Biology Assignments: 5/4/2020 – 5/27/202
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Biology Assignments: 5/4/2020 – 5/27/202 Directions: This material will be new! We will take advantage of spring to learn about plants! I will keep it simple and clear. I have included some notes I made to use for any of the activities. I have also included 2 articles to help you understand more, if you need it. I want this last chunk of time to be fun and informative. Week 1: 5/4/2020 – 5/8/2020 Plant articles 1 and 2: Please read the attached articles on plants. These articles will teach you about the structure of plants and the differences between “vascular” and “nonvascular.” These are the two main categories of plants. Questions: Once you have read the articles, answer the following 5 questions about plants. The info you read in the articles will be useful to you on the next activity. SIDE NOTE: vascular means veins, so we have veins to carry blood and plants have xylem to carry water. Answer on a separate sheet: 1. What are the 3 main structures of plants? 2. What are the 2 main types of plants? 3. What is a vascular plant? 4. What is a nonvascular plant? 5. What are the names of the 2 “vascular tissues?” Week 2: 5/11/2020 – 5/15/2020 Leaf rubbings: We are fast approaching summer which means there are many new leaves outside! Collect 2 or 3 (or as many as you want) different looking leaves to create rubbings. I have attached pictures and directions on how to do this. You will want to press firmly so all the details of your leaves show through on the paper. You can use pencils, colored pencils, graphite sticks, crayons, or oil pastels to make your rubbings. After you’ve done your rubbings, answer the following 5 questions about your leaves. Feel free to look back at the plant articles to help. Questions: Answer on a separate sheet: 1. Which type of plant is more common, vascular or nonvascular? 2. Did you collect leaves from vascular or nonvascular plants? 3. Looking at your leaf rubbings, how do you know your leaves are vascular? (look at the SIDE NOTE from week 1) 4. What can vascular plants grow that nonvascular plants cannot? 5. Tell me one example each of a vascular plant and a nonvascular plant. School year Survey: I would have liked us to complete a little survey about the year in my class, at the end of the year. I have attached it for you to complete. This is for me to improve the class for next year! Just be honest and thorough. Plants 1 What are plants? Plants are living organisms that cover much of the land of planet Earth. You see them everywhere. They include grass, trees, flowers, bushes, ferns, mosses, and more. Plants are members of the kingdom plantae. What makes a plant a plant? Here are some basic characteristics that make a living organism a plant: Most plants make their own food through a process called photosynthesis. Plants have a cuticle, meaning they have a waxy layer on their surface that protects them and keeps them from drying out. They have eukaryotic cells with rigid cell walls. They reproduce with spores or with sex cells. Plant Cell Plant cells are composed of rigid cell walls made of cellulose, chloroplasts (which help with photosynthesis), a nucleus, and large vacuoles filled with water. Energy from the Sun One of the most important functions of most plants is photosynthesis. Plants use photosynthesis to create energy directly from sunlight. You can go here to learn more about photosynthesis. Types of Plants There are many different types of plants. They are typically divided into two major groups: vascular and nonvascular. Vascular - These plants have specific tissues that help to move materials such as water through the plant. They are further divided into non-flowering plants and flowering plants. Most of the organisms you probably think of as plants, such as trees, bushes, and flowers, fit into this group. Nonvascular - These are smaller plants, such as mosses, that use diffusion and osmosis to move material through the plant. Basic Structure of Plants The three basic parts of most vascular plants are the leaf, the stem, and the roots. Leaf - The leaf is an organ of a plant that is specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves capture energy from sunlight as well as collect carbon dioxide from the air. Many leaves are flat and thin in order to catch as much sunlight as possible. However, leaves come in many different shapes including long skinny needles that are found on pine trees. Stem - The stem is the main structure that supports leaves and flowers. Stems have vascular tissues that move food and water around the plant to help it grow. Plants often store food in their stems. Roots - The roots of a plant grow underground. Roots help to keep the plant from falling over and gather water and minerals from the soil. Some plants store food in their roots. The two major types of roots are fibrous roots and taproots. Taproots tend to have one major root that grows very deep, while fibrous roots have many roots that grow in all directions. Interesting Facts about Plants The fastest growing woody plant in the world is bamboo. Bamboo can grow up to 35 inches in just one day! Tomatoes and avocados are considered fruits. Fungi (mushrooms) and algae (seaweed) are not considered plants, but are part of their own kingdoms. There are nearly 600 different species of carnivorous plants that actually eat insects and small animals. The largest flower in the world is the rafflesia which can grow to over three feet in diameter. Plants 2 - How to Compare Vascular & Nonvascular Plants When you think of a plant you probably picture something with green leaves, branches, a stem and flowers. Many plants, known as vascular plants or trachelophytes, fit this description. However, some don’t, and these are known as nonvascular plants or bryophytes. Vascular vs Nonvascular Plants The main difference between vascular and nonvascular plants is that a vascular plant has vascular vessels to carry water and food to all the different parts of the plant. The phloem is the vessel that transports food and the xylem is the vessel that transports water. On the other hand, a nonvascular plant doesn't have a vascular system. This means nonvascular plants are much smaller than vascular plants, and this is one of the simplest ways you can distinguish between vascular vs nonvascular plants. Another difference is that a nonvascular plant doesn't have roots like a vascular plant does. Instead, a nonvascular plant has rhizoids, small hairs that keep the plant in place. A vascular plant's roots provide support and also soak up water from the area surrounding the plant. Nonvascular plants are most commonly found in moist environments, which ensures they get enough water without relying on roots. Nonvascular plants have much more simple methods of reproduction than vascular plants. Most nonvascular plants reproduce by producing single-celled spores or through the asexual process of vegetative propagation, where a new plant grows from a portion of the parent plant. Vascular Plant Examples Clubmosses, horsetails, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms (flowering plants) are some examples of vascular plants. Basically, any land plant that carries water and food throughout its parts is a vascular plant, from grasses and tomato plants to shrubs and trees. Gymnosperms, like cedars, pines and spruces, create cones to house their seeds, while angiosperms, like sunflowers, lilies, elm trees and maple trees, create their seeds inside flowers or fruits. Non Vascular Plant Examples Three non vascular plants examples are mosses, liverworts and hornworts, which all have flattened, green plant bodies. You're likely to see mosses covering the floor of a forest or the trunk of a tree. They have short central stems, wiry branches and very small, leaf-like structures. Liverworts are most common in tropical climates and may be leafy (typically found on tree trunks in damp woods) or branching (common on moist soil or damp rocks). Branching or thallose liverworts provide food for animals, and help logs decay and rocks disintegrate. Hornworts, as their name suggests, have a thorny structure. Most species form small, insignificant blue-green patches, but tropical species may spread across large areas of soil or up the sides of tree trunks. Vascular plants or tracheophytes are known for their proper organization of the systems, and bearing flowers, green leaves, stems, roots, woods, and branches, on the contrary, Non-vascular plants or bryophytes do not perfectly fit with these features. Examples of Conifers, Ferns, flowering, and non-flowering plants are examples of vascular plants, while Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts are examples of non-vascular plants. But most importantly the difference lies in the presence of the vascular system which is xylem and phloem. The xylem carries water and minerals to every part of the plant, while phloem carries food. So, the plants which have this well-organized system are categorized as vascular, whereas the plants where these systems are absent are known as non-vascular plants. Plants are the multicellular, photosynthetic eukaryotes. Kingdom ‘Plantae‘ is also placed in under Five kingdom classification as one of the major kingdoms, containing huge varieties of plants. Further, this kingdom was classified into different categories, under non- vascular and vascular groups. The primitive form of plants is termed as non-vascular, while the advanced type is kept under vascular. There are many different varieties of the plants found on earth and there are many more to discover.