind of precipitation through the seepage. In the nitrogen cycle the soil makes nutrients for the plants so the plant can intake the nutrients. In the carbon cycle the plants make sugar by going through photosynthesis.

Take it to the net by Alyana Carrell

Name of organization: Montery Bay Aquariam

Website: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/

Levels of organization: Marine Bio

Method: observation,experimenting,modeling,rov,scuba diving

Location: Monterey,Ca

Name of organization: Birch Aquariam

Website: http://aquarium.ucsd.edu/

Levels of organization: learning marine bio

Method:observation,rov,over looking pacific ocean,scuba diving

Location: San Diego,Ca

Name of organization: Georgia Aquariam

Website: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/

Levels of organization: Marine Bio

Method:observations,experimenting,scuba diving,searching

Location: Atlanta,Ga

Plant Status Update #2 by Alyana Carrell

Since the beginning when we planted our plant's four have died and the control group lived.When my team and I planted the control group it was very small and just started to sprout.I myself have noticed that our control group has grown tremendously and is bigger than it was before.The control group is three times the size it was before when we first planted it.

Plant Status Update #1

We have seen little to no growth since we put our control group in the dirt and watered it. Our Plant barley has grown and we are scared it will die. I think that maybe in a week or two our plant will be little to medium. We have Mr.Bursch watering it when he does so they should not die and be dehydrated.

     DO DIFFERENT TYPES OF LIQUIDS CHANGE THE

                                 GROWTH OF PLANTS?

                                      Introduction

       In our experiment, we are planting black bean seeds and we are going to see if the different types of liquid affects the growth of the seeds other than water. We have five different experiment groups. We will have a control group as water, A&W, kool aid with out added sugar, kool aid with added sugar, and sugar with water.

                                                       Purpose

         The purpose of this lab is to find out if different types of liquids will increase the growth of the plant.

                                            Hypothesis

         Our group thinks that sugar will negatively affect the growth of the plant.

                                             Materials

                                                         15 seeds

                                                         A&W

                                                         water

                                                         purple kool aid with added sugar

                                                         purple kool aid without added sugar

                                                         sugar

                                                         stirring rod

                                                         graduated cylinder

                                                         paper towels

                                                         pencil & paper

                                                         potting soil

                                                         cups

                                                         ruler

                                              Procedure

         1. Get the 5 cups for planting your seeds and poke a hole in the bottom of each one.

         2. Put potting soil in the 5 cups.

         3. Dig a hole in middle of the soil and put 3 seeds in each cup.

         4. Fold 3 paper towels into a square and put them underneath the cup (for each cup).

         5. Pour 80 mL of the liquids into different cups onto the seeds (every class day)

         6. record if the seeds are growing

                                                Observations & Data

After initial watering, we noticed a mold of some sort growing on the top of the root beer, sugar water, and undiluted Kool aid watered plants.

Upon further research, we found that the mold means that the plant is dead, so we will not be expecting much from those 3.

After collecting data for a few days, we had witnessed no growth in any of the plants except for the control, which had a very small sprout. this graph shows the growth rate of all the black bean seeds.

Data Analysis

After analyzing the data for the growth rate of the Root beer watered plant, this is the graph we compiled to show the growth rate:

                                                     

After analyzing the growth data of the Undiluted Kool Aid seed, this is the growth rate results:

Sugar water growth rate data:

Kool aid With sugar water added growth data:

Control water growth results:

Looking at all the data, all the plants appeared to have died except for the control plant, which had still grown significantly less than the expected 10 centimeters. 


Discussion

              After compiling all of the data we collected over the course of the week, we had no growth in our experimental seeds. 3 out of 4 of the seeds developed a mold with a horrible odor emitting from them. We had kept the soil fertilized with their respective water alternatives, with 80 ml, draining them immediately after to ensure not over watering, but properly moistening all of the soil. If our group had repeated this experiment, we would have used less water to fertilize the soil, probably somewhere around 40 ml of water rather than 80. We feel the overkill of water we used was detrimental to the growth rate of the plants. However, we feel if we had repeated this experiment with revised procedures, the experimental seeds would have still been killed by their water alternatives, or have seriously stunted growth.

Bio Cameron DeHart

I'm Cameron DeHart I am originally from Los Angeles, California. I moved to San Jose when I was still very young. However, most of my family still lives down there, so I visit quite frequently.

I don't have much experience with gardening, and my family is notorious for killing every green plant they touch. I hope to break this cycle and have at least a single healthy plant in my home. I enjoy eating plants though; I always find myself eating a salad or some sort of fruit. My favorite fruit is peaches. There is nothing better than biting into a nice juicy peach. I actually don't care for the plant our group is growing though, which is black beans. I do not care for any sort of bean, but for this experiment's sake, I hope the Black bean plant flourishes.

Amber's Bio

    My name is Amber Christensen. I am from San Jose, California. I was born in Fremont, California but then shortly after moved to San Jose.                                                                                                

   I personally don't have a lot of gardening experience. The only time I ever gardened something was  around elementary school when we grew potatoes for St. Patrick's Day. We ended up mashing them and eating them for lunch. Another thing I tried gardening were flowers. I grew them in kindergarten with my mom. They turned out to be very successful and due to that, I always wanted to grow flowers. We mainly grew sunflowers and roses. Today, we still grow roses outside my house.

Alyana's Bio

     My name is Alyana.I am from San Jose,California and for most of my life i have lived in San Jose I have also lived in Campbell,California and Milpitas,California.

    I've only gardened twice but, the first time didn't go well.The first time I grew something was around fourth grade I tried to grow a watermelon.The watermelon grew barley and just died because I grew it in the wrong time of year.I also grew pinto beans and it turned out successful.I think the pinto beans were successful because it was in the right season and I put see through cups around it so they grow faster and get more sun through the whole cup.My Grandma Maria knows a lot about gardening she has a very big garden full of healthy roses, vegetables and fruit.You can tell she is very good at gardening because, her garden is very nice and well kept together.

   

Brandon's Bio

I'm Brandon McCrory, and i was born in San Jose and i have lived in Modesto and i haven't really lived anywhere else.

I have gardened pumpkins before and the one that i planted came out the biggest. My step mom knows a lot about gardening, she has a small nice garden. I can tell shes good at gardening because most of her plants grow very nice. Also when she made plants we could eat (she made tomatoes) they were delicious.