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Category: Science 10
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“Arctic Sea Ice Minimum | NASA Global Climate Change.” NASA, NASA, 24 Oct. 2017, climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/.
Esa. “GOCE Reveals Gravity Dip from Ice Loss.” European Space Agency, m.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/GOCE/GOCE_reveals_gravity_dip_from_ice_loss.
“Global Climate Change: Research Explorer: Primer: Overview of Climate Change Research : Atmosphere.” Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/climate/primer/atmos-p.html
Baker, Nathan, and N.W. Rutter. “Glaciers in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/glacier/
University of Bristol. “Sudden Onset of Ice Loss in Antarctica Detected.” What Is Working Memory? | School of Experimental Psychology | University of Bristol, University of Bristol, 21 May 2015, www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2015/may/ice-loss-in-antarctica.html
Chung, Emily. “Glaciers in Western Canada Will Shrink 70% by 2100. Here’s How | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 7 Apr. 2015, www.cbc.ca/news/technology/how-western-canada-glaciers-will-melt-away-1.3022242
Arden, Tommy. Quora, 6 Mar. 2016, www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-gravity
ESA. YouTube, YouTube, 26 Sept. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyq6kGKPQ5g&t=17s
ITNExtreme. YouTube, YouTube, 13 May 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkBvIyaOTIA
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What are some of my most powerful learning moments and what made them so?
One of my most powerful learning moments with working with the elementary school kids is that you just have to go with the flow for most things. I noticed that the children, or at least the ones my partner and I were working with, tended to have shorter attention span when it came to the actual science aspect. When I noticed this, I realized that things aren’t going to go exactly how it was planned. The way that a teacher or two told us to do it was have us, the high school 
students, pour the substances while the elementary school students got to play around with it. Some of the students, though, got impatient and wanted to help pour things. So, we decided that they could help pour some of the safer substances, such as water in the oobleck. Another example was that since they have a lot of energy, they got bored with looking at the reactions or playing around with the oobleck so we thought it’d be a good idea to take breaks since we had a lot of free time. Instead of the high school students telling the 
younger students what to do, we asked what they wanted to do and we followed along with it, since it was appropriate, so we knew they would be entertained. They ended up having a good time and a few of the other students of other groups joined us.
What were some of the most interesting discoveries I made while working with the younger students?
Some of the most interesting discoveries I made while working with the younger students is that they want to be hands on and need to be hands on to get a good understanding of what they’re doing. Because, as a result, they get curious and start to ask questions which helps them gain more knowledge.
What part of this shared learning experience did you enjoy the most and why?
The parts of this shared learning experience I enjoyed the most was seeing how excited the kids got when the reactions occurred. Since they were so impatient in the moments leading up to the reaction they were so fascinated when it happened. Besides the actual science part of the day, the part I enjoyed most was being around their high, carefree, energy. They didn’t stress about anything and found a good time in everything they did which is a relief. Being in a high school all day where there is stress in every corner, whether it’s society’s pressure or pressure with school work itself, it can be draining. So having the younger students around to take away from all that, even if it was for a short amount of time, was relieving.
Lab Analysis
What is Epigenetics?
A double-helix DNA strand is not close to the end of what creates genes that make us, humans, who we are. There is another aspect present that controls genes called epigenetics. Epigenetics involves genetic contr
ol by factors other than a DNA sequence. This means that other factors, such as environmental factors (ex. stress and diet) adjusts the genes in our genomes to fit our environment. If an individual were to experience a traumatic event such as child abuse, their stress towards that specific situation has the ability to trigger a negative chemical change that can activate or silence genes. This is because epigenetic changes can cause genes to switch “on” or “off” and determines which proteins are transcribed (this is why cells in the digestive system can control sugar, but cells in the brains can’t). It has the ability to lead the individual to a mental disorder such as depression or PTSD. This is a gene expression change in response to environmental cues. Mechanisms that control such changes are DNA methylation, histone modification, and RNA silencing.
DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism used by cells to control gene expression (phenotypes). It’s also the 
most commonly used epigenetic signaling tool that can fix genes in the “off” or “on” position which is an important aspect when considering that epigenetic disorders can be more efficiently fixed with epigenetic therapies.
RNA silencing is when one or more genes is prevented from developing by small non-coding pieces of RNA (microRNA). These RNA’s act as switches serving a great amount of influence in the cell. For example, they “fine-tune” the gene expression as they act as specific “modulators” depending on the cell type. miRNA has good effects such as playing a role in tumor suppression which means they can be manipulated in treating epigenetic diseases such as cancer.
Greatest Advancement
The greatest advancement with regards to epigenetics and DNA mehtylation has to be the development of bisulfite methylation sequencing. Its the use of bisulfite treatment of DNA to view methylation in every cytosine in the genome. Bisulfite conversion changes unmethylated cytosines to uracil. These converted bases are treated like thymine in the sequencing, and read counts are used to determine the amount of methylated cytosines.
How is this BioTechnology best used?
The miRNA that is apart of RNA silencing is the best used when it comes to medicine. There have been many discoveries regarding silencing RNA, or more specifically the miRNA especially when it comes to medicine. With miRNA many medical researchers have found that it can help fight off certain diseases and infections. For example, autoimmune disease such as lupus, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis, in the past, have only been treated by steroids which leaves the host with the threat of infection. Targeting miRNA may be better to treat these diseases by limiting their action to help restore balance within the human immune system that is more likely to protect the host.
How is this form of BioTechnology changing the world as we continue to advance towards the future
As I have stated, this type of biotechnology helps in the medical field and has the potential to help with cancer. As we know, there are tumor suppressors within our bodies (miRNA-34a). Mirnarx Therapeutics, Inc. figured that if they put artificial tumor suppressor that can be found in our bodies in cancer cells, it may provide a possible remedy. They worked through the possible downfalls that may 
not work and found something that is in clinical trial phases. Everybody on this earth in surrounded by cancer. People are either faced with hardship of having cancer or having a loved one that has cancer and has to battle hard which causes a great deal of heartbreak in everyone’s lives. If this trial were to be successful, this could provide not necessarily a cure, but a beginning too finding something that could beat cancer in a less invasive, more efficient way.
Weinhold, Bob. “Epigenetics: The Science of Change.” Environmental Health Perspectives, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Mar. 2006, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1392256/
“Methylation Sequencing.” Methylation Sequencing | Sequence bisulfite-Converted DNA, www.illumina.com/techniques/sequencing/methylation-sequencing.html
Tollefsbol, Trygve O. “DNA Methylation Gene- or Region-Specific Techniques.” Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3227536/
Schmidt, Marco F. “Drug target miRNAs: chances and challenges.” Trends in Biotechnology , Nov. 2014, www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/fulltext/S0167-7799(14)00182-6