what we did in class 11/29/09

This week in class we discussed the formula for photosynthesis. We know the outcome is glucose or C6H12O6. We also know that to get photosynthesis you need CO2, H2O and sunlight. but the question was how do you get from that to C6H12O6. We made up an equation that gets us through the process to get us to glucose.

In Photosynthesis there is H2O and CO2. We need 12 hydrogen molecules and since there are 2 per H2O we would need 6 H2O molecules to give us H12O6. Then we need 6 carbon molecules so we need 6 CO2's and that gives us C6O12. That combined is C6H12O18. Then the oxygen molecules are let out into the air leaving us with C6H12O6 or glucose or food for the plant that we get from photosynthesis.

what we did in class 11/20/09

This week in class we discussed photosynthesis and how it effects plants.we decided that plants need carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), and sunlight to produce photosynthesis. We tested this by separating each component individually and testing them if each one produced oxygen, one of the products of photosynthesis. they all did proving that sunlight, CO2 and water are all needed in the process of photosynthesis.
We also learned the process of process of photosynthesis. First H2O enters the plant. Then sunlight is introduced. The sunlight strips the H's(hydrogen) and keeps it int the plant and lets the O's (oxygen into the air so that we have something to breathe). Finally carbon dioxide enters the plant. The hydrogen atoms combine with the CO2 to makes glucose (sugar or food for the plant) or as a molecule it is C6H12O6 meaning it has 6 carbon dioxide atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms and 6 oxygen atoms. That is how the plant gets the food that it needs, through photosynthesis.

what we did in class this week 11/6/09

This week in class we further discussed animal and plant cells. Last week in class we did an experiment involving cheek cells. after the experiment we were curious to know whether cheek cells were animal or plant cells. After researching them we found out that cheek cells were animal cells for two reasons. The first reason being that cheek cells come from humans and humans are animals. The second reason being that cheek cells had the same cellular structure as an animal cell. Another thing we did was research the different organelles in plant and animal cells. An organelle is a like a tiny organ in a cell.After doing this experiment we were wondering what were the differences between animal, plant and bacteria cells so we made a triple Venn diagram to compare the three cells an we came up with many similar and different things for all three of them.

The last thing we did this week was an experiment with Paramecium. Paramecium is an organism found in pond water that we found in the pond water experiment for the sick students at Jackson and Truman Middle Schools. So we looked at pond water to find Paramecium and after we did we did some more research and found out that Paramecium is neither a plant nor an animal cell.

what we did in class 11/1/09

This week in class we had been learning more about cells and how they worked. We looked under a microscope at a potato cell and cheek cells we drew what we had seen. On one test we look a thin slice of potato, put a drop of water on it and look at it under the microscope. On another test we used Methionine Blue instead of water and you could see the object under the microscope clearer. On the next test we used a orange liquid instead of the Methionine blue and could see the potato sample even clearer. On the last test we looked at a sample of grass under the microscope. For the cheek cell wee took a toothpick and took sample of our cheek cell and looked at that under the microscope. We immediately agreed that the potato was a plant cell and the cheek cell was an animal cell.

After we did some research we learned the name of each cell part for both the animal and the plant cell. Now for homework this weekend we are going to research the function of each of the parts.