Eva Pizzarelli John Horton Biology June 14, 2013 EOC Reflection

Throughout the course of the year, we have had four essential questions: What does it mean to be alive? How can learning about the brain make you a better student?, What makes you a unique individual? and Are humans evolving? Along with the essential questions, we had several assignments and projects to do. Some of the things that we learned were genetics, the brain, cells, and even evolution. If I was thirty-five years old, and hadnt had a biology class since my freshman year and went on a camping trip with my family, there are a few things that I would have more appreciation for given what I learned as a freshman. Im sitting there in the woods with my beautiful family and thinking back to freshmen year. Im reminded of the many things Ive learned but the few things Ive remembered. My daughter, unaware of her surroundings, is asking many questions of the outdoors. I told her how both mine and her fathers genes created her. I couldnt tell her exactly how since she was so young, but she at least now has a clue. I told her how the trees and plants are alive and how we have four parts of the brain that help for different things. We have the Frontal Lobe for reasoning and problem solving, the Parietal lobe for processing pain and touch, the Occipital lobe for recognizing objects and colors, and the Temporal lobe for interpreting sounds and language. She was very interested in how the first humans came to be, and I was able to explain to her how we share a common ancestor with

all living things and how from generation to generation our appearance changed. I also let her know how if we came across a bear or any other wild animal that our flight or fight mode will occur. Looking back on the entire year, there was at least one topic that was a little difficult for me to understand. I didnt really understand the meiosis and mitosis unit. I was aware that they were each a type of cell division, but I was confused with which was which and the process of each. I was a little hesitant with asking questions in class, but I got some help with the homework from my classmates. In the future, I can improve in this area by studying the content more and overcoming some of the shyness I had so I can feel comfortable asking more questions in class. I probably will never memorize the steps of each since there are so many, but I can study them and try my best. This class will impact me in the future in many ways. This includes my understanding of the living world and my studies of science. I will now always know how we share common ancestors with other living things and that there are four lobes in the brain. A topic that we learned that would be helpful in the future would be living things. This topic would be helpful because learning how living things work helps you understand your own body and your health, learning how living things survive helps you understand why people act the way they do, and learning how living things are all connected helps you see why it is important that we preserve our planet. Biology has several complicated topics, tests, and quizzes, but its only going to help us.