expectations for class
The expectations I had for this class was very high. The last time I had a biology class was probably in the 3rd grade, Ms Kris. We studied butterflies! I don't remember much from that class besides going to the school garden a lot, but if it wasn't that memorable then it probably wasn't that great. This year my expectations included learning about the human body, more than animals since I know other classes are learning more of the biological side of animals like fish. I was hoping that we'd do really interesting projects that included the human anatomy.
memorable event as a scientist
A moment this semester that really stood out to me was the fetal pig dissection in early November. This was so interesting to me and I felt like a surgeon. In the dissection, day 2 I believe, I had to crack the spine and ribs of the pig. I faced my palms down with my fingers pointing out and pushed while it opened up. I felt the breaking of the bones crack underneath my hands. What may be too much for some people was totally fine for me. I didn't cringe or anything, I enjoyed it. This moment was important for me because I started to wonder what it would be like to be a surgeon for a living. This is when I learned how much I do enjoy biology!
evolved as a scientist
I feel like I’ve evolved as a scientist in the sense that I look st the more scientific side of things. Instead of just looking at something, I observe it and make mental connections to different things in my head. This has helped me push my thinking in how I see things and also how I can connect class work so the honors what that I’ve done. Without taking honors classes this semester, I don’t think that I would have listened as much as I did. An example in the classroom is doing the observing nature mini project. This project we at first drew a flower and then studied our wondering about them. We learned about the reproductive aspects of the flowers which really shocked me. I never would have thought about a flower reproducing, I just thought you buy more and plant them but they do it all with the help of bees and wind for pollination. An example of this outside of school was when I was on vacation in Hawai‘i. There we did multiple tours and one that stood out to me was the tubing. I was just excited to tube down the mountain and through caves. I learned a lot of that tour of how the environment in Hawai‘i made the island sustainable. Kaua‘i is the wettest place on earth so there they get about 900 inches of rain!! And I also learned that all the fruits we associate with being “Hawaiian” like pineapple or guava, actually didn’t originate from the Hawaiian islands. Immigrants brought them to help them create the life they needed. Only sugarcane was from the island.