During this first term, I learned about The Science of Life, Cells, and Movement of Substances. The Science of Life is all about the characteristics of life and the biological system of classification. There are 8 characteristics of life, which are Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Adaptability, Growth, Excretion, Reproduction, and Nutrition. This can be memorized using mnemonics, which is like a coding system to help you remember the characteristics of life and other stuff. An example is MR SAGERN, which is made up of the first letters of the characteristics of life. I’ve also learned about the biological system of classification. The order from most general to most specific are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. This can also be memorized by using mnemonics. The one my teacher gave me is “King Phillip Came Over From Great Spain”. As you can see, the first letter of each word is the same as the first letter of each of the classifications.
Then, there are Cells. Cells are the building blocks of life, just like atoms are the building blocks of all matter. Most cells are made up of living material called protoplasm. There are 3 parts of the protoplasm, which are the cell surface membrane, the cytoplasm, and the nucleus. The cytoplasm consists of organelles, such as mitochondria, vacuoles, ribosomes, and others.
The brown text indicates the parts that are only present in plant or animal cells.
Source:http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/lines/images/cells.gif
Some cells, such as the red blood cell, are specialized, meaning that they lack some of the features that most other cells have or that they have features that most other cells don’t have. For example, the red blood cell has a circular, biconcave shape, which allows it to take in and release oxygen faster. Also, it does not have a nucleus, so there is more space for hemoglobin.
For Movement of Substances, I have only learned about 2 topics as of now, which are diffusion and osmosis. Diffusion is the movement of particles from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. This will make the concentration of both regions the same, which is when the particles stop diffusing. This condition is called dynamic equilibrium.
Meanwhile, Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from a solution of higher water potential to a solution of lower water potential through a semi-permeable membrane. Water potential is the concentration of water molecules in a solution. So, a diluted solution has a higher water potential than a concentrated solution. The difference between osmosis and diffusion is that only water molecules move in osmosis, unlike in diffusion, where all of the molecules move around to achieve dynamic equilibrium.
Overall, I think the topics were quite simple, because all I have to do is remember and understand all the terms and concepts.
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