Preparation and Teaching P1 Brenden Schriver

In the preparation for Bio-site, we needed to be the fourth graders. We had to learn what we were going to teach. After all three lessons were taught to us, we had a choice of: Worms, Watersheds, or Flowers. My group and I decided to teach about the watersheds. Our group left me to decide our lesson plan and how we would teach. The main thing we wanted the fourth graders to know was how the recent flood in the east side of San Jose, had happened. Our lesson was backwards. We started off with making the watersheds and spraying them. The after that we explained what the watersheds were, and how San Jose flooded.

On the first day of Bio-site I was unable to attend. I had previous engagements being a cabin leader at a science camp. I did get my groups feed back. My group relayed to me that the lesson went very well and all the kids loved it. Many kids were excited to know how San Jose flooded. They really enjoyed crumpling the paper and spraying it with water. I was also unable to attend the second day of Bio-site do to my lack of understanding when to go. But, my group said the same things as before. The lesson went very well and all the kids loved it. Many kids were excited to know how San Jose flooded and really enjoyed crumpling the paper and spraying it with water.

A Matter of Selection

 Which part (anatomy) or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to exhibit the most variation (greatest number of different forms)? Which part or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to show the greatest range of variation (biggest difference between one extreme and its opposite)? Use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer.

The leaves have the most variation. Also the height of the different plants are drastically different. The difference between the brussel sprout and the mustard is that the Brussle sprouts are short and have one dense cluster of leaves while the mustard is tall with many leaves and flowers all over it.


Using the terms that follow, explain why you think there is so much variability in the domestic forms of Brassica oleracea: traits, selective breeding, artificial selection, genes, descent with modification, natural variations, mutations

The reason that there is so much variability in the plants is that they have gone through the process of artificial selection by humans for many years. Humans have bred the Brassica to be able to be used for different purposes like brussle sprouts they were probably bred for small size and large nutritional value for long trips where only a small amount could be packed.


Which part (anatomy) of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to be most consistently the same in all of the examples in our garden, regardless of how extreme the differences between other parts of the same plants may be? Why do think this is so? Again, use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer.

The most consistent part of the brassica is the flowers. They all have a 4 petal yellow flower with around a 1 inch diameter. I believe the reason that they all have this is that there was no reason to change that trait in fact it probably helped them attract pollenator for reproduction. In the garden you can see that each brassica has a yellow leaf. 

What would plant breeders have to do in order to get the body part or characteristic you described above (in your response to question #3) to become much different than it is presently?

If the plant breeders wanted to get rid of or change the yellow flower that is consistent in the brassica plant they would have to use the process of artifical selection.That mean that the breeders would have to wait until they found two plants with the begining of the trait they wanted and breed them.Then take the offspring and breed them again and again until they got what they were after.

A Matter of Selection

      Which part (anatomy) or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to exhibit the most variation (greatest number of different forms)? Which part or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to show the greatest range of variation (biggest difference between one extreme and its opposite)? Use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer.

The leaves and the stock seem to exhibit the most variation. Another thing that exhibits variation is the size of the plant. If you look at the differences and similarities between the cabbage and brussel sprout you will see that the brussel sprouts are tall, thin, and strong. The cabbage is short, big, and strong. 


Using the terms that follow, explain why you think there is so much variability in the domestic forms of Brassica oleracea: traits, selective breeding, artificial selection, genes, descent with modification, natural variations, mutations

The reason that there is so much variability in the plants is that different plants have different traits from each other. An example is that brussel sprouts have traits that make them thin and tall. One cause of this is selective breeding. Selective breeding allows certain plants to grow with modifications that best suit the environment. Plants have genes, like animals, in which they receive their genes from the female parts and the male parts. Natural variation allows plants to adapt to their environment on their own unlike artificial breeding. Those adaptations are called mutations and they act on the phenotype and decent with modification will begin. That means the plants offspring will have the same mutations at the parent. 


Which part (anatomy) of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to be most consistently the same in all of the examples in our garden, regardless of how extreme the differences between other parts of the same plants may be? Why do think this is so? Again, use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer.

One trait that seems to have remained the same in the brassica is the flowers. Out of all the plants they seem to have the same 4 petal yellow leaf. On each plant you will be able to see them with around a 1 inch diameter. One reason that they all have this is that there was no reason to change that trait. In the garden you can see that each variety of brassica has that same trait. 

What would plant breeders have to do in order to get the body part or characteristic you described above (in your response to question #3) to become much different than it is presently?

In order for plant breeders to get the body part characteristic, they would need to make it that the descendants of the right traits germinate. They would exclude the plants with the traits plant breeders don't want or need from germinating. That would lead to only having plants with the traits plant breeders want. This makes it so that people get plants, vegetables, and other things that are best in their traits that people want. 

A Matter of Selection

1. The part of the plants with the most variations were the leaves of the plants. The branches were very extremely different. Although the feel and the shape of the leaves are very different, the biggest difference is in the Size. The Length by width was kale 13: 5, peas 12:6, and dino kale 6:1, which shows kale and dino kale are extremely different in size, even though they are both kale.
2. I believe that the leaves of the Brassica oleracea plants have a lot of variability in the domestic forms of it. One of the reasons why the different traits like the size of the leaves and shape of them are different is because humans have picked out which traits they wanted for that certain plant. They use selective breeding, which means humans selectively choose which phenotype traits they want to be passed on to their offspring by using decent with modification. That means they choose which traits they want passed down from parent plant to child plant. However, some may of been caused by natural variations, which means they started to branch off and start having different variations in the wild, due to different environments usually. This also means humans are not the direct cause for the plants' variations. These variations are caused by mutations over many generations of the Brassica oleracea, the plant split up into different variations of the plant, due to there being different environment that it needs to adapt to. So, after a number of generations, due too natural variation, you will end up with different Brassica olercea plants all over the country/continent/planet!
3. When looking over the plant, the part of the Brassica oleracea plants that looked relatively the same in all of the ones in our garden were the flowers. All of the plants have 4 petaled yellow flowers, and each of them are around 1 inch in diameter. Now, I believe the reason why the flowers have not changed over time by natural variations and selective breeding, is because there is just no reason to change the color, size, and number of petals of the flower, as they work in any environment, and don't need to be changed. If it needed to change, it would of over the many generations, as the flowers are practically the same on all of the plants, of a 4 petaled yellow flower of a diameter of 1 inch.
4. They make sure the plants with the right traits breed and produce offspring, while those with lack luster traits aren't. They make it so the ones with traits that pop out a little more are the ones that make the other flowers, and breeding like this is how they breed animals and plants. It does take a while, or many generations, but eventually the desired traits will stick out a lot more, while the undesired traits are thrown away like moldy bread.

A Matter of Selection

The part that seems to exhibit the most variation is the leaves and the stock. The size of plants seems to show the greatest variation also the quantity of produce varies. The brussel sprouts can grow up to two plus feet tall and can have more than thirty sprouts at one time. The stock of brussel sprouts are just a couple inches in diameter. The brussel sprouts stock is tall, thin, and strong. A cabbage stock is short, big, and strong. A cabbage’s stock is a few inches at the bottom and only an inch or so tall. The stock gets larger moving towards the top of the plant. The cabbage is only grown one at a time and is roughly eight to ten inches in diameter.

Certain plants have certain traits. Brussel sprouts have traits that make them thin and tall. Selective breeding allows certain plants to grow with modifications to suit the environment. This breeding is acted upon by humans. Like animals, plants also have genes. They receive their genes from the female parts and the male parts of plants. Unlike artificial breeding, natural variation allows plants to adapt to their environment on their own. These are called mutations. This occurs to the phenotype and after, descent with modification will begin. This means that this plant's offspring will have these same mutations.

The shape of the brassica oleracea are very similar. They all contain an abundance of leaves that are very tight together. For example spinache, spinache has many leaves and is no taller than ten inches tall. Kale is the same way. I believe that brassica oleracea are similar because they have a common ancestor and common traits. This is known do to the phenotype of the brassica oleracea, they all look similar. When looked deep into the genes of brassica oleracea, the plants are related. They all have common genes, but like humans, they all have slight differences.

Breeders artificially breed to get a common characteristic so plants can be suited to their environment. This allows plants to grow better because they are not undergoing competition among other plants. If this artificial selection did not occur, than brassica oleracea plants will not grow as well as others.

A Matter of selection

 Which part (anatomy) or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to exhibit the most variation (greatest number of different forms)? Which part or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to show the greatest range of variation (biggest difference between one extreme and its opposite)? Use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer.

As I was looking through the garden I found that the greatest variation where located at the stem or stock of the plant. From the pictures shown below you can see that there are stems as long as ~8 inches all the way to stems as long as a pinky finger(like 1-2 inches). Some have multiple stems and some have one it all depends on the plant that you are growing

Using the terms that follow, explain why you think there is so much variability in the domestic forms of Brassica oleracea: traits, selective breeding, artificial selection, genes, descent with modification, natural variations, mutations

Answer: Each plant has its own traits and parts. They each have selective breading to allow them to live and thrive in their environment which is also why they use artificial selection. Every plant has it own genes and uses them to their advantages. Each plant also has some traits from the plant that they came from which means descent with modification. Some plants have natural variations which mean variations that happen during cell division and some plants just have mutations.


Which part (anatomy) of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to be most consistently the same in all of the examples in our garden, regardless of how extreme the differences between other parts of the same plants may be? Why do think this is so? Again, use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer.

Answer: During my investigation in the garden I found that even though the plant leaves have a wide variety in look they seem to all have similar textures. All of the plants have a smooth but not soft texture and all have thickness to them. I have a couple ideas to why it is like this but some of them are not relevant so I will tell you the best of those reasons, which is that they are all similar types of plants and they could have started from the same type of plant and they ended up in different shapes and colors because of mutations and other terms used in the last question.  

What would plant breeders have to do in order to get the body part or characteristic you described above (in your response to question #3) to become much different than it is presently?

Answer: I feel the plant breeders don't have much control over what the plants body or characteristics are unless they make a model that is not natural and not good for the environment. 

Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

We got the flower out of the garden, and we first took out a piece of the flower. We then looked over the flower as a whole and then in big parts. After removing the sepals and petals, we saw the anthers. They were like small sticks sticking out of the flower. The picture was difficult, but we achieved it. Without the filament and anthers, we saw the carpel and took the picture. The hardest part for us was cutting the ovary. But after cutting it, we clearly saw the ovoules, even though they were hard to see. It took me 5 minutes to see them with Brendan's help. They looked like little dots inside the overys. Brendan and I found them very interesting, but it was worth all the time it took to cut into the overys successfully. The ovules also become fertilized and become eggs early on, which we found pretty cool. What we found cool, is that the plant is actually self-fertilized by the pollen in the anthers, which we didn't know!

1. Picture 1: the flower parts, and just the bare petals in the flower and etc.
2. Picture 2: The anthers inside after we cut and opened the flower
1. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Picture 3: the anthers coming out of the eyepiece affter removing the sepals and petals
   
   
   Picture 4: the carpel coming out after pulling back the filament and the anthers (it's the complete female reproductive structure)
   
   
   Picture 5: the ovules inside the ovary after cutting in the ovary with a small pair of scissors.
   
   

Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

The basic question in which we are to be answering is "How do angiosperms reproduce?". Though the question is answered through the photos and their captions and explanation before hand may help. The scientific way is that the pollen is produced and released by the male part. The next step is to transfer the pollen to the female part and to then reproduce further through meiosis.

This image shows the stamen and the anther. The anthers are surrounding the stamen.

Those are the male reproductive anatomy for the flower. Below that is the carpel and stigma. Since both male and female parts are present the flower can be considered "perfect". Sometimes in flowers the male and female parts are in separate flowers, while in others there are both parts in the flower. 

This image shows the flowers male reproductive anatomy. This is referred to as the stamen. The stamen has stalk, which is called a filament, that comes from the base of the flower. At the end of the filament a part known at the anther is present. An anthers job is to produce and release pollen grains, or the plants male gametes. 

In this photo there is the carpel.(On the picture it is the lower green object) This carpel is the flowers female reproductive anatomy. The female parts has a stalk, like in the male parts. The difference in the stalks is that the female one has something called a style. The end of the style has a tip called a stigma. That stigma is very sticky so it can catch pollen grain and it is where the flower reproduces.

In this last photo all the other parts of the plants have been stripped away. When you split the stem in two you will be able to see the ovules being released from the stem. 

Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

Fertilization of flowering plants, such as Brassica Oleracea, begins with pollinators. Bees, bats, birds, butterflies and other animals that may brush up against plants transfer pollen from one flower to another. When a pollinator touches a flower, sticky pollen found on the anther clings to the creature. Next time that animal touches a flower, the pollen is transferred onto the sticky stigma. Now that the flower has been pollinated it moves onto germination. Each granule of pollen extends a pollen tube down the style, towards the ovary. In the final step of fertilization, the sperm found in pollen travels down the pollen tube and joins with an ovule, or egg, forming a zygote.

This is the male part of the flower. Better known as the stamen.  It contains a stock called filament that  comes up from the base of the flowering and the end of the stock called the anther.This portion of the stamen produces and releases pollen grains, which contain the plant's male gametes.

This is the female reproductive system of a brassica oleracea plant, called a stigma(40x). The stigma contains the style and the ovary. The stigma is sticky at the top, bringing in pollen through the style and down into the ovaries. The pollen can reach the stigma through multiple types of pollination. The pollen either grapes onto various pollinators (as touched on in previous posts, or can be carried off by winds, although the first of the two is much more common.

The image above show anthers surrounding a stigma. They all are part of the same flower. If you are able to see both male and female parts of a flower the, flower is considered ideal. Sometimes in plants that flower, the male and female parts are located on different flowers




.

Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

The basic question in which we are to be answering is "How do angiosperms reproduce?". Though the question is answered through the photos and their captions and explanation before hand may help. There are multiple ways in which a plant reproduces is what we know as "The birds and the bees", but in a literal manner. Birds such as humming birds will take pollen from the anther of a male plant and take it to the stigma of a female plant to reproduce. The bee's will do the same process. The scientific way is that the pollen is produced and released by the male part. The next step is to transfer the pollen to the female part and to then reproduce further through meiosis.

The image above shows an anther and stamen on the top which is the male reproductive anatomy of a flower. Just below that is the carpel and stigma. This is a close up picture of the anthers surrounding the stamen. Due to both the female and male reproductive parts being present, the flower is considered "perfect". In some flowers, the male and female parts are in the flower. While in other flowers, the male and female parts are in separate flowers. 

The image above shows a view of a the male reproductive anatomy of a flower. This is commonly referred to as the stamen. The stamen has a stalk called a filament that comes from the base of a flower. At the end of this filament there is a part known as the anther. The anthers job is to produce and release the plants male gametes called pollen grains.

In the photo above, the main focus is the green stick like figure, or the lowest figure shown in the picture. The green stick like figure is the carpel. The carpel is the female reproductive anatomy of a flower. Like the male parts, the female also has a stalk. The only difference is the stalk is called the "style". At the end of the style, there is a tip called a stigma which is very sticky. On the sigma is where pollen grains become stuck and the flower reproduces.

In this photo, all parts of the plant have been stripped and taken away. A pair of scissors were used to split the stem in two. If observed further, the ovules can be seen releasing from the stem. 

 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

1. I've noticed that our plant hasn't grown as much as the other plants in the garden. However, over time, this changes the biomass, or the total mass of an organism's volume or total area of the entire plant, which gets bigger as more is added as it gets bigger. It also seems to have trouble getting this, I've noticed that the plants around our brussels sprouts have taken up the majority of the sun, so it receives less energy. It has also shown that the oxygen from the plant comes from the water taken in. The water is also split to receive the oxygen. So, photosynthesis is very difficult to do this with little sun. This is makes it so the brussels sprouts grow slower than a lot of the other plants in the garden. This has made it so cell division (mitosis) down in speed from mitosis. This makes it so the germination is slowed down. 
2. Our plant is using "PEPC" and "RUBISCO," and it makes protein synthesis. Also, there is a signal that goes and is sent to the nucleus. It makes photosynthesis, that then that helps make the meat on the plant (aka the brussels sprouts that we eat). This would make photosynthesis go faster. Because of PEPC, it does speed up at a slow pace, but it does speed up. The main cause for this is germination, as it starts the entire thing, and starts the original boost, as when we grew them in the beginning in the classroom.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

1. Our plant is gaining in biomass because of more cells. The plant got energy to create the cells from photosynthesis. With photosynthesis the plant uses the chloroplasts to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen. All of that is powered by the sun's energy. Also the plant got energy from cellular respiration.  The byproduct of cellular respiration is carbon dioxide, which the energy produced is used to creating new cells. New cells are created through mitosis. In mitosis the parent cell copies the parent cell's DNA and organelles then the entire cell. The end product of mitosis is two identical daughter cells.


2. Two important enzymes that are in photosynthesis are Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco).  To produce those enzymes for photosynthesis it all starts in the nucleus. The DNA message gets converted into a RNA message which is then sent to the cytoplasm. The messenger RNA or mRNA is floating in the cytoplasm and then picked up by ribosomes. Those ribosomes read the mRNA in sections of 3, the first is matching each sequence to the amino acids carried by a particular tRNA. Those amino acids are formed into proteins. Later on those proteins become part of more complex structures, which include the two enzymes used in photosynthesis.  



  

How does Your Garden Grow?

Our plants have increased greatly in size since I last checked up on them. This has happened through an accumulation of biomass in cell division, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration. The most obvious factor in biomass is cell division or mitosis. In this process, cells split themselves in two, replacing dying cells. When used repetitively, this can result in an increase in the number of cells, and therefore an increase in the size of the plant. Photosynthesis also contributes to biomass because excess sugars(glucose) created through this process can be converted into biomass. Cellular respiration however, takes away from a plant's biomass as it uses glucose to create energy(ATP).

If the nucleus of our plant was instructed to produce more of the enzymes PEPC and Rubisco, it would first have to use a process called transcription to convert the DNA code into mRNA. This messenger RNA would be given to ribosomes. The ribosomes would then translate the instructions from the mRNA to construct amino acid chains(polypeptides). The endoplasmic reticulum would then finish off the production of these enzymatic proteins by processing and sorting them. The completed proteins would lastly be sent to the Golgi Apparatus for packaging and delivery.

This is a picture of our growing plant at an early stage.

 

"How Does Your Garden Grow?"

1. Our brussel sprout plant has not grown significantly in size since last time our group checked our plants. Our plants have not grown in size due to a low accumulation of biomass through cell division, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration. The clearest explanation for our plants lack of biomass is mitosis better known as cell division. This process causes cells to split in two equal daughter cells, therefore replacing the dead or dying cells. When this process occurs at a rapid rate, the number of cells increase allowing the plants biomass to increase. In the case of our brussel sprouts, mitosis is not happening at a rapid rate. Photosynthesis also contributes to biomass do to excess glucose (sugar) being made which can later be converted to biomass. Again this is not taking place in our plant and if it is, there is not much biomass being created. One explanation for our plants lack of growth could be cellular respiration. In the case of cellular respiration, the process of photosynthesis is not converting and the excess glucose is being converted to ATP (energy) causing our plant to not increase its biomass.
2. When the nucleus in our brassica plants is put to work by producing more PEPC and Rubisco, which are enzymes, goes through a process called transcription. Transcription is a process in which strands of DNA code are converted to mRNA (messenger RNA). These messenger RNA are then given to the ribosomes. mRNA give instructions to the ribosomes which allows the construction of polypeptides (amino acid chains). Finally, by the production of the enzymatic proteins by processing and sorting will be done by the endoplasmic reticulum. For packaging and delivering, the proteins will foremost be sent to the Golgi apparatus.