EARTHWORM DISSECTION

Earthworm Dissection

On last friday, the 30th of November, our class had a earthworm dissection. When I walked into the class and saw the dissection guide sheet to pick up, I thought it was just gross. But because of this experience, I would be able to handle other dissections without having difficult times. The purpose of this dissection was to see the parts and organs, how they are connected to each other, and where they are located. Before this dissection, to be honest, I was not even interested in earthwom and willing to learn about it. But after the experience I could actually learn the parts that I would not be able to by just reading textbook and looking at pictures. It was amazing how an earthworm is structured so perfectly for example, how setae makes the earthworm move and well adapted to its habitat, also how the reproduction works and make soil good. For each part, we wanted to take photos of them but the quality of our camera wasn't good so I had to upload pictures from Google image. Below are photos and answers for each questions

1. the name of the pumping organs of an earthworm is known as aortic arches or auxiliary hearts which pumps blood throughout the body. And a worm has 5 hearts.

2. . This is the picture showing the digestive tract through which food passes.
Mouth: opening to the digestive tract
Pharynx: helps suck food in
Esophagus: helps move food to crop
Crop: helps moisten food
Gizzard: sand and gravel helps grind food up; this is used in Mechanical digestion
Large Intestine: further digestion and absorption; this is used in chemical digestionAnus: excretes wastes

3. The cerebral ganglion serves as the brain of the earthworm, and is the swollen region of nerves which connects every segment to the brain. It is connected with the ventral nerve cord as you can see in the picture. The ventral nerve cord runs down the entire length of its body. At each segment on the ventral nerve cord is a ganglion.

4. It is essential to understand the effects of earthworms' excretory system on soil. They produce a lot of excrement. Long tubes called nephridia collect waste which goes into the bladders at the end of each nephridium. Then the bladder expels liquid waste through pores along the body, and solid waste exits to the soil through the intestines and the anus. 

5. In this photo, the earthworms are eating organic wastes, such as vegetable peelings. Earthworms are substrate feeders, meaning that it feeds on its surroundings. They live in soil, so they eat what is in the soild such as decaying plant and animal matter with some soil in it. 

6. The setae makes an earthworm well adapted to its habitat,  the setae, or hair-like projections from each segment help the earthwrom to attach onto the soil when it burrows and move through the dirt. Without the help of the setae, the earthworm would have difficult time to pull itself forward and be unable to live in its environment. 

7. The earthworm's digestive system is adapted for extracting relatively small amounts of food from large amounts of ingested soild because it has a muscular organ called Gizzard. The gizzard churn the food and breaks it down. 

8. If I dissect the remainder of the worm to its posterior end, I would be able to obserb the continuation of the intestine, the ventral nerve cord, and the anus because From about 1/3 the way down its pharynx, esophagus, crop and gizzard. The rest of the worm to the end is all intestine.

9. Earthworm's reproductive organs have important roles. The third set of setae is used in the mating process. They are used to hold the earthworms together while mating. These setae actually penetrate the mate’s body during the mating act. Once they are in position, sperm from each worm passes to the other and is collected and stored in special sacks. The process lasts 2 to 3 hours. In the second part of the reproductive process, a special slimy substance is produced by the clitellum the slime forms a tube around the earthworm. Then he crawls backwards into his tunnel and the slime tube slips forward off of his body. As it does, it passes over the male and female openings, the eggs (from the parent) and the sperm (from the mate) are released from the body.The cocoons are deposited deep inside the worms tunnel below the frost line. The earthworms usually hatch within 30 to 60 days, and they will only hatch if and when the conditions are right for their survival. If there is not enough soil bacteria (the good kind) the worms will not be released.

ZOOLOGY WEBQUEST

ZOOLOGY WEBQUEST

3 photos and a little bit of descriptions for each phylum (Porifera/Cnidaria/Platyhelminthes)

Porifera

Genus: Callyspongia Armigera
Class: Demospongiae.

Its family is Callyspongiidae, and order is Haplosclerida.
Its colour is gray, it is tough and brancing in shape. 

Genus: Hymenamphiastra cyanocrypta

Its common name is Cobalt sponge.
The blue organism in the picture is the sponge.

Geunus: Tethya aurantia

Its common name is Orange puffball sponge.It grows to about 10cm in diameter. Oscula are present on the upper surface.

Cnidaria

Geunus: Balanophyllia elegans
Class: Anthozoa

Its common name is Orange cup coral.Its habitat is reefs & pilings and animal type is Invertebrates

Genus: Corynactis californica
Class: Anthozoa

Its common name is Strawberry anamone.a bright red colonial anthozoan similar to sea anemones and scleractinian stony corals. 

Genus: Paracyathus stearnsi
Class: Anthozoa
Its common name is Brown cup coral.A small, brown, solitary cup coral with a translucent/white polyp.

Platyhelminthes

Genus: Pseudoceros
Species: bajae

Its family is Pseudocerotidae, and order is Polycladida.
It can be found in Baja California, Mexico.

Genus: Pseudoceros
Species: dimidiatus

Its faimly is Pseudocerotidae, and order is Ploycladida.
It can be found in Hawaii, USA

Genus: Maiazoon
Species: orsaki

Its family is Psedocerotidae and order is Polycladida.
It can be found in Maldives, Ari Atoll, Bathala Tila.
And its length would be about 30mm.

Biology Collection Assignment

BIOLOGY COLLECTION ASSIGNMENT

I unfortunately was not able to go to the vancouver aquarium with the class, so this is what I am assigned to do instead of the aquarium assignment.

From Google image
AUTOTROPH
Autotrophs are organisms capable of synthesizing their own food from inorganic substances using solar or chemical energy. 
For instance, almost any kind of plant is an autotroph, making its food by using sunlight (Photosynthesis).

From Google image.
ALTRUISTIC BEHAVIOR
Altruistic behavior is a behavior that promotes the survival chances of others at a cost to ones own. It is a self-sacrifice for the benefit of others.
Here in the picture, the monkeys are picking out each other's parasites.

From Google image.
AMNIOTIC EGG
Reptiles, mammals, and birds lay amniotic eggs, which contain a yolk to nourish the developing organism. Eggs are used to protect the organism as it develops, and the egg also aids in gas and energy exchange.

From Google image
ANTHER & FILAMENT OF STAMEN
Anther is the Upper part of the male floral organ (stamen) that produces pollen grains; at maturity, it splits to release them. And filament is the Cylindrical axis connecting the anther to the rest of the flower.

From Google image
BATESIAN MIMICRY
Batesian mimicry is  is a form of mimicry in the animal world which involves masquerading as a dangerous animal species. In the picture, the butterflies look very similar to each other to keep themselves safe. 

From Google image
BILATERAL SYMMETRY
is the arrangement of an organism's body parts into left and right halves on either side of a central axis.

From Google image.
THE CALVIN CYCLE
The Calvin cycle is the dark reaction in plants, that results in formation of the glucose molecule.  Photosynthesis is divided up into the Light reactions and the Calvin Cycle. The "photo" part is the light reaction part, and the "synthesis" is the Calvin Cycle. 
The Calvin Cycle's whole existence is to produce sugar. 

From Google image.
CAMBIUM
 Cambium is a layer of material inside a plant or tree which consists of actively dividing cells which generate growth for the plant and which phloem, xylem, or cork grows by division.

From Google image.
COMMENSALISM
Commensalism is where one organism benefits but the other is unaffected. Here in the picture, the clownfishes are being protected from parasites by staying in the anemone.

From Google image.
DETRITOVORE
Detritovores are organisms that eat organic matter, while helping the matter decompose. Here in the pictrue, a worm is eating decomposing matter and helping to make healthy and rich soil.

From Google image
FROND
Frond is the leaf or leaflike part of a palm, fern, or similar plant. It is also the the reproduction organ of a fern. 

From Google image.
GYMNOSPERM LEAF
The term "gymnosperm" comes from the Greek word gymnospermos, meaning "naked seeds".Gymnosperm seeds develop either on the surface of scales or leaves, often modified to form cones

From Google image.
HETEROTROPH
Heterotroph is a consumer which must take food from other plants , it cannot produce its own food.It's an organism that can not create organic carbon they need for growth from inorganic carbon (like carbon dioxide). This contrasts with autotrophs.

From Google image.
LICHEN
Each lichen is made up of a fungus and an alga (green or blue-green). They can be easily found everywhere on trees, and rocks.

From Google image.
LITTORAL ZONE ORGANISM

Littoral zone organism is an organism that lives along the shore of a lake, sea, ocean, or pond. The cat tails in the photo are a common example of a littoral zone organism.

From Google image.
LONG-DAY PLANT
Long-day plants bloom in spring and early summer. Some examples of long-day plants are clover, irises, and hollyhocks. Florists and commercial plant growers can adjust the amount of light a plant receives to force it to bloom out of season.

From Google image.
MUTUALISMMutualism is when both organism benefits from each other.  In this photo,  the flower is helped by the bee for pollination, and the bee is getting honey from it. 

From Google image.
PARASITISM
Parasitism is a symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives in or on another organism (the host) and consequently harms the host while it benefits. In the picture, the mosquito is taking away blood which is harmful to the person. 

From Google image.
POLLINATOR
Pollinator is an insect or an animal that causes plants to make fruit or seeds. They touch the part of the flower and move the pollens to another plant. In the picture, a bee is being a pollinator. 

From Google image.
RADIAL SYMMETRY
Radial symmetry is a form of symmetry, arranged equally in all directions from a central point. Radially symmetric images repeat the same pattern around a central point. Thinking of a perfectly sliced pizza is an easy way to understand this term. 

From Google image.
STIGMA & STYLE OF CARPEL
The stigma is the receptive tip of a carpel of a flower, and it receives pollen at pollination and it is on the stigma that the pollen grain germinates. And the Style connects the stigma to the ovary. Styles are always tube-like — either long.

From Google image.
TERRITORIAL BEHAVIOR
Teriitorial behavior is the methods by which an animal, or group of animals, protects its territory from incursions by others of its species. Territorial boundaries may be marked by sounds such as bird song, or scents such as pheromones secreted by the skin glands of many mammals. In the photo, the ants are fighting to occupy the territory. 

From Google image.
TROPISM
Tropism is the inclination of an organism (plant, animal) to turn towards or away from a stimulus and the movement of a plant in response to a stimulus. The plant in the picture is growing towards the sky where the sunlight is coming from. 

From Google image.
UNICELLULAR ORGANISM
is an organism that consists of only one cell, in contrast to a multicellular organism that consists of multiple cells. The picture is a photo of a cell of a unicellular organism. 

From Google image.
VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES
Vestigial structures are those structures that are present in a species, but that have lost most or all of their original functionality due to evolution. They are no longer used and functioned. The picture show s the pelvic bones of a whale. 

FUNGI

The biology class went on a fungus walk near the school on last friday. The purpose of the trip was to see various fungus with our eyes and find out where the fungus can be found. I wish I could go, and see variety of fungus that are near our school but I wasn't able to go with the class. However, I've been learning about fungus for the last week and found out a lot of information about fungus. Fungi are classified according to their methods of reproduction and their basic structure, and most people would think of fungi as plants because the fungi do look like plants, but they are in a different kingdom seperate from plants. Fungus are  eukaryotic heterotrphs which mean that they have cells that have nucleus and depend on other organisms for food.
Through the lessons from this past week, I got to know the things that fungi have which make them unique and distinct. One of them is that their method of obtaining food is very important to the nature. They absorb food through their cell walls and cell membranes, then enzymes would break down leaves, fruits, and many other dead organisms into simple molecules which diffuse across the cell walls and membranes. The powerful digestive enzymes that they produce help to recycle nutrients and essential chemicals by breaking down dead organisms. I've been thinking of fungi just as dowdy plants that are everywhere, but fungi have been playing an important role in nature. There are several types of fungi which are protist-like fungi, common molds, sac fungi, club fungi and imperfect fungi. Some of them are not always beneficial to us and could harm us but there are a lot of benefits that we get from them such as yeast which we often use for baking and making wines and nutritious mushrooms which we enjoy eating. Like this, there are a lot of interesting things that we can learn about fungi, and it had been a fun class this past week.

Below are some of the fungus