Scibepost for October 25, 2010 by Jiyoon

Today, Mr. Paek reminded us that the Cancer Paper is due tomorrow. We have to make sure to turn it in to www.turnitin.com and ALSO bring in a hard copy to turn in for class. He also told us that it's a good idea to have quotes in our papers and to make sure to have the bibliography within your paper. Don't forget to read 20.1 for tomorrow and 20.2 for Wednesday, you don't have to take notes.

Then Mr. Paek showed us a funny video about cooties

After the video, Mr. Paek gave a short lecture about Viruses.

-Viruses are made of

• non-cellular particles (no organelles)
• genetic material (DNA/RNA)
• Protein (outer coat or capsid)

EX: bacteriophage

Virus Structure

bacteriophage

Lastly, We got into groups and got 20 minutes to start on our Who Infected Whom? Lab(UP 6-9)

Background- A science teacher at our high school was sent to the hospital with a serious illness and the results came back as a unknown illness. This illness and this illness is not spreading throughout the town.

Our goal in this lab was to be epidemiologists (scientists who trace the spread of a disease through the population) and find out who (or are) the carrier(s) (someone who does not suffer from a disease but has the infection orgenetic fault that causes it and can give the disease to someone else) of the disease is.

Procedure-

First, we got into groups and received a pile of cards with the names Mr.Paek, Heather, Tran, Mr. Dillon, Miriam, Ed, Mr.Wigley, and Laura with informations about each person.

Then, our group came up with a hypothesis after discussing how the disease may have spread from person to person.

We then drew a web of disease transmission based on the information on the card and our hypothesis.

After that, in order to test our hypothesis we had to test samples of "saliva" from 4 of these people for the presence of the disease. We ad

ded 2 drops of indicator in the saliva. If the solution turned red or pink it meant that the person was infected, if the solution DIDN'T turn red or pink the person was not infected with the virus.

Using our results from the disease indicator test, we drew another web of disease transmission which was our final answer.

Our homework tonight is

• cancer paper
• reading 20.1
• try to finish the lab