Dear teachers, mentors, and student scientists,

Thank you all so much for the time and dedication you have devoted to these projects over the last few weeks. Ms. Parfitt and Ryan are truly dedicated educators, bringing science and enthusiasm to the classroom. The scientist mentors have done an excellent job being adaptive, interacting with their groups, and helping to do good scientists. And finally, the students have done a great job asking questions, collecting data, and taking care of their ferns! Great job everyone, I hope that this experience has taught you that plants [ferns] are some of the most interesting organisms in biology.

All the best,

Laura, scientist liaison  

 Thank you for helping us through this experiment. This is, unfortunately, our last day on the website so we can no longer communicate or upload any updates for the project. Our hypothesis proved to be true, whereas the Hermaphrodites ended up self fertillizing, and we thought you would know so we uploaded our final photos of it for you to see. once again, thank you for all the help, it was much needed!

   With Regards,

   Mack, Caitlyn, and Maddie.

The arrows aren't relative to the hermaphrodites, it is just a part of the dissecting scope that we couldn't move away. The Hermaphrodites are very healthy today, we are seeing new and healthy sporophytes. We will keep you updated.

To what structure are the arrows pointing?

We added some photos of what we have been seeing. Some of the Hermaphrodites are sprouting. As you can see in the photos

Update: The brown hermaphrodite was not a hermaphrodite. It was a male and was immediately removed. We have replaced it with a healthy hermaphrodite and the experiment continues.

The Hermaphrodites have grown in both size and population. We have plucked 8 hermaphrodites from the Control dish, putting 4 in the second one, 3 in the third one, and 1 in the fourth one. Over the next day, we have noticed two of the Hermaphrodites have turned Brown. The ones that are turning brown are ones that we have transported suggesting damage while we moved them.

There's has been no significant change, just a higher abundance of Rhyzoids. 

Yes! We aren't expected to see any hermaphrodites or males until next week but we are continuing to look out for them. And the picture that was just uploaded was what we saw in the microscope today.

Great! So you will know the antherigen has been released when you can identify males on your plate, correct?

Hello

We will be extracting the hermaphrodites after they release the antheridiogen because we will need to have males in our control. Right now we have them all in one dish, we're using it as a harvesting dish until we pluck out some hermaphrodites.

Thank you for the article.

The article I uploaded contains good background information about the role of the antheridiogen in sex determination. The analysis of the results may be difficult to understand because you don't have the necessary knowledge in statistics. So, don't get frustrated; read the abstract and introduction; ignore materials & methods and results sections; examine figures 1 and 2 and read the discussion.  Discuss among yourselves what you understand from reading the article and write down the questions you have. Post your questions and we will try to answer them. I hope the article helps.

Maddy said you would take out the hermaphrodites BEFORE antheridiogen  is released. How do you know when the antheridiogen is released?

Happy learning

We uploaded a file of the picture for what we are going to do.

 Looking more into this project, our question is is if we can see into the Hermaphrodite to Male ratio to determine if our Hermaphrodtie will be able to reproduce asexually through isolation processes. Are there any resources that would help us understand this better?  Also, Antheridiogen occurs when the first Gametophyte appears, the Hermaphrodite will then release this  antheridiogen  that will change the sex of the males. We will be extracting the Hermaphrodites from the males BEFORE antheridiogen  is released.

   Thanks.

 Looking more into this project, our question is is if we can see into the Hermaphrodite to Male ratio to determine if our Hermaphrodtie will be able to reproduce asexually through isolation processes. Are there any resources that would help us understand this better? Thanks.

Hello Fern Avengers,

I read your experimental design.  However, it isn't clear to me what your question is. Is it that you want to know if spore density affects the germination of spores? or is it that you want to know if spore density affects the gametophyte sexual determination? What do you think antheridiogen does?  I feel you need to be more specific with your question and formulate the hypothesis.  I suggest you get together and work on the question and hypothesis.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Magaly

Hey, we are logging into this website and we need to start finalizing our project, and we haven't heard from you in a while, just wondering.

Hello, do you have any resources that would help us in our research in the Cferns? Thank you for your help.

I was wondering if we could look at hermaphrodite to male ratio. I think it would be interesting to see the result of putting them closer together so when the hermaphrodite releases her chemical it would reach more of the spores so most of them would be male. I was also wondering if there was a way that we could induce asexual reproduction with the first hermaphrodite. Maybe that would mean spacing them out more but we don't have a way of knowing which spore will open up first.

Hello everyone,

I apologize for not joining the team earlier.  I am excited about working with you.  I realized from your comments you have a good understanding the difference between haploid and diploid cells and your project is about the life cycle of ferns. I am curious about the questions you are asking.

Hi team! Now that you are learning more about the alternation of generations, I hope you will work together to discuss where in the life cycle you want to experiment.  Remember if you focus on things like how fast they germinate, or rhyzoid growth, or gametophyte growth, male to hermaphrodite ratio, or time to sexual maturation, you are more likely to collect data in the time we have for the project.  Maybe start your conversation with "I wonder if..." and get a good discussion ging.  Remeber that just like our aquaterrapod experiments, your investigation needs to be rooted in good science reasoning.  That's where your mentor can really help you by asking questions, providing resources, and pushing your thinking. 

Haploid cells only have half of the genetic information needed for a chromosome. Diploid cells carry all of the information for the chromosome. Diploid cells are bigger because they have all off the inform and haploid cells are smaller due to the fact that not all the information is there. What I find interesting about alternation of generations is that the plant can asexually reproduce if it needs to. It can sexually reproduce and create variation but for the next generation, it doesn't have to do the same thing. It can choose a different male or choose to asexually reproduce after the other ones become male.

Haploid cells are different from diploid cells because Haploid cells only carry half the genetic information, while diploid cells contain all of the genetic information. One thing I found interesting about Cferns is that they can be haploid while still functioning fully. For example, if we, us humans, are Diploid we are big because we have all the information, and if we're haploid we're going to be small because we don't have enough genetic information. One thing about their alternation of generations is that if they're asexual they're going to be identical generation by generation, while if they're sexually reproductive they're going to have different forms and characteristics. Ferns make spores, which can be male or female. One generation can be fertilized for sexual reproduction while the next generation can be asexual so they're reproducing its identical offspring by itself.

Hi Team!

Quick reminder: In order to maintain student privacy, please refrain from posting last names, email addresses, links to Google docs, social media handles, etc. We will remove them as we find them.

Thank you for your cooperation!

Hello my name is Mackenzie I'm in ninth grade. I like to learn science by interacting with things and looking at pictures and models. I also like learning science by videos and documentaries.

Hello, My name is Madeline, I am in the 9th grade, and I enjoy to learn science particularly through visual behaviors along with interacting with different 3D models so it's easier to understand their functions. I am looking forward to learning with you all so I am taking this opportunity to thank you for being on the team!

Hi! I am sorry that one of your team members is not here today. We'll make sure she gets logged in, In the meantime, introduce yourself to your mentor, PS team, and Laura Klein by telling them what grade you are in, how you like to learn science, and one other piece of information that will help them understand how they can best work with you!