I picked up a Biology for Dummies book to read over the summer, since of course Mr. Burnett had to make every advanced STEM class during 6th hour this year, and I couldn't take AP Bio. The last time that I've even thought about Biology was freshman year. Well, now I have to take Biology again starting August 26th!
Here is what I took away from Chapter One, Exploring the Living World:
Biology: The study of all living things
- The smallest unit of life is a cell
- Meiosis is the type of cell division present is sexual reproduction
- Chromosomes carry genetic information in the form of DNA
- 23 chromosomes come from each parent, totaling 46 chromosomes in each cell
- DNA contains the instructions for proteins that execute the functions of each genetic trait
- Recombiant DNA technology takes genes from one organism and places them into the cells of another
- Homeostasis is the balance that all living things work to maintain as change occurs around them.
- I remember quite literally all of this from 9th grade.
That last point is a good thing, at least I haven't lost the basics!
Moving on to Chapter Two, How Life is studied:
Here are the things Biologists are trying to understand:
- The structure and function of all living things
- The relationships between them
- How they grow, develop, and reproduce
- How those processes as regulated by DNA, hormones, and nerve signals
- The connection between living things
- The connection between living things and their environment
- How living things change over time
- How DNA changes, gets passed between living things, and how it controls the structure and function of living things
Well I could have told you that!
Living things are called organisms. Do not mix that up with a similarly spelt word.
All organisms share eight characteristics that define life:
- They are made up of cells that contain DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
- They maintain order inside their cells and bodies
- They regulate their systems
- They respond to their environment
- Our friend Dr. Rene F Kratz decided to get sexist in the description for this one. Don't know why we had to do that.
- They transfer energy among themselves, and between themselves and their environment
- They grow and develop
- They reproduce
- They have traits that evolve over time
At this point, I am starting to doubt the credibility of Dr Kratz based on her writing skills. I read that she got her BA at Boston University and her PhD at University of Washington. Remind me not to get my PhD there.
I'd like to pause here and make a note about the festering resentment towards universities that I have been seeing. Interestingly, the education slander took a pause for the Biden administration, but the second ole' Dear Leader walked through those White House doors it was back on my For-You Page all over again. One very compelling video I saw argued that kids don't know how to choose jobs because they've never heard of most of them, and that's why we have so many people who want to be doctors, lawyers, teachers, and psychologists: that's what they see as a college-educated profession in their day-to-day lives. Her conclusion to the video was that kids should take a gap-year, go see the "real world" and meet people who have different jobs, then decide what to do with their life. I disagree.
Beyond the fact that student do not return from a gap year unless they are rich, you will not see the real world by getting a job out of high school in Suburbia. You will not interact with people from diverse backgrounds and learn about all the cool fun and interesting jobs you can have by working at a restaurant, corner store, or retail. The likely case? You end up too focused on trying to survive with a minimum wage job while keeping up with your peers in terms of independence that you lock yourself into a rut. If you do not have a clear path coming out of high school with at least some direction to go in to find a career, this is your fate. If, by chance your support systems are strong enough to let you take a look around, you have exactly as much of a chance as a high schooler has in finding a career that you're passionate in. Get your real estate license, hit on high school girls when you're 21, and tell me that gap year really saved you.
Going into college not knowing about all the things you can do isn't great either. You may waste time and money flailing around switching majors. You may get a whole degree before realizing that you actually want to do something in a complete opposite field.
Xello, and similar job matching programs attempt to remedy this, but they're still falling short. They do not nearly have enough careers, and many are simplified. For example, my top two careers on Xello are Scientist and Researcher. Great. Depending on what field, my day could look entirely different from someone else who's also a scientist or researcher. As a teenager who for some reason can't work Google (as I know many fellow teens apparently cannot,) it is almost impossible to know just how many fields you can even do research in, or what it means to be a researcher for each of them. Most of us don't have an aunt or uncle in every possible profession to ask about it. We just don't see it, so we don't know to think about it.
This is not to say that Xello is bad, but it needs major improvements. It needs expansion. And real, human influences in children and teen's lives need to also be better equipped to aid in research. I hate when I look up and there is a spider in my bed. How long have you been here? What have you seen?
System: a group of related parts that work together.
Systems thinking: Understanding the whole system by looking at connections between parts of the system.
The rest of this chapter is just talking about the scientific method, and I have had enough of that.
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