For these projects, we focused on protein synthesis and how our bodies maintain homeostasis. For the protein project, we chose a protein, found the amino acid sequence, how it folds, and how it goes through protein synthesis. Our protein was elastin, which is responsible for why skin stretches and returns to its previous shape. For the homeostasis project, we chose a way that our bodies maintain homeostasis and did research and designed labs to see how it affected us. Our topic was temperature and we created several labs where we changed our body temperature to see how our bodies reacted.
Concepts
protein - formed from amino acid chains; do most cell functions. This is what our entire project was based off of. protein synthesis - the process by which the genetic code puts together proteins in the cell. We found out how elastin goes through protein synthesis. amino acid - combine to make proteins. Each protein has a different amino acid strand that makes it able to do different things. protein folding - the process in which a protein structure assumes its functional shape or conformation. We found the way in which elastin folds. transcription - DNA unzips and matches with mRNA in the nucleus. This is an important step in protein synthesis. translation - codons are matched with anticodons attached to amino acids This is an important step in protein synthesis. DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid; genetic material in cells. DNA is used in protein synthesis. RNA - ribonucleic acid; acts as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA for controlling the synthesis of proteins. RNA is used in protein synthesis. homeostasis - a series of processes that work together to keep your body stable. We investigated a certain aspect of homeostasis. thermoregulation - how temperature changes in your body using shivering, sweating, changes in metabolism speed, and size of blood capillaries. This was the topic that we investigated.
Reflection
Protein Synthesis: In this project, I struggled a lot. Protein synthesis is something is very confusing to me, and I'm not sure I completely understand it. With the help of Crash Course, visuals, and my group, I was able to gain an understanding of the process that helped me through the project. This was one of the biggest problems I had with this project. The other problem with this project had to with misunderstanding. There was several times where I misunderstood what my group was trying to say or they didn't understand me. At the beginning I was also confused about what we were supposed to do for the project and how we were supposed to protein synthesis for a specific protein. I was confused because each protein goes through the same process. In the end my group and I realized that we just needed to show the process and specify the differences in the amino acid chains. The best part was at the end of the project when we were done and had a finished project that we were proud of. During this project, I learned, not only about protein synthesis, but also about interacting with other people. I realized that sometimes there won't be anyone who understands what you have to do and in that case, you have to seek outside help. Homeostasis: Personally, this was my favorite project we've done this semester. I really enjoyed getting to design our own expiraments and test them out. By learning this way, I was able to understand the concepts we were supposed to learn in a way that benefitted me. With my group members, we put ourselves through a series of painful tests to learn more about thermoregulation. The worst part of this project was probably when we had to put our hands in 5 degrees C water for twelve minutes. This was very painful but demonstrated how your body changes to fit outside conditions because we could see the change in blood flow to our hands because they were red. What we found was intriguing and I was very interested in our project and found myself wanting to work on it each day. A problem we encountered was inconsistent data. As you can imagine from our limited materials, our data was not the best way to test thermoregulation. We overcame this problem by understanding that that the inconsistency was because of this and human error. I learned better ways to design experiments from this project and how to figure out what you want to know from what you find out. By discovering the processes with basic research and experimenting, this project was an effective and fun way to learn about homeostasis.