Our Ancestrial Mother

We did this whole thing on Mitochondrial Eve and how our Mit. DNA is passed down the maternal line with tiny variations (or mutations). This is different from our cellular DNA in which we get 50% from each parent. Mitochondrial Eve is believed to be from northeast Africa and due to an outgrowth of populations that became isolated we now have this huge diversity thanks to the differnt environments and climates of each region on earth. So here are a few pictures to show the diversity.

Jackie Chan

India Arie

Cristiano Ronaldo

David  Beckham

Sadia Imam

 



Heathcliff Survives =]

So after 5 weeks of taking care of my Sunflower baby, it grew and grew with no problems. I didn't kill it!!! Eek! I never keep plants alive that long, but this time I took the time to care for it, water it, and made sure it had the right amount of sunlight. Awesome huh? Well it is for me.

Gen. Alfred Holt Colquitt

 

 

(1824-1894)

 

Gen, Alfred H. Colquitt is known as "the hero of Olustee". His confederate brigade fought at many sites but the one he is known for is the battle at Olustee where he fought and deafeted the Union troops. He is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, GA. He was elected governor of GA and earlier in his life served a term in the United States House of Representatives. After two terms of being governor he was elected into the U.S. senate where he served until his death.

 

http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/colquittgrave.html

Heathcliff, my Sunflower baby

Last week we were given a sunflower seed and told to "make babies" and blog its growth. It took 7 days for it to sprout and this is what it looked like in the morning:

Within the same day it straighted out of the soil to look like this:

So you can see the sei-dramatic change in growth within one day of sprouting. Now hopefully I won't kill it, hence why it has a name =]





Soil Texture

Soil is distinguished by particle size. Larger particals are considered sand, medium sized particles are siltd, and the smallest particles are considered clay. The diagram below shows you how much of each partcle you have in a specific type of soil. For example: Sandy clay has 50% sand, 10% silt, and 40% clay.

12 Soil Orders of the World

Here's a link to the description of each of the soild: http://www.nerrs.noaa.gov/doc/siteprofile/acebasin/html/envicond/soil/sltax.htm

The soil type most commonly found in GA is Ultisol. http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/orders/ultisols.html

 

 

The picture above is a Munsell Soil color chart.

The picture below is of the soil layers.









Minerals and Rocks

Pyrite

Pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is a mineral composed of iron sulfide. This is the most common type of sulfide mineral and is found with quartz, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, and is also found in coal beds. 

Basalt

Basalt is an igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of lava. It contains 20% quartz, 10% feldspar. It is the most common rock type on Earth with the largest occurrence being found on the ocean floor.

Migmatite

Migmatite is a metamorphic rock that contains old rocks that have been changed over time due to extreme temperatures and pressure.

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock made of calcium carbonate and is found in the south east, usually in cave systems due to water eroded the rock over several years.

Plant Life Around Campus

Tree Types

Bradford Pear Tree



     The Bradfor Pear Tree, or scientifically known as Pyrus callerana, is native to China and Vietnam. It blooms unpleasant smelling flowers in the spring time, much like the smell of fish. They also produce a fruit that is hard but softened by winter and then eaten by birds. These trees are tough survivers and usually die due to harsh weather conditions.

Willow Oak Trees

 

     The Willow Oak Tree, scientifically known as Quercus phellos, is native to North Amercia. It is a red oak that has leaves shaped like willow leaves, and produces acorns. These trees are manily found in low floodplains.

Yoshino Cherry Trees

 

     Yoshino Cherry Trees, scientifically known as Prunus yedoensis, is a natural hybrid found world wide. The flowers that bloom are fragrant and usually grow in clumps of five or six. It produces small cherries that are an important food sourse to small birds and taste only mildly sweet to humans.

 

Shrub Types

 

Virginia Sweetspire

     Virginia Sweetspire, or Itea virginica, is found mainly in the southern United States. It is a colonizing plant that has many stems that branch frequently. Small white flowers bloom in June that are showy. It produces small capsules.

 

Elephant Ears

     Elephant Ear plants, also known as Colocasia, is named so because the leaves are shaped like real elephant ears. They are native to southeatern Asia. This plant causes discomfort in the lips, mouth and throat caused by needlelike things that contain some kind of chemical property.

 

Holly Bush

     Holly Bushes, scientifically known as Ilex, has at least 400 different species types that are widespread throughout temperate and subtropical ecosystems. They are slow-growing and many are evergreen trees. The leaves are glossy and are spiny or serrated around the edges. They produces drupes that range in color.

 

Flower Types

 

Angel Trumpet Flowers















     Angel Trumpet Flowers, Brugmansia, have a strong pleasing fragrance in the evenings that attract pollunating moths and come in shades of white, pink, yellow, and green. They are native to South American tropics.

 

Lantana Flowers

     Lantana flowers, apart of the verbena family, are native to the tropic regions of the Americas and Africa. The clusters of flowers change colors as they mature and are poisonous to most animals, even though their fruit is eaten by birds.

Marigold Flowers

     Marigolds, or Tagetes, is native to North and South America. They grow well in most types of soil and are usually gold, yellow, or orange in color.They are usually musky but have been bred to have no odor. They deter some insect pests so are used widely in gardens.







River Lab

For our river lab, we looked at three different kinds of measurements within the river system. Although we only got to two of them, we still know how the third one is done.
      So starting with flow rate, we measure this by using units of distance over units of time. We used an empty soda bottle that we found floating by one of the banks and started with the deeper channel. (the river was split into three channels due to two sand islands.) Here the bottle traveled from one group to the next taking a couple of minutes for a distance of about 50 yards. In the shallowest channel the bottle did not travel at all, but instead spun in circles. To see how the measurement looks when it's done, here's an example: The object travels 100ft in 1 minute = 100/1 = 100 ft/min. Only one person actually had the flow rate times so I don't know the actual numbers.
     The second measurement done was clam populations in different levels of sand, in water and out of water. The group that did this found that there were not as many clams in the sand islands as there were in the sand under the water level. (River bed) Again, only a few people have those numbers.
     Finally, the last measurement we were supposed to do was the transect line which measures the elevations across the river starting from one river bank and going straight across to the other side. For this you use two poles with measurements of about 6 inch increments marked on them, and a string with the length of 10 feet connecting the poles. Here's an example of how it looks when it's done

 

So now that you have a visual, what you do is you take the number on the first pole and subtract it from the number on the second pole and it gives you the elevation change within that 10 foot line. Here's a graph of the data from last year:

 



Sorry I could not put up a google earth shot of where we did this, my computer won't allow me too.

Video Post

A video on the recent earthquakes around the world.

Map Types

Choropleth Maps express to us the differences between bordered areas that are either different colors or patterns. Differences can vary between population sizes to income groups or as we see above, tones.

Dot Density Maps are consisted of dots that represent a value of something such as crops grown or in this case housing locations in Florida.

 

Bathymetric maps depict water depths using lines that have different depth values and most times are colored in like the one above to show the depths.

 

Proportional Symbol maps have different sizes of a symbol to represent data from specific locations on a map. In this one particular the different areas of each circle show coal consumption by state.