Alison White POE Sept 24, 2010 POE relating to Grade 11U - Plants: Anatomy, Growth, and Function

Purpose:
To demonstrate to students the importance of cohesive and adhesive properties of water in plants. To exhibit the role of vascular tissues (mostly xylem) in plant structures. To discuss the differences between monocot and dicot plants in relation to water uptake and anatomy.

Materials:
2 2 1 1 White carnations (Dicot) White lilies (Monocot) Bottle red food colouring bottle blue food colouring 1 knife 2 mason jars or beakers

Procedure:
1.The night before your class, pour the bottle of red food colouring in one jar/beaker and the blue bottle in the other beaker. Add approximately 25-50 ml of tap water to each beaker (enough to fill the beaker half way). 2. Take one carnation and one lily and slice the ends off at a 45 degree angle (to help the stems absorb water). 3.Make a lengthwise cut down each stem. 4. Place the carnation stem with one half in the red solution and one half of the stem in the blue solution. Repeat with lily. 5. Secure flowers in some creative way so they stay put all night! The book suggests ring-stands. 6. Dont forget to bring the original two white flowers to class to show students so they can predict what happens. These flowers should probably be pre-cut to save time. Conduct demonstration in front of class. Use coloured flowers from the night before for observation and prediction part.

In class:
Focus Question: What will happen to each flower when the stems are placed in coloured solutions? Invite a few students at a time to get up and look at each flower. They can verbally communicate what they observe to the rest of the class. Or pass flowers around? Record responses on board, asking students why they think what they do. Conduct secret vote of science recording responses on board. Conduct above procedure in front of class, setting aside so they can see if changes have taken place before leaving? Pull out yesterdays flowers. Record observations on board including possible explanations that students come up with.

Discussion questions with students???:

Why would plants have different anatomies for transporting water? Did these different plant structures evolve around the same time or at different times, why? What does the external part of the plant (stem, flower, leaves) tell us about the type of environment it may be found in or what type of environment it prefers? How does water move upwards?

Results:
The original demo states: the flowers will be partially coloured by the food colouring. In my case the lily was multi-coloured with red, blue, and purple petals. The carnation was half red and half blue. The lily turned faster than the carnation. So what? Relate to organic food, soil contents and water contents affecting the food we eat. Wheat for example, is a monocot and is used in many foods we eat.

Helpful Hints:
The book suggests doing this 24 hrs in advance, which is not necessary. I began to see colour changes in the lily within an hour and by the end of the evening both had changed. The original suggests using one full bottle of food colouring per half stem, but diluting one bottle of each was sufficient. Probably best to do in the spring when you can cut some lilies from your garden...the one I used was expensive! Make sure the stem is cut as even as possible; an uneven cut may change results.

Background:
The Flowering Plants are divided in to two classes: 1. Liliopsida (Formerly Monocotyledonae) which contains the monocots such as palms, grasses, orchids, bromeliads, and lilies. 2. Magnoliopsida (formerly Dicotyledonae) which contains the dicots (broadleaf plants) which contains a much larger group of plants including, the woody flowering plants, a majority of herbaceous ones, and of course the carnation! Vascular tissues within dicots and monocots, transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. The xylem conducts water upward from the root system, the phloem conducts minerals and organic compounds throughout the plant. These tissues are usually organized in to vascular bundles in roots, shoots, and leaves. In most dicot stems, there is a ring of vascular bundles, each containing xylem and phloem. A monocot stem also contains vascular bundles, but in a more complex scattered pattern with more bundles situated toward the periphery of the stem.

Sources:

Demo modified from Bilash, B. & M. Shields. A Demo a Day. A Year of Biological Demonstrations. Batavia, Il: Flinn Scientific, Inc, 2001. Background info from Mauseth, James D. Plant Anatomy. Menlo Park, California: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, 1988. Additional Notes: Xylem: 1) 2) 3) 4) functions as water and solute conductor mechanical support of the whole plant and its parts storage of water or nutrients made of dead, empty cells with only cell walls

Some notes on water: Water tends to move from a region where it can move freely (greater water potential) to areas where its movement is restricted (negative water potential) Water is adhesive, it interacts and sticks to many substances Water is cohesive, can hydrogen bond to other water molecules strongly, with the group of molecules acting as a unit. Water is heavy

A dry leaf (transpiration) creates a gradient of water potential. Water gradually moves out of the xylem, passing from cell to cell. Water molecules (being cohesive) pull other molecules along, dragging water molecules up through the roots and stem. The water being pulled also sticks (adheres) to the sides of xylem cells creating resistance. The water column in the xylem becomes narrower, creating a water column that is under a great deal of pressure. Larger xylem cells risk cavitation (collapsing), but move large amounts of water. The layer of water next to the cell wall is supported by the wall. If the cell is narrow (think capillary tube), the boundary effect reinforces the entire water column. If the cell has a greater diameter, the centre water molecules are too far from the wall to be reinforced by it. Background info from Mauseth, James D. Plant Anatomy. Menlo Park, California: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, 1988.