ADLC policy defines plagiarism as "the practice of representing someone else's work or ideas as one's own" (ADLC, 2016). This can be confusing for students who are given a textbook to use in their learning and are learning online with access to the internet. To simplify this a little, let's look at some examples of plagiarism and how to avoid them.
By Digestive_system_diagram_fr.svg: Mariana Ruiz (LadyofHats). Translated in French by Moez derivative work: Darkdadaah (Digestive_system_diagram_fr.svg) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Interactiveimage of the heart.
Stillimage of the heart.
In your online Biology 20 course, we don't have the opportunity for you to move through the entire scientific method. You may not have even had this opportunity yet in a face to face classroom. The scientific method is an important understanding for Biology 20 and for life! When you understand the scientific method, you are able to critically assess scientific claims because you understand where valid scientific information comes from. What should my lab report look like?You will be asked to do parts of a lab report in Biology 20. In the future, you will likely be asked to do a full lab write up. Although the preferences of certain teachers will vary, lab reports will likely include; a question, an hypothesis, a procedure or experiment, observations or data, analysis or results, and a conclusion. Often reports will also include a research section or bibliography showing the research that you engaged in prior to engaging in the experiment.
In 1882, Theodor Engelmann performed an important experiment in regards to photosynthetic activity. I am going to break down the experiment here. You will be asked to analyse the results in your assignment, I will not do that here! Let's start with what we know already about photosynthesis... Photosynthesis is done by producers and uses the sun's energy (light) to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. What Engeleman did was place oxygen seeking bacteria and algae (single celled photosynthetic organisms) on a microscope slide. He illuminated the slide through a spectroscope. The spectroscope splits white light into the various wavelengths of light so that each section of the slide was receiving a different wavelength/colour of light. To break this down, we now have;
That got your attention! An enzyme is a protein molecule that increases the rate of a reaction. Enzymes have s specific shape that allows them to bring the reactants (also called substrate) of a reaction together where they might otherwise not be brought together. Enzymes are kind of like the Tinder (or whatever dating apps you are using these days). Your perfect match might be out there, but you might not attend the same school, work at the same place or run in the same social circles. Once your Tinder enzyme brings you together, it's fireworks, explosions, chemistry! This is how enzymes work in the body also. It might take hours for two reactants to 'bump into each other', but the enzyme grabs each one quickly and hangs on to them until they react. The reaction then changes their shape so they no longer 'fit' in the enzyme. Similar to what happens when you realize that you have met your match and you have no need for Tinder anymore!
A little confession to make... I love CBC! Yesterday I heard this bit on the Eye Opener and thought that I just had to share it with you. Dr. Raj Bhardwaj does an excellent job of explaining, in very easy to understand terms, how blood typing works, the history of blood types and myths around blood types. Well worth the six minutes that it will take for you to listen to it.
Similar to the graphic on photosynthesis, here is an overview of cellular respiration all on one page.
When you are calculating the amount of energy that is transferred from one trophic level to the next, you will need to calculate a percentage of the energy at the first tropic level to calculate how much is transferred to the next level. Before we do an example, let's explore percent. PercentPercent, literally translated, means per 100. So if you scored 50% on your Biology assignment, you got 50 out of every 100 questions correct. You probably would have no trouble also identifying this as half. We can write this in a variety of ways. We can also express this as a decimal by dividing 50 by 100. What if your test had 379 questions on it. How many did you get correct? NOW! How can we use this to calculate the energy passed on to each successive tropic level?! Let's say that an there is 56790 kJ of energy help in the first tropic level of an ecosystem. In this ecosystem, 12% of the energy gets conserved or passed on to the next level. (Remember the rule of 10 is a guide, when a percentage of conserved energy is not in the question, use 10%). So in the second trophic level, there is 6814.8 kJ of energy. To calculate how much is in the third level, we would calculate 12 % of 6814.8 kJ and so on.
Indicators for macromoleculesWe can test different foods for the presence of fat, starch, simple sugars or proteins using indicators. The chart below shows the expected results for each indicator. The following video will help you better understand how to identify various macromolecules in a lab setting. So I might be getting a little out of control with the photosynthesis and cell respiration posts, but it is a tough unit. What seems to be missing in the text is a fluid overall explanation of each process. Hence, I have posted some graphic organizers. However, not everyone learns visually. If you like videos, the Amoeba Sisters videos below are great. They seem a little goofy, but the academic level is actually bang on for Biology 20. I would suggest using a graphic organizer or the Amoeba Sisters worksheets to follow along as you watch these videos. |
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