Extreme Biology - Latest Comments

Re: The Biology of Music

Alexandra71194 — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:52:35 -0000

Awesome post Noa! I never knew the music was such an essential part of our being. Well I did some research and I found a ted talk about how music effects people. This ted talk proved that humans have an internal scale, check it out! http://www.ted.com/talks/bobby...

Re: Extreme Biology 2010-11 Reflections and Future

Lauren — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:32:12 -0000

Thank you so much for the advise. I will definitely use it in my classroom!

Re: What’s Your Favorite Biology-related Book or Movie?

Tove Rosenberg — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:45:19 -0000

This is an old thread but noone seems to have mentioned this one so I will anyway, I saw "gorillas in the mist" when I was very young and it made me want to become a biologist and now I am studying biology at university :). It´s a biography about Dian Fossey played by Sigourney Weaver http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00...

Re: Extreme Biology 2010-11 Reflections and Future

Ms Baker — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:25:15 -0000

Hi Lauren! I'm glad you're interested in blogging with your future students. Blogs are an amazing way to get students interested in biology and at the same time teach them important communication & research skills. My biggest tip when blogging with students is to give them a lot of freedom about what they write about. Don't assign them topics. As long as it is biology-related I let my students blog about anything they find interesting. This leads to greater conversations and higher interest from the students. Because students have different interests, you'll be surprised at the diversity of topics they will choose and how much of the course content gets discussed on the blog. My second tip is to make your blog public if you can. I moderate all comments and posts before they are published so nothing appears on the blog without me seeing it first. This allows me to make the blog public so that students are able to interact with scientists in the real world. Too many teachers keep their blogs private and they lose out on a lot of possibilities. Talk to your administrators and tell them how you will be keeping the students safe. If you keep your blog private you won't have to moderate comments so your workload will be easier, but you won't be able to show off all your students' work very easily and you'll miss out on a lot of opportunities. Good luck!

Re: Extreme Biology 2010-11 Reflections and Future

Lauren — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:50:34 -0000

Hello Ms. Baker. My name is Lauren and I am a future educator! I was very intrigued when I came across your blog. Your students seem so fond of you and very excited to learn biology. I hope that my future students will feel the same passion for biology as your students have described above. This blog really has me thinking of creating a blog for my students. Its a great idea to have a connection to students outside of the classroom.
How did you get your students so interested in biology and excited to learn?

Re: Was this Football Tragedy Preventable?

james craig — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:18:54 -0000

I think that it would be a good idea for serious sport players to get checked for signs of CTE, especially the teenagers who play rougher sports where they might experience more blows to the head than other sports.

Re: Vitamin G: Video Games and You

cambin hill — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:46:15 -0000

Thanks Jack, for the great post. Video games are entertaining but sometime lead to bad effective on the mind also. Video games had both the positive and the negative side the thing is how people handle it. And it was a really fun game you created.

Re: Breast Cancer is on it’s Way Out

Stacey_danziger — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:30:01 -0000

Great post Molly!
I too am very interested in Breast Cancer Research especially since
scientists have been able to make a lot of progress in research. In a more
recent study, by the Mayo Clinic staff, believe that reducing alcohol intake,
controlling your weight and 150 minutes of exercise a week helps prevents
Breast cancer. I also found out that breast-feeding helps keep away breast
cancer. The most interesting thing, I thought, that the Mayo Clinic suggested
is to not use hormone therapy (birth control). Overall, healthy habitats is the most important way to
prevent all types of cancer and other diseases.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/heal...

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/...

Re: Nature Scitable Bloggers Update

Joanne Manaster — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:44:15 -0000

I look forward to hearing from your students again this year, Stacy!

I am paying "blog calls" to each @scio12 attendee to say "Hi" and give your blog a shoutout on twitter (I'm @sciencegoddess). I look forward to seeing you and your students in a few weeks!

Re: Nature Scitable Bloggers Update

Jessica Higgins — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:32:18 -0000

What a great way of learning and talking about biology! I am excited to see your presentation at Science Online in January!

Re: Extreme Biology 2010-11 Reflections and Future

Jeffrey — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:01:41 -0000

I'm so glad that you're keeping the blog going. It's such a great way to showcase all of your talented students. It's also really unique. Not a lot of biology teachers have a site like this. Keep up the good work.

Re: Vitamin B12 and Alzeheimer’s Disease

Day_wood — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 23:15:26 -0000

interesting post Samantha. There are a few factors that can contribute to a person getting Alzheimer's disease. The single greatest risk of getting Alzheimer's disease is age. Another factor can be genetics. a gene called Apolipoprotein appears to be a risk factor for a form of alzheimers
http://www.ahaf.org/alzheimers...

Re: Vitamin B12 and Alzeheimer’s Disease

Jeffrey — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:55:54 -0000

This research seems promising. If something as simple as adding more vitamin B12 to a person's diet can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's then that is very encouraging news. Hopefully more positive research is on the way and we can get a better understanding of this terrible disease.

Re: Extreme Biology 2010-11 Reflections and Future

Day_wood — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:53:53 -0000

Biology was always a class i looked forward to everyday. It was a really exciting class in which I learned a lot of things. The blog was really cool and interesting because I was able to learn things about biology that we weren't discussing in class and enjoyed learning new thing. one of my favorite topics was about the Hela cells because we were able to handle actual cancerous cells and it was my first time using a microscope. I really liked how we incorporated the trip to London with the blog because even after coming back from london, I was able to learn about stuff that i didn't see in the museum. This year was a great experience. I had a lot of fun. Thank you for being a great teacher and advisor

Re: Vitamin B12 and Alzeheimer’s Disease

Joshykins — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:43:46 -0000

Great post Samantha! Alzheimer's disease (AD) is almost as
old as man. It got its name from a German physician, Alois Alzheimer. Dr.
Alzheimer was the first person to actually understand what was happening inside
the brains of affected people.

He was treating a woman patient who exhibited symptoms of
confusion, memory loss and had the unusual symptom of being suspicious of
everyone around her. After her death in 1906, he performed an autopsy and
found twisted strands of nerve fibers in her brain as well as dense deposits on
and around the nerve fibers. Later in 1907, he presented his work to a medical conference
in Germany and described the changes found in his patient. This was the first
known case of the disease. The disease is named after the first doctor who
brought it to the public.
http://www.alzheimerslibrary.c...

Re: The Biology of Music

Joeybronzz — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:57:18 -0000

Great post Noa! I love to listen to music so your post was quite interesting. I researched how music affects people. I found that playing or singing music helps develop reasoning skills that are equivalent to the reasoning involved in chess, math, and engineering. The understanding, the reading, contemplating: pitch and sound, as well as thinking of whats next and how to repair are a few of the skills obtained from music lessons. I just thought it was an interesting way music effects people.
http://www.reversespins.com/ef...

Re: Vitamin B12 and Alzeheimer’s Disease

Joeybronzz — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:46:24 -0000

Great post Sam. This post really hit home because my great-grandmother Claire suffered from Alzheimer's. It was very hard for the family. She had Alzheimer's for thirteen years and died about 7 years ago. My Grandmother Arlene saw what happened to her mother and with new research she is part of an Alzheimer's prevention plan with seven pillars. The steps she takes are regular vitamin supplements, she plays racket ball for 2 hours every morning, she has always slept well, she eats a Mediteranean diet, which her doctor prescribed as a preventive diet, she does one sudoku and one crossword puzzle each day, she bowls and goes out every night, and does stress release activity such as yoga. Her Doctor says at the current rate he see's it unlikely to get the horrible disease that upset our family for so long. Thank you Sam for this post.

Re: Vitamin B12 and Alzeheimer’s Disease

Deirdre — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:59:58 -0000

Good post Sam! Alzheimer's was thought to be unpreventable until a little while ago when researchers was discovered that many things can contribute to better brain health. To prevent brain deterioration you can do regular exercise, have a healthy diet, continue mental stimulation, increase the quality of sleep, manage stress, and have an active social life.
http://www.helpguide.org/elder...

Re: The Biology of Music

Deirdre — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:49:29 -0000

Cool post Noa! I researched a common scale in music and found the Pentatonic scale. This scale is used in a wide range of music including: celtic folk music, hungarian folk music, west african music, african american spiritual songs, american folk music, jazz, blues, rock and many more. This scale plays an important role in elementary education. It is proven to stunt the creativity part of the brain, and teachers use it so their students are more attentive and absorb the information given.
http://how-to-play-blues-guita...

Re: Is Man’s Best Friend a Pessimist?

Deirdre — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:39:54 -0000

http://news.softpedia.com/news...
link for my other comment

Re: Is Man’s Best Friend a Pessimist?

Deirdre — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:38:52 -0000

Interesting post Gabb, I never thought that animals could have depression. I was interested in other animals having depression, so I looked it up. I found out that other animals will become sad when their partner dies. This applies more often to animals in the wild who mate to achieve the biological goal. Researchers are also interested in testing if animals commit suicide. This, like the depression topic is hard to assess because we can never actually know what an animal is thinking. On the website I found information from, there were cases where animals perform dangerous endeavors after the death of their master. I do not know the validity of this case but I can say that my dog, who has been given to us because my Uncle was moving has no signs of depression. If depression occurred in all animals after the disappearance of their owners, I'm sure my dog would be a little more hesitant on life.

Re: Extreme Biology 2010-11 Reflections and Future

Molly_SIA — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:32:09 -0000

This year in biology I learned so much! It was such a fun class and I really enjoyed blogging about all of our projects and experiments. I thought the blog was a new and interesting way to reflect on everything we learned in this class and it was such a great system of connecting with outside scientists. I think writing posts and commenting on my classmates blogs were great ways to learn more about them and learn more about my community in general. I learned a lot about topics outside of biology and a lot about subjects relating to modern times and our world today. I loved the posts that explained new discoveries or were from Miss Bakers own personal experience! I really liked posting blogs from our London Trip because that way we all learned a lot about each other, and about the museum we visited. I really like connecting through the internet from an experience we all shared! I really liked the cladogram project towards the end of the year where we all organized animals in a phylogenetic tree. This year was a very great experience!

Re: Extreme Biology 2010-11 Reflections and Future

Deirdre — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:29:35 -0000

Miss Baker! I am definitely going to miss biology next year, thanks for being an awesome teacher and I wish you the best of luck at your new job and anything you do in the future :). This blog was an incredible thing to be a part of. I watched my classmates gain science fame through the use of nature, and many others get hands on interaction with scientists at science online. I learned that in most cases, the world of science is just a click away, and I learned quite a bit about science in general. My favorite post would definitely be the one about breast cancer, since that's a problem that's so close to home. I enjoyed this year so much but the thing I enjoyed most was the dogfish shark lab, one of my first dissections. I also loved experiencing the first subject I actually enjoyed learning about. I love biology!

Re: Extreme Biology 2010-11 Reflections and Future

evagobio14 — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:28:50 -0000

Biology has been the most exciting science class I have ever been a part of and the blog has just added on to the amount of fun we've had in that class! The blog helped me learn about biology related topics that we weren't learning about in class, and I also got see what my class mates had to say about the same topics. I know find myself more educated on many different topics, ranging from mysterious animals that I had never even heard of before to different diseases that I had never know existed. I think my favorite posts all year round were the ones that the class did about their experiences in London. Everyones was so interesting and I got to learn about all the different exhibits that I didn't get a chance to see while we were there. My favorite of these posts was the one by Alice, James, and Zach, which was about early monkeys and their roles in evolution. I had already learned about his topic a little bit in school, but it was interesting learning more about it. I will miss biology next year so much!

Re: Is Man’s Best Friend a Pessimist?

evagobio14 — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:17:51 -0000

This was a really good post Gabby! Its so sad to know that dogs are able to feel internal pain just like humans do. I found out that dogs are able to get depressed. This may cause similar changes in dogs as it does in humans, such as lack of eating or drinking, not wanting to play, and losing drastic amounts of weight. The dog can become depressed in many ways, including grief, changes in scenery, and a chemical imbalance. In some cases, it has shown that the weather can affect the attitude of a dog. Your dog is mostly likely going to become depressed if they lose a common playmate, whether from a death, or someone moving out of its living space, etc. The dog may be put on anti-depressants. However, doctors recommend playing with the dog and forcing it to become more active can make a huge change on the canine. I wonder, do cats have the same problems?
http://askville.amazon.com/dog...