Chapter 9 - Assignments

Textbook Companion

• Go to your textbook companion site:
  • http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072528400/student_view0/
  • Select this chapter from the drop down menu on the left.
• Click the Key Terms Flashcards item on the left.
• Go through the cards until you know all the terms.
• If there are terms that you are not certain how to pronounce,
  • click the glossary
    • Click the first letter of the term at the top of the glossary
    • Scroll down until you see the term. 
    • Click the term and listen to the pronunciation.
• Take the test on terms for this chapter.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of this page and click the link "take quiz" below the heading saying  terms.
  • The test is timed and you will only have 10 minutes to take it.  Once you start the test, you must complete it or the test will be locked.  Make certain you watch the clock on the screen so that you submit it on time.

Return to Top      Go to grading rubric for this assignment

Course Companion: Web Links

• Go to your textbook companion site:
  • http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072528400/student_view0/
  • Select this chapter from the drop down menu on the left.
• Click the link for chapter web links
  • Look at several of the links you think might be interesting
  • Select one for which you want to do a report.
  • If none of them look interesting to you, consider selecting one of these instead:
    • Check out websites for help and understanding
      • Water and Plant growth
        • http://www.msue.msu.edu/vanburen/watergrw.htm
      • Water Plants
        • http://www.hallman.org/plant/huebert.htm
      • Plant Nutrient Requirements
        • http://www.granitehydro.com/learnxx/plantrequire.htm
• Write a brief summary of what you learned from reading the report.  You must have at least three specific statements of things you learned (or found interesting).  You must include both the name of the reading and the URL in your summary.
• Post your summary on the class discussion board as a reply to the appropriate thread. 
• Read at least one of the summaries that your classmates have posted.  Reply to your classmate's summary with a list of at least two things you found interesting about that summary.  You must make an original reply.  Any replies that appear very similar to the replies of another student will not receive credit.  It would probably be best to reply to a summary that does not have a reply to make certain that your reply is unique.

Return to Top      Go to grading rubric for this assignment

Review/Discussion/Summary

At the end of the chapter, you will find a summary, review questions, and discussion questions for the chapter.  Read the summary, the review questions, and discussion questions.  Go to the class discussion board.  Click the thread for review/discussion/summary.  Read the postings of your classmates.  YOU MAY NOT post the same review question, discussion question or summary point as any of your classmates. 

• If you select a review question, you must state the question and then answer it completely.
• If you choose a discussion question, you must state the question and then answer it completely.
• If you choose a summary question, you must state the the summary point and then expand on it.  For example if you select summary 7 from chapter 1, you would answer something like:
  • Botany, the study of plants, apparently began with Stone Age peoples' practical uses of plants. Eventually, botany became a science as intellectual curiosity about plants arose.  Botany is considered because the scientific method which describes the procedures of assuming and testing hypotheses, is used when studying botany.

Your posting must be accurate and must use good grammar.  The subject of your posting should be:

• review # OR
• discussion # OR
• Summary #

where # represents the number of the item.

Return to Top      Go to grading rubric for this assignment

Lab Work

For this lab, you are to do the second part of the lab from the last chapter:  Fruits, flowers, and SEEDS.   If possible, use seeds that you collected when you did the fruits lab.  Click here to see a class as it completes the lab and to get several ideas for your first project in this class.  Decide what project you want to complete for your lab.   There will be no quiz for this lab, only a paragraph or two explaining

• what project you want to do
• why you have selected this project
• a outline of the MAJOR steps you will follow when you do this project.

You must write the project intention paragraphs using a word processor and save your paragraphs in one of these three formats:  rtf (Rich text format), doc (Microsoft Word format), or txt (text format).  Save the project intention paragraphs to your diskette.  No other formats will be accepted.  After you have saved your paragraphs, click the blue link in your chapter 9 assignment area that is directly under the seeds_prj label:  >>View/Complete Assignment: seeds_prj.  Type a brief note in the comments box and click the browse button to the right of the label:  File To Attach.  Select the file you saved with your paragraphs.  Click Open.  Then click submit.  This will upload your file to the assignment area of your gradebook.  Click tools, My Grades to see this assignment grade.  If you see a ! in the score box, that means that your instructor has not yet graded your project introduction.  If you see a numerical score in the box, your instructor has graded your project intention paragraphs and you can click that numerical score to read any comments your instructor may have made about your paragraphs.

In addition to the project suggestions you found when you click the links above, you can use the sites given in the Course Companion: Web links section above to see the type of things you could see if you did this assignment in a lab.  When you think you have a plan for what you want to do, share your plan in the discussion board in the forum for the project so that your teacher and your classmates can comment about the advantages or disadvantages of your plan.  If you would rather propose a project different than those shown in this lab, send an email to your instructor explaining what you would like to do instead.  Once you have approval, post your plan for that for your project.  When you have thought about it and discussed it, post the project intention plan paragraphs in the assignment area as described above.

Return to Top      Go to grading rubric for this assignment

Chapter Quiz

There will be a 20 question quiz for each chapter.  The quiz is open book and notes, but it is timed and you will only have 15 minutes to answer the 20 quiz questions.  However, you may take the test as many times as you want.  Each time to take the quiz, you will be presented with 20 questions randomly selected from the chapter test pool.   NOTE:  For the final exam you will NOT be allowed to use notes or take the exam more than once, but the questions will come from the test pools for chapters 7 through 10.  To take the chapter quiz,

• Scroll down to the bottom of this page.  (Click assignments, intro assignment to get back here)
• Click the "take quiz" link below the Chapter Quiz label.
• You only have 15 minutes for the quiz, BUT
• You may take it again and again as often as you want until the due date for the assignment is past.

Return to Top

Grading Rubric:

[Return to Top]

Seeds

In this lab you will apply the information you learned so far in your Botany class as well as the materials from the Chapter of Fruits and Seeds.  You will examine a set of seeds presented and determine how you, as a Scientist, would develop a lab about seeds with these "ingredients".

At the end of this lab the successful student will be able to match raw materials (seeds) with potential actions to learn more in a scientific method about seeds and germination. You may propose any plan for this lab that you think would be interesting and for which you can get the seeds.  Here are some examples from previous years plus some ideas you can use.

• Seed germination under different conditions
• Plant propagation under different conditions
• Soil in the terrarium
• bird seed experiment  (directions)
• terrarium experiment  (directions)

 [Return to Top]   [Return to the Lab Work]

Seed germination under different conditions

Here a student makes plans for what he will do.  He is using different types of hormones and carefully measuring their impact on the germination of his seeds and the early growth of the plant.

He is also experimenting with different types of growing containers to see if identical treatment of the seed with identical soil will produce different results given different types of containers.

 [Return to Top]  [Return to start of  lab]   [Return to the Lab Work]

Propagation

This student is writing up his plan to propagate pineapple plants.  He went to the local grocery store and got 10 pineapple TOPS that were cut off when the grocery cored the pineapples to sell just the "meat" of the pineapple plant.

He is doing 4 batches:

• Three in potting soil.
• Three in plain topsoil
• Three in topsoil with hormones added
• One control that is just placed in a bowl of water.

Which do you predict grow the best?  Why?

 [Return to Top]  [Return to start of  lab]   [Return to the Lab Work]

Soil in the terrarium

This student decided to build a terrarium.  He put plain topsoil on one side and potting soil on the other.  He then sealed the terrarium and waited for the seeds to grow before adding animals.  What problem do you think he had to handle since he did not use sterilized top soil?  Do you think it was difficult to handle that problem?  What effect would putting some moss plants into the terrarium at the start of the experiment have on the possible outcome?  What about larger plants?  Would the shade they made make a difference?  Could that be compensated for in the student's experiment?

 [Return to Top]  [Return to start of  lab]   [Return to the Lab Work]

Bird Seed Experiment

Materials:

• Ziploc baggie
• Stapler
• 1 square of paper towel
• 1 scoop of mixed birdseed
• Label

Procedure:

1. Put a paper towel into a baggie, keeping it flat. You may have to fold the edges if it is too long.
2. Staple across the bottom of the baggie about 1 inch from the bottom. Put staples very close together
   • Your Baggie should look like this:
   • 
3. Add your watering solution. Be sure to pour it down the side where the small opening is, otherwise it comes out the small staple holes.
4. Add 100 seeds selected randomly from the birdseed mixture. Spread them out evenly along the staples.
5. Seal the Ziplock
6. Label the top of the baggie with your watering solution.
7. Staple the baggie to a bulletin board or tape the baggie to a window.
8. Once the seeds start sprouting (only a couple of days) take the baggie apart and count the number of seeds out of 100 that germinate. This number is called the seed viability.

To have a controlled experiment,  use water as your watering solution in one baggie. To compare other watering solutions to just water you need to repeat the process above with: fertilizer solutions, various hormone solutions, or other solutions based on research at your garden store or from web sites that discuss germination aids. In this way you can compare the effect of fertilizers, salt solutions, polluted water, soapy water or other solutions to the control using water.

Set up an experiment using water as a control and at least one other watering solution.  Predict the results ... which will give the most germination?  Why?  Compare your results and make conclusions. Do the results support your prediction?  Send this along by with a scanned photograph of your set up to your instructor.

If you would like to learn more, continue the experiment after germination by opening up the baggy to make some space and allowing the seeds to continue to grow.  Make predictions.  Once the baggie is opened, you will need to continue to add the same amount of the different solutions to the different open baggies to keep the seeds from drying out.  You may want to move the baggies to the terrarium environment (see the next item for directions for the terrarium) for a more controlled experiment.  How does the development of the seedlings differ from the baggies with different solutions?  Note in a terrarium environment you will NOT need to continue to add measured amounts of your solutions.

 [Return to Top]  [Return to start of  lab]   [Return to the Lab Work]

Terrarium Experiment

Materials needed:

• Gallon glass jar (any large glass jar can be used)
• Paper towel
• Gravel
• Soil
• Water
• Plastic Ziplock bag
• Plastic wrap (for cover)
• Rubber band
• Trowel (for outside work)
• Pan
• Masking tape
• Ruler
• Collected plant and animal specimens

Procedure:

If you are going to build a terrarium, follow the steps very carefully. The success of this balanced ecosystem relies on very careful construction. Check out the websites listed below for more on building a terrarium. On completion of your terrarium, photograph it in several views and email these to your instructor for credit.

1. Clean out a glass gallon jar. Only use water (no soap) and dry it out with paper towels after washing it.
2. Put in one cup of gravel in a pan and run water over the gravel to clean it, much like panning for gold! Drain the water and dump the gravel onto paper toweling. Put another towel on top of the gravel and pat it to remove excess water. Using you hand, carefully place the gravel in the bottom of you glass jar. Follow the same procedure with more gravel if necessary to get about a one-inch gravel base.
3. Rinse out your Ziplock bag and place two cups of soil (good potting soil will do but you can actually purchase terrarium soil). Add ½ cup of water to the Ziplock bag and soil. Zips the bags closed and mix the soil and water until the soil is good and moist (not runny). Place this mixture (with your hand) over the gravel in the bottom of your gallon jar.
4. Take the jar and the trowel (or a large spoon) outside and collect good rich soil from a rather damp area. Fill the gallon jar with soil so that the total base is no more than ½ the depth of the jar. You may mix the two soils together—this is your choice.
5. If you are doing this for the seed and germination project, you need to select appropriate seeds to plant. Think carefully. What will be small enough when germinated to do well in the confined area? If you are doing this for your final project collect three to four plants that easily fit into your aquarium. Moss may be a used, even small ferns or clover as long as it is small enough is also good choices. Avoid flowering plants that have large flowers. Wintergreen also does well in a terrarium.
6. Place the seeds or plants that you have selected and carefully plant them in the soil within your jar.
7. Locate a few small animals to add to your aquarium such as small insects, worms, larval stages of insects, spiders, millipedes, centipedes, etc. are all good forms to use. DO NOT OVERLOAD THE TERRARIUM WITH ANIMAL LIFE. There will be life in the soil that you are unknowingly adding to it.
8. Stretch a plastic wrap over the top of your gallon jar. Secure the plastic wrap with a rubber band.
9. To maintain your terrarium, place the jar where you can alternate the days too leave it in the sun.

Check out these websites on terrariums

• How do I build a terrarium http://ohoh.essortment.com/terrariumshowd_nqf.htm
• Build your own terrarium:   http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/plastics/build.html
• How to built and set up a terrarium http://caca.essortment.com/buildingterrari_rwoo.htm

 [Return to Top]  [Return to start of  lab]   [Return to the Lab Work]

Grading rubric

Seed Project Evaluation Rubric

Student Name____________________________________Score_______

Return to grading rubric

Last modified: October 08, 2004 by Cynthia Herbrandson  © Copyright 1999, Kellogg Community College. All rights reserved.