Final Post!

5/27/16

20 Time: TED Talk Reflection

So, the time has come! This project is officially wrapped up, although it will continue to be up and running for years and years. Below is some pictures of the Facebook page as well as my TED talk presentation. The TED talk, for me at least, went pretty smoothly. My video did buffer, which I was anticipating, so I just skipped ahead for a few seconds. I was honestly worried that my presentation would be over 5 minutes but I ended at exactly 5 min, so whew! One thing I think I did well was explain my problems and why things did not work out. One thing I could improve on it voice inflection and slowing down my speech. Looking at the rubric, I would give myself mostly 5s perhaps one point here and there for small things. I felt that I covered my topic, background, struggles, and successes fully. Prepping for this talk was stressful but in the end my work paid off as it was reflected in my grade. I don't think I needed as much prep time as I thought I did, but the more practice the better, I guess. This project has definitely made me more independent as well as a better public speaker. Independent in that I had to complete this project ALL on my own and take the consequences for failing to do so. Public speaking skills were required for the TED talk, which is a good skill to have anyways. The entire project definitely challenged me to think outside of the box but keep my feet grounded at the same time, which is sometimes hard to do but important to learn. Overall, I loved everyone's project and thought our class did a wonderful job.

Credit to Alexandria Tsao
Kimchi Stew

Credit to Megan Fung

Credit to Yena Jeong
"Melancholy"

Screen shot of the "An Original Movement" page

20 Time Reflection

5/10/16

20 Time Reflection

   Over the course of this project, I have expanded into many areas that I wasn't expecting. I think I challenged myself through this very open-ended idea that I wanted to pursue and finding a way to incorporate that into a project. Choosing this challenge seemed like a natural part of the project-- needing to embrace the bigger picture and finding a way to apply it to a smaller, community level. From this, my goal became to include the community and trying to get people to participate in raising the level of awareness for the arts here. Even though I learned a lot about myself through this project, my main goal was to influence my community. To achieve this goal, I planned to make a Facebook page that encourage people to share their interests and talents with others. The page itself went okay; however, people were not as active in sharing as I would like. So I expanded my page to tell about why the arts were important in education, and I contacted an organization about starting a drive. Currently, I am also scheduling a filming day with a friend to make my contribution to the page. I learned that people are quite shy, and that it takes a lot of prodding and promoting to get people to share. If I got a chance to redo this project, I think I would have started trying to research and contact organizations earlier, since communication actually takes a lot of time. Hopefully after this project, the site will still continue to have a following, and I wish to continue to post on there occasionally. 

Reflexes Lab

5/6/15

Reflexes Lab

1. Photopupillary Reflex
1. Recap: Have partner shield one eye from the light for a few minutes. Position a flashlight close to that eye. Have partner remove hand quickly. Watch for change in pupil size.
2. Claim: Pupils adjust in size based on the amount of light. 
3. Evidence: In our group, my partner's pupil got a lot smaller (in comparison to her other eye) after she removed her hand.  You can see the video below of how one's pupil changes based on the amount of light (video courtesy of Jennifer Poo).
4. Reasoning: Pupils constrict or dilate depending on the amount of light because it allows more/ less light into your eye in order to help you see in bright/ dark situations. This also might help in a fight/ flight situation as your eyes focus on the danger.
2. Knee Jerk Reflex
1. Recap: Tap partner's knee with hammer. Observe how fast and how great the reaction is. Then have partner do 30+ air squats and retest. Observe how the reflex changed.
2. Claim: Knee reflex happens faster before squats.
3. Evidence: The reflex before the air squats was a lot greater as my leg kicked higher than after I had performed the squats. Also my leg moved a lot slower after the squats and barely moved in comparison to before.
4. Reasoning: The squats fatigue your leg muscles and therefore the reaction is not as great due to the tired muscles. 
3. Blink Reflex
1. Recap: Have your partner hold up a sheet of plastic wrap in front of their face. Throw a cotton ball at them. Observe how they react.
2. Claim: People blink when objects are thrown at their face.
3. Evidence: My partner blinked when the cotton ball was thrown at her face. Here is a video of how one reacts to objects being thrown at them (video courtesy of Jennifer Poo).
4. Reasoning: She blinked because the reflex of blinking is to protect one's eyes from harm. Therefore, when the cotton ball was thrown at her, her body believed that something was coming at her, causing her to blink.
4. Babe, what's your sign?
1. Recap: Run a pen firmly down one partner's foot. Observe what your partner's response was.
2. Claim: Toes should clench together, if not, one might have nerve damage.
3. Evidence: When the pen was run down the my foot, my toes curl instead of spreading out. 
4. Reasoning: If there is something you're about to step on, you're foot will try to curl away from the item instead of spreading your toes out and possibly stepping on the potentially dangerous item.
5. How fast are you?
1. Hold a yard stick above your partner's hand. Warn them within 5 seconds of dropping the stick. Drop it, and take down the measurement where they catch it. Convert the measurement to time and average the times. Repeat process 3 times, then do it again except while texting.
2. Claim: One will catch the yard stick faster while not texting.
3. Evidence: My reflex time increased when I was texting compared to when I was solely focused on catching the yard stick. My average reaction time went from .17 seconds to .40 seconds, which is a huge increase.  
4. Reasoning: I believe that my reaction time increased because I was not as focused on catching the yard stick when I was texting. Personally, I have terrible reflexes so this lab also confirmed that for me. But the obviously, texting slow down reaction times since the brain is not focused solely on catching the yard stick. This means that if one is texting while driving then one's reaction rate will increasing marginally, which could be the few milliseconds needed to react in a crash. 

Your Brain Map Homework

Your Brain Map: 84 Strategies for Accelerated Learning

Link to the simulation :Brain Map

Cerebral Cortex

1. What do the frontal lobes do? Controls personality, problem solving, memory, language, judgement, and impulse control. Overall it executes behavior. 
2. What is the relationship between selective attention and learning? Selective attention makes your memory capacity greater by prioritizing more important info over less important info. Therefore when learning, you should be thinking about selective attention rather than just memorizing facts. 
3. What is the last part of your brain to develop and what can you do to prevent it from deteriorating? The frontal lobe will be the last part to develop and the first to deteriorate. You can prevent it by not zoning out and transforming information instead of trying to commit it to memory. 
4. What does the neo cortex do? It helps you navigate your body through your senses, spatial awareness, and motor skills. 
5. What is the role of the pre frontal cortex? It controls your personality by organizing your thoughts and actions. 
6. What do we know about the pre frontal cortex’s relationship with multitasking? Multitasking is not real and is actually just the pre frontal cortex jumping back and forth between tasks quickly. 
7. Which part of the brain is associated with speech and language development? Give an interesting fact about this region. Broca's area is responsible for speech and language development. An interesting fact is that tongue twisters are suppose to help the functioning of this area. 
8. Which part of your brain is responsible for thinking the following: “Is it hot in here or is it just me?” Somatosensory cortex. 
9. What does your visual cortex do for you? It helps differentiate colors and see complex things like faces 
10. State three interesting or significant facts about your occipital lobe. One interesting fact is there are different lobes for different purposes like color and sensing motion. Another fact is that it is responsible for your imagination. Thirdly, it's proven that imagining/ visualizing a situation is proven to help you perform better. 
11. What would happen if your temporal lobes were damaged? You would have no long term memory and forget everyday things like dates and where you placed your keys. 
12. What is your “fast brain” and what does it do? The eye fields are the fast brain. They control eye movement and pick up information is mere milliseconds- faster than any other part of the brain. 

Neuron 

1. State 3 things that you could do that would influence your synapses, and have a positive affect on your life and health. Exercising and a healthy diet will positively affect your life and synapses, as omega fatty acids provide good brain power and improve synapse function. Socializing is also proven to help fire more synapses. 
2. What is the relationship between multi-sensory or multi-modal learning and your dendrites? Multi-sensory and multi-modal stimulations in dendrites lead to greater retention because the information is stored in more than one place, making it more likely that you will remember the information. 
3. How does “big picture thinking” and mnemonics affect dendrites and/or learning? It helps because your brain can see the "big picture" then break down the information into smaller sections. On top of that mnemonics help because it is an easy way to remember information due to its tangibility compared to abstract facts. 
4. Describe a neurotransmitter that you feel is very important. Justify your reasoning. Dopamine is a natural neurotransmitter that makes you feel happy. It makes you want to try new things, and an incentive for the brain to retain new information because it will make you happy. However, it can also be abused as many drugs stimulate the release of dopamine. 

Limbic System 

1. What does the corpus callosum do? It communicated between the right and left hemispheres. It is responsible for oral language skills and reading. 
2. What is the relationship between music and the corpus callosum? Music helps strengthen the communication between the 2 hemispheres, therefore increasing the function of the corpus callosum. 
3. Why is the thalamus important? It is important because it not only relays information to the cortex and is responsible for processing information (cognitive functions of the brain), it is responsible for retrieving memories. 

Relate and Review
Summarize what you learned from this tutorial. Relate what you learned to your everyday life and how you can make it better. Use at least 5 of the bolded words from the questions. 5-sentence minimum. You may use the back of this if needed.
One thing I learned from this tutorial was the importance of a healthy lifestyle. It affects the big things like weight and overall health but it also has an incredible important impact on the smaller parts of the body like the synapses, which function more effectively when healthier foods are eaten. I should aim to eat healthier to aid my memorization, especially with all the AP test going on right now. I also learned that music boosts the corpus callosum, which makes all my hours in band seem justified and might even make me practice my instrument more often. Another part of the brain, the visual cortex appears to be linked to the occipital lobe in that both provide the function of allowing us to see, which definitely makes you think about things you take for granted everyday like sight. Lastly, the temporal lobe proves to an important part of my everyday life. Although we might not notice it, the temporal lobe is responsible for memory long term and some short term. I could only imagine what it would be like to have to deal with no longer term memory- in fact, I might not have remember any of this information!

Brain Dissection

4/28/16

Brain Dissection Analysis

Question 1: Exterior of brain (drawing and picture are mirrored- use the color pins for reference)

White- anterior; yellow- cerebrum; green- cerebellum;
 black- posterior; red- brain stem

Drawing of the exterior of the brain

Question 2: Function of these structures

cerebrum- responsible for integrating sensory and neural functions. Initiates and coordinates voluntary movement in the body.
cerebellum- coordinate and regulate muscle activity.
brain stem- regulates involuntary functions like heart beat, breathing, sleeping, etc.

Question 3: Function of myelin in a neuron?

Myelin functions as insulation that allows the signal to travel faster down the neuron.

Question 4: Cross section of brain (drawing/ image are rotated- use color pins for reference)

Silver- medulla oblongata, white- pons; blue- midbrain;
yellow- thalamus; black- hypothalamus; red- corpus callosum; green- optic nerve

Drawing of interior of the brain

Question 5: Functions of structures pinned in question 4

Thalamus- sensory and motor signal relay; controls functions like sleeping and sensory interpretation

Optic nerve- transfer visual information from retina to visual center in brain

Medulla Oblongata- responsible for monitoring the circulatory and respiratory system.

Pons- relays messages from cortex and cerebellum to the cerebrum

Midbrain- motor control; eye movement, hearing, vision, sleep/ wake, alertness, and temperature regulation.

Corpus callosum- integrate motor, sensory, and cognitive signals between the two hemispheres 

Hypothalamus- controls the endocrine system via pituitary gland.

Question 6: Gray and white matter

Gray and white matter of cerebrum

Drawing of gray and white matter

Relate and Review:  In this lab we dissected a sheep's brain in order to identify structures. We started by examining the exterior structures such as the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brain stem. Afterwards we cut the brain in half longitudinally to find the thalamus, hypothalamus, optic nerve, medulla oblongata, pons, midbrain, and corpus callosum. From there we cut off a chunk of the cerebrum to further examine white vs. gray matter. There was a very clear difference in the density of tissue and how it related to its function in the brain. For example, the corpus callosum was fibrous and dense as it connects the two hemispheres. The cerebrum had a nice contrast of gray and white matter (see drawing in question 6) due to the various functions that it must perform. The dissection related to what we've been learning in class about the function of the structures of the brain as well as the structures themselves.

Sheep Eye Dissection

4/26/16

Sheep Eye Dissection Analysis

1. Observed outside of the eye. Identified fatty tissue, cornea, extrinsic muscles. Fatty tissue cushions the eye while in the socket. Cornea is for protection mostly. Extrinsic muscles help move the eye.
2. Identified optic nerve and sclera. Removed the fatty tissue and extrinsic muscle. Optic nerve connects to the brain and sends signals. Sclera is very tough and is what makes up the eye.
3. Made an incision halfway between cornea and optic nerve. Cut through sclera to open the eye. Identified lens, vitreous humor, choroid, blind spot, retina, tapetum lucidum. Lens focuses light on the retina. Vitreous humor helps the eye maintain its shape. Choroid brings blood with oxygen and nutrients to the eye. Blind spot is where the one spot where the retina is attached. Tapetum lucidum reflects light onto the retina.
4. Identified ciliary body and back of iris. Ciliary body helps change shape of the lens and secretes aqueous humor.
5. Removed vitreous humor and lens. Identified suspensory ligaments, lens, vitreous humor. Suspensory ligaments keep lens in place. 
6. Removed cornea. Identified iris, pupil, and aqueous humor. Iris regulates pupil size. Pupil controls how much light is let into the eye. Aqueous humor helps to also maintain shape of the eye.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4
PC: Alexandria Tsao

Step 5

Step 6

Moving Toward the End

4/18/16

20 Time: Fourth Update

The past few weeks have been pretty busy with spring break, college trips, and tons of finals. I have continued research on how the arts are beneficial to older people (teenagers, adults, elderly). It's been interesting to see how the arts help the elderly with maintaining good mental health (link) especially when we all have older loved ones in our lives; this information really applies to all of us sooner or later.
A few setbacks have taken place with the lack of posting and scheduling difficulties. I don't want to be the only one posting on the page, yet it is a lot harder to convince everyone else to post. Perhaps I will send out a mass Facebook message to encourage people to participate in my project. On the second issue, my friend and I were set to film the video sometime this month; however, both she and I were out the entire spring break and could not meet up when we were an whole country apart. I do believe that we will film it sometime in the next few weeks since we keep pushing the date off due to school events.
I guess my next steps are to send out that Facebook message, have some friends to some advertising, and really adhere to filming dates.

The Clay Brain

4/14/16

The Clay Brain

  We created a clay brain in class today. Basically we put together a 2D model of the brain from two views: the left hemisphere along the sagittal plane and the right cerebral hemisphere. Each region is color coded and a key was made at the bottom for easy identification. 

"The Woman with a Hole in Her Brain"

4/13/16

"The Woman with a Hole in Her Brain"

  A 24- year old woman went to a hospital in China complaining of nausea and dizziness. She also has had problems with walking steadily and was a slow developer as a child. After a CAT scan, doctors found that the woman was missing her cerebellum, a region underneath the two hemispheres that makes up 10% of the brain. The cerebellum is known as the "little brain" as it contains a different structure, made up of denser folds and contains 50% of the brain's neurons. Most people die with such a condition and normally suffer from conditions like severe mental impairment, movement disorder, epilepsy, or buildup of fluid.

  On a similar topic, if one was missing or damaged their occipital lobe, he/ she would probably live. They, however, would possibly have symptoms like loss of some/all vision, inability to identify colors, or hallucinations (brainandspinalcord.org). Since damage to the occipital lobe affects the vision, the body would lose visual function and perception, and therefore would  need to compensate. In an effort to rebalance the body, the other sense would have to work more. The brain does this by sending the signals from the occipital lobe to other parts of the brain such as the temporal lobe, which processes sound (NCBI). 

Power Hour Reading

3/31/16

Power Hour Reading

1. Title of book: Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals about Morality
2. Chapter titles: Neuroscience and Morality, Morality and the Mind, Beyond the Mind Zone
3. Summary: Our brains function in miraculous ways that cause us to act unseen ways, which the author Laurence Tancredi explores in the terms of morality. He first starts off by trying to define morality as it is present in our culture; his viewpoint is that the easiest example to see is religion. He discusses how each religion produce a set of rule which people should live by, an example would be the Seven Deadly Sin in Christianity, which is still present in our society today. Tancredi, however, argues that three of these sins, gluttony, sloth, and lust, can actually be accredited to the function (or dysfunction) of the brain as certain chemicals are released that can classify these sins as addictions rather than simple wrongdoings.
   Tancredi later goes to talk about the mind (which is not the same as the brain-- the brain is the actual, physical organ) and morality. Those who have taken AP Lang will recognize some of the philosophers mentioned in this section of the book. Tancredi pulls ideas from Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Satre, B.F. Skinner, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Adam Smith, Socrates, and Aristotle. He also recalls an episode he had with a patient of his (he was also a psychiatrist) who held no qualms about cheating on his wife and abusing drugs. Instead the man only wanted Tancredi to keep his secret, but the scariest part was that the patient felt no remorse for the pain he was causing to those around him. To this, Tancredi questions whether this was an example of too much "free will". Moving away from this idea, Tancredi starts to mention how we develop our morality from childhood to adulthood. Referencing Freud, Tancredi pulls the idea of the ID, Ego, and Superego and the fact that the ID  is innate while our morality is not, as it is part of the Superego and developed by the environment around us. He also looks at another study of research that believed morality was gained in steps and that each step built off the last from childhood all the way to a functioning adult.
   In the third chapter, Tancredi moves more into the actual function of the brain by exploring how we act and how our brain responds to these actions. He mentions current sensory data and stored representation and how these are key motivators of action according to Libet, Platt, and Glimcher. Following this he looks into how damage to certain parts of the brain bring about different character traits such as those with Williams disease.
   Thesis: Our brain is not only a physical unit that causes responses in the body but in fact makes up our entire morality from our emotions and actions to our mind and being.
4. Tancredi's novel is more theoretical than practical since he argues his view on philosophy and uses facts about the brain to support them. Although this book is not research, it can still impact those who read it by giving them a different perspective how they themselves act and alter their views on morality based on Tancredi's own philosophy. The novel itself is credible as the research is thorough and the idea of the philosophers are correctly conveyed. The only downside is that he failed to give his opinion on the ideas of the philosophers, which is a shame since they all have very profound, intriguing theories. I do agree with the philosophers he did choose to incorporate as they are essential to this topic; however, I dislike some of the theories (such as Satre's existentialism and Saint Thomas Aquinas) they presented, which detracted from Tancredi's research for me personally. However, I did enjoy the excerpt that I read and would love to ask why Tancredi chose the philosophers that he did and what he himself thinks of their theories. 

Third Position, Third Update

3/28/16

20 Time Update

   This week I started off by reading some articles about the benefits of art in school (here's one of the article: How California Schools Are Using Art to Boost Achievement). They mention some great benefits such as cognitive function and motor skills in another article. But the question that still stuck with me was these articles seem to focus on the younger generation, what about benefits of the arts in teenagers and adults? I hope to further uncover this answer as my project continues. I will also post the links to these articles on my Facebook page as I find answers to my own questions.

   There haven't really been any setbacks besides filming, but it turned out to be okay since I also got to come up with some more choreography for the piece I hoped to film before I leave on spring break. The piece right now is about 45 seconds long and I'm wondering whether if I should extend it to a minute as it will take a while to come up with those last 15 seconds. My next step right now is to either film what I have or to finish out the phrase and go to a minute, which might not be ideal. I guess we'll see...

Unit 7 Reflection

3/24/16

Unit 7 Reflection

    As we get closer to the end of the year, we've started covering our last few topics. This unit was all about the muscles: how they work, their structure, the different types of movement, injuries, etc. We first started out with the different types of movements, which include motions like flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, rotation, circumduction, etc. However, movement is only one of the muscles various characteristics; they are also contractible, extensible, elastic, and excitable. These characteristics allow muscles to move and work in the way that they do. In fact, we learned just how muscles contract. It's the individual sarcomeres that do the work as actin and myosin filaments slide past each other to shorten the length of our muscle tissue. We then got a little more specific with certain muscles and what actions they perform. Our last lecture was on performance enhancements, which is a very broad category, and surprisingly, not all of the methods mentions were harmful. All in all, it was a very informative unit that definitely got me thinking about how I move. Even though we covered the basics, I would still love to learn about the muscle system in more detail and perhaps look at more of the muscles present in the human body or even animals.
   In order to solidify these new ideas, labs and short projects were utilized in this unit. We did a chicken dissection that helped us identify all the different muscles in our body without having to harm other human beings (always a positive). One of my favorite discoveries of that lab was the pectoralis minor (pictured below) because it was a muscle under a muscle.

Picture taken by Jennifer Poo

On top of the chicken dissection we also did things like making up dances to demonstrate all the different types of muscle movements. For how muscles function we had to create a short video that described the entire process (check out the video here). And, lastly, yesterday we made an advertisement for performance enhancing substances. Well, ours wasn't really a substance as much as it was an action. Either way, the picture below is what we came up with, and I'll say I find it pretty funny.

Ad for massages and myofascial release
Made by Jennifer Poo, Alexandria Tsao, and me

All of these were great ways which helped me solidify all the information I had been learning these past few weeks.
    In addition to doing this unit, our class has also been working on our 20 Time projects, which has been a load of fun. I find myself trying to think of new ideas for my page, but I've been in a bit of a tough spot with time and other schoolwork, which I am trying to change so I can focus on this project. Please feel free to contribute any ideas/ work to my 20 Time page on Facebook-- I would greatly appreciate it.
    Checking in with my New Year's goals, I feel that I have been doing a fairly okay job at maintaining them. However, with so many events during this time of the year I have had a harder time getting to work ever weekend, but I do work out extra days with  my manager, so I guess that's a plus. 

Performance Enhancement Advertisement- Massages

3/23/16

Performance Enhancing Advertisement- Massage

Performance enhancing drugs is a broad term that basically refers to any substance that includes an essential vitamin or mineral. Most are used to help boost muscle, endurance, recovery, and weight loss. They are dangerous, so much so that their cons tend to outweigh the pros. For example, supplements are not regulated, which some performance enhancing drugs are classified as. Without regulation, it is unclear what is added to the supplements; they can even be unbeneficial to the consumer. On top of that, performance enhancing drugs, in general, can lead to acne, high BP, heart attacks, strokes, AIDS, ruined reputation/ career, liver damage, and headaches. Mentally, they can cause "roid rage", mood swings, paranoia, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. However, there are some methods that can be potentially beneficial such as a massage, which relaxes the muscles and speeds up recovery. Yet, this is one of the few methods that work as even strategies such as carb loading or a high protein diet can often go wrong. In the long run, it seems safer to avoid any performance enhancing substances.

Update on 20 Time Progress

3/16/16

2nd Blog Post: 20 Time

    This past few weeks I haven't learned as many facts as I have grown to see different perspectives. What I realized is how many different art forms there are, and how everyone sees "art" in a different light. Hopefully as more people start to participate on the Facebook page I can start to please a larger range of people by having various art forms that suits everyone's tastes.

    Not so much on the topic of my project, but I found that I appreciate art in many of its forms from pictures to music to dancing. I continue to try to find inspiration in other's works, as it pushes me to try and better my "art". The things that I learned about myself I can apply to my project and my audience. Knowing what I know now about the existence of so many different art forms and people's preferences, I can then cater the page to try and please all the viewers.
    One setback I hit was my crazy scheduling this month. I've had a bunch of tests and quizzes, at least 2 or 3 every week since I started, and spring sports also just started up. I'm trying to get my schedule settled again, and everything is starting to calm down, which will hopefully allow me more time to work on my page and videos. Also, I hope to start planning dates to film videos on so that way I cannot fall behind if I give myself a due date. Looking forward, I plan to put out at least 2 videos as well as get a few more people to share their elements on the page. I will also be contacting more people about posting to the Facebook page.
 
PLEASE CHECK OUT THE FB PAGE: An Original Movement

Chicken Dissection Analysis

3/17/16 (Saint Patrick's Day!)

Chicken Dissection Analysis

1. What we did: We started with the breast of the chicken. First we removed the skin, then we made two cuts around the stemum and through the pectoralis major to expose the pectoralis minor. Then we moved to the back of the chicken where we exposed the trapezius and latissimus dorsi. We detached the wing and examined the deltoid, biceps brachii, and tricpes humeralis; here, we also found a clear view of some tendons. We then moved to the forearm of the wing and identified the flexor carpi ulnaris and the brachioradialis. Moving to the inferior part of the bird, we looked at the thigh and found the sartorius, iliotibaialis/ glueus maximum, biceps femoris, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and quadriceps femoris. After that we moved to the calf and found the gastrocnemius, peroneus longus, and the tibialis anterior. Having completed the dissection, we cleaned up.
   What I learned: This lab helped give me a visual of what we learned in class and in the lectures. It was cool to see the tendons and their insertions and origins. Pulling on the chicken wing show me the functional and physical difference between the two points. The insertion flexes when the muscles moves while the origin remains immovable. Also looking at the chicken wing I also got a broader sense of how the muscles, bones, and tendons play a role in movement. An example would be when we were extending the wing of the chicken, we were moving the forearm and the upperarm, which consisted of the ulna, radius, and humerus. The bones worked together to form the joint with the tendons connected the muscle tissue to the bone and allowed the wing to flex and extend. The muscle tissue itself was the thing that was actually expanding and contracting due to the sarcomeres. Through the lab I also recognized some differences between the chicken's anatomy and our own. For example, the pectoralis muscle group is a lot larger than our own. Another difference is that the calf is marginally larger. Both of these reason are due to the fact that these chickens are specifically and genetically engineered to produce the maximum amount of meat. However, chickens and humans are similar in that we contain the same muscle type of muscles tissue and cartilage, and in addition, we also have basically the same muscle structure as many of the muscles found in chickens are the same in humans. 
2. 



In humans, used for reverse curls;
Extends the wing/ arm



Flexes the leg;
aids in leg curls and power running



Helps flex arms and adduct arms;
aids in pushing movements;
pull wings ventrally








Helps with pulling motion;
adduction of arms






Extends the thigh 



Extends the thigh






Flexes the foot



Abducts arm







Pulls the shoulders down and forward;
Help do recovery stroke in birds



Flexes the hand;
 wrist curls in humans







Pulls hand back;
reverse wrist curls in humans






Extends the thigh and flexes leg






Extends foot;
Flexes lower leg;
Helps stand on toes






Connects muscle to bone






Flexes the wing/ arm



Flexes thigh;
Allows crossing of legs







Extends the foot



Shrugging shoulders;
Pulls shoulders back







Flexes thigh and extends lower leg;
Used in leg extensions in humans

What Happens When You Stretch?

3/14/16

What Happens When You Stretch

(when you don't see the hw correctly because there's a glare on the board so your submission is a day late :( )

• "When you stretch, the muscle fiber is pulled out to its full length sarcomere by sarcomere, and then the connective tissue takes up the remaining slack"

When I stretch I never though about how the muscle lengthens, I always assumed stretching happened as an entire aunt rather than on a microscopic level. I also never knew that connective tissues worked as part of stretching, but now that I think of it I remember some times where that could of happened.

• "the golgi tendon organ records the change in tension...when this tension exceeds a certain threshold, it triggers the lengthening reaction which inhibits the muscles from contracting and causes them to relax"

I never knew about the golgi tendon of the proprioceptors that send signals of our movements, but its interesting how our muscles are triggered to relax into a stretch, I've always wondered how the muscles knew not to recontract.

• "Proprioceptors are the source of all proprioception: the perception of one's own body position and movement"

I can't believe that our bodies are so complex but I guess it makes us the functioning people we are now. I wonder how the proprioceptors know all this info through just the nervous system.

Relate and Review:

     Stretching is the lengthening of all the individual sarcomeres. It starts with a signal from the proprioceptor that tracks basically all our movement. Intrafusal muscle fibers and extrafusal muscle fibers are 2 types of muscle fibers and golgi tendon organs are near the end of the muscle fiber are responsible for determining which part of the muscle stretches first (middle then outer). Golgi tendon transfers other info like tension to trigger the lengthening reaction which stops muscles from contracting and causes them to relax. Golgi's main function is to protect the muscles, tendons, and ligaments from injury. The opposing motion of the agonist vs. antagonist is called reciprocal inhibition as antagonists are inhibited from contracting. The proprioceptors record the change of length which triggers the stretch reflex which attempts to resist change in muscle length by causing muscles to contract. This is why holding a stretch is very important.

Unit 6 Reflection

2/26/16

Unit 6 Reflection

  This unit was about the skeletal system: bones, function, disorders, and joints. The essential themes and understanding were the various kinds of bones, the structure and function of said bones, disorders that affect the skeleton, and how the bones work in relation to other functions and structures in and outside our bodies.We got to learn about how bones are formed/ heal through osteoblast and osteoclasts. Even before that we recognized the basic functions of bones: structure, blood cell production, protection of soft organs, movement, storage of minerals and fats. The function bones does not change from bone to bone, although there are 4 types of bones: long, short, flat, and irregular. All of our bones are also classified by their location in the body. Axial bones are along the axis and basically consist of the skull, spine, and ribs while the rest of the bones are considered appendicular. However, sometime the skeleton does not cooperate the way it should. Disorders of the skeletal system include arthritis, osteoporosis, scoliosis, kyphosis, rickets, and lordosis.

Diagram of the human body- Wikipedia

  One thing I would like to learn more about would be all 206 bones in the bone. We did memorize a decent amount for the class, but our bodies are much more complex than we realize. An unanswered question that I have would be how structural differences come to affect our body such as scoliosis, bunions, etc.
  This unit's lab really helped me connect my knowledge with real-life concepts. The bone lab let me identify bones in the body (macroscopic) and examine what makes up bones (microscopic). The owl pellet lab we did (http://akmr16.blogspot.com/2016/02/owl-pellet-lab-conclusion.html) not only utilized our knowledge in a unique way, it also engaged everyone in a fun lab.

More pictures from the owl pellet lab

  Now, going back to the very beginning of this semester, the New Year's goals that I set are coming along well (http://akmr16.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-years-resolutions.html) I am a little more conscience of what I'm eating, and I do try to exercise everyday. In addition I do work consistently every Saturday for 8 hours, which, although tiring, is very rewarding.