Literature Fables

The Fox And The Goat:
In this fable, I think the maxim is that you should not trust everything you hear because if there really was going to be a drought, I am sure the goat would have heard by now.

The Crow And The Pitcher:
In this, fable the crow had to drink water to survive. So, the moral would be to make use of your surroundings and do what you can to survive.

The Fisher and The Little Fish:
In this fable, the fish wanted to be released by the fisher but he would not let him go. The moral is that you should be happy with what you have and if he had trusted the fish, he may have been betrayed.

The Four Oxen and The Lion:
The oxen had a fight and split apart making it easier for the lion to kill them. The maxim of this is that you should stick together no matter what and that four forces are much better than one.

The Wolf In Sheep's Clothing:
The maxim of this fable is that looks can be decieving. The wolf put on the "clothes" of the sheep to look like one but then it killed the sheep making a meal for himself.

Ask a Geneticist

I learned from this reading that one human chromosome is made up of two chimp chromosomes. Also, humans and chimps started out the same and then about 5 million years ago, the two seperated and in that time, the genomes changed too. I also learned that only complex organisms like humans have more than one chromosome.

"Wooden Bowls" - Literature

This is a very touching and inspiring story. It connects to empathy in C.A.R.E.S because the son and daughter in law just thought the old man was stupid for dropping food and spilling milk. They didn't put themselves in his shoes, and about how they would be in about 20 years. For all they know, they could be completley blind and their son and his wife would have to take care of them. This teaches us to put yourself in the person's shoes that you are about to say something mean to.

Traits and Heredity Homework

While reading "What is heredity", and "What are traits", I learned a lot. One thing I learned was why my thumb bends back and is not straight. According to what are traits, it is called hitchikers thumb and I checked my familys' thumbs and they all have it! another thing I learned was that humans have a set of 23 chromosomes each which means all together your parents would have 46 chromosomes. When parents have a child, they give a set to each child. Therefore, the child will have some of the same traits as the parents do.

Class Response- Owl Pellets Lab

In class, we dissected owl pellets. Owl pellets are the undigestable parts of the owls diet. They contain the fur and bones of what the owl ate which include rodents like shrews, rats, and mice. The process in which the pellet is made is very interesting. Owl's use their stomach muscles to seperate the indigestable parts like the bones and fur. These go to the intestines. After about 24 hours, the pellet is regurgitated. Owl's must do this because they swallow their food whole.
After doing this lab, I learned many interesting facts about Barn Owl's. They produce pellets because they swallow their food whole and from the pellet itself, you can find out a lot about the owl like what it ate and through more extensive research, you can possibly find ou twhere it lives.

Current Event 2

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,1944959,00.html

In this article, a team of scientists found over 17,ooo spiecies living more than 656 feet below the surface of the ocean. At this point, sunlight can no longer be seen. These spiecies live in complete darkness and survive on matter that falls down that deep. This discovery is apart og the Marine Census which will be complete by October 2010. Oceanographers believe that thousands more spiecies will be discovered. Over 2,000 scientist from over 80 countries are working on this. The research can cost up to $50,000 a day! They found 40 new spiecies of coral, undersea stars, transparent sea cucumbers and tubeworms.

I found this article to be interesting because of the amount of new spiecies that were found. I never knew that animals would be able to live so far below the sea level that sunlight doesn't even reach there. It seems that the scientists just thought that these species didn't even exist!

Current Event 1: The Taste of Bubbles

Link: http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48608/title/FOR_KIDS_The_taste_of_bubbles

In this article, scientists did an interesting test about the taste of bubbles. They did this test on five groups of mice. Each group had different tasting abilities which were controlled by the scientists. They found that when humans or animals detect different tastes by using their taste buds. The carbon dioxide in these drinks, knock off some protons from the proteins thus causing a sour taste.

I found this article interesting because it effects humans almost everyday. We don't usually think so deep into smaller things such as this but personally this fascinated me.