The Ecology of Bellarmine

The Ecology of Bellarmine 

    If we decided to take a trip around the school, we would be amazed with how many different species of animals and plants.  This is exactly what we did one fine morning.  There were many great things in our wonderful community, so immerse yourself in these images that I have provided you about the ecosystem of Bellarmine.

This stuff is what we call grass.  (Poaceae) It is a producer as it absorbs sunlight for food.

Apis Mellifera (Western Honeybee) These guys are herbivores.  They eat pollen from flowers.  Some bees in Hawaii are threatened and endangered so try to protect before they are all gone.

These are chickens (gallus gallus domesticus).  They are secondary consumers as they eat bugs.

This is a palm tree (Arecaceae).  They are non-native trees brought in Spain.

These are fruit flies (Drosophila).  They are decomposers, eating and breaking apart an orange.

This is trash (notbelong junko).  They are a source of pollution, so throw these guys away if you see them lying around.

At this very moment, my phone decides to run out of batteries, but I can still tell you what we saw.


Spiders (araneae) are a great example of carnivores as they eat they eat any bugs or insects trapped in their nest.  They've even been known to eat birds too, but not the ones at our school.

Lastly, we (homo sapiens) are tertiary consumers as well as omnivores.  We eat the animals that eat animals that eat the plants (unless you're vegetarian, sorry).


There's much more, but I would probably bore you to death if I listed them out, so I'll start wrapping things up.  Here are a few pointers to take away from this.

1. Ecology focuses on the study of plants and animals and they interact with one another.  Environmental science, however, focuses more generally on earth and life science.  Here at Bellarmine, animals eat plants (ecology) and we throw away trash (environmental).

2. Here, we find a variety of animals and plants, specifically at our school garden.  Chickens and plants are thriving, as well as insects, that are feeding from the plants.  These are the biotic factors.  Abiotic factors are the soil the plants live in or the house in which the chickens live.

3. In our community, flowers absorb sunlight.  Insects eat from these flowers.  Spiders eat the insects trapped in their web.  Chickens will eat spiders.  And we, humans, eat chickens.  This is a food chain in which energy is passed down from one entity to another.  However, only 10% of the energy is passed on to the next, which explains why we would eat more than a bug would.

4.  The bees are endangered and threatened due to pesticides, which are harming these bees. and mutating the eggs, so that they will die.  Palm tree seeds were shipped to America from Spain and were planted, making them invasive species.

5.  Pollution doesn't just come from trash, which chokes animals if they eat it, but air pollution affects the quality of air, making it bad to breathe in.  There is also water pollution in which we pollute the water, making it unsafe to drink.

Thanks for reading!

Fish in a Bowl in Water in Ice with Science

Fish in a Bowl in Water in Ice with Science

The snack that smiles back can really be useful when it comes to studying respiration.  Not really, but we did use actual goldfish to help us study the rate at which they breath at certain temperatures.  The first and probably most important step was to actually get the goldfish.  If you have already seen my previous post, you can see that I brought quite a few.  I still have them right now.

Anyways, we placed a goldfish into room temperature water and counted how often it took a breath in a minute.  We also did this with slightly warmer water and slightly colder water.  We repeated this on other fish to verify our data.  Beforehand, we predicted that the fish would breathe less in colder water.  Here are our results:

This graph and our data indicates that as we lowered the temperature of the water, the fish began to breathe less often.  So we were right with our hypothesis.  Other than just temperature, however, the fish may been affected by the size of the container or how panicked the fish were.  The average shows how a normal fish would breathe at certain temperatures.  A similar test that could have the same affects would be testing to see the rate at which the fish breathe when placed under a lamp and without one.  I believe that fish breathe less in cold water, because they are trying to store energy in such a cold environment, and they do that by breathing less.

Yes, I brought in goldfish on 5/5/2017!

I Like Fish! Do You?

March For Science

March for Science

April 22, 2017, marks yet another Earth Day in the years.  However, this time, I was doing something different.  We were paying a visit to March for Science, a special festival that takes place on Earth Day to commemorate the wonders of science.  There were signs everywhere, reminding people that science matters to our world.  A huge mass of people listened to well-known speakers talk about their intellect and opinions on knowledge.  People were encouraging one another to believe that science is real.  They say that science is not fake and global warming is a real threat that is facing the earth.  We are told to protect our environment.  This is what we, as humans, are encouraged to do to save our planet.  If you have time, plant a tree or some flowers. Stop using up resources.  We all should have a common goal: we must save our common home.  Alert the ignorant, so that we can all make a change.  Happy Earth Day!

Decoding Jelly Beans

Decoding Jelly Beans

A Lamp Lights Lilacs That Sip Sap

#wongjellybean

Jelly Beans, Yum!

#wongjellybean

Meiosis Stop Motion Video

Meiosis Stop Motion Video

For one of our Biology assignments we were told to create a stop motion video depicting meiosis.  To keep things creative, we used belts as the inner and outer membrane.  The chromosomes were the beads from a jump rope.  Due to our lack of experience in video editing, our video was difficult to create, but we managed to complete it.  You can find a link to the video here.

The function of meiosis is to allow a cell split into 4 more.  They crossover their chromosomes and split.  Genetic variation can occur through meiosis in the crossing over and rearrangement of chromosomes as well as possibly a mutation.  Non-disjunction can be caused when homologous chromosomes fail to separate which can lead to syndromes.  Pandas have probably been a close relative of bears, but somewhere within the evolution lines, non-disjunction may have occurred.  Instead of having all the chromosomes received, they may have failed to separate due to non-disjunction, which may have led to only half of those chromosomes.  From this project, I have learned the multiple stages of meiosis.  But more importantly, I have learned that science can be quite fun to recreate using everyday items.

A Cup of Strawberry DNA Ice Cream

A Cup of Strawberry DNA Ice Cream 

     Strawberries are great.  They're one of my favorite ice cream flavors.  They make great smoothies and are wonderful for DNA extraction.  Recently, we were put to the test of extracting DNA from a strawberry.  First, we created a liquid solution made of detergent, salt, and water and placed a strawberry into it.  Putting the mixture into a Ziploc bag, we proceeded to SMASH the strawberries into a liquid pulp.  Imagine placing a strawberry in a blender, so it would come out mushy and sticky. This would expose the DNA for us to utilize.  Using another solution of alcohol, we were able to extract the DNA from the strawberry.  The alcohol would break apart any bonds between the DNA and the strawberry.  The DNA itself turned out to be rather snot-like.  Despite the yucky appearance, the experiment was entertaining and fascinating at the same time.

Dividing Cells in an Onion Root

Cells in an Onion Root

Seen on the right is an onion root viewed under a microscope. Every single dot in the image is actually a cell.  There are many things that can be noted in this cell.  First, the cell wall, the lines throughout the cell gives it a rigid structure. Upon looking closely, all cells appear different. In fact, each cell is going through mitosis, in which a cell divides into two, or cellular division.  In actuality, this process is more similar to nuclear division as the chromosomes within the nucleus replicate and divide.  There are five main stages to this: Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase. Unfortunately, as the cells were too numerous, we were unable to give an amount of cells in each stage.  However, we could there were very few cells in telophase, telling us that the process was relatively quick. There were many cells in interphase, so going through that stage would take a while. Most people use onion roots when studying mitosis, because it gives a visible image of the cells and their stages.  The image is specifically of the tip of the onion root cell.  If we viewed the other parts of the onion, perhaps we would find that certain processes occur differently or at different rates.  Although, onions may seem boring, looking at them through a microscope shows a new world that would bring a tear to your eye.

On a side note, have you ever noticed that cells multiply by dividing?

What is Cancer?

What is Cancer?

          Cancer is considered an enigma in today's society.  It kills hundreds of thousands of lives every year. Cancer is different from most other cells is cancer itself is a cell that turns against its body by irregularly multiplying at an abnormal rate.  There may not be a definite cure to such a disease, but doctors and scientists are working furiously to find a remedy.  They are analyzing almost every sample of blood, scanning strands of DNA, and searching upon millions and millions of cancer cases to find a way to stop the disease.  Some known causes of cancer include smoking and obesity. Avoiding such things can help to reduce the chances of not being afflicted by cancer.  One must exercise to avoid obesity and eat healthily.  The problem with cancer is that it is constantly changing to resist antibiotics and medicine.  As it adapts, cancer becomes unique and is different in every case, making it harder to pinpoint an exact cause and cure.  Richard Klausner, the director at the National Cancer Institute, likens cancer to evolution in a bottle.  This means that with its ability to rapidly adapt to its environment, cancer evolves very quickly.  Due to this, scientists can study cancer cells to discover how evolution works and perhaps expand science even further.  I have had my own experiences with cancer.  My grandmother suffered from cancer and passed away a few months ago. I had a friend who was suffering from cancer.  With so many of my friends and relatives undergoing cancer, I feel the need to encourage scientists and doctors to continue searching for the perfect cure. Cancer may still be prevalent in to today's society, but with knowledge and contribution, we will soon be able to eliminate the threat of cancer.

Cytoplasmic Streaming

    The elodea is a type of aquatic plant.  To the right, a leaf cell of an elodea is magnified under a microscope, where it's components are visible and have been labeled.  In the elodea, it is easy to notice areas of the cell flowing.  This is known as cytoplasmic streaming.  Below is a video of this phenomenon.  We can see that  the elodea leaf is made up of cell, as suggested in the cell theory that cells are basic unit of structure and function of all living organisms.  This type of leaf is a magnificent sight to behold up close and has sure changed my perspective on the cell.