Nathan Hutama Biology AP

Bellarmine Lunar New Year Celebration 2018 This year I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Lunar New Year Celebration at Bellarmine on March 3, 2018. Being an Asian-American I found this event really special and exciting. It was fun to see other people that share the same culture as me come together to celebrate. This was my first Lunar New Year Celebration at Bell and it did not disappoint. There was good food, informative presentations/slideshows, and a lot of fun, kind people. The night begun with a dragon dance and I have not seen one since I was very young so it was fun to see the dancers perform. We then were able to get food at the buffet line and eat dinner with other community members that celebrate this holiday. After we finished eating there were games such as the chopstick challenge and CNY Pop Quiz. These were fun to watch as we got to see our own biology teacher Mr. Wong participate in the festivities. The night ended with a special dancing performance fr...

Modeling Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Introduction: The purpose of this experiment was to determine how certain factors effect allele frequencies in a population. The experiment was based on the principles of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and factors that can drive a population out of this equilibrium. We used Microsoft Excel sheets to create a mathematical model to simulate a population and test the effects of certain factors on allele frequencies. My key findings were that differing population sizes tend to cause greater changes in allele frequencies in a small population than in a large population over one or several generations. I also found that selection against homozygous recessive alleles decreased the frequency of this allele while increasing the frequency of the other allele for the gene in question over one or many generations. This is important because it demonstrates exactly how certain factors affect allele frequencies and demonstrate that certain factors can c...

pGLO Lab Our experiments within the test tubes LB/AMP and LB/AMP/ARA Petri dishes, pGLO+ Our colonies of E.Coli Our dishes with the UV Light Our dishes without the UV light Conclusions / Results: This experiment turned out well because we were able to produce hundreds of E.Coli colonies in our pGLO+ LB/AMP/ARA dish. We learned about the production of DNA and how we can combine this bacteria, in this case E.Coli, with the GFP or green fluorescent protein. By doing this, we are able to see how quickly the E.Coli reproduces under certain circumstances. We used ampicillin (AMP) to kill the bacteria in the dishes without Arabinose (ARA). However, our dish with lysogeny broth (LB) in presence with arabinose, creates beta lactamase which is a resist protein to ampicillin. This also results in the expression of the GFP protein, giving the E.Coli its fluorescent glow in the UV light.

Corn Genetics Lab Conclusion / Results: At the end of this experiment we learned a lot more about chi-square analysis and the dominant and recessive genes of corn. By being able to count the number of yellow, purple, shrunken, and smooth corn, we were able to conclude the ratio of genotypic ratio of 9:3:3:1. By using the data gathered from our experiment and the chi-square values, were able to predict the parents of the corn. Here, we believed that the parents were black eyed and were Bb x Bb. We were also able to predict how the corn came to be by determining what kind of cross it was. We believed that the ear of corn was produced by a dihybrid cross (PpSs x PpSs) that involved two pairs of heterozygous genes. In the end, our predictions were correct because we were able to determine the genes of the corn and their parents. This is important to us because we can use these genetics to figure out human ancestry and genetics. Genetics is a new, unique, and always c...

Investigation 7 Part 2: Effects of Environment on Mitosis Introduction: We are now studying cell division and mitosis. After studying the different phases of a cell – mitosis and interphase, we are doing this lab to practice our identification of cells in mitosis or interphase. We are also testing to see whether a cell affected by the environment in various ways, has a different number of cells undergoing mitosis. To do this, we are treating an onion root tip to see whether it will change the cells. We are also doing this to practice our chi-square calculations which will determine the degrees of freedom (df). This equals the number of treatment groups minus one, multiplied by the number of phase groups minus one. In this experiment since there are only two treatment groups (control and treated) and two phase groups (interphase and mitosis) the degrees of freedom is 1. (2 – 1) x (2 – 1) = 1. I believe that the treated cells will have a higher number of cells undergoing mitosi...

Investigation 5: Photosynthesis Lab Introduction: We are now learning about photosynthesis, the process in which all plants receive energy from. By consuming sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide, the plant will be able to produce ATP, NADPH, carbohydrates, oxygen, and water. This is seen in the chemical equation for photosynthesis 2H2O + CO2 + Light -> carbohydrate + O2 + H2O. Ultimately, photosynthesis provides energy for all life on earth by using sunlight to create energy for plants. In this experiment we will be investigating the rate of photosynthesis of leaf disks placed in cups filled with a bicarbonate solution. As photosynthesis occurs and oxygen is produced the leaf disks float towards the surface of the cups. We can test the rate of photosynthesis by timing how long it takes for the disks to reach the top of the cup. We will test the rates of these leaf disks by covering the cups with different colored cellophane paper. We will be using red and green pieces of...