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!