Claire's Seed Story

When Claire first started this project, she hated gardening. However, her views changed once she found out how fun it actually was. Seeing the plants grow overtime, and knowing why made her look at gardening in a new light. Of course, her friends (aka Ariana and I) also helped with this. When we were taking pictures of our full-grown plants just a week ago, we had a great time. We were talking about how much we all sucked at gardening. We took pictures of our plants, but we ended up taking selfies so much that the people in the classrooms started looking at us. All in all Claire's experiences with this project has changed her ideas on gardening.

For the Love of Collard

The collard that started out as a small seed..

...has now grown into a full grown collard!

These Collards have grown so much over these 3 months. From seed to full-grown organism, this plant has grown a lot of biomass, but how? It couldn't have just been created. 

 The seed starts out as a small collection of cells (stem cells) and they duplicate and duplicate again and again and they keep on doing this until there are thousands upon thousands of different cells which do different jobs for the collard.  How do these cells duplicate? Well, through a process known as mitosis, the cell divides in an extremely intricate process which happens in a matter of seconds. Basically, all of the DNA in the nucleus (thats 6 whole feet end to end) is systematically unwound, split up, and copied by an enzyme called DNA polymerase. Then the nucleus splits up, one half of the chromosomes in one half and the other in the other half. Then the rest of the cell splits up and, voilà, you have two daughter cells.

With that question answered, one more springs to mind; where does the cell get the energy to do mitosis hundreds of times every second?

Well, when a cell is not dividing, it goes into a phase called interphase, which is not a stage in in mitosis, but rather a stage where the cell builds up the energy to divide again. The process in which the cell makes energy in plants is called photosynthesis, which takes place in the chloroplast of a plant cell. The way cells store energy is by turning ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate) into ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). They do this by consuming light, water and carbon dioxide and spitting out oxygen, which the plant breathes out, and sugars, which the cell uses and converts to ATP.  (The way animals produce energy is almost identical, except they consume oxygen and sugars, and give off carbon dioxide, ATP, which it uses, and water, which it also uses).  

Another interesting point is that the mechanisms which make photosynthesis are enzymes (Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase [PEPC] and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase [Rubisco]), which are proteins, which are made of amino acids, which are made by ribosomes, which use RNA for directions, which are all duplicates of our friend, DNA.

So we just went around a big circle of... collard?

Watching grass grow doesn't seem so boring now, does it?

Food Issue essay : Do people have a right to know what is in their food ?

Diana Laura Pimentel
Nov 20 , 2012
Period 2

                                    Do people have a right to know what’s in their food ?

The people have to know what they’re eating but some people don’t worry about the type of
food , they only care about the price they are not forced to buy any particular food in us but in
us they love the fast food and they don’t care if the food are unhealthy or have many calories  
because sometimes they don’t have time so they go for fast food .

In the other hand some people don’t like to eat fast food and they worry about what kind of food they’re eating because the food comes from a bad place or farms and because the food have many calories and others people like to eat in their houses because they eat healthy food or they eat organic food , they’re doing right because they are taking care of their body and the world 
.
People have a right to know what’s in their food because is more healthy safe and better to the environment and they’re taking care of their body and health i wish all the people thinks like that because is better to everyone .

Should We Consider Who Produces and Processes our Food?

Dane Cross  p.2     11-20-2012

         Personally, I believe that we should definitely consider who is producing and processing our food.  As I see it there are two types of farmers; the "honest" farmer, who lets the cows eat grass free-range and butchers their animals humanely and in a sanitary manner, while the "dishonest" farmers are really not farmers at all.  They are scientists who genetically modify their food and slaughter them without being humane or any sanitation standards.
         The "honest" farmers let their cows graze free-range, which is a sustainable food source because their manure helps the grass regrow.  The "dishonest" farmers feed their cows corn because it's cheaper, even though it can make the cows produce e. coli.  The "honest" farmers also butcher their animals that is more humane and more sanitary than the meat processing plants that treat the animals the same as the humans (which are illegal immigrants) run by the "dishonest" "farmers."
         Some people might say that food is food no matter how it was treated and killed, but the only difference is that the dishonest farmers' food is cheaper. I would agree, except that what you save by buying the cheaper food is more than paid for in insulin needed for people with type 2 diabetes and death by e.coli poisoning.
         All in all, paying attention to who produces your food and paying a few extra bucks for the honest farmers' product is an imperative part in leading a healthy lifestyle.

                                                   

Dane Cross's Bio

My name is Dane. I have lived in the bay area my whole life; I was born in Los Gatos and have always lined in San Jose.  My mom has a garden in our backyard, so I help her out once, even though every plant that I touch dies. My mom stopped trusting me to her plants the first and last time I planted anything, which was a fern.  I messed up the soil for a whole year (obviously I didn't inhieirit my mom's gardening skills).  My mother not only grows food, but she also makes more food from it, all from scratch.

Diana Pimentel Bio

 My name is Diana Pimentel . I have live in San Jose Ca 5 months ago but i'm from Los Mochis Sinaloa . i never has garneded any plant but my father are farmer and he know a lot of that he import export and import and sometimes when he go to the field i go with him and i see grow up the plants and its very interesting and he really love that job and the plantsthat's my only experience .