Activity 2.4: Questions about Plants

1. Carbon: Transformations in Matter and Energy Environmental Literacy ProjectMichigan State University Activity 2.4: Questions about Plants

2. Plants Unit Map You are here Lesson 2: Foundations: Zooming into Organisms Lessons 4 & 5: Explaining How Plants Make Food, Move, Function, and Grow Lesson 3: Investigating Plants Lesson 1: Pretest and Initial Ideas Lesson 1: Pretest and Expressing Ideas Lesson 6: Explaining Other Examples of Plant Growth and Functioning Inquiry (up the triangle) Application (down the triangle) Model Pre Lesson: Investigation Set-Up Evidence-Based Arguments Observe Coach Models Fade Post test Maintain Predict & Express Ideas Establish the Problem Pre Lesson Pretest Found-ational Knowl-edge and Practice Next Unit Photosynthesis Biosynthesis Cellular Respiration Patterns Plants gain mass (more). Soil loses mass (less). Plants take in CO2 in the light. Plants release CO2 in the dark. Observations Data from mass of plants growing from seed. Data from plants in the light and dark with BTB.

3. Observing Radish Plants • Review the observations you have made of your growing radish plants • Optional: Watch videos of plants growing and moving • Radish plants—seed to harvest in 33 days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6M_y9Q1kEQ • Plants following light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHe7y8cy-7Y • What have you noticed? • What would you like to investigate further?

4. Reviewing some ways that radishes are like other plants

5. Plants are made of cells Plant cells are made of molecules Plant molecules are made of atoms Scale: 10-8meters = 0.00 000 001 meters Scale: 10-9meters = 0.000 000 001 meters Scale: 10-6meters = 0.000 001 meters Scale: 10-7meters = 0.0 000 001 meters Scale: 10-5meters = 0.00 001 meters Scale: 10-4meters = 0.0 001 meters Scale: 10-3meters = 0.001 meters Scale: 10-2meters = 0.01 meters Scale: 100meters = 1 meters Scale: 10-1meters = 0.1 meters

6. Plants come in all shapes and sizes

7. All plants have many different kinds of cells Leaf cells Stem cells Potato cells Root cells

8. Some ways that all plants are alike Their structures: What they are made of Their functions: What they do All plants grow. All plants use energy to move and function. • All plants have systems, such as roots, stems, and leaves • All plants are made of cells • All cells are made of molecules • All molecules are made of atoms

9. Comparing Ionic Grow and Radishes How are the molecules alike and different? Plant nutrients in Ionic Grow: • Calcium nitrate (Ca(NO3)2) • Potassium nitrate (KNO3; K = potassium) • Ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) • Nitric acid (HNO3) • Phosphoric acid (H3PO4) • Potassium sulfate (K2SO4) Nutrition label for radishes

10. What else do we know about matter and energy in plants? • What are rules about matter should we follow when investigating and explaining how plants grow, move, and function? • What are rules about energy should we follow when investigation how plants grow, move, and function?

11. Good answers to questions about plant cells Answer each of the questions (numbered 1-4) below to explain how matter and energy move and change in a system. Note that matter movement is addressed at both the beginning (1) and end (4) of your explanation. Question Where are molecules moving? How do molecules move to the location of the chemical change? How do molecules move away from the location of the chemical change? Evidence We Can Observe Moving solids, liquids, and gases are made of moving molecules. A change in mass shows that molecules are moving. Rules to Follow All materials (solids, liquids, and gases) are made of atoms that are bonded together in molecules. Scale: The matter movement question can be answered at the atomic-molecular, cellular, or macroscopic scale. Question How are atoms in molecules being rearranged into different molecules? What molecules are carbon atoms in before and after the chemical change? What other molecules are involved? • Evidence We Can Observe • BTB can indicate CO2 in the air. • Organic materials are made up of molecules containing carbon atoms: • • fuels• foods • • living and dead plantsand animals • decomposers Rules to Follow Atoms last forever in combustion and living systems. Atoms can be rearranged to make new molecules, but not created or destroyed. Carbon atoms are bound to other atoms in molecules. Scale: The matter change question is always answered at the atomic-molecular scale. • Evidence We Can Observe • We can observe indicators of different forms of energy before and after chemical changes: • • light energy • heat energy • • chemical energy stored in organic materials • • motion energy Question What is happening to energy? What forms of energy are involved? What energy transformations take place during the chemical change? Rules to Follow Energy lasts forever in combustion and living systems. Energy can be transformed, but not created or destroyed. C-C and C-H bonds have more stored chemical energy than C-O and H-O bonds. Scale: The energy change question can be answered at the atomic-molecular, cellular, or macroscopic scales.

12. Looking back at Expressing Ideas • Do the ideas on your Expressing Ideas Tool match with what you now know about plant structure and function? • Do the ideas follow the rules about matter and energy? • Has your thinking changed about what happens to things that plants need inside plants: • Water? • Soil nutrients? • Air? • Sunlight? • Don’t erase your previous ideas, but instead make changes and additions in a new color.

13. Questions about Radish Plants • What questions do you have about how radish plants grow, move, and function?