Reflection on the AP Biology Exam

It is so crazy to think that this year is already over! Though not at the very end, the AP exam was a somewhat anticlimactic ending to a year of content. I remember last year, taking AP exams for the first time, I was very nervous and didn’t know what to expect. This year, things

Fetal Pig Dissection

This week in class, we completed the Fetal Pig Dissection lab. Instead of pairing off in groups like we had previous years, Mrs. Girard had one pig, and dissected it herself, while we all observed. I thought this was a very interesting perspective, especially since I have some prior experience with dissecting fetal pigs. Last

Transpiration Lab

It’s a well known fact that plants take up water through their roots, but not many people take the time to understand how exactly plants perform this gravity defying feat day after day, year after year. The answer to this phenomenon is transpiration. Transpiration is the process that allows water to travel up the xylem

Exploring By the Seat of Your Pants – Alizé Carrére

Our class recently was able to participate in yet another Exploring By the Seat of Your Pants talk, this time by National Geographic Explorer Alizé Carrére. Alizé is such a fascinating person, and this talk is one I am not soon to forget. Leading up to this presentation, we were able to watch the video

Ghost in Your Genes

Everything that you are comes from the four letters repeated millions upon millions of times in your DNA, right? Wrong. During this unit, we have begun to learn about Epigenetics, the markers and orientations in your DNA that can influence who you are almost as much as your DNA itself. Last week, we spent time

Genetic Counseling

Earlier this week, we were fortunate enough to welcome two NDB alumni, Quinlyn Highsmith and Brooke Nightengale, back to our class to talk to us about their chosen field– genetic counseling. This was a very unique experience, and one I will not soon forget. Whenever you research or hear about different professions, you often only

You Will Always Smell Like Fish (and other reasons to be a marine ecologist)

This week, we were lucky enough to join another talk from Exploring By the Seat of Your Pants. This time, we heard Erin Spencer, a marine ecologist, talk all about the work she has done with Red Snapper and Hammerhead sharks. Before this talk, If you had asked me what a marine ecologist does, I

Cracking Your Genetic Code Reflection

Over the past few weeks, we have been tasked with watching and taking notes on the PBS documentary Cracking Your Genetic Code. Genetics are a fascinating topic, and watching this documentary was an amazing way for me to connect all the things that we have been learning this year with knowledge I have gained throughout

DNA Building!

Last week in class, we broke into groups to build models of DNA. These models were made out of plastic connecters and straws, each colored differently to represent the different types of bonds and the different bases that DNA is composed of. DNA is essentially the blueprint of life. Four different bases, Adenine (A), Thymine

Strawberry DNA Extraction

For part of our first semester final, we were separated into groups to preform a DNA extraction on a strawberry. We couldn’t all do the experiment together, but we each recorded ourselves and pieced together our individual videos to make a completed product. Though the experiment was done beforehand, the voiceovers and video assembly was