"Winging It!"

         In science on Thursday, the class did an anatomy lab on a chicken wing. Basically, the students observed as the teacher dissected a chicken wing. It was really interesting. The students could clearly see the connections between the structure of a chicken wing and a human body. For example, the human body and the chicken wing both have bones, muscle, skin, nerves, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, and fat in common. The idea of the lab was to evaluate how a raw chicken wing can maintain four significant tissues. To start off with, a tissue is a group of similar cells that perform the same function. The different types of tissues were the following:

- epithelial tissue
- muscle tissue

- connective tissue

- nerve tissue

         Epithelial tissue forms protective surfaces such as skin. In the lab, the epithelial tissue was represented by the outer skin of the chicken wing. Muscle tissue has the ability to contract which causes movement of the structures inside the body. This tissue was represented by the lean meat of the chicken wing or in other words, the white colored material inside the wing. Connective tissue is capable of providing support of your body and connecting all its parts. In the lab, this appeared as the correlation between the bones, the ligaments, the cartilage, and the joints. The joints are the pieces that connect bones together. The ligaments are shiny white covers for joints. Finally, the cartilage is a slippery substance which allows the bones to move smoothly. Nerve tissue has the job of carrying messages between the brain and the rest of the body. Nerve tissue in the chicken wing was vague in appearance but it was shown as a faint strip of red. Another important part of the lab was the fat inside the chicken wing. It was shown as a yellow material connected to the muscle tissue.

         All in all, the lab was very fun and interesting. The students concluded that the tissue which actually moved the chicken wing was the connective tissue because it consisted of the bones which were connected by the joints. The bones/connective tissue was surrounded by the rest of the chicken wing. Everyone realized how the chicken wing structure and the human body structure can be similar.

       

The Lab of Diffusion - Class Response

Today in class, we did a lab to learn about the process of diffusion. For the experiment, the baggie of corn starch represented a semi permeable membrane and the iodine substance represented an indicator. My table group observed for about fifteen minutes that the iodine's purpose was to change the color of the corn starch during its direct contact with it. The iodine was significant to the lab because without it, there would be no change in any substance and the corn starch wouldn't have reacted to the diffusion which was taking place. Diffusion occurred because molecules from the diluted iodine water  had no space to move around and they were able to identify the less concentrated source of corn starch in the course of the lab. This form of diffusion was osmosis because the water molecules were travelling throughout the permeable membrane which was the baggie of corn starch. The goal of the lab was for the corn starch to successfully turn purple but due to the baggie being too well-made, the corn starch instead turned  into a light yellow color. Even though the lab wasn't successful, I thought it was cool how the chemicals were reacting to each other. I was able to understand how the iodine's contact with the corn starch impacted the spread of molecules. Although, it would be interesting to see how corn starch could turn from clear/white to purple.