DNA Extraction Lab

Over Thanksgiving break, I worked on an awesome at-home lab! I extracted the DNA from a kiwi using just a few, everyday materials that are found in every household. The main ingredients were rubbing alcohol and dishwasher detergent. The soap breaks down the plasma membrane of the cell and the nuclear envelope of the nucleus, …

Field Trip to Body Worlds Decoded

On Monday, my AP Biology class, along with the environmental science and sports medicine class, took a bus down to San Jose to The Tech Museum of Innovation to visit the Body Worlds Decoded exhibition. This exhibition presents real bodies that have been plastinated, meaning that the body has been preserved by replacing the liquid and …

Cracking the Code of Life

This week in AP Biology class, we watched a documentary about genetics called "Cracking the Code of Life" by PBS. It was about the genes and the progress that science has made in this field. The Human Genome Project made up a major part in this movie. It was a huge project to decode all …

Meiosis in Motion

This week in AP Biology class, we studied meiosis! Meiosis is the process by which somatic, or normal, cells divide into gametes, sex cells like sperm and egg cells. This process is essential to sexual reproduction, and you will understand why by the end of this post! Most of a cell's lifetime is spent in …

Radium Girls Play

On Saturday, October 28, I went to watch the play, Radium Girls, performed by high school students from Serra High School, Notre Dame High School, and Mercy High School. The play was about the radium girls who worked in radium factories painting watches with glowing paint in the 1920's. Radium was a valued substance because …

Curious Driving Question: Why Do Leaves Change Colors in the Fall?

In AP Biology class these past two weeks, we have been learning about photosynthesis on the molecular level. After learning about this, I had several curious questions. I was most curious about why leaves change colors in the fall. I paired up with Preyasi Kumar to investigate this question, and we presented our answer to …