Mitosis Blog


Meiosis is a type of cell division that splits the number of chromosomes in half and results in four haploid cells.


Mitosis is asexual reproduction that results in two identical cells as the first diploid.


They differ in the cells that are produced and how they are produced. Meiosis splits chromosomes and divides it between four haploids well mitosis replicates the same chromosomes and DNA and splits into two identical diploids.

2. What is non disjunction? Give an example.

Non disjunction occurs when chromosomes don’t separate correctly during meiosis. This occurs either during Meiosis one or Meiosis two and it may result in too few or too many chromosomes in the gamates. A baby with an unusual number of chromosomes in its cells could happen and that can lead to a baby with Down Syndrome, or other developmental issues.

3. Compare contrast asexual vs sexual reproduction. Describe pros and cons of each.

Asexual reproduction only uses one organism so there is no mixing of chromosomes so the  babies are genetically identical. An advantage is it is faster that sexual reproduction in most cases. However with asexual reproduction there is no genetic diversity and can make populations susceptible to disease and things like that.

Sexual reproduction uses two partners so there is mixing between the chromosomes and DNA. Organisms produced through sexual reproduction will have a better chance at survival and adapt better to the environment because natural selection and evolution and that stuff. The down side is it can take a while, like some weird creatures it can take up to 9 months like thats bazar.

4. Describe what you learned in class on Thursday either about Molly or about chimeras.

In class on Thursday we learned about Molly. Molly was a girl that was born with both her parents recessive genes and had issues with producing blood cells, they where shaped improperly, so had oxygen deficiency (issue with chromosome 6).  She also needed a bone marrow transplant. She needed a donor but it was going to be extremely hard to find someone with identical DNA and genes so they genetically made a little baby that could provide bone marrow for Molly. It was a success. So now there is a little test tube baby walking around and living and Molly is fine.



Paragraph 1: One thing I learned from this activity is that all the different types of genes are much more spread out among the chromosomes than I previously thought. It seems like everything except a few exceptions (Y, 8, 14, 16, 22) are pretty diverse. Every chromosome (besides the previously mentioned exceptions) has some oncogenes and some tumor suppressors, and they all have some genes for cell survival and some for cell fate. Only 6 chromosomes have genome maintenance but it is still spread out. Something our group noticed was that all genome maintenance genes are also tumor suppressor which makes sense because they have to work together to fix the DNA and suppress the cell divination. This is probably the biggest thing I learned from this activity, I had previously thought that the genes where much more specialized.

Paragraph 2: Another thing I learned is that the different types of cancer (at least Melanoma) aren’t very restricted on the genes they attack or what chromosomes or functions or anything. In my Melanoma group we didn’t notice many patterns, the genes where not located on the same chromosomes, most of the genes where not the same except 2 of us had BRAF and two had MLL3, the same number of genes where not affected (two of us had 5 affected and 1 of us had 4 affected), and last but not least there was no pattern in the functions, we had mixed of cell fate and cell survival and two had maintenance but it didn’t seem to matter. We came to the conclusion that this means it is way easier to get cancer than we thought. This makes it seem very wide spread and not very specific to a certain gene or chromosome. Yes some came up more but it was all so randomly distributed that it seems widespread and harder to prevent because you don’t know where its attacking you cell.

Paragraph 3: One thing I learned not from this activity but from the week was about the cycle a cell goes through to divide and all the checkpoints and things. There are 4 stages: G1, S, G2, and M. G1 is the period of growth before the DNA is replicated, S is the period where the DNA is replicated, then G2 where the cell grows more now that there is new DNA and it prepares for division, and then there is M which is Mitosis and the cell divides.



Paragraph 4: The two main things that surprised me was how diverse the genes and chromosomes where and how few genes there where. I expected the chromosomes to be much more specialized, it is weird to me that all the different types of genes are seemingly spread of evenly. I also expected there to be so many more and it seems like there just aren’t that many different genes.

Paragraph 5 (question): How easy is it to get cancer and are some genes / chromosomes better at fighting it than others?

Photosynthesis (snow week)









Cellular Respiration 2







C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy




Cellular Respiration

Ap bio seems to just be getting harder and harder. This week was no exception. This week was all about cellular respiration, the steps that go into it and the molecules that make it possible. Cellular respiration is the way our body transforms the food we eat into energy or ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The food must be broken down in the presence of oxygen within our bodies. The reaction is C6H12O6 + 6O2 -> 6Co2 + 6H2O + energy. The 4 main steps of cellular respiration are glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, civic acid cycle (not Krebs cycle), and oxidative phosphorylation. The process begins with glycolysis, the only process that is outside of the cytoplasm of the cell. Glycolysis is one of the processes that produces ATP and 2NADH when taking in glucose. The next process is pyruvate oxidation, this occurs inside the cytoplasm of the cell. Pyruvate oxidations takes 2 pyruvate from glycolysis and produces 2 CO2 and 2 NADH. This is the only step that does not produce ATP. The next step is the citric acid cycle, this also occurs within the cytoplasm. This step takes 2 AcetylCoA from the previous step and produces 4 CO2, 2ATP, 6NADH, and 2FADH2.  The last step is the big ATP producer – Oxidative Phosphorylation. This process also occurs in the cytoplasm. This step uses 6O2 to produce 34 ATP and 6 H2O. All these steps combined are one of the most important process that occur in our body.

With out the mitochondria and cellular respiration we would be blobs of nothing that didn’t move. We would be dead. This is why mitochondria should have won the election. Without the mitochondria you would be nothing.

Besides the devastating loss this week it was a pretty ok week. The POGIL cleared things up a lot and re watching the Bozeman video was also very helpful. I have high hopes this unit will be clearer than others. I am having a little bit of trouble with understanding the citric acid cycle and what actually happens. Other than that I think I might actually understand whats going on for once!




Brief description of each organelle and there function:




Free Energy



I don’t know how to get rid of this:



This week we expanded on enzymes. We were introduced to them last week but didn’t go in to detail about how they functioned. To start this unite, we watched the Bozeman video about active sites and substrates. It was very helpful. Sadly I couldn’t find a Big Idea that fit.

The activity of the week involved the students being the enzymes and breaking the substrates (toothpicks). We put 100 toothpicks in a bowl and would time for 10 seconds and see how many toothpicks one person could blindly break. After 10 seconds we would leave the broken ones in the bowl and do it again until we reached a minute. Then we did a second test with two people breaking toothpicks in the same bowl. We learned from this that the more enzymes there are, the more substrates can be broken. It’s like if there where a bunch of people (substrates) trying to go through doors (enzymes), the more doors you have the more people can go through them at a faster rate but if you have a lot of people and not many doors there are build ups and its slower or people get stuck. So when there are more substrates the enzymes are overwhelmed and less productive but when its flipped around they are faster because they don’t have as many substrates to worry about.

This week felt better than most weeks. I feel like I understood more than last week and hopefully I can continue to understand and grasp ideas the first time around. I think what helped me this week more than anything was the Bozeman video. When we watch the videos and do the worksheets with them I feel like I have a better understanding then when we read chapters in the book. It’s always a nice way to start the week. The only thing I still don’t super understand is how temperature affects proteins and enzymes. I understand that heat makes them denature because they loose their structure but I don’t understand why that happens. If you understand better than I do please let me know.

Organic Molecules

This week we talked about different types of organic molecules. This was defiantly the hardest week so far. We learned how to identify different types of organic molecules, identify distinguishing features of each class of molecules and when given a molecule we learned to assign  class. The different classes we learned about where amino acids, steroids (type of lipid), fatty acids (another type of lipid), sugars (building blocks of carbohydrates), and nucleic acids. We also learned about amino acids and how they are the building blocks of proteins – molecules that play an important role in the body.  Something important we learned is organic molecule are carbon based and inorganic molecule are not.

The only Big Idea this topic connects to is Big Idea 4 A.1: “The subcomponents of biological molecules and their sequence determine the properties of that molecule.” We see this with CHNOPS (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur). Depending on the elements making up the molecules its completely different. Different elements put molecules in different classes and give them different purposes and characteristics.

I had a hard time grasping the ideas of this week. It was reflected in my quiz. I’m not sure exactly what to do to better understand. Like last week, I don’t know what my questions are because I don’t understand enough. I don’t understand how you know what goes where and the different bonds between different atoms and molecules when drawing the different models. I also don’t understand what Vander Waals bonds are. The highlight of the week was the “Fun with Milk and Eggs” lab. It was a fun way to end the week and connect to lesson. It made everything feel less stressful and easier to understand.


This week in AP bio, we took a turn for the worst and started talking about what seems to be chemistry. We have started taking about protons and electrons and bonds and everything else thats wrong with science. I’m not much of a science kid and more than that I’m not much of a chemistry kid. I have a very hard time grasping ideas and theories that I can physically see. I understand adaptation because I can see examples with my eyes but covalent bonds and why bonds even happen or why electrons are a thing, forget it. For the same reason, I hate space.

I couldn’t find a direct connect to any of the Big Ideas but Big Idea 4 talks about molecules a little bit and we are talking about molecules and compounds. The biggest part of the week, however, was pH. We talked a lot about acids and bases and what it means and how it changes or doesn’t change when buffers are introduced. PH is something you talk about in almost every science class ever so it felt good to have some back ground knowledge and feel a little more secure with a topic.

After spending the beginning of the week with pH if went back to chemistry and we started talking about organic molecules. We had to identify categories of biological molecules and look at amino acids, sugars and types of lipids. This is where I loose confidence. Working through this stuff in a group really helps and I feel a little better after class than I did going in to it. I’m still a little confused but to the point where I don’t know what my questions are.

Theories of Life

This week we spent a lot of time discussing  the origins of life as we know it. The two main theories are metabolism first and replication (RNA world). No one knows which theory is correct and there is a lot of proof to disprove both sides but no one really knows and new science is coming out all the time.

Metabolism first is the theory that electrons extracted from reduced organic molecules from hydrothermal vents. Then iron sulfide surrounds the organic molecules that are produced and electrons break off with temperature change. Over time tini life molecules collected and come together to form life. A major aspect of this theory is the Kreb cycle. The Kreb cycle is when electrons are extracted from reduced organic molecules. So pretty much hydrothermal vents = life. The arguments against metabolism first is that there hasn’t been enough testing because it’s a relatively new idea and also the big question that has yet to be answered is how can there be life with no DNA first?

The second and eldest theory is that there was first organic molecules and then it formed ribonucleotides which then replicated into long chain polymers then RNA and then the RNA got faster to form DNA. A DNA molecules primary function is replication and proteins carry out a variety of chemical reactions required for metabolism. Some theories predict that we came from space because these chemical reactions can happen on asteroids and comets which used to land on earth. SO the building blocks for life could have come from space. SOme arguments against this idea are that these molecules are unstable and may break down before they can form into nucleotides. It is, however, possible for nucleotides to form without first having sugar and a base. It is possible for nucleotides to link together to form RNA. But again, they are unstable.

Personally I don’t believe either. Both have been pretty much debunked. The only reason that metabolism first doesn’t have more evidence against it is because it’s the newest theory so there has been less time to disprove it. It would be pretty cool if we came from space though. 

Phylogeny Analysis

Looking at my sequence of animals, there are a few conclusions I can come to. One conclusion I can come to is that my protein, lipoxygenase, must be very common because a variety of animals are in the sequence you may not think of as “relatives”. Sense lipoxygenase is involved in the metabolism that shows that all the organisms in my sequence have metabolisms or some form of one, making this gene very common.

When initially searching this gene, many variations of humans and chimps came up. When I researched the protein it came up that it is mostly in plants. This surprised me because in the search for making the sequence, the front page was animals. There also wasn’t a huge variety in the animals until I dug a little deeper and found more animals on later pages.

I can not speak to question 3 because T-coffee has not generated an alignment for me. Its been processing for about 45 minutes and there seems to be no progress. I can, however, imagine that there will be a stand out in the alignment and I think it will be the zebrafish. On the tree it showed that arctic salmon and golden hamster are more closely related than arctic salmon and zebrafish. I’m not an expert on evolution but I feel like fish should be on the same branch and not closer to a hamster than another fish. That one stood out to me.

If I could add data to my tree I would add more species that I believe are closely related and see where they fall in the sequence. I would also compare organisms that I believed to be closely related that didn’t show up in the search of having this gene and see how their genes compare. Why do some organisms have it and others don’t? I am very surprised that some related organisms didn’t show up in the initial search. I am curious as to why. Is this gene not very important in relating organisms to one another?


Artificial Selection

A long experiment we started this week was our plant lab. It will take around 50 days but we get to selectively breed plants which is pretty cool. We watched a video on foxes that where selectively bred for the trait of kindness. After breeding the most friendly with the most friendly they noticed that the trait they selected wasn’t the only trait that was passed down. Other traits like floppy ears and elongated vertebrae where starting to become a trait that was passed down. The foxes had become domesticated. I think it’s pretty cool how this happened but I don’t know if I am morally for changing living animals to better enhance human lives. This experiment connects mostly to Big Idea 3. A lot of Big Idea 3 is about genotypes and patterns in traits. Also genotypes are the blue prints for phenotypes and what makes you look the way you do is proteins. There are different ways to get the same proteins from genotypes so there is more variation in genotypes from organism to organism than variation in proteins. Looking at the chart of the proteins that you get from the genes took me right back to freshman biology and I instantly remembered filling out sheets of proteins and the different ways to get to them. It felt good to remember something from freshman biology for once. I have forgotten most of it so its nice to know some information is still locked in my brain.

This week we also learned a lot more about Darwin and his theories. Even though Darwin didn’t understand genetics he believed favorable traits could be passed on to offspring. Darwin also had his theory of evolution, VISTA ( Variation, Inheritance, Selection, Time, Adaption). One thing I don’t understand is how he never knew about genetics if he believed traits could be passed on. What did he think was causing the continuation of traits? I don’t know if he had theories or not but it would be cool to know what he thought happened.

The main take away from this was that I might still know some biology but there is much more to learn. Also I’m waiting to use the dehydrated bees because I have no idea what they could be used for and I’m so curious/excited. If anyone knows please tell me.


Mating Game

The most memorable part of the week was the Hardy Weinberg equilibrium “game”. We did an “experiment” in class where we each had two black cards and two red cards representing the dominate and recessive alleles. We would randomly select a card from out “mate” and if we got two red we would be a homogeneous recessive, if we got one black one red we were a heterozygote, and two black we were homogeneous dominate. We would repeat this process for 5 generations. After that we would calculate the p and q frequencies. The first round our class did the experiment perfectly. We had a perfect population. The main idea of this exercise was to demonstrate Big Idea 3, part C which talks about genotypes and how they can affect phenotypes and effect evolution.

I found this unit not too hard to grasp. I understand the main idea of it but all the math and charts made no sense what so ever to me. People were throwing out numbers and things like that and I had no idea what was going on. There are problems, like the ones I didn’t understand, in the packet for this weekend, so I hope if I work through them I will get it. Other than that this was a pretty low key week but the mating game was fun and good way to understand Hardy Weinberg equilibrium.


Week 2 of AP bio was again filled with lizards, different types of evolution and reproductive isolation and speciation. After spending about a week on the Anoles lab we finished this week and by the end I understood reproductive isolation and convergent evolution very well. Although I am having a difficult time looking back on Biology freshman year, some things are coming back like natural selection and evolution. Another thing this lab showed me was that I really don’t understand excel. Hopefully that will come with practice but for now I find it very confusing. The virtual lab really takes you through step by step and tries to show you the data and have you experience what the scientists do on a very basic level. It was very cool yet tedious.

Later in the week we learned more about Big Idea 1 (1.c.2) where it talks about how some species are isolated from each other and both evolve and adapt in there new territories and then if re introduced, they will not recognize each other enough to reproduce.  There was a pretty rough quiz on this topic. Something I know about myself is with multiple choice I will over think the questions, and always change my answers last minute and end up getting them wrong. This happened so much last years in History that Mr. Seemueller told me to just never change my answers and go with my gut. During the quiz i thought about this and still changed one of my answers last minute. It turned out to be wrong. This year I hope to have enough knowledge of the subject that I don’t have to second guess myself. Don’t feel like guessing my way through an AP exam.

The quiz however, showed me that there are some things I defiantly don’t understand and that freshman Bio was a long time ago. I am very foggy on bell curves. The quiz question on bell curves through me for a loop. I’m also realizing that I have forgotten almost all biology vocabulary. I hope that knowledge will slowly come back to me as the year goes.

In conclusion excel, vocabulary, multiple choice questions, and looking back on freshman year are the things I need to work on the most. Also, bell curves?

image: url

Standard Deviation / Correlation


This was the first week of AP bio and we started off the year learning about standard deviation and correlation of data. We used exell to organize the data and make tables and graphs. The lab we did was called “got lactase?” It was about AMY1 gene copies and the production of proteins and if the number of AMY1 genes correlated with number of proteins produced.  We looked at the data and found the r-values and the best fit lines to see how the data was connected. After we analyzed the data we made the conclusion that yes there was a moderate, positive, linear correlation between number of genes and number of proteins. Another set of data we had was about the difference of high starch and low starch diets and how many gene copies they had. We found that high starch diets had more copies of the gene because a high starch diet requires more enzymes to breakdown the starch. With the starch data we made graphs and we looked at the error lines to see if the data too similar. After we check the error lines we calculated how likely it was that the data was random. We got that there was a 3% chance that data was random so that leaves 97% chance we are correct.

We ended the week beginning to discuss natural selection and evolution.




A ectotherm is an organism that can’t provide enough body heat to live by itself so relies on an outside heat source.

This is a tortoise. A tortoise doesn’t have enough natural body heat to keep itself alive in the colder months. They have to hibernate in the ground for a couple weeks a year to keep themselves warm.



Tropism is when a plant is growing at an angle due to an outside source like the sun or wind.

Even though it may be hard to see, the tree in this photo is growing at an angle due to where the sun hits it. For part of the day the sun is shining on this plant at an angle but because of other trees in this area the sun is never directly above this plant, so it is growing slanted.



An organism that lives inside other organisms and takes their nutrition. Parasites can be very harmful.

This is a photo of a goat named Baggy. He has parasites. He had brother who died from parasites early February but before he died he passed the parasites on to Baggy who is being treated to get rid of them.


Commensalism is when two organisms use each other and one benefits well the other is unharmed but isn’t benefitting either.

This is a photo of barnacles on a shell. The barnacles are benefiting by having a habitat on the shell, well the shell is unharmed but isn’t gaining anything from the barnacles.