Competition

Todat we will be following on from the adaptations we looked at and talking about competition.  Asnwer the following questions in our books:

1. What is competition between organisms? - http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Competition
2. Plants compete for which resources?  - http://www.saburchill.com/ans02/chapters/chap019.html
3. Do organisms like plants or animals always compete for the same resources? - http://www.biotopics.co.uk/newgcse/Competition.html
4. When does competition occur between organisms (what conditions need to happen?)? - http://www.biotopics.co.uk/newgcse/Competition.html
5. When individuals are in competition, which ones are the most likely to survive? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/evolution/evolutionrev2.shtml
6. Explain what happens when an organism becomes adapted to a new environment (scroll down to 'competitive speciation' - http://redpath-museum.mcgill.ca/Qbp/2.About%20Biodiversity/processes.htm 
7. Try this game, making sure you take careful notice of how your animals are competing for different resources! - http://science.discovery.com/interactives/literacy/darwin/darwin.html 

Once youre finished, try http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/natures-most-amazing-events/animal-arcade/lion.html

Adaptations

We're looking at adaptations that plants and animals have to help them survive and reproduce.  We completed a practical looking at how size can help animals in different environments.  We concluded that (although some of our groups didn't work because of different water temperatures) smaller animals have a greater surface area:volume ratio and so cool down more quickly.
With plants, we defined transpiration, xylem and stomata.  You should all be able to use these in describing how plants are adapted to certain environments.  With the celery experiment we found that water moves up through the roots and xylem, then out through the stomata in the leaves.  Plants in warm conditions can lose too much water, so either have sunken stomata or less of them (or close the ones they do have).  Plants also have other adaptations to help them in hot environments, such as waxy outer layers to prevent water loss, thin leaves and stems that can store water (like a cactus).
This page from bitesize has some good information about adaptations ion hot and cold climates if you skip to the next page down the  bottom - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/evolution/organismsrev2.shtml

If you have time, try some of the exam style questions from the textbook on the kerboodle website, page 92-3.

Adaptations and Survival

Today we will be looking at how plants and animals are adapted to survive in different conditions.  Answer the following questions in your books, using the links to help you:

1. What thingss do plants need to survive and reproduce successfully? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/requirements-for-healthy-plant-growth/69.html
2. How do animals take in energy from the environment? Think of one example of an animal being adapted to do this better: - http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs/BL_02/BL_02.html
3. Explain what 'heterotroph' means - http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Heterotroph
4. Explain what an epiphyte is and how it is adapted to survive in it's habitat. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Epiphyte
5. Outline the adaptations that antarctic fish have that help them survive. - http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/resources/adapt.html
6. What is an extremophile? Name one extremophile organism and where it lives. - http://www.theguardians.com/Microbiology/gm_mbm04.htm

Once you're finished, try this - http://users.netrover.com/~kingskids/quiz_science/animals/quiz1.html or this - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/evolution-action.html . one more - http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/climate/adaptations/index.cfm

Test

To revise for the test on Friday (tomorrow), make sure you know what recreational drugs are (things that people use non-medically for their own reasons).  You should also use the bitesize link below to test yourself on subjects covered so far.  Everyone should check the auxins/tropisms link below, and people that wanted to take the textbook from class can log onto kerboodle and click on 'my bookshelf' at bottom left to find it.
Good luck!

Auxins and tropisms

This link is really relevant and helpful for the plant hormone topic we loooked at the other day.  Auxins are the plant hormones that help shoots grow towrads light as well as helping shoots grow upwards. Read the introduction and then use the tabs to watch the animations about the different effects that auxins can have.

http://bcs.whfreeman.com/thelifewire/content/chp38/3802001.html

Try the quiz on the last page to check your understanding of what has been covered.

Drugs

We will be looking at drugs more next week, but I thought I'd summarise what we've done so far so people can have a look over the weekend and next week before the test on Friday.

• You will need to remember that there are different kinds of drugs (such as stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, etc.) which act on the body differently. 
• Some are legal (paracetamol) while some aren't (Cocaine), others are legal over certain ages (alcohol).
• Statins are important to remember.  They decrease levels of cholesterol in the blood and help stop heart attacks.
• A double blind test is often used to test medicinal drugs before they can be sold.  This is where the doctors and the patients don't know whether they are using the new drug, the current one or a placebo.

Like the post below, you need to use the bitesize website to revise these points by doing the activities and test sections.  You could also try to log onto kerboodle (login information below, use the test student login if your name doesn't work as it will probably work at home even if it didn't work in the library) and use the textbook from 'my bookshelf' to complete some exam style questions.

This post will be some notes about what we've covered so far in class this term - there won't be questions but you'll need to use gcse bitesize to revise and test yourself about these so that you're ok with everything - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/human/
Firstly, we looked at the nervour system and reflexes at the start of term.  We did this in the library and not everyone completed the work in class, so make sure you understand this diagram and can explain how the body senses stimuli (being touched, sound, light etc.) and sends messages through the sensoory neurons to the relay neurons which pass a message to the motor neurons.  The motor neurons' job is to make the body do something to respond to the stimulus, like putting arms over the head to protect from a loud sound, closing the pupil to avoid a bright light or releasing a hormone to cause a change in the body during stressful situations.
Make sure you can explain these reflexes as follows:
Stimulus - receptor - sensory neurone - relay neurone - motor neurone - effector - response

E.g. :

Bright light - eye - sensroy neurone - relay neurone - motor neurone - muscles around pupil - pupil gets smaller

Diagram of the neurones involved in a reflex action, in this case a pin.

The most recent part of the course looked at hormones.  THese are chemicals that cause thigns to happen in the body.  There are many different types of hormones formany different jobs, but some do more than one. Ovulation is a good example of something caused by hormones (the release of an agg from an ovary). 

Hormones can also help control things and keep them constant, called HOMEOSTASIS.  This is where the body uses hormones as well as other things to keep many things in the body within certain limits - such as blood sugar, temperature and water balance.  You will need to be able to explain at least one of these systems.
MAke sure that this section all makes sense, we have to move quickly to cover drugs before the test in late November - I'll give exact dates in class.  Email me or ask in class if you are unsure about anything.

Kerboodle

Today we're going to start a new topic - co-ordination and control, and start using kerboodle.  First of all, go to http://www.kerboodle.com/ and click login. To login, read these three points carefully:

• Your username is you first and second names without any spaces or hyphens, so Robert Smith-Smith becomes robertsmithsmith.
• Your password is the same as your username but with your tutor group added at the end, so that Robert Smith-Smith's in C - 05 will be robertsmithsmithC05. (if this doesn't work twice, try username:teststudent and password: teststudent0)
• Cheney's centre number is 5166.

Once you've logged in, you can change your password by clicking on 'my accounts' in the top left corner. I've set an assignment for us to start today and hand in before next lesson.  It relates to nerves and how they work in the body.
Firstly, go to my bookshelf from the homepage and you can get an online version of the textbook from class which will help you.  Secondly, go to 'my courses' and select New AQA GCSE Science A. On the next screen, there should be a box on the left side with assignments - click on the one that says 'nerve impulses'.  Once you have this screen, click the tab on the left that says 'menu' and then on the link. This is the work that is due by Thursday (or by the lesson on Friday as a hard copy). 
Clicking on the Biology tab in the middle of the page brings up all the resources for the that section of the course.  Use the Co-ordination and control tab and the first animation - 'reflexes in action', to help you with the work.

Test revision

For the test coming up this week (or after half-term if you're going on the Spanish trip), make sure you're comfortable with the following points.

• Why we need a balanced diet, and what can happen if it isn't balanced (i.e. one example of a problem associated with too much of a food group like carbs causing weight gain, and one associated with too little of a food group like not enough vitamin c causing scurvy.
• What metabolism means, and reasons why it changes.
• Reasons why we NEED cholesterol in our bodies.
• What pathogens are (viruses and bacteria).
• Ways pathogesn can get into our bodies, and how our bodies stop them doing this.
• Uses for bacteria that benefit society.
• What MRSA is and why it is a problem.
• How antibodies, antigens, pathogens and white blood cells work in relation to each other.
• What vaccines are and how they work.

Antibodies being released from a white blood cell and binding to the antigens of a pathogen.



Come and let me know if you ahve any questions, otherwise good luck!

I.T. lesson

Answer these questions in your books, using the links below as we have before:

1. What is a vaccine made of?
2. What are MRSA? Why are they dangerous?
3. Give two examples of beneficial things that bacteria can do:
4. Explain what extremophiles are, name one and describe it's habitiat.
5. Describe how antibodies attach to antigens, using the word 'specific'.
6. NAme a type of BActeria commonly found on people's hands.

Vaccines - http://www.who.int/topics/vaccines/en/
MRSA - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004520/
Good Bacteria - http://www.livestrong.com/article/29090-good-uses-bacteria/
Extremophiles - http://www.theguardians.com/Microbiology/gm_mbm04.htm#rock
Antibodies and Antigens - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/human/defendingagainstinfectionrev4.shtml
Bacteria on hands - http://www.jayzeebear.com/display/magnify/index_tito.html

Try this once you're done - http://www.onlinegameslobby.com/Games/13526/mr %20http://www.mrnussbaum.com/bi1.htm or 20http://www.mrnussbaum.com/bi1.htm


Finally - http://pandemic2game.com/

Microbiology

We've covered some of the section on microbiology, here is what you should be comfrotable with by now:

• Bacteria and viruses exist EVERYWHERE. Everywhere. Everywhere.
• Some are beneficial to us, while other are pathogens and can cause disease.
• Our bodies have four different ways of defending against microbes (and white blood cells if those fail).
• There are also 4 main ways that bacteria can enter the body.

We'll cover vaccines and immunity next week, and then revise before a quiz before halfterm to make sure we're all ok with what we've done so far.

Nutrition

As we're finished with the nutrition section, I tohught I'd post some points that we should all understand from this section.

• What is meant by a 'balanced diet', and an example of each of the seven food groups.
• Be able to define metabolism, and which process uses the majority of the energy we eat (it's  the one you don't have to think about to do).
• Understand that diferent foods have different amounts of energy per gram - if you're not sure about this one look at the previous post below this one.

With 10x2 we saw a short video about scurvy.  This is a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C, and was common in sailors who often had long voyages with no fresh food for months or years at a time. There are some good photos of the symptoms described here if you put 'scurvy' into google.

Energy in food

I found some information which relates to the practical we did earlier in the term on how much energy was in different food types.  UCLA (a uni in the U.S.) has found that the following foods contain different amounts of energy per gram:

Carbohydrate = 4 calories per gram

Protein = 4 calories per gram

Alcohol = 7 calories per gram

Fat = 9 calories per gram
The link is here if you'd like to find out more:  http://www.dining.ucla.edu/housing_site/dining/SNAC_pdf/CaloriesCount.pdf
Fats contain more energy per gram than carbohydrates do, but our bodies can digest carbohydrates more quickly than fats which is why they make up most of the energy requirements in a healthy diet.

If you're happy that different food groups have different amounts of energy per gram, and remember that we need to eat a balanced diet (enough but not too much of each food group) you should be fine for the quiz that we'll do next week.  Also knowing what each food group is needed for and what our body does with the energy it gets will be useful.

Homer Simpson

I thought I'd put the video from last lesson up to remind us about the food groups that we need to eat balanced amounts of.  It's important to realise that Homer is unhealthy as he is getting too much of some groups but not enough of others.  He could also lose weight 2 different ways:

• If he ate less, as less energy would be in excess and so stored as fat.
• If he was more active he would use more energy, again needing to store less as fat.

Metabolism and food requirements

Today we're going to start looking at what our bodies need to work efficiently and how they get these things from food.  To start with, have a read through the information on http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/human/dietandexerciserev1.shtml and try the test questions at the end.
Once you've finished those, either find your own information or use the sites at the bottom to answer the following questions:

1. Define the word metabolism.
2. Explain why pregnant women usually need to eat differently to women who aren't pregnant.  Explain what issues this helps address.
3. Find out what percentage of the energy in the food you eat each day is used for growth, and what process uses the most energy.
4. Why do we need to eat food?

http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5686e/y5686e04.htm - Go down the page to section 2.3
http://www.sport-edge.co.uk/gi2.htm
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/pregnancy_and_diet?open

When you've finished, try this link - http://www.purposegames.com/game/microbial-metabolism-quiz