This past week in science, we have been working on roller coasters made out of insulation tubing, dowels, and extremely large quantities of masking tape. The idea of this project is to represent the laws and properties of physics, including force, acceleration, kinetic energy, and potential energy. The roller coasters had to safely transport a marble, and have it come to a slow stop at the end. Our project was to make a roller coaster using the materials I listed above, but our design also had to fit within a certain budget. Our roller coaster had to have a hill, a loop, and a curve, as well as a safe stop at the end. My team, which is Malia and I, decided to make a huge curve that goes off of the table and base of the roller coaster. This results in a lot of kinetic energy when the marble rounds this particular curve.

Also this past week, we had a cardiologist come in and dissect a pig heart and lungs. He showed us some of the procedures they often have to do for patients as well as the different parts of the heart muscle. The pig whose heart we dissected had a whole between two of the chambers, which I believe were the right and left atrium. The cardiologist, Dr. Howe told us that this probably didn’t cause any problems for the pig, and it is fairly common, even in humans. He told us that about 1 in 4 people has a small hole between some of the heart chambers. However, most of these are not large enough to cause any problems in the long run.

This week we have been working on filming for our skits about the heart and lungs. The main character of both of the skits is supposed to be named Joe, however we only have one Joe in the class, so I am playing him for my group’s skit. The idea of the skit is to research the anatomy of the heart and study some diseases and conditions that can affect it. In our skit, Joe is very unhealthy, and eats a lot of food containing cholesterol and trans fat. Both of these are found in processed food, and too much LDL or bad cholesterol can cause a blockage in the arteries.

What happens when someone eats a lot of junk food containing cholesterol, is there is not enough HDL, which is the good cholesterol to balance out the LDL, or the bad cholesterol. LDL is what can cause plaque to form in the arteries. When the built up plaque ruptures, a blood clot is formed, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. In our skit, the main character suffers form plaque buildup in his arteries. After showing symptoms of a heart attack, he is taken in for surgery where a catheter is put up his artery to the one that is blocked. A small balloon on the end of the catheter is inflated, widening the artery and causing blood flow to be less obstructed. In some cases, there is also a stent put into the blood vessel. Stents are a mesh tube that are expanded on the outside of the balloon and are left in the blood vessel to keep it from closing.

When were stents invented?

Who identified plaque in the arteries as a cause of heart attacks?

Who creates stress tests for heart attack symptoms?

This week, we prepared for the science expo and worked on our skit about the heart. Preparations for the science expo mostly included finishing and testing our hovercrafts, which are one of the main attractions at the event. They are made out of pieces of particle board cut into circles with heavy plastic duct taped to the bottom of them. There are holes punched in the plastic for limited airflow so the duct tape doesn’t get blown off. In this fashion, a pillow of air is created, so the person riding the hovercraft is, in theory, hovering. This also makes it easier for us to push the crafts over the ground. Each hovercraft is inflated by the motor of a shop-vac which goes into a hole in the top. Generally they have enough power to float anyone riding the hovercraft.

My class recently dissected a heart and lungs from a pig, but unfortunately, I wasn’t there as a result of the dreaded flu. We recently kicked off our skits about the heart and lungs. What we are assigned to do, is come up with an informative storyline that explains different problems with the heart and what can be done to solve them. My group has a character who suffers a heart attack as a result of hypertension, or high blood pressure, which causes plaque to build up in the arteries. Plaque buildup can result in a higher chance of blood clots and therefore, heart attacks.

What causes hypertension?

Is it possible to use a cordless leaf blower for the hovercrafts?

Is there a way to make the hovercrafts more permanent?

Recently in science, there has been a discovery of a possible vaccine or cure for cancer, designed by the Stanford medical program. It is an injection which stimulates the cells in the cancerous tumor which are responsible for calling for help. The body then knows the exact location of the tumor, and that it should send any available immune response cells. Normally, when a person first gets cancer, the body begins to fight it like any other disease or illness. However, over time cancer finds a way to turn off the body’s immune response.

This vaccine turns the immune system back on full blast in order to attack and combat the tumors. So far, 87 out of 90 mice that the vaccine has been tested on, have been cancer free after the first treatment. The small percentage that still had cancer after the first treatment were cancer free after the second. The doctors who developed the vaccine used it both on mice with artificially implanted tumors, and with naturally occurring ones. It was equally effective in both circumstances. This is a big leap forward for the world, since a cure for cancer had been eluding us for so long. With the discovery of this new vaccine, a less invasive and harmful treatment procedure may be attained.

When was cancer discovered?

How quickly can cancer mutate?

Will the cancer in the mice return even after treatment?

New Cancer Vaccine Extremely Effective In Mice, Human Trials Underway

 

This week we learned about different parts of the brain and created models representing them. Mine and Stella’s model was the brain, but we didn’t get to present the model itself because the play-dough that we made it out of got really moldy.

The different parts of the brain are explained in the google slide that I will post below. 

This week in science we started presenting the projects that we did on drugs and how they affect our brains, bodies, and society. I studied marijuana, and my google slide should be embedded below.

I am not sure what the exact day that we finished our digestive system projects was, but I am pretty sure it was near the start of Christmas break, so that is what I put. Below is my digestive system project.

Something you should probably know before watching the slide I made about the digestive system, is that Duncan is our Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Pathfinder.

For some reason, I managed to miss doing a blog for this week, so I will attempt to give an accurate reccolection from myself in early January.

In the week of October 29, I believe we were beginning to work on cutting out the paper for our skeleton models. The bones and muscles unit of science had started recently, and we were just getting into the first big in-class project for said unit. I think we watched a Slim Goodbody video about bones and muscles. I seem to remember it being really long and only somewhat informative. We started learning about different kinds of tissue, and when we were digesting roasting chickens, one of the famous quotes of science class was created. As the story goes, we were filming a video of what we were doing for one of our old classmates who doesn’t go to our school anymore. When asked where epethilial tissue was, (which by the way is the skin,) my classmate, Nik said, “It’s in here somewhere…” as he looked through the insides of the chicken.

I thank Nik for this, because if he never would have said that, I probably would have no idea what epethilial tissue is.

In this week or the next, I think we also started to put clothes on our paper cut out skeletons and label the bones and muscles on them. My apologies if this is from a different week, my teenage memory is a bit fuzzy. Anyway, we started to add clothes to are skeletons and label their body parts. I made my skeleton wearing some kind of strange tunic so that he wound up looking like a deceased monk or something. This labeling of the bones and muscles on the skeletons was either the whole test on the unit we were in or a large portion of it. One of the things I am glad about is that we didn’t have to spell everything perfectly. I am not incredibly good at spelling long words.

What week did we wind up taking our test?

Why do muscles and bones have to have such long names?

When did people discover that bone marrow is living?

This week we finished our models of the urinary system and began working on a story using Storyboard That about the cycle of blood and waste through the urinary system. A few of my classmates did their presentations about the  digestive and urinary system. I learned that fecal transplants are not yet evaluated by the FDA, and they are often used as a last resort. I have not done my presentation yet, but I think I will soon. For my digestive and urinary research project I researched Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I learned that Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a chronic disease in which there are abnormal contractions in the large intestine often caused by a poor connection between the brain and the colon.

We didn’t have science on Thursday this week because the fourth through eighth graders left the school to practice for the winter concert that happened on Thursday night. The concert was a pretty fun event, but I realized afterword that it would be my last one at Pathfinder since the school only goes through eighth grade. Next week I imagine we will be doing more presentations for the digestive and urinary unit, as well as working on our urinary system stories.

How much urine does one excrete in a day?

When are fecal transplants expected to be evaluated by the FDA?

How long have doctors recognized Irritable Bowel Syndrome?

This week we finished up on our digestive system projects and began the urinary system. We are making a model of the urinary system using different types of candy, such as licorice for the veins and arteries, and gumdrops, kidney beans, and marshmallows to fill in the bladder and kidneys. We learned about all the different functions of the kidney and how important they are in the body. Each day the kidneys filter about 750 to 1000 pints of blood. That is equal to about 1000 Ben and Jerry’s containers of blood. The structure that actually filters the blood is called an nephron. There are about two million nephrons in one’s body, roughly a million per kidney. The blood passes through the nephrons, and they clean out any waste materials that may be in the blood. They then send that to the bladder through the ureters to be excreted and the blood goes back into circulation.

The bladder can hold about 400 to 600 ml of water normally. It is able to expand, but in the long run this is not good for bladder health. When the bladder is full, it sends a message to the brain telling it that it is time to urinate. When you pee, the muscles contract allowing the urine to flow out through the urethra. The length urethra is pretty much the only difference between the male and female urinary systems for obvious reasons.

How long does it take for a liter of water to travel through your system?

Why is urine yellow?

Is it common for the bladder to stretch beyond the normal capacity?