Pick an organelle, any organelle...

If I were to choose to be any organelle, I would probably have to choose the cytoplasm. It's pretty awesome partly because it's so unique. How many other organelles fill up the unclaimed room in the cell? Yeah, none. Also, the cytoplasm's job is extremely necessary to the cell's function. Imagine if the Nucleus, Golgi body, and lysosomes were surrounded in bricks. That wouldn't work out too well. The cytoplasm's jelly-like material functions as a transportation medium for all the jobs inside the cell. Without it, the mRNA and ribosomes would never be able to move around freely to make proteins and the vesicles would have no chance at transporting things. I think that would be pretty sweet to simply help everybody else do their jobs knowing that your presence is crucial to the life of the cell. The cytoplasm is a very necessary (or very frictionless, whichever) organelle and I think many people kind of forget about it.

Enzyme Lab

I thought the enzyme lab was a good lab to start off with; it wasn't too difficult but it required measurements and even a titration. It was great for displaying the effect of an enzyme (catalase) on a substrate (H2O2) except it worked too well. It seemed that every time we tried something, something else seemed to be wrong. I think the final prediction was that the enzyme was still too concentrated and it sped up the reaction too much. It is a bummer that it never worked as well as it should have. Our data is pretty skewed--the baseline took a few mL but EVERYTHING else took one drop. I think the message came across well though--there was a reaction happening because of the enzyme and it has helped me to understand the concept.

The Upcoming Semester

For this AP biology semester, I'm looking forward to a fun science class. I am excited for a few labs that will be intense and maybe a dissection. I'm also looking forward to learning about evolution because I haven't learned anything about that before. I am worried about all the outside reading and responsibility for learning the material on our own. I am not excited to spend so much time outside of class preparing for the AP test. There really isn't a topic that is looming over me but I can't say that I am excited for them all. We will be relearning cell reproduction and the stages of that and I'm not exactly excited to do all that again.

All About Me

Hello. I'm Decker Richmond, a senior at Sparta High School. I come from a family of nine with two older brothers, two younger brothers, and two younger sisters. I play tennis, basketball, and baseball. I will be attending Brigham Young University in Provo, UT this fall and will be pursuing a career in engineering. I am not completely certain which type of engineering I will be but I have narrowed it down to mechanical, electrical, or chemical.

I am taking AP Biology, to be honest, because I want another weighted class. I do think this class will be very interesting and I am looking forward to earning college credit towards BYU. I like science and am excited for this semester.

From this class, I am expecting to better understand the topics involved in biology and to learn enough to pass the AP test and receive college credit.