Night At The Fair

Before the fair even began, Los Medanos Elementary was already buzzing with excitement. I helped my team set up our table and display to be as visually appealing as it could be. We worked extremely hard to find out which combination of solutions and which technique would get us the best bubbles we could produce, without popping as easily.
Our AP Biology students worked really hard to put this together for the kids. I saw them setting up their own tables, while occasionally taking the time out to help others. The kids, once they arrived, were excitedly trotting up and down the expanse of the fair, taking in the activities available for them to enjoy.
The kids that I observed were really excited about the activities that they participated in. They cheered in victory once they won their race, gasped in awe once they finally got to bounce a bubble that didn't pop on their hands. They munched happily o their ice cream while they admired the colorful lava lamps on display. Parents, once they saw how much fun the children were having, often smiled too, residual excitement evident on their faces.
I was able to take away a lot of things from this experience. I learned that when presented to them in a fun way, how much science can really interest a child. I learned that when presented with the opportunity to touch, eat, and see their creations, children become intrigued. I learned that when presented with situations like this, different from our daily routine, some people truly break out of their shells and are able to interact with others easily. I now understand that science is a much broader field than what I originally thought. It's not just labs, analysis, interpretation of data, or merely simulating populations. Science is much more than that. It's the reason why one can make homemade ice cream and DIY lava lamps, why we can make solutions that turn solid when touched and run fluidly when left alone, why bubbles that don't pop can be made. Most importantly, from this experience, the most valuable thing that I learned was that two sets of people from the same community and seemingly different worlds can be brought together by science, and that is what's truly amazing about it.

Hardy-Weinberg

Given that q2 = 0.04, I was able to calculate the rest of the variables by:

1. Taking the square root of 0.04 which was 0.2. This gave me q
2. Because p + q = 1, this means that p=0.8.
3. To get p2, I squared p=0.8 which got me p2=0.64
4. Finally, to get 2pq, I calculated (2)(0.8)(0.2) which gave me 0.32

From this, the equation p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1, I can check if the numbers I got were correct by substituting the variables with the numbers that I got so it would become 0.64 + 0.32 + 0.04 = 1.

Given that these numbers were taken from a population of 1000, it means that;

• Since q2=0.04 or 4% of the population, 4 individuals in total, are homozygous recessive individuals and show the recessive phenotype
• Since q=0.2 or 20%, this gave me the frequency of the recessive allele. This means that 20% of the population, 200 individuals in total, have the recessive allele.
• Since p2=0.64 or 64% of the population, 640 individuals in total, are homozygous dominant individuals and show the dominant phenotype.
• Since p=0.8 or 80% of the population, this gave me the frequency of the dominant allele. This means that 80% of the population, 800 individuals in total, have the dominant allele.
• Since 2pq=0.32 or 32% of the population, 320 individuals in total, are heterozygous dominant individuals who carry both alleles but show the dominant phenotype.

California Black Worm Lab Data

 Based on cumulative results from the class, I believe that:
                                          
                                                Substance A =  Neutral
                                                Substance B = Depressant
                                                Substance C = Stimulant.

I came to this conclusion based on the method that I used to collect the data. I excluded the data from Jazlyn's group because I did not have the data for Substance A, and using the data that they provided for Substances B and C without A would prove to make my results inconsistent. I calculated the average pulse rate for each substance by adding all of the recorded pulse rates provided by every group, then diving that amount by how the number of inputs, thus finding the mean. Substance A had an average pulse rate of 21.68, thus enabling me to label this substance as Neutral. Substance B had an average pulse rate of 14.30, which led me to label this substance as a Depressant. Finally, Substance C had an average pulse rate of 25.62, which I labeled as a Stimulant.

Substance	Daniel’s Group	Mel’s Group	Kyle’s Group	Owen’s Group	Shyreen’s Group	Results
A 1 2 3 4 5	D1      D2 24        - 20        - 19        - 20        - 17      20	D1       D2 25        20 30         - 20        21 33        25  -          -	D1       D2 26        28 27        27 29        30 31        29 33        31	D1       D2  /         19  /         39  /         18  /         10  /         18	D1       D2 12        16 11        19 12        14 10        12 11        18	= 21.68 is the average pulse rate Neutral
B 1 2 3 4 5	D1      D2 17         - 18         - 19         - 21         - 17         -	D1       D2 25        20 30         -    20        24 33        25  -           -	D1       D2 36        20 27        22 29        19 33        20 34        20	D1       D2  /         36  /         11  /         25  /         17  /         29	D1        D2 32         24 28         26 27         24 25         25 30         24	=14.30 is the average pulse rate Depressant
C 1 2 3 4 5	D1      D2 15         - 15         - 29         - 37         - 32       37	D1       D2 37        28 28        19 14        23 25        26  -          -	D1       D2 38          -  -          29  -          28  -          30  -          31	D1       D2  /          3  /         15  /          8  /         22  /         16	D1     D2 24         24 16         30 30         38 24         42 28         30	=25.62 is the average pulse rate Stimulant

Ecology Selfie

This was one of the first Ecology Selfies that I took. It was when I went with some friends to tour the UC Berkeley campus for an AP English project. Killed two birds with one stone. Anyways, this satisfies the criteria for a selfies with 'a flower'. It was a really fun experience, and during this trip I took quite a few selfies, but i'll share that on the slideshow!