We will be online for the first 9 weeksEssential Questions: What is reality? How do we sense and what is it that we sense? What is the color spectrum? What are sound waves? Welcome to biology class, we begin August 3, 2020. I am Mrs. Morriss and am very thankful that you have joined us. In biology we reflect on what life is and how living beings move and adapt, there are many ways to reflect on life, here we will focus on cells, tissues, and the tiny building blocks that make everything that we see. The periodic table of elements shows us a list of building blocks that bond with each other and build structures, most of what we see is carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur, all dancing together and forming visible forms. There are many other elements involved too. Take a look at the periodic table below to see what elements are essential for humans.  What is reality?In biology and chemistry we answer this question by saying that reality is composed of building blocks, we call the building blocks elements, the elements are attracted to each other through energetic forces, they transfer energy and form bonds that help them build structures. The energy that animates living beings is still being studied. Everything we see is elements that are transferring energy. This is true of living and non living things such as rocks, they hold and release energy as they heat up during the day and cool down at night. Rocks are made of building blocks (elements) from the periodic table that have formed bonds, sometimes those bonds break and the rocks will turn into smaller rocks, even sand. Rocks and people share many similarities, but what makes us different? Well, movement, response to stimuli, ability to reproduce, grow, and ability to adapt to change, living beings are constantly adapting to change, they don't just sit there, they take action. Biology is the study of what actions are taken, and how, and why. Please take a look at the 2 minute video below, it is produced by CERN, The European Organization for Nuclear Research (French: Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire), a place for particle research. The video zooms in from large to small, from meter to decimeter to centimeter to millimeter to micrometer to nanometer to picometer to femtometre, there is far more than meets the eye: How do we sense and what is it that we sense?We have five senses, many people would say that we have more, we receive information through our ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and skin.. We sense chemicals and vibrations and interpret them as tastes and colors or sounds. We have sensory receptors that detect changes in the environment: Mecanoreceptors for movement Chemoreceptors for taste and smell Thermoreceptors for heat Photoreceptors for light In biology we learn how messages from the outside world come into the organism and motivate a response such as movement. Rods and cones in eyes What is the color spectrum?We can see 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum, each color has a frequency, a frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. In this case, frequency means how many times a wave goes up and down, more ups and downs means higher frequency which in sound means a higher pitch sound or a violet color. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz) There is a color that corresponds to each sound.    Sunlight has all the colorsWhite light bends and fans out into many colors, many frequencies Plants are green because they absorb blue and red light from the sun and reflect green lightWhat are sound waves?A sound is a wave that we perceive with our ears, human ears can perceive frequencies from 20Hz to 20 thousand Hz Sound affects shape, this is the study of cymatics Think of ways that sound affects the shape and behavior of living beings How do the sounds these animals make affect their reality and the reality of the organisms around them? Discussion question: How has nature benefitted from less human activity during COVID? Significant drops in pollution have been seen in just months of less driving. Why is the sky Blue?And what about sunsets?
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