Journal Entries

Journal entry 1

(11 - 13 - 13) : I have completed my research for my PBL project; Biotechnology. I have wrote an essay on biotechnology and how it is used. I feel that I understand what it is and its application on are day to day lives. I am going to get all the materials I need to do my experiment. I will also buy the materials I need for the mini project in my PBL. I will be making cheese to better understand how biotcehnology is used on a daily basis. The materials for making cheese are household items. I will need whole milk, lemon, vinegar, salt, and herbs.

Journal entry 2

(11 - 15 - 13): I am done researching the procedures for making the cheese. The procedures are very simple but you have to be fast. The cheese can easily dry up, if it does then it wont take in the mold. The temperatures also have to be very precise. If the milk dosen't heat up enough, it wont curd. You have to pay attention to the little details. Still the experiment helps you understand biotechnology. The experiment is like a simplified version of a broad topic.

Journal entry 3

(11 - 20 - 13) : I chose to make Mozerilla cheese so that I can better understand a large part of biotechnology. The process of curding the milk is one that could be applied to fermentation. I used a simple acid ( lemon juice and vinegar) to curd the heated milk. It got me thinking about how the shampoo and alcohol will break down the cells barriers, because they both contain or are an acid. I also got to learn what an acid can do to a substance. It literally turned milk into cheese. This experiment can be linked to food production using biotechnology. Cheese making is a process that happens everyday, in factories and at home.

Journal entry 4

(12- 9 - 13): I have gathered all of the materials needed for my experiment and will be doing my experiment today. All of the materials were in my house. Since the experiment has a lot of waiting time in between the steps, I have decided to do some more research on the materials and their purpose in the experiment. I am looking forward to see how these materials interact with each other. After gathering the materials i took a picture of all of them. I read over all of the procedures and tips for the experiment.

Journal entry 5

(12- 9- 13): During the experiment. The experiment is pretty easy, but it does have a lot of parts where you have to take your time though. For example when mixing the shampoo in salt water, you have to stir slowly or it will start foaming up.Waiting for the banana substance to filter also takes a long time. The filtered substance is very clear. Once you add the alcohol you can see white clusters starting to form. These white clusters are the DNA of the banana. I had a large amount of DNA because I used more then one cup of banana. I also did three different trials.

Journal entry 6

(12 -9- 13): After finishing the experiment I am surprised most by how easy it was. You would think breaking down two membranes to get to DNA would be hard. Filtering the banana substance did take a long time for such a small amount. The wait was worth it because a large amount of DNA came from such a small amount of liquid. Seeing banana DNA is also really cool to me. I have done past experiments with DNA, but never the DNA of a fruit. DNA from a fruit in my opinion is much easier to get than DNA from a animal.

Journal entry 7

(12 - 9 - 13): After I completed my experiment a documentary on DNA came on TV. I watched it and saw a cool technique to see DNA's shape better. You get a chopstick or anything slim and swirl it slowly around the DNA. This causes the DNA to clump together on the utensil. If you get a lot of DNA on it you can start to see the double helix shape. Its obviously not the chromosome DNA, but it lets you picture DNA without the use of a microscope.

Journal entry 8

(12 - 13 - 14): In conclusion this project has taught me alot about biotechnology. Before this project I didn't even know what biotechnology was. Now I not only know what it is, but I also know how it is used and how it has helped our society advance. I also learned how far back in history biotechnology was being used. As we study nature and copy its structure, we use biotechnology as stepping stones. Each time we reach a new step, the world around us becomes a little more clearer.