Monday (Jan 12) - Today we went over the terms that we would definetly need to know:

• DNA - Deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms.
• Gene - Are working subunits of DNA.
• Protein - Are made up of amino acids that are in a chain, that are connected by bonds.
• mRNA - (messenger RNA) is a codon
• tRNA - (transfer RNA) is an anti-codon
• Codon - 3 base pairs make up 1 codon
• Amino Acids - Amino acids make up proteins
• Chromosomes - Everybody has 23 pairs of chromosomes. A chromosome is a package of DNA.

Tuesday - On Tuesday we continued the "play" about protein synthesis. Instead of a recap of the play, I'm just going to give you the process for protein synthesis.

1. Protein synthesis begins in DNA, which has all of the information, so the mRNA copies it.

2. The mRNA travels through the rough Endoplasmic Reticulum to get to the ribosome, and gives the ribosome a set of "directions"

3. The ribosome then tells the tRNA what amino acids it shoould bring.

4. The tRNA brings it over, and they attach at the binding site.

5. The tRNA attaches to the mRNA by the codon and anti-codon

6. The tRNA keeps bringing over amino acids, which form a chain, soon the tRNA is told to stop.

7. The amino acids then disconnect from the ribosome, and fold up to make a protein.

For homework we had to draw a concept map containing these terms:

DNA, Gene, Protein, mRNA, tRNA, Codon, Amino Acids, Chromosomes

Wednesday: Today was...um...a bit awkward, we took notes on cell reproduction.

• Cells split because they have enough DNA/ cell parts to make a new cell.
• Cells should be exactly the same as a result.
• Cells come from other cells.
• Most cells are asexual (can reproduce by themselves).
• Chromosomes must be copied first.
• There are 46 chromosomes (23 pairs) in a human.
• (Mitosis??)
• Egg Cell (female), Sperm Cell (male)
• Sperm and egg must be combined to create new cell.
• Cells aren't exactly the same ( You don't look exactly like one of your parents)
• Coming from 2 organisms mean that you have to look a little bit like each of them.

That's pretty much all we did on Wednesday.

Thursday: Today we got a worksheet about an onion root tip we were supposed to look at underneath the microscope.

Our group couldn't really find the onion root tip, so we shared microscopes with other people.

So yeah...that's it.

Friday: Today we finished (or tried to finish) the worksheet from yesterday. We also talked about the Unit test (next Wednesday), and the study guides that we had to finish (or do another 25% of) Make sure you go to the study session on Wednesday morning!!! STUDY!!!!!

~Sreesha