Pathogens & Immunity

Pathogens and immunity was a very interesting unit. Pathogens is a term that is used to describe infection agents. a microorganism, in the widest sense such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus, that causes disease in its host. The host may be an animal, a plant, a fungi or even another microorganism. Along with pathogens the immune system is is what protects our body from some of the pathogens.  The immune system must detect a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and distinguish them from the organism's own healthy tissue. Pathogens and the immune system play a constant cops and robbers game. One activity I enjoyed doing during this unit was the paper slide project.  My group picked on pathogen and made a little move about it. 

Cell Communication

The cell communication unit focussed  on how a cell gives and receives messages with it's environment and with itself. Cells can communicate directly with one another. They can change their own internal working in response by way of chemical and mechanical signals. In multicellular organisms, cell signaling allows for specialization of groups of cells. In single celled organisms, signaling allows populations of cells to coordinate with one another and work like a team to accomplish tasks no single cell could carry out its own.The unit was very interesting. one activity that I liked was mouse party. During this activity you got to the the effects of different drugs on mice.

Cell Structure, function & transport

Cell structure is a pretty detailed compact thing. There are two cells, Animal and plant cells. They have a lot of the same parts but they also have their own individual parts that the other cell does not have. Looking at Eukarotic cells, they have a nucleus that is the "control canter". The nucleus holds the DNA. Inside the nucleus there are chromatin. It is a material in cells that contains DNA and carries genetic information and direct functions of a cell. The over all structure of an animal cells is, a cell membrane, ribosomes, cytoplasm, nucleus, nucleus, Er, Golgi complex, lysosomes, and mitochondria. The plant cell has a lot of the same parts but there are differences. The structure of a plant cell is like this: vacuole, chloroplasts, cell wall, ER, nucleus, nucleolus, mitochondria, cell membrane, and cytoplasm. Cells all have different forms of transportation but some of the main ways are, flagellum and cilia.
This unit was very interesting and I enjoyed the labs that took place during this unit time frame.