Why I, the Mitochondria, Should Remain on the Boat

Running, walking, standing, eating - even breathing - requires energy. The basic functions of our daily lives can only work with energy, energy that we get from the food that we eat. How does this relate to cells? Why should I, the mitochondria, remain in the cell? I am the power house, I provide energy for the cell to function. Without me, the cell would not be able to move, divide, breathe or survive. During the day time, chloroplasts can provide their jobs and create food for the cell. But what happens if there is nobody to convert that food into usable energy? That's when I come in, I take the food that the chloroplasts create and transform it into ATP, the energy that the cell uses to carry out basic life functions. Without me, the plant would surely die by lack of ATP which is made by cellular respiration in the cristae, folds in my inner membrane. That is why I should remain in the cell.

What kind of cell would I like to be and why?

Plant Cell and its Organelles

I would like to be a eukaryotic plant cell because even though my cell wall limits me from movement, I get maximum protection from the outside. Therefore, I am not as easily damaged as the other cells, Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Animal, and can live a longer life. Also, I would have chloroplast which would create "food" that my mitochondria would alter transform into ATP, so that I can have energy to work right. This is the opposite for animal cells, which acquire their food from outside sources. Being able to "feed" itself to create its own energy, and having cell walls that protect and shape the plant cell, is an advantage over animal cells, which depend on many more factors to keep themselves working and healthy. Prokaryotic cells would also not be my first choice because even though they can be free moving with their flagella, they have no nucleus. It would be like a car without a driver. The nucleus is like the cell's "brain", and I would much more prefer having a brain than a car.

Meals on Wheels

View more presentations from beajx3.

Meals on Wheels: Eat Healthy! Project

    This project was about finding healthy diet plan menus with the help of the knowledge we had already gained about nutrients. In this project, we had to choose 2 out of 3 menus that we thought showed the best ways to lose weight, one in accordance to short term exposure and one to long term exposure. We had to create a power point presentation describing why we chose the menus that we chose, inter-wining our choices with facts about nutrients. Our team worked in divisions, one person worked on analyzing Menu 1, another on Menu 2, another on Menu 3, and the last on creating the power point presentation. This, we found, was the most effective way  to accomplish our goals in the project. What I discovered was that a healthy diet has to have a balanced amount of nutrients, even fats, which are condemned as "unhealthy", should be included in your diet because they provide energy and insulation. 
     This project contributed to my science knowledge because it revived my previously learned lessons, and also taught me that the way to a successful diet is knowing your nutrients. Contrary to the popular belief that all of the muffins and fattening buffalo wings in Menu 3 contribute to your weight gain, Menu 3 is actually a popular weight loss program. Why? Because since it contains no carbohydrates, which are also known as our "first-burn", it allows for the fats that are ingested in the diet to be burned quicker and efficiently through exercise. This, however, is a very unhealthy choice in comparison to Menu 2, which gives long term weight loss the benefits of variety and effectualness. Menu 1 and Menu 3 were probably the most diverse from each other. While Menu 3 consisted of mostly fat, Menu 1 consisted of barely any. There was no great variety in Menu 1, as there is in Menu 2 and 3. The only variety visible were the small added portions along the side of the cabbage soup, which is an ongoing occurrence throughout all the days, and the small breakfast options. However, Menu 1 seems like a healthier quick weight loss alternative to Menu 3, striving for the essence of less food rather than less carbohydrates.
     Working on different skills for me was great. I adore working in teams because we get to share our ideas and create a product that might be ten times more innovative than what we would have thought of on our own. Organization is not one of my strong suits, but sometimes when I try, I can be very organized, and that can be a benefit to myself and my team. For example, because this time I attempted to organize what I analyzed in Menu 2, I helped my team create an efficient way to organize our project, which in the end, was helpful. The way I organized things was that I created a key for the amount of nutrients in each diet. For example, menus that had nutrients that were bolded were very rich in the nutrient, if the nutrient was underlined, there was a few amount, and if the nutrient was scratched through, it meant there was none or barely any of that nutrient. As for time management, I am a procrastinator and I like to put things off for the last minute, however, when I do something, I try to accomplish the task to the best of my abilities. I have been working on procrastination, and I think that I am getting better little by little. 

What was the purpose of these first two days of school, and what are my plans for this year?

The purpose of these first two days of school were to get an idea about what we would be doing this year. On the first day, we worked as a group and gained collaboration skills. On the second day, we learned more about what we would be doing in class during the school year.

My plans for this year include learning more science to get myself prepared for IB, and to get better grades, because now things start to count for college. I would like to end the school year successfully.