Bones

So, one of our first days since Mrs. Myers has taken over and we already have to memorize the bones in the human body. We have to learn everything from the parietal bone in your skull to the metatarsals on your feet. (By the way, I only know those words, because I am currently looking at the study sheet.) This is not going to be a fun test.
Besides that we also must learn some of the cellular structure of the bones as well. We must memorizing osteons and osteocytes, yellow bone marrow, and diaphysis. Yipee!
Did you know that the parathyroid hormone or PTH controls osteoblasts which regulate the calcium intake in your body? That's just one fact in all the fifty pages of this chapter that my class has to know for the test in a few weeks. I am so excited.
Oh well. I should probably start studying now, so I'm going to have to stop typing. Wish me good luck on this test.

Teachers...

So my teacher changed... again. This will be my third teacher and the new semester hasn't even started yet. Apparently the morning nurse over at the intermediate school quit suddenly. So my teacher, Mrs. Williams, had to run off and be the full time intermediate school nurse.
Now the three Anatomy and Physiology classes are split between two teachers, Mrs. Price and Nurse Myers. I got lucky and landed into Nurse Myers class. She also doubles as the high school nurse. She is super nice and awesome. I'm frustrated that we can't seem to keep a teacher, but I am excited about the prospect of Nurse Myer's class. Perhaps this will be the best class ever. We will just have to wait and see.

Medical Terminology

This post is taking a little bit away from the very serious talk about anatomy and physiology, but after everything I am an English person through and through. We must learn about the medical terminology and all the vocabulary that we learn really, really bothers me.
The first prefix that we learned was "a-" which means "not." This is used in words like asymmetrical, which means not symmetrical. My problem lies with the inconsistency in such prefixes. "A-" is a prefix for a lot of words:

• Amazing
• Abomination
• Align
• Attire

to name a few. My problem is that these words have absolutely nothing to do with the word "not." For example, amazing should mean not mazing, but it simply means terrific. Abomination should mean not a bomination, but what is an abomination. Ughhhhh. This drives the English side of me crazy! But now my English rant is over. 

Eggs Experiment

Today we had an experiment, involving eggs and different substances. We had to learn about osmosis and other ways that cells maintain homeostasis. I was put into a lab group with two of my friends and we were started.
First we had to put three different eggs in 100 mL of vinegar. We let the eggs sit overnight. The next morning, during class, the eggs were ready for the next step. We had to peel away the outer shell which was now soft, thanks to the vinegar. We were supposed to be very careful, for the inner membrane of the egg was still quite fragile. That mission was unsuccessful, since one of my lab mates brutally murdered the poor little egg membrane.
The other two eggs we let soak in different substances. The first egg we put in 100mL of corn syrup. The second egg we saturated in 100mL of Coca Cola. We let the two eggs sit in their substances for twenty-four hours once again.
The next day in class we looked at our eggs again. The egg that was soaked in corn syrup had swelled up to a disgusting proportion. The other egg- the egg soaked in Coca Cola- had turned brown instead of semi-transparent and it shriveled up. The next thing that we did was put the first egg in 100mL of alcohol and let it sit overnight.
The next morning in class we examined our eggs for the very last time. The eggs had turned extremely gross- in technical terms. The liquid that was inside the egg had turned gelatinous. Our teacher told us that was what happened to children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and my heart dropped. It was really sad to learn about about such things and my heart goes out to all the children who must suffer for such things.

Cell Structure

So already we've jumped into the anatomy and physiology curriculum. We are learning all sorts of interesting things and I am actually doing rather well in this class.
The first thing that we learned was all the parts of the cell. Of course, I've learned them since I was in sixth grade. I don't know how many times that school can tell you that "The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell." They seem to squeeze that into every class, whether it be Biology, Chemistry or Physics.
This year we went much deeper into learning about the cell. We broke down all the components of the fats that made up the cell membrane and we thoroughly discussed how the cytoplasm interacted with all of the other parts of the cell.
There are so many parts of the cell:

• Cytoplasm
• Cell Membrane
• Mitochodria
• Smooth ER
• Rough ER
• Nucleus
• Nucleoulus
• Nuclear Membrane
• Lysosomes
• Vacuoles
• Ribosomes
• and I'm probably forgetting something

Not only did we need to learn the function of them all, but we also had to learn what they looked like, so that we could identify them on picture. Yipee! Tests. That's all school seemed to be about. Gearing the future of America towards memorizing and then forgetting information for a multiple choice test.

Beginning

So...
 I am taking Anatomy and Physiology at my high school and have decided to create this blog to detail what we have learned in the class. I'm quite interested in what we are going to learn, even though I am fairly certain that the medical field isn't for me. I don't know how often I'll be able to update this blog, but I will try to update it as often as possible. I don't know exactly where this is taking me, but I'm ready to enjoy the ride.
I have never really had an interest in the medical field. To be quite honest, I nearly fainted when we dissected frogs in seventh grade. I close my eyes whenever gore appears on any movie that I am watching. I am not sure that I am going to be able to make it through this class in one piece, but I sure am going to try.
To be honest, I am not so sure this class is going to make it in one piece either. It's the first week of class and already I am on my second teacher. We were supposed to have this incredibly awesome teacher this year. We even turned in our summer assignment into her, but she is no longer with the school district.
Instead, we have Mrs. Williams. She seems pretty cool so far. She is also doubling as the intermediate building's nurse. I figure that this is a pretty good thing, since my sister is in that building and visits the nurse often. I hope that my sister doesn't spend too much time in her office though. Maybe she's come out of her clumsy phase (I doubt it.).
So that's really all I have for now. We haven't learned anything yet, so I've got nothing to report. Hope you all stay alive and healthy until I post again.