Unit 6 Reflection

In this unit, something we learned about was Biotechnology, the study and manipulation of livings things in order to benefit mankind, and how it applies to our lives. We learned that it was a large field that usually focuses on understanding of DNA, proteins, and inheritance. With these understandings, were its' 4 applications: Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology (ex: fermentation for food/beverages, biofuels, etc.), Agriculture Biotechnology (ex: Breeding of plants/animals, transgenic organisms, aquaculture), Medical/ Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (ex: medicines from plants. fungi. animals, etc.), and Diagnostic Research Biotechnology (ex: DNA identification for crime scenes and the compare and contrast of DNA for organisms). When learning about these applications and how they take place in my life I realized that they are constantly a part of my life, whether it's the medicine I take from plants or the GMO fruits that I eat. With Biotechnology comes Bioethics, the study of decision-making as it applies to moral decisions that have to be made due to advances in biology (such as biotechnology), medicine, and technology. We learned about the factors involved in making a bioethical decision: our moral (a conviction position, having to do with weather something is considered right or wrong) and our values ( what we see as important or moral; everyone's values are DIFFERENT). There are also steps to making a bioethical decision: how before deciding anything in Biotechnology you should identify the problem, think out the pros and cons, and so on so forth. Really, it's a lot like making a normal important decision. Another kind of technology we learned about was Recombinant DNA technology, rDNA, which is the insertion of DNA of one organism into the DNA of another. This is often described as genetic engineering. There are certain tools needed in order for this process to happen: the gene of interest, restriction enzymes (they cut the DNA if they read the specific sequence), plasmids, which contains the replication gene that tells the plasmid to be copied and has antibiotic resistance,  and ligase, the enzyme that finishes it all off by reattaching the base pairs. We also got familiar with the technologies of Biotechnology: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), a procedure that yields millions of copies of a sequence of DNA, Gel Electrophoresis, using electricity to separate DNA fragments of known lengths, and Sequencing, the determination of the exact sequence, or order, of a given DNA strand using DNA polymerase, primers, extra bases, and florescent dyes. The last essential understanding to this unit was Bacterial Transformation, the process by which bacterial cells take up naked DNA molecules, and how we can use green fluorescent protein to identify the number of bacterial colonies, due to its' glowing under a UV light because of the arabonose that activates the gene. 

I'm proud to say that in this unit, for the most part, I understood what was going on and the concepts. Because of the emphasis we put on Gel Electrophoresis, I feel as if I have a true understanding for it and believe that it could be one of my strongest strengths in this unit. Another one of my strengths was Bioethics, since for that you only really needed logic to understand it, and Biotechnology and it's applications since I realized how much of a part it plays in my life. I also really understood rDNA and the restriction enzymes because of the lab we did in class, it really demonstrated the process and I feel pretty comfortable with the concept. Along with my strengths were my weaknesses. I had a hard time understanding the connection of Bacterial Transformation and pGLO. I don't fully understand how they relate and I don't really understand what happened in the pGLO lab. I also don't really understand what sequencing is and why it's an essential understanding in this unit since I feel as if we didn't really go over it since we mostly focused on Gel Electrophoresis. 

The labs that we did in this unit were the "Thinking Like a Biotechnican" lab http://lkbiologyblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/thinking-like-biotechnician.html , in which we made models of recombinant DNA,

the Candy Electrophoresis lab http://lkbiologyblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/candy-electrophoresis-lab.html , in which we got familiar with the process of Gel Electrophoresis, and the pGLO lab http://lkbiologyblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/pglo-lab.html , in which we transformed bacteria. From this, I've developed a deeper understanding about rDNA and its' tools and the process of Gel Electrophoresis, 

I would like to learn more about my unanswered questions: sequencing, since I can barely grasp what it is and I feel like we didn't go over it a lot, and Bacterial Transformation and it's connection to what we did in the pGLO lab. I wonder what these concepts are and I wonder if they are important in our lives and if so then how.

My goal to get a better grade in Biology this semester is slowly moving along. I think I've been making improvements and I'm very proud of them. So far I've been turning all my assignments in in time, except for the one previous virtual lab, and I've been really understanding how what's talked about in the vodcasts relate to what we do in the labs, other then the pGLO lab. Even though I'm slowly getting better, I still have a lot of things to work on. I haven't started reading ahead in the textbook and I'm still procrastinating a lot, even though I'm better at not procrastinating than before now. Procrastination has always been a bad habit for me so it's very hard to break now. My next steps regarding this goal will be to keep on turning assignments in in time, to continue observing the connection of the vodcasts and the labs, to start reading ahead in the textbook, and to fight the urge to procrastinate even harder. My second goal, to have a better sleep schedule, has been a complete wreck. My sleeping schedule right now is all over the place due to the fact that I still procrastinate too much, which leads to me staying up late at night or even pulling an all nighter, and that I take long naps during the day after school and only wake up at 9 PM or later. For this goal, my next steps will be to definitely stop procrastinating so much, that it leads to restless nights, and to stop taking such long naps after school.