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What was your favorite topic this semester? Why? My favorite topic was when we talked about invertebrates and vertebrates because I liked the dissections we did in class. I would've never thought that I would see some of these things, and get to tough these organisms. I also liked going over, reviewing the old topics like ecology and cell communication for the AP test because I did like the ecology unit, especially because I was more familiar with it. What was your least favorite? My least favorite were the genetic chapters because I felt that I didn't have enough time to prep for them than I had for the other chapters. Sometimes, they would also be a bit confusing. What would you change about this class if you could? I think I would change the pace of which we had to learn all the chapters because I felt that we were crammed near the end and weren't able to cover as much as we could have covered. What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment in biology this year? The biggest accomplishment was going through basically all the chapters because there were so many chapters to cover and so little time. I also liked doing the karaoke song because it was fun singing to a song and creatively thinking lyrics for a particular topic.

Genome: Chromosome 11 – Personality

Personality is a chromosome that includes a gene dopamine, also known as a D4DR gene. It is a recipe for a dopamine receptor and this gene is switched on in certain parts of the brain but not in others. Excess dopamine will cause the individual to become aggressive while a lack of dopamine will cause the individual to become lethargic. This gene is autosomal recessive. Studies say that people with blue eyes tend to have difficulty using chopsticks. Serotonin is a happy hormone that requulates ood, temper, anxiety, and relieves depression. There is a link between low cholesterol and violence involved in serotonin. For example, monkeys that are fed on low-cholesterol diets become more aggressive and bad-tempered and the cause of this seems to be a drop in serotonin levels.

Genome: Chromosome 9 – Disease

Chapter 9 talks about a gene that determines ABO blood type. The A, B, AB, and O is adopted by Viennese discoverer. Native Americans are most exclusively type O. There are four letters in type A: C, G, C, and G whereas there are another four letters in type B: G, A, A, and C. In type O, which is also the same as type A, the 258th letter G is missing or has been deleted. Type O is a recessive chromosome, which is susceptible to Cholera but resistant to Malaria. Type A, B, and AB are resistant to Cholera but susceptible to malaria. The sickle cell disease is a CFTR gene that’s on chromosome 7 and can cause a dangerous disease in the lungs and intestines. The effect of non-secretors means that they are unable to release the water-soluble form of the blood proteins from ABO into their body fluids.

Genome: Chromosome 8 – Conflict

This chromosome is a sex-link chromosome, also called the X and Y chromosome. Male and female traits include bigger muscles, aggressiveness in males, or using calcium to produce milk in females. This chapter is named conflict because of the evidence showing that both X and Y chromosome fight for genes, a battle over dominance between both chromosomes. The X and Y chromosome have sexually antagonistic genes, meaning that their genes only benefit one sex. Since there are more X chromosomes in the world than Y chromosomes, they have a higher probability of mutating and forming a gene lethal to the Y chromosome. Most genes on the Y chromosome serve no purpose but males will become more feminine over the years.

Genome: Chromosome 7 – Instinct

Chromosome 7 is an important chromosome that lies at the heart of all human culture. Human beings do not have to rely on instincts, instead they learn. Humans are creative, cultural, conscious creatures. Language processing is a form of culture that can shape the brain and has an inordinate time a-dying. For example, Hopi language has been exposed as simple frauds. The same part of the brain is consistently used for language processing. This for most people is located on the left side of the brain. There are two genetic conditions that affect linguistic ability. One is William’s syndrome, which is caused by a change in a gene on chromosome 11. Another genetic condition has the opposite effect; it lowers linguistic ability without apparently affecting intelligence, or at least not consistently. This gene is located on chromosome 7.

Genome: Chromosome 6 – Intelligence

In Chapter 6, towards the end of 1997, a brave scientist named Robert Polmin found the gene for intelligence. Mother Nature has not only given us the determination of our intellectual capacities to the blind fat of a gene, but also, she gave us parents learning, language, culture, and education to program ourselves with. Another scientist. H.H. Goddard’s IQ tests were biased towards middle-class or western cultural values. There are there kinds of intelligence: analytic, creative, and practical. Analytic problems are ones that are clearly defined and have only one right answer. Practical problems require you to recognize and formulate the problem itself and are poorly defined which sometimes lack information as well. Statistician Charles Spearman stated that if one child id well in one subject, that child will become independent and do well in others as well. Overall, hereditability does not mean immutability and your IQ changes with age, but so does its heritability.

AP Bio Exam Feedback

After taking the AP test, I feel that I felt the most confident with ecology, cellular respiration, and photosynthesis. I did not feel comfortable with the genetics section as well as the invertebrates and vertebrates. I felt as if I was not able to study these sections as carefully as I could've, and did not have enough time in class to go over it all.