anatomy – Human STEAM

Kyle Banning July 25, 2024 July 25, 2024 STEAM Projects

Battery Operated

Today advances in modern medicine have brought us many different technologies that can not only help extend the life expectancy of patients but also allow them to live a relatively normal life with a disease that a few decades prior would have been a death sentence. This ranges from new …

Edward Brown July 24, 2024 July 24, 2024 Uncategorized

The Male Reproductive Organs; Healthy Testicles vs Testicular Cancer

My STEAM project involves creating a model that represents a healthy testicle and one affected by cancer. Understanding the structure and function of the male reproductive organ and recognizing the differences between healthy testicles and testicular cancer is essential for maintaining reproductive health and overall well-being. What makes this art unique …

Meryell Zita July 12, 2024 July 29, 2024 STEAM Projects

Fragile Bones

Meryell Jarett Zita Professor Don Larson BIOL F111X 25 July 2024 Topic: Fragile Bone Medium: Art Objective: Know the stages of bone development and repair My project highlights the spinal cord, where the bone density and strength decreases, leading to an increase fracture. It is referred to as a silent …

EVERYONE HAS A SUPERHERO INSIDE OF THEM…

My steam Project covered objectives from the Immune and Lymphatic System categories. I chose “23. Describe various WBCs and their functions” and “26. Compare and Contrast the innate and adaptive immune response;” however, I also briefly covered topic 25, “Interpret the response of WBC counts disease.”

To poetry these topics I created a comic-style piece depicting each pathogen and WBC as characters. I used a common pathogen, influenza, to show the immune responses. I focused on the use of neutrophils in this immune response because it is the most common innate white blood cell. I briefly describe both Eosinophils and Basophils and what they are used for.

In my cartoon, neutrophils are the first layer of defense after influenza is absorbed through the skin by airborne pathogens from a sneeze. The pathogen attacks the body and the neutrophils form a “barrier,” beginning the innate immune response. The innate immune response does not cater to specific pathogens, different WBCs attack based on what has entered the body. The barrier that I am trying to portray is the Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). These traps are made of many extracellular strings of DNA binding to pathogenic microbes along with histones and several neutrophil granule proteins, damaging entrapped microorganisms and helping to stop the pathogen from causing further harm (Rada, 2019). To show the entire immune response, the pathogen busted through the neutrophils and macrophages had to continue to fight the “villain.” Macrophages are also an innate immune response and work by phagocytosis and sterilization of the invading substance, helping fight the invasion; however, because they are innate, like the Granulocytes, they maintain their bacterial phagocytic abilities but do not express toll-like receptors that recognize bacteria, preventing them from forming a response(Hirayama et al., 2017). The macrophages complete phagocytosis, which is the ingestion of the pathogen. Visible in the macrophage, pathogen consumption signals the adaptive immune responses. Finally, I showed the T-cells attacking and the B-cells attaching to the pathogen by binding the antigens to the pathogen, as the adaptive immune response, as B and T cells have memories to prevent another infection from the same pathogen or strain.
I used bone marrow as the “creator” of WBC or “superheroes.” Bone marrow is an essential part of the immune system, so diseases or injuries can hurt the body's ability to form immune responses. Leukemia, a type of cancer, directly affects the bone marrow as it changes, forming leukemia cells that can survive better than normal cells (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society n.d.). Poor bone marrow function causes neutropenia, lack of an innate WBC, and neutrophils. Losing function of the main immune responses and WBCs can be very dangerous and in an article showing the relationship between Leukemia and WBCs, “one-fourth of patients with leukemia experience neutropenia (Chinadol Wanitpongpun et al., 2022).” I attempted to show this by damaging white blood cells, ending the immune response early, and allowing the pathogen to attack the body without killer T cells or B-cell’s adaptive intervention.

Word Count: 499 Words

References
Chinadol Wanitpongpun, Nattiya Teawtrakul, Theerin Lanamtieng, Kanchana Chansung, Chittima Sirijeerachai, Worakamol Amampai, & Kittisak Sawanyawisuth. (2022). Clinical factors predictive of recurrent febrile neutropenia in adult patients with acute leukemia. Leukemia Research Reports, 100296–100296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrr.2022.100296
Hirayama, D., Lida, T., & Nakase, H. (2017). The Phagocytic Function of Macrophage-Enforcing Innate Immunity and Tissue Homeostasis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 19(1), 92. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19010092
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society . (n.d.). Leukemia | Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Www.lls.org. Retrieved April 18, 2024, from https://www.lls.org/leukemia#:~:text=Leukemia-
Rada, B. (2019). Neutrophil Extracellular Traps. Methods in Molecular Biology, 517–528. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9424-3_31

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Tristan Thompson April 18, 2024 April 18, 2024 STEAM Projects

Cardiovascular system; Exploring Heart Valve Disease: Causes, Symptoms, and Management

For my STEAM presentation, I will be focusing the course objectives of the cardiovascular and circulatory system and expand on those topics into issues that can occur within the heart. Specifically, I will be expanding on heart valve disease and covering the impacts of this disease on blood flow within …

Kimberly Long November 21, 2023 November 21, 2023 Uncategorized

Treatments for Schizophrenia

My STEM project was about the medications used to treat Schizophrenia and the side effects they can cause. I decided to do a drawing of some of the symptoms Schizophrenic patients can experience through their psychosis period. At lot of individuals experience paranoia as if someone is watching them at …

Tristan Thompson November 21, 2023 November 21, 2023 STEAM Projects

Alzheimer’s Disease The Degeneration of Neurons and The Brain

Tristan Thompson Human Anatomy and Physiology 1 November 21, 2023 Steam Project The goal of my STEAM project is to identify and describe the four main lobes within the brain and also discuss the effects that Alzheimer’s disease has on degenerating the central nervous system and sections of the brain. …

Presley Engelauf November 20, 2023 November 20, 2023 Uncategorized

Necrosis of the Epithelial, Nervous, Connective, and Muscle Tissues

Brittany Mekiana July 26, 2023 July 26, 2023 Uncategorized

Covid Effects on the Respiratory Tract

Kait Hancock June 22, 2023 June 26, 2023 STEAM Projects

Bone Repair from Fractures

Many members of my family participate in hockey, wrestling, and martial arts. Plus, numerous other intensely competitive sports. I have witnessed practically all of my family members either in a cast or splint or through surgery for a fracture requiring pins or rods. Growing up, I understood that bones self-healed …