Ester in Biology 11 : 10/28/13

Pictures From the Pond and the Microscope.

Goldfishes turn white?

My interesting fact today is that goldfishes turn white in the dark.

As goldfish owners might have noticed, your goldfish turns white sometimes. You may ask why in the world is this happening? I learned that goldfish change color in response to light levels. Just like many other animals, they have pigment production which is the same thing as us getting a sun tan. The fishes have cells called chromatophores that produce these pigments and either give coloration or reflect the light. Goldfishes that are kept indoors are much lighter than goldfishes who are exposed to sunlight.If you keep the fish in the dark all the time, the chromatophores wont produce any more pigments so the fishes color will start to fade. This causes those chromatophores who have the natural color, to die and the new cells won't be stimulated enough to form the new pigment. So, to sum this up short and sweet, just like us losing a tan in the winter time, goldfishes get much paler, or a whitish color when they are not exposed to light.

Mid- Term Reflection

1) I love biology this year. There are so much interesting things to learn and know about. This year in Biology, I'm most proud of the evolution video project I completed with Jaime. This particular project is important to me because I put so much time and effort into it. I'm glad that in the end, it turned out a success. Another project I'm proud of is the different creatures project. That project required a lot of creativity and was really fun to do. I as well as my partner, put our brains to work and tried to think of a way we could combine all these different creatures together, but creatively. Last but not least, I'm extremely proud of my virus blog post. I worked hard to find out the history of the small pox epidemic and found it quite interesting at the same time. I honestly enjoyed learning a bit more about biology as well as a bit of our history, no matter how disgusting the smallpox pictures were.

2) My binder is generally clean ( well as clean as a teenagers binder can get.) I have all out "talk and write" papers and all the assignments. I like to keep everything I am given just in case I need it for a test or a quiz. I have been a bit late on maybe one or two blog posts but I'm usually on time with every other blog post and assignment.

3) The blog post that means a lot to me is the Hammerhead Shark post. I love this one just because of the fact that I was so interested on the reason they are shaped that certain way. I love learning interesting facts so I was determined to figure it out.

4) To me, engaging in class means that you are participating and are well aware of what is going on. I'm not much of a person that speaks up when I'm not called in class. Whenever I have a question, I raise my hand and ask it. I do listen to everything that is going on and engage in my own quiet way. When we get out of the classroom and go to the forest, pond, etc... is where I excel in engaging. I really like our class and have no problem saying my opinion and giving advice. I really enjoy when we get out of the classroom it gives me a chance to learn in a different environment actually witnessing things instead of looking at pictures of them in the overhead projector.

5) My goal for the rest of the semester is to continue my work ethics, if not, improve them. I also want to try something new and get out of my comfort zone a little bit. Overall, I want to be successful in this class and learn lots of new things in Bio 11.