Honey Bee Project
Honey bees are important because they play a huge part in our food source and in our ecosystem. If we lost honey bees are breakfasts would be extremely bland. Imagine the jam and the strawberry's and the blueberries, without bees they would be gone. The orange juice probably wouldn't be there. The granola in your cereal that is held together by honey, wouldn't be so sweet and crunchy. The flowers in you garden wouldn't have the vibrant blues, yellows, reds, and oranges that we have come to know in love. Without the honey bee our world would be quite bland and quite sad. The world wouldn't be anything like what it is today.
During the project I decided to do my project on the chemistry of honey. I examined what was in honey by using a spectrometer. I gathered four different types of honey and diluted them with ethanol. Then I put it in a spectrometer and got the readings. I produced a large science fair board with all my information on it including a hypothesis, materials, procedure, and conclusion as well as my results that are on my computer so that people could see the actual results as they were when I was in the lab. I was most proud of the fact that I worked and advocated to be able to use a spectrometer up at Fort Lewis College. I wish that I had more time and had used pure ethanol not a 101 proof whiskey with distilled water. I think that may have interfered with my results.
During the project I decided to do my project on the chemistry of honey. I examined what was in honey by using a spectrometer. I gathered four different types of honey and diluted them with ethanol. Then I put it in a spectrometer and got the readings. I produced a large science fair board with all my information on it including a hypothesis, materials, procedure, and conclusion as well as my results that are on my computer so that people could see the actual results as they were when I was in the lab. I was most proud of the fact that I worked and advocated to be able to use a spectrometer up at Fort Lewis College. I wish that I had more time and had used pure ethanol not a 101 proof whiskey with distilled water. I think that may have interfered with my results.
Dissection Project
During the dissection project I dissected a fetal pig. The students had the option at the beginning of the project to dissect a shark, a pig, or a cat. I mostly chose the pig because I didn't want to skin a cat and too many people chose the shark. Or my teacher, Colleen, put me down as a pig before I had a chance to choose.
I learned a lot about the pig and the general organs of a human as well. By the end of the project I could run through all of the pigs organs. I think what I learned about myself was that I should be an evil scientist. I was whistling "Singing in the Rain" while cutting open my pigs stomach. It just didn't bother me to do that. I thought it was fun but gross. I think I learned that I have this ability to just cover it up and not let things bug me. I'm not exactly sure why I am this way but it's something that I can do. I think that it helped me in the long run in the project, to just let me focus on the dissection and not being grossed out by the actual pig.
I learned a lot about the pig and the general organs of a human as well. By the end of the project I could run through all of the pigs organs. I think what I learned about myself was that I should be an evil scientist. I was whistling "Singing in the Rain" while cutting open my pigs stomach. It just didn't bother me to do that. I thought it was fun but gross. I think I learned that I have this ability to just cover it up and not let things bug me. I'm not exactly sure why I am this way but it's something that I can do. I think that it helped me in the long run in the project, to just let me focus on the dissection and not being grossed out by the actual pig.
Crime Scene Investigation Project
The Forensic Investigation Project was a project that involve using forensic evidence gathering techniques to solve a crime. We started off this project by learning about exoneration and how DNA evidence has changed crime scene investigations as well the effectiveness of our justice system. We focused on being able to write detailed evidence reports after conducting forensic investigation techniques in class. To finish it off we made our own artistic awareness tiles, which are small images representing exonerees.
During this project I learned about forensic ballistics, fingerprinting, blood typing, and autopsy. The first skill used was forensic ballistics. My group used this to decide whether or not the shooting was a suicide or a murder. We did this by looking at the trajectory at which the bullet was fired using a technique called stringing. Fingerprinting was used to determine who was at the crime scene at any point in time and helped us find some persons of interest. Blood typing helped my group to link certain people even more closely to the crime scene and even possibly narrow down the suspects to one person. Lastly, autopsy, which helped us decide what actually happened to the suspect before and after death. All the evidence gathered helped us come to our final conclusion.
I personally found that blood typing was the most interesting for me. I thought it was a really cool way to link somebody to a crime scene as well as looking at how blood responds to other blood. Learning about antigens, antibodies, and how you decide blood type was very intriguing to me because I had never seen anything like this before but also because it felt like real and true science. During the project I think one thing that I did very well was understanding what was happening in the in class investigation part so then I could transfer some of that knowledge to my evidence reports as well as have a better understanding of the subjects and how they are used in crime scene investigations. I wish I had done a better job of writing my evidence reports in a more professional manner. Something I am not very good at is technical writing. I find my artistic tendencies take hold and I stray away from what I am trying to write, as well as simple things like being specific and scientific.
During this project I learned about forensic ballistics, fingerprinting, blood typing, and autopsy. The first skill used was forensic ballistics. My group used this to decide whether or not the shooting was a suicide or a murder. We did this by looking at the trajectory at which the bullet was fired using a technique called stringing. Fingerprinting was used to determine who was at the crime scene at any point in time and helped us find some persons of interest. Blood typing helped my group to link certain people even more closely to the crime scene and even possibly narrow down the suspects to one person. Lastly, autopsy, which helped us decide what actually happened to the suspect before and after death. All the evidence gathered helped us come to our final conclusion.
I personally found that blood typing was the most interesting for me. I thought it was a really cool way to link somebody to a crime scene as well as looking at how blood responds to other blood. Learning about antigens, antibodies, and how you decide blood type was very intriguing to me because I had never seen anything like this before but also because it felt like real and true science. During the project I think one thing that I did very well was understanding what was happening in the in class investigation part so then I could transfer some of that knowledge to my evidence reports as well as have a better understanding of the subjects and how they are used in crime scene investigations. I wish I had done a better job of writing my evidence reports in a more professional manner. Something I am not very good at is technical writing. I find my artistic tendencies take hold and I stray away from what I am trying to write, as well as simple things like being specific and scientific.