Blood Pressure Lab

My systole was 110 and my diastole was 60. To measure the heart rate we used a stethoscope (for the heartbeat) and our first and middle fingers (for the radial and carotid pulses). To measure blood pressure, we used a sphygmomanometer (which is just a fancy and official word for a blood pressure cuff). You can't use your thumb to measure your pulse because your thumb has a pulse of it's own and may interfere with your actual pulse readings. 

To use a blood pressure cuff, find the pulse in the brachial artery near your elbow-pit. Put the cuff right above it. Make sure the valve is closed, then inflate the cuff until the pressure reads 150 mm Hg. Then slowly release the valve. Listen with your stethoscope on the brachial artery for a sharp sound (this is the systolic pressure). Then listen for when that sound disappears (the diastolic pressure). 

Data Tables:

Unit 2 Reflection

What is health?

Health is "the measure of our body's efficiency and overall well-being."

     I think that from the nutrition point of view, I am a very healthy person as I eat really healthy food most of the time. (I sneak in a Starbucks frappuccino from time to time). I need to work on the physical exercise component and the sleep component of the pillars of health. Saratoga High School is notoriously known for it's ridiculously high amounts of homework, which lead to sleep loss and students stressing out way too much. Even though I do get a lot of homework and hard tests, I try not to stress out too much. By decreasing the amount of homework that teachers give, students will be able to relax more; they will also be able to sleep more since they won't have as much work to do.
     Some essential themes from this unit included: making sure you take care of your body, understanding how hormones affect your health, and making sure that you get enough sleep and nutrients. I learned from this unit that I should be way more careful about the food that I put into my body as it is not always as healthy as it seems (Poptarts are not healthy AT ALL). Something that I did not understand was how hormones can have such a large effect on our bodies' mental and physical health. To improve for the next unit, I will begin to make flashcards for the essential vocabulary as we go through each section.

     Since approximately 40% of America suffers from mental disorders, I have attached a link to how to get over emotional pain.Click Here! This article relates to this unit because it shows us how we can achieve a more stress-free environment by dealing with our "emotional pain."
My health goals are:

1. To sleep more
2. To exercise more

Actions I will take to achieve these goals:

1. Try not to procrastinate
2. Take my dog for runs instead of walks

A healthy lifestyle is important to me because I want to be healthy when I grow older.

I will know I have reached my goals when I go running everyday and I am able to get about 8 hours of sleep every night.

What is Health?

     To me, being healthy implies being fit physically and mentally. I think I am good at maintaining a nutritional and social wellbeing, but I think I should work on exercising more, and stressing out less (which leads to sleeping more). If I can manage to fix my stress levels and exercising habits, I will greatly improve my health! I would like to learn some quick exercises that can keep my body fit, while not wasting time. This way, I will have more time to do my work (and reduce stress). Hitting two birds with one stone!

Unit 1 Reflection

Unit 1 Reflection

     Unit 1 was about the introduction to Anatomy and Physiology and histology (which is the study of tissues). We learned about the different kinds of anatomical terms used to identify locations of various parts of the body in relation to each other. The main theme of this year was that form fits function. We also learned about the form and function of four different kinds of tissues: epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous. Epithelial tissue covers a body surface or lines body cavities. Connective tissue fills space between organs and tissues and provides structural and metabolic support for other tissues and organs. Muscle tissue is composed of myosin and actin and exists in three forms: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle tissue. Nervous tissue transmit electrical signals from sensory receptors to effectors. We learned about how the different structures of tissues affected the specialization of each type of cell.
     We did a lab in which we were given the opportunity to look at different types of tissues under the microscope. This is a cross-section of a peripheral neuron.
     We also did a lab in which we learned about the different kinds of carbohydrates and how their structure affects their sweetness level. We tasted sucrose, glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, starch, and cellulose.

     Something that I think I could work on becoming better at is recognizing different types of tissues on images from microscopes. Through practice, I think I will be able to become more efficient in recognizing them. For the next unit, I will complete the tests at the end of each chapter so I can make sure that I know all of the material.

     I want to become a neurosurgeon, so learning about these different kinds of tissue can make it easier to understand concepts in a college-level class, as I will know the fundamentals because of this class. 

Tissue Lab Relate and Review

9/3/15

Relate and Review

     Even though there are only 4 main different kinds of tissues, epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous, there are many subcategories. Today we looked at different types of tissues in each category. The tissue slide that stood out to me was the peripheral nerve cell. This stood out to me because over the summer I took a course in cognitive neuroscience at Berkeley. We looked at samples of nerve cells there as well. The difference was that these two slides of nerve cells looked completely different. This made me understand the diversity that can exist in the different categories of tissues. Another tissue slide that was interesting was the human cardiac muscle. The branching of the cells is unique to only the cardiac muscle cells as it is used to increase the efficiency of pumping blood throughout our bodies.

Neuron

Cell Specialization: Neurons

NERVE CELLS:

• https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/cells.html
• http://www.brainfacts.org/~/media/Brainfacts/Article%20Multimedia/About%20Neuroscience/Brain%20Facts%20book.ashx
• http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/10/07/the-amazing-neuron-facts-about-neurons/

     Neurons are used to transmit nerve impulses throughout the body. A neuron contains a cell body, dendrites, an axon, axon terminals, and synapses. This type of cell has the same organelles as regular eukaryotic cells. As shown in the diagram above, it has an endoplasmic reticulum, a Golgi apparatus, mitochondrion, and a nucleus. Neurons communicate through electrochemical signaling to send speedy responses to stimuli to the central nervous system so the body can elicit a response. Neurons are classified as nervous tissue. I think that neurons are the most important kind of cell in our body because they make us aware of stimuli and our surroundings. Works Cited Here

Works Cited

Cell Specialization

• "Neuroscience For Kids." Cells of the Nervous System. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.