Discussion Board 2: Stranded! You are a space tourist traveling to a distant planet when a malfunction occurs on your spaceship.

Discussion Board 2: Stranded!

There are 2 parts to this discussion. Details on what is expected in both parts is found below the prompt.

Prompt (Use your imagination!):

You are a space tourist traveling to a distant planet when a malfunction occurs on your spaceship. All will need to exit the ship within a day. You will take an emergency escape pod to one of the planets nearby.

Your friend bets you that they can accurately describe the integumentary system of the organisms on the planet you are going to stop at. Little does your friend know that you have been studying the integumentary system.

Based on your knowledge of the human integumentary system, what do you think the integumentary systems of the organisms on this planet would be like? What will you see?

Choose one planet below and using the features of the human integumentary system, consider how that system may be altered for survival in these conditions.

1. Planet Aridosol: Hot, dry, windy

          Temperature range: 95-115 degrees Fahrenheit

          Wind range: 50-65 mph daily

          Sunlight range: 20-24 hours a day (in a 24hr day)

          Precipitation range: 2 short rainy seasons 10” a year. One lake highly saline.

2. Planet Histosol: Tropical, heavy vegetation, heavy rainfall

Temperature range: 75-95 degrees Fahrenheit. High humidity 

          Wind: very little

          Sunlight: 18 hours a day but little gets through the trees. A shady planet

          Precipitation range: Heavy, 1-2” per day

3. Planet Gelisol:Cold, gusty, icy

Temperature range: -35-20 degrees Fahrenheit

          Wind range: 30-45 mph, gusts up to 80mph

          Sunlight range: 14 hours a day (in a 24hr day)

          Precipitation range: mild, snow/ice 3-5” per month

There is no perfect answer, but here are a few things to consider:

-Layers of the skin

-Cellular activity within the layers

-Depth of certain structures

-How the integumentary system may affect other organ systems in the body

-You may want to look at the animal kingdom for some ideas

Through this 2 part discussion with your classmates, you will state your planet choice, explain how the integumentary system (the alteration you think you will see) would affect the survival of these organisms using appropriate and sufficient evidence, and then respond to your classmates posts to convince them your alterations will most likely be seen. In other words, you need to know why your description is the most advantageous. You want to win the bet! Use science to win!

Remember, no answer is one hundred percent correct so you are not saying that others are wrong, but instead why your description is more optimal based on evidence of how the integumentary system works.

Part 1: Initial Post (Worth up to 50 points)

• You will need to use at least 3 reputable scientific references to support your post (not including your textbook). Reputable sources= peer reviewed scientific journal articles, accredited websites, or books. Google, Wikipedia, etc. are not acceptable sources.

Part 2: Responses (Worth up to 50 points)

Comment on at least 2 classmate’s discussion submissions.

• Each comment must be 150-200 words!
  • Evaluate their post
  • You are either adding more evidence to a post that made the same choice as you or challenging another choice (respectfully) with evidence.
  • Offer questions or substantive responses to what is said. Offer Research and share information that backs or refutes a point being made (“Good Jobs”, or “I agree” are NOT allowed as your response!!).

See last page for charts to use to organize your thoughts. This is for you and not to be handed in.

How will I be graded?

The rubric to this assignment is located in the same spot on Blackboard where this guideline is located, as a separate document. Take a look prior to starting the assignment and let your instructor know if you have any questions regarding expectations.

What kind of sources should you use?

Your information must be credible, accurate, and well supported by evidence. The best sources of information are the research journals and the books as well as webpages maintained by professional societies and organizations. Search for articles and academic material should start with the electronic databases of libraries such as FTCC’s Paul H. Thompson Library (opens new window), PubMed (opens new window) or other such resources. When in doubt about material, use CARS checklist (opens new window) to see if it can be used in discussions and writings.

Don’t forget to CITE!

You must cite all sources. Citation format must be MLA or APA (Visit the Purdue Owl Writing Lab (opens new window) for instructions on proper formatting)

Examples: In science we primarily use APA. These are basic examples of common citations. Please see the Purdue Owl (linked above) for more details/examples.

In-text citation: When you are paraphrasing from an author, so whenever you a

taking information form a source and putting it in your own words.

According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.

In-text citation quote: If you are taking a quote, you need to include the page number:

According to Jones (1998), “students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time” (p. 199).

Reference Page: At the end of the document, you want to make sure you reference all of the sources you took information from.

Article:

Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13

Book:

Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press

Electronic Source/Website:

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist. Medium. https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01

Expert A+ answer!

You are stopping at Planet Gelisol

Integumentary systems of organisms on this planet may look like the following:

• Thick layer of fur
• Epidermis would be dark on the outside and would not need to be constantly regenerating cells because they are not directly exposed to the environment under a thick layer of fur. 
• Dermis would have deeper location of blood vessels, not that many sweat glands, and have dense hair follicles
• Hypodermis would have a thicker layer of fat

Step-by-step explanation

Planet Gelisol is cold, gusty, and icy much like the poles here on Earth. The skin described above is similar to the skin of polar bears that can survive these conditions. 

The fur of polar bears is actually double layered with a dense underfur to prevent body heat from escaping. Polar bear skin is actually black, this is to better absorb heat from the sun and aid in body heat. Because of the thick layer of fur the epidermis is not directly exposed to the environment and would not need to be actively replenished after being sloughed off. This means that cellular activity would not need to be high at the stratum corneum.

The dermis is the layer of the skin that has the blood vessels, in the cold these blood vessels would be better off being deeper in the layer to prevent the loss of body heat to the environment. Sweat glands for cooling are also not as important in this environment and would not be needed in a high quantity.  The dermis is also the layer that contains the hair follicles, because the skin must have a thick layer of fur there would be more hair follicles in the dermis. Cell activity would be active to maintain the growth of the hair follicles and the blood vessels.

Polar bears are also heavily insulated with a thick layer of blubber. The hypodermis is the layer that has the adipose deposits and thickening this with fat will aid insulation. Cell activity would be high to be able to deposit fat in this layer and also take fat for energy.