| Explore | Explore Section: Plant Cells: Plant cells are eukaryotic. Eukaryotic cells have multiple chromosomes. Some Eukaryotic cells have a couple chromosomes, while some Eukaryotic cells have more than 100 chromosomes. All these chromosomes are protected by a nucleus. Eukaryotic cells also contain organelles. Prokaryotes are bacteria and archaea. In prokaryotes, some of the unique characteristics are that prokaryotes are usually more Some things that all cells have in common are plasma membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes, and DNA. Plant tissues: There are 3 different types of plant tissues. 1. Vascular Tissue is the passageways in the plants, they carry food, water and minerals. In vascular tissues there is xylem and phloem. Xylem delivers water and nutrients, Phloem delivers sugars. 2. The next tissue is dermal, dermal tissue covers the outside of the plant like skin. 3. The last tissue is Ground tissue. Ground tissue is the part of the plant that makes up most of the inside of it. Plant organs: An organ is a structure composed of two or more types of tissues that work together to do a specific task. Major organs of most plants include roots, stems, and leaves, These and other plant organs generally contain all three major types of tissues. Roots: Roots are important organs in most modern plants. There are two types of roots: primary roots which grow downward; and secondary roots, which branch out to the sides. Together, all the roots of a plant make up the plant’s root system. A taproot system has a very long primary root, called a taproot. A fibrous root system has many smaller roots and no large primary root. The roots of plants have three major jobs: absorbing water and minerals, anchoring and supporting the plant, and storing food. Stems: Stems are the organs that hold plants upright. They allow plants to get the sunlight and air they need. Stems also bear leaves, flowers, cones, and smaller stems. These structures grow at points called nodes. The stem between nodes is called and internode. Stems are needed for transport and storage. Their vascular tissue carries water and minerals from roots to leaves. It carries dissolved sugar from the leaves to the rest of the plant. Without this connection between roots and leaves, plants could not survive high above the ground in the air. In many plants, ground tissue in stems also stores food or water during cold or dry seasons. Leaves: Leaves are the keys not only to plant life to virtually all life on land. The primary role of leaves is to collect sunlight and make food by photosynthesis. Leaves vary in size, shape, and how they are arranged on stems. You can see examples of different types of leaves below: Each type of leaf is well suited for the plant’s environment. It maximizes the light exposure while conserving water, reducing wind resistance or benefitting the plant in some other way in its particular habitat. For example, some leaves are divided into many smaller leaflets. This Reduced wind resistance and water loss. A factory has specialized machines to produce a product. In a leaf, the "machines" are the chloroplasts. A factory is connected to a transportation system that supplies it with raw materials and carries away the finished product. In a leaf, transport is carried out by veins containing vascular tissue. Veins carry water and minerals to the cells of leaves. They carry away dissolved sugar. A factory has bricks, siding, or other external protection. A leaf is covered with dermal cells. They secrete waxy cuticle to prevent evaporation of water from the leaf. A factory has doors and windows to let some materials enter and leave. The surface of the leaf has tiny pores called stomata (stoma, singular). They can open and close to control the movement of gases between the leaves and the air. You can see a close-up of a stoma in Figure below. Monocot and Dicot: Monocot flowers have multiples of 3 pedals, and dicot have multiples of 4-5 pedals and also may have fruit. Some examples of Monocot are wheat, corn, rice, and banana trees. Some examples of Dicot are peas, beans, tomatoes, mint, lettuce, and peanuts. The main difference between monocots and dicots is the configuration of the vascular bundles. The stem arranges the vascular bundles in monocots sporadically and this can make the order seem kinda wonky and unorganized compared to the dicots organized fashion. The dicot arranges the tissue into a donut-looking structure. Celery is dicot. Diffusion and Osmosis: Diffusion is when a smell moves from its source, to a less concentrated area. For example, when you bake a cake the smell that the cake makes moves all around the room for people to smell. Some more examples are when you breathe, your breath gets spread everywhere. Same when you pop a balloon. The air explodes everywhere and gets spread around the room. The other one is osmosis, osmosis is when water molecules move from one side of the membrane to the other. When this keeps happening it eventually creates an equilibrium. An example of osmosis is when you are in the water and your fingers get pruned and this is because of the sudden withdrawal of water. Transpiration Experiment: For the transpiration experiment, we wanted to see if we could see the water moving up the plant. First, we put blue dye in a glass of water and put celery in the blue water. We left it there for 2 days, and when we took it out, the top and the bottom of the celery was blue (at the cross section). When we split the celery in half, there was a little tube like thing going through the celery that was blue. That was where the water had been going up the celery. It was the vascular tissue. We concluded that it was the vascular tissue that carried the water to the leaves. Salt water experiment: The salt water experiment is when we had 3 different cups of water and we put celery in them. One cup was control (no salt), the next cup was 5% concentration, and the last was 10% concentration. We put 3 different pieces of celery in each cup. We left it there for a couple of days, and when we came back, our results were; The control was stiff, the 5% was flimsy, and the 10% was really bendy. We also noticed that the color of the celery was lighter and the control had orange dots at the top. We also noticed that the celery had gotten lighter / shorter. Another observation we made was when we touched the celery that was in the salt water was soggy and bendy. We identified that as flaccid. Something else we noticed was that the celery in the control cup was hard and held its shape. The control also had mysterious orange dots. Another thing that was cool was when we ripped open one of the celery pieces, we saw one of the vascular tubes still intact! The control was also more clear inside, the salt water celery had more of a bright celery. We also measured the celery before and after. Before going in the water everything was 10cm, after the 5% shrunk to 9cm, the 10% shrunk to 9 ½. The control didn’t shrink at all, so we think the salt made it shrink a little. Future experiments and Question: We had some questions about the transpiration experiment. Would the experiment work with any other plant? What would happen if we left the celery in longer? What pushes the water up the plant? In other words, how does it get up the plant? How long does it take for the water to go up a plant's vascular tissue. Would our transpiration experiment work on a living plant. How would we need to setup the either of the plant experiments to work on a living plant |
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| Research Question | Experiment 1: Question: Can we see how fast different liquids travel up the stem of celery (capillary action and transpiration)? Purpose: To figure out if the xylem transport different liquids- It if does, I think they will be transported more slowly because the celery isn’t used to them. Experiment 2: Question: Do all types of water go up the plant stem? Purpose: To figure out if all variations of water went up the celery. |
| Predictions | 1- We predict the liquid movement will stop because of the carbonation in the Coke. We think the lemonade will start making its way to the top then stop on its way up because it will accept the sugar at 1st but then reject it. Then, it won’t keep going up because of the sugar in the water. Lastly, the water will go up normally. 2- We predict that the water will go up normally. The sparkling water will start going up and then once it loses its carbonation, it will keep going up. We think the vitamin water will go up as well because it isn’t as much of a different water. |
| Experimental Design | de from sugar, water and lemon juice. (add black dye) Fill cup with coke and water, and put dye in each flask (same amount of dye) Cut celery length so it is the same Put celery in each flask Come back at the end of Block (1 hour later) and take 1 piece of celery out. Then measure how much the liquid has come up for each. Come back at the end of Block 2 (1 hour later) (and take 1 piece of celery out. Then measure how much the liquid has come up for each. Come back in class and measure/ take notes on progress to see how far up it has gone. Variable: IV: different liquids DV: height of the liquid in celery Constant: food coloring, celery (height,type, ect), flask, timing, amount of liquid in flask ect. Control: water with food dye Cut all the celery to the same length Fill cups with liquid Put 3x celery in each cup at the start of class 20m later take the first celery out * 20m later take the second celery out* Take the last one out next science class Take notes/ make conclusion statement *Take notes on celery cut open to see how fast it went up. |
| Conclusion | Experiment 1: In conclusion, we have realized that celery doesn’t seem to take in anything other than water. The coke and lemonade went up about ¼cm before not going up further. Even though it didn’t take in the other liquids, they still didn’t alter the physical celery as much as the salt water did. When the celery was in the salt water, it got flaccid, in these liquids since it didn’t get in to the celery system the celery didn’t change. We wonder if different variations of water will go up the vascular tubes? Experiment 2: In conclusion we figured out that celery takes water the fastest. In this experiment we saw that it took up normal (tap) water the fast. We also noticed it took longer to take up other types of water but then quickly adapted to accept We also learned that everything stayed turgid and the xylem got dark after a while. This experiment was a great way to show different variations of water and how they go up a plant stem. This happened because everything was water. |
| Investigation Theme | CEL |
| School Name | Loudoun School for Advanced Studies |
| Session | Fall 2020 |
| About this Project | This team took the results of their initial experiment and explored further questions. They also made an excellent poster and oral presentation of their results. |