20 Time Final Blog Post

Overall, 20 time was somewhat of a failure. I could have done so many more things in the time that I had, but I had decided to throw away a few mondays. I never realized how much I could have done with my project until i walked up to the podium to give my ted talk. I saw all the potential that i had in my project and sort of hoped that i could continue this over the summer. I have other things i plan to do over the summer and this is one that i wish to add to my list.

There is a small chance that I may be able to finish a brochure by the end of summer, but there's a part of me that wishes to start a different project. Going back on this semester and 20 time, I really liked my topic, and I do feel that I completed a decent amount of research with Eveliina. The main problem with the Ted talk was that our information wasn’t consolidated well. I wasn’t able to put the information into a meaningful ted talk, resulting in a low grade.

If I am given another chance to make something like this, then I plan on wasting less time and to create a final product in time. I want to make a change for students, but the problems started with my time management.

20 time individual reflection

20 time was a project that i was very interested in from the start. When my biology teacher, Mr. Orre first announced this assignment in class, my mind immediately began to wonder about all of the possibilities that this project offered. I was engrossed in all of the ideas that my mind came up with, and at the end, I settled with the car engine.

More than just a car engine, i wanted to delve into the ways that gas circulated in an engine, and my final product was going to be a presentation about how to maintain a car and how it works. I found out what i needed to research. I needed to understand how gas circulates, what different types of fuel injection existed, and how a car engine runs on gasoline. There were many more subtopics i needed to have extensive knowledge on, but that would take a lot of research and dedication to the project, something i wasn’t sure i could do.

A fellow classmate, Eveliina Niva, found interest in my project and wanted to join in, as she had not come up with her own idea yet. I saw a window of opportunity in this, knowing that i needed some extra help and also that i could give help to another classmate. I accepted her into my project, and over the weeks that we had time to research and gain knowledge for our presentation, i saw her hard work slowly adding up, as she researched many crucial articles towards the project that we now shared.

We decided that we wanted to make our presentation about helping others with their cars. A car is something that requires a lot of maintenance. It also requires safety to manage and drive properly. We wanted to make sure that by informing people of what their car needs and what it is capable of, we could save a driver some money, time, and keep them safe while and before they start driving.

Your Inner Fish

The movie “Your Inner Fish” featuring Neil Shubin gave many visual examples as to how humans evolved from fish.  Fish are aquatic creatures that swim in the ocean using fins, and breathe with a very complicated mechanism called gills. Shubin talked about a connection between these creatures and human beings. Its called Tiktaalik. Tiktaalik was the stepping fish between ancient aquatic life and humans. It could breathe in land and water, had a flexible neck, and could also… do a push up?

How is Shubin sure it can do a push up? Fossil records and fossils found by Shubin indicate that Tiktaalik had a skeletal structure capable of exiting the water, and also had strong wrists containing many digits, similar to our wrists. Their wrists were strong enough to support its own weight, and because of that it was technically able to do a push up.

Unit 9 Reflection

Unit 9 Reflection

Unit 9 was a unit on species and evolution. Species are classified by taxonomy, or large groups made of smaller groups. Larger groups include Kingdom, which covers many species, Phylum, which covers less, Class, Order, Family, then Genus which all classify a smaller group of species. Our class did a whole variety of presentations, linking them back to their taxonomical groups. Here’s mine about HIV.

One huge factor of evolution on Earth is environment. Species from the kingdom Plantae change constantly over time, and as a result have created different types of food and differing amounts and types of atmospheric gases that change what can live in these environments.

There are three domains this unit talked about. Plantae, Animalia, and Protista. Plantae include all the plants. This extends towards mosses, such as bryophytes. Mosses are nonvascular, so they don’t extend straight up, but they are the most common seedless nonvascular plants.

Animalia include invertebrates. These are animals without a backbone. They are separated into categories based upon their body plan symmetry, tissue layers, and developmental patterns. There are two different types of body plan symmetry, starting with bilateral symmetry where the body divides equally along one plane, and the radial symmetry, where the body is arranged in a circle around an axis. An example of bilateral symmetry would be a crab but a sea urchin would have radial symmetry.

There are also vertebrates, and they are classified into seven classes. Agnatha, chondrichthyes, osteichthyes, amphibia, aves, and mammalia. These are separated into “chronological” order, meaning that one appeared before the other. Agnatha is jawless fish, meaning they had little chewing or biting power, resulting in less potential for food gain than the osteichthyes, which were bony fish with jaws. These fish were able to capture more prey than the agnatha, but they came later.

Overall, this unit was a lot about improvement on current knowledge. It is common that we evolved from… something, but what was it? Where did it come from? What made it evolve? These were all questions that were answered in this unit. We seemingly evolved from a fish capable of doing a push up, according to Dr. Neil Shubin. It was able to breathe in and out of water, had a strong skeletal body, and had many digits in its wrists, allowing it to support a large amount of weight. We are able to know what came before us, and its characteristics.

Engine Knocking and Fuel Octane

Engine Knocking and Fuel Octane

We made some progress on the topic of octane, or fuel type. There are named and numbers assigned with octane, and they are regular, plus, and premium. What are the main differences of these names? Octane is the ability for the fuel types to resist premature detonation. This results in premium gasoline being able to detonate later than regular gasoline. As a result, putting regular gasoline into an engine that requires(see previous post about tips for car owners) premium gasoline can result in the gasoline burning too soon, causing metallic clicking sounds in the engine. This sound is not only annoying and noticeable, but it is also bad for the engine. If you, as a car owner, experience this in your car, you may have purchased the wrong octane of oil or a bad load. If you suspect that this is the cause of your engine creating these clicking sounds, then wait until the next refill or get a checkup to see what the problem is because it may be more serious than just the wrong octane of oil.

Pseudobiceros Hancockanus

Flatworms are interesting, especially this species. Not only because they’re pretty much flat, but the Pseudobiceros Hancockanus has a very interesting mating process. That’s not the only thing that is interesting about them though. They move very efficiently and rather long distances through oscillations in the sides of their body.

How do these flatworms reproduce? They have a mating ritual called penis fencing in which the two worms essentially fight with their penises, lasting up to an hour. When one finally wins, the winner becomes the father and the loser becomes the mother. They actually reproduce sexually, by injecting sperm either into the other worm or by releasing it onto the skin of the other worm, resulting in the possibility of it entering through open pores in the receiving worms body.

20 Time - Tips for Car Owners

Tips for Car Owners

We decided to devote our research in the past few weeks into creating tips for car owners. Car owners may not always be smart or know what they’re doing, but the tips that we found can be very useful to them.

Petrol is something that is very important to a gasoline-powered car; it’s what makes it work! Of course, people would love to save money on this. There is a label on your fuel tank that says either regular, plus, or premium. This can mean one of two things; it is required or it is recommended. In order to know which one it means, you can ask your car dealer and they can tell you. By knowing if it’s required or recommended, you can change fuel type. For example, if it says it “recommends” plus, then you can most likely put regular gas and the car will run just as well.

You will be saving yourself a few cents per gallon, and over time, that will equate to a large amount of saving. We will do more research in the upcoming weeks and find more useful tips that can save money or can help your car.