• Ms. O'Connell was our teacher for Biology.

• A lot of what we covered during this term, was a recapitulation of Junior Cycle science.

• We learned about the components of our blood; plasma, platelets, white blood cells and red blood cells.

• We also learned that haemophilia is a condition that a person has in which they possess the inability to clot blood. (This is very dangerous, as if skin breaks to release blood, this person could bleed out.)

• For half of our credits, we were instructed to build a model of our blood (a replica), which needed to include its 4 components along with a labelled side note.

model of our blood - its components

the blood

blood vessels

New terminology;

• Thrombosis - When a blood vessel is damaged and a blood clot blocks the vessel

In the blood vessels of the brain = stroke

In the blood vessels of the heart = heart attack

• Phagocytes (white blood cells) - Attack, surround and engulf bacteria

• Lymphocytes (white blood cells) - React to foreign particles and produce antibodies

• Erythrocytes (red blood cells) - Produced in the bone marrow, erythrocytes have a flexible membrane with many protein molecules. They are broken down in the liver and spleen once they are damaged.

Di-hybrid crossing

• A di-hybrid cross describes a mating experiment between two organisms that are identically hybrid for two traits.

• I really loved studying the Biological World in Junior Cert science. I am glad that it is an official, separate subject for Leaving Cert. I am defiantly choosing it next year, especially if I will be studying medicine later on in college.