Sunflower

My sunflowers got off to a great start. I planted three seeds and two started growing. One seed particularly was sprouting up very fast, but the plant started to lean over. Because of the lean the stem became very weak. One day my roommate picked up his phone charger and it swung and hit my plant. Needless to say the plant split in half and died. My other plant that sprouted also died because of a weak stem and roots. I have since then gotten three new seeds. I have just planted two of those seeds and I am keeping the thrid as a back up if another accident happens. Let's hope the growing process goes better this time around.

Indian Mounds Lab

The creek bed that we encountered in lab was quite remarkable. It was really interesting to see all the different shades and colors of the stone along the bank. It was also interesting how the water had carved through it. The rock looked very solid and sturdy but it was actually just a sand stone that was easy to break apart and therefore easy for the water to cut through. This phenomenon can be seen on a much larger scale at Providence Canyon in Lumpkin, GA.

We also talked about the transition from the Piedmont region to the Coastal Plain region that occurs in this area. From the top of the temple mound we could physically see the change from hills to flat plains. This made the area of macon and other fall line cities such as Augusta a prime location for early civilizations. One major reason for this is the water access. The rivers in this area connect to the coast and were the fartherst point north that laarge ships could navigate inland. Any farther north than this and the rivers became too small for a lot of boats. This made these areas major areas of trade and commerce which aided in the development of civilizations.

Georgia Zones and Fall Line

Blood Sugar Negative Feedback Loop

Human bodies tend to prefer to stay in a steady state or homeostasis with almost every substance in their body. Blood sugar or glucose is no exception to this. A person's blood sugar will raise and lower periodically based on their activity. Suppose someone were to eat a sugary candy bar and drink a sugar rich drink such as Mtn. Dew. This would cause a major spike in their blood sugar level. The body has a physiological mechanism that helps it to reduce this spike in blood sugar and reach that steady state again. When there is a high level of glucose in the blood the pancreas trigger their Beta cells to produce the hormone insulin. This hormone helps to convert glucose into a form that it can be stored in the body known as glycogen. Insulin also stimulates about 2/3 of body cells such as muscle and fat tissue cells to absorb glucose These two processes of body cells absorbing glucose and converting glucose to glycogen for storage help to lower the level of glucose in the blood. This will continue until blood sugar levels reach the steady state or homeostasis again. This is an example of a negative feedback loop in the body. The graph above gives a graphical representation of the spike in blood sugar and then the decent back to the bodies' steady state.

Soil Types

There are 12 soil types found throughout the world.

1. Gelisols
2. Histosols
3. Spodosols
4. Andisols
5. Oxisols
6. Vertisols
7. Aridisols
8. Ultisols
9. Mollisols
10. Alfisols
11. Inceptisols
12. Entisols

A description of each type can be found here: http://soils.cals.uidaho.edu/soilorders/orders.htm


Soil spotlight: Oxisols
These soils are characteristically highly weathered soils. It is mainly found in inter tropical regions. It is often rich in Fe and Al oxide materials. Naturally this soil has very low fertility unless fertilizers and foreign minerals are added.

Community Garden Lab

In lab this week our class a community garden behind Centenary Methodist Church. This specific garden was built by a company called Macon Roots. (Macon Roots) This is a company that was started by a man named Mark Vanderhoek. This company has set up community gardens in urban areas all over Macon. These gardens help people to get more involved with growing their own food. These gardens face a lot of challenges when getting started. When starting these gardens the planters and planners have to deal with contaminated soil and come up with ways to either clean up the soil or use raised boxes to get around the contaminates. These contaminants can include things like lead from cars and old houses. In our lab we used several different tools to examine the soil in the area. We used a split spoon corer and dug a hole to look at the different soil layers. We also used sieves and a dichotomous key to determine what type of soil was in the area.

Sieve

Soil Types Dichotomous Key