Adaptation of Modern Humans to a Changing World: How the Earth Made Man
I admit that I was pretty unconvinced with this documentary, because some of the other explanations just did not make sense, or were just put there to have something to say. I’m not discounting all the effort made by those scientists who researched about it, but I think saying that our hiccups came from our fish days is a little bit far-fetched. Or push-ups came from fish that used their primitive arms to rise from the water to live on land.
However, the explanations of our ability to throw (from our hunter-gatherer days) and jolting awake when falling asleep (from our sleeping-on-trees days) made sense to me. And no matter how much I disagree with some of the examples, I cannot deny that I learned something from this documentary.
The Human Brain and Perception:
This activity is the most thrilling activity of the quarter, and I loved it.
I absolutely adore surprises (as long as it’s not a 2.75 in my card), so being surprised by the thing I’m going to taste was really amazing for me. Although, no matter how exciting it was, you cannot remove the fear of tasting something really icky, like those from Berty Botts’ Every Flavoured Beans from Harry Potter. Well, not icky, because I know Ma’am loves us, but a certain taste that I wouldn’t like.
Guessing the flavors was a little tough, because I’m not good with my sense of taste. I mean, I once said my very own “ketchup-on-kalabasa” recipe tasted like fried chicken (I still think it does), so I was really kind of surprised to get one flavor right, but only because it’s one of my favorites, which was lemon.
I learned that different people have different ways of describing the same candy flavor, like how three blind men would describe an elephant. It was interesting how funny others’ guesses were and how close my guesses were with my other classmates.
What Color Do You See – A Color Sorting Activity
This activity was really challenging because I admit that I already forgot the rules of colors from my Physics 1. However, I realized that I didn’t need to remember them, because it was kind of obvious which candies were red, except under the red light since orange and red look almost the same under that light. You really had to look carefully to distinguish the two.
Uniquely Human: Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee - How Our Animal Heritage Affects the Way We Live (by Jared Diamond)
Bridges to Human Language
I’ve never really thought about language as anything complex (except for its grammar when you’re not a fluent speaker). I mean, we all have different languages and we use it as a means of communication or self-expression, but I didn’t realize that there was more to that.
And that was exactly what I learned in this report. I’ve never really thought about how people first learn their native language, although I have wondered how I learned mine. This report made me appreciate languages more.
I’m not an art person. I don’t use art to express my thoughts or my emotions, because I just don’t. But I know that some people use paintings or songs or stories to say something, great artists like Van Gogh or Shakespeare and the like. However, apart from communication, art is also made just because you want to, because it makes you happy. But does it serve any biological purpose? Even an author said that “All art is quite useless.”
But that’s where we are wrong. And it’s amazing how species like chimpanzees use art (especially in captivity) to keep them busy. And how bower birds make their habitats really pleasing to the eye to attract mates. It’s like saying that “No, I’m not just showing off, I’m also proving to you what I’m showing off.”
Agriculture’s Two-Edged Sword
Agriculture has always fascinated me. I would like to hear the story of how humans first discovered that we can plant in soil and make water irrigations and all that, because most of those things are very complex that even I, a modern-day human, have no idea how farms work.
However, this report made me think about two things: a) is agriculture really something uniquely human? and b) does complexity equate to efficiency and effectiveness?
I learned that we may have some kind of had agriculture in our genes, especially if we evolved from the tiny ants who demonstrate some agricultural behaviors. And ironically, hunter-gatherers are better off than us. If they really were taller and had a better diet because of its diversity, then that’s a big thing! Although I honestly still believe in agriculture because it had more long-term effects and now everybody’s into it, even the originally industrial countries. Science has also made GMOs possible, so we can “easily” alter the things we have to alter.
We Do We Smoke, Drink and Use Dangerous Drugs
This was a very interesting topic because I often wonder about this, too. I mean, okay, we do these things because we get really high and it makes us feel really good, but do those temporary things overpower the long-term effects they induce?
And what was funny to me was that drug abuse was really marked as “evil”. And it amused me how advertisements use contradictions like cigarette companies using athletic people as endorsers when it weakens your immune system or showing that smoking makes you attractive when it just gives you really bad breath and damaged lungs.
However, I learned that non-human animals actually benefit from being handicapped. They are faster and they easily understand signals. Good job, animals!
Human Migration: The Real Eve – Modern Man’s Journey Out of Africa
The “Real Eve” is probably one of the very few evolutionary theories that sounded convincing to me. The facts just simply added up and so do the fossils discovered. I find it very interesting that humans really are “siblings”. I don’t know, but it gives me hope that (sorry about how sappy this is) wars between nations will stop, or at least, lessen.
The “Real Eve” reminds of a book series I read as a kid – 39 Clues. It was a story about five branches of one family fighting one another to become the most powerful beings on earth. Even if it took 500 years for the descendants of the five children of Olivia Cahill (their “real Eve”) to actually get along, they still managed to do it. And it was the kids who did, because they do not bear the grudges held by their parents, and their parents’ parents and so on.
I hope that same can be said for us. I mean, we came from one mother, shouldn’t that account for something? I hope that being “siblings” gives us enough reason to put down our guns and offer each other a hug.
(PS: I am obviously watching news about France right now.)
Bio in the News – Bulletin
My poster wasn’t really in the latest, but it was pretty new. I myself didn’t know of the Pomodoro Technique until this project.
Being a Pisay student is really tough (I know Ma’am will agree with me on this, too). All the good things and great lessons aside, this school gave me my first all-nighter, late project submission, failing grade and groggy mornings. However, it doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything about it.
Kuya Ed, our guidance counselor, once said that Pisay students, who excel in the acads, fail in one very important thing – time management. And that’s what I wanted to impart using this poster. I wanted to give (and find out, for myself) ways to improve our habits. I wanted to be more productive and to use my time wisely; especially since being a senior means you have a lot of heavy load on your back. And this project really helped me, personally.
Planning for YMSAT Exhibit
This activity just made me love my elective-mates. I loved how cooperative we were, giving our ideas, saying random jokes and just having fun. I, for one, have learned to dislike group works, but this elective-work is just so fun because everybody was working together. Everyone was giving their inputs and no matter how “sabaw” the ideas were, some of them actually made sense.
And I’m really happy because knowing LifeSci; we can pull our plans off. This activity showed me what real teamwork and brainstorming are, and what they can do. I’m so excited for our exhibit! :)
