The Story of The Seed

W hile studying our   Brassica oleracea plants in the   WGHS GOLD Main Garden me and my team discovered and observed a lot about the plants. We found that the shape size and texture of the different plants varied in the garden the most. Some of the plants had smooth thick ruffled leaves, some had hairy ruffled leaves ,and some had hairy flat leaves. All of the leaves also varied in size along with texture and collected this data by observing and taking measurements from the Brassica oleracea in the garden.  This is a picture of the plant #1 leaf. From the picture you can see that this leaf is very smooth and thick and doesn't have any hairs or spines. It is a lighter green color with a blue hue and is very ruffled especially around the plant leaves edges. We measured the length of this leaf and it came in at 13.3 cm which is bigger than some of the plants but not as big as the ones you will see later. This is a picture of the plant #2 leaf. This leaf is very ...

1)  The   Brassica oleracea plant, a seemingly boring specimen, does manage to have variation in itself. My team, seemingly lazy at the moment, did not want to join me to the garden excursion, so I went by myself to measure data. The data I decided to record was the width of the Brassica Oleracea and the length of the leaves on the plant (Both Kale and Brussel Sprouts). I decided that the leaf lengths had more variation then the plant height. Here is the data that I collected. Leaf Length Plant 1: leaf 1 - 11,5 cm Plant 1: leaf 2 - 9.5 cm Plant 1: leaf 3 - 13.5 cm Plant 1: leaf 4 -  10.5 cm Plant 1: leaf 5 - 11 cm Plant 1: leaf average - 11.2 cm Plant 2: leaf 1 - 9.5 cm Plant 2: leaf 2 - 8 cm Plant 2: leaf 3 - 8.5 cm Plant 2: leaf 4 - 10 cm Plant 2: leaf 5 - 11 cm Plant 2: leaf average - 9.4 cm Plant 3: leaf 1 - 14.4 cm Plant 3: leaf 2 - 13.4 cm Plant 3: leaf 3 - 12.8 cm Plant 3: leaf 4 - 13.7 cm Plant 3: leaf 5 - 14.1 cm Plan...

1. For the first step of the flower dissection lab, we took a closeup picture of our plant before we dissected it. My partner, Colin Sims, went to the garden to pluck 3 flowers, while I got the lab microscope. At this step, the plant is still intact and not damaged whatsoever. Iin later steps, we will proceed to remove the sepals, petals and any other parts of the plant while we analyze how the Brassica oleracea plants reproduce. 2.  In this step, Colin and I removed the sepals and petals of the flower pictured above. Removing these pieces was needed to further analyze the flower and how it reproduces. Pictured below is the same flower as above, however without the sepals and petals. In this picture, we can see the anthers of the flower as the yellow tips connected to each filament. The entire filament connected to the anther is known as the stamen. The stamen is the male reproductive anatomy in the flower that produces pollen. 3. In this step, Colin and I analyzed the flowe...

The plant grows bigger by dividing and going through mitosis. There are six stages in mitosis, interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, and cytokenisis. To have a plant go through the process of mitosis it needs ATP which it gets from photosynthesis and cellular respiration. For our plant to go through photosynthesis it needs sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. As well as to go through cellular respiration the cell needs nutrients from the soil and it turns that into ATP. If the signal was sent to the nucleus to make a specific enzyme the cell would make a copy of the DNA using mRNA and complementary bases in the nucleus. Then the cell brings the mRNA to the ribosomes where the mRNA is translated into tRNA. The tRNA tells the cell what amino acids to bring to the ribosomes where the mRNA tells the ribosomes how to put the amino acids together to create specific proteins.

Fertilization occurs in flowering plants through the process of fertilization. The center of the flower has long thin filaments with anthers at the top. This is called the stamen. Four pollen sacks are located in the plants anthers which contain MMCs, Micro Mother Cells. Each of the pollen sacks produces eight pollen grains, the sperm cells from the MMC. Once the pollen grains inside each of the sacks are ready the anthers will burst open vomiting the sticky pollen onto the flowers stamen in a process called dehiscence. The flowers bright colorful pedals lure insects inside to drink its nectar, located at the flowers base. Once the insects climb into the flower the sticky pollen from the anthers gets stuck on its feet, legs, or body. In the process of cross pollination the insect that collects this sticky pollen will transfer it to another flower pollinating it in the process. In the process of self pollination the pollen will be moved from the stamen to the pistol/carpal of the flowe...

Me and my team's plants have experienced many changes since we planted them in the garden. Our plants was once so small you could hardly see it but now its almost fully grown and looks like a real brussel sprout plant. Our plants have been growing and adding biomass through the process of photosynthesis by converting sun light energy into glucose, carbohydrates, and oxygen. Along with photosynthesis our plants also uses the process of cellular respiration which produces NADPH and ATP. These compounds provide energy for cellular reproduction. In this process cells reproduce into two identical daughter cells, this process repeats over and over again until the plants grow. Some important enzymes our plant uses in photosynthesis are  Phosphoglycerate kinase (PKG) and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco). Enzymes are proteins catalysts that lower the activation rate which speeds up chemical reactions. Through the process of transcription our plant can create these...

1) Our Little Plant has been growing quite a bit these last few months. It used to be barely noticeable and smaller then a leaf, but not it's quite a decently sized plant that may not be growing incredibly fast, is definitely growing. It's been going through photosynthesis, which will add biomass and widen the amount of resources available to the plant. Photosynthesis is when plants take in sunlight and convert it to CO2, O2, and Sugars. Even though it's been cold and the sun isn't out as much, our plants still been taking all of the light energy there is and using it for it's growth. However, Photosynthesis isn't the only process our plant is going through. It's also going through Mitosis. Mitosis is the replication of cells that allows an organism to stay strong and healthy. It's also vital for letting organisms take in new cells as well. Without this function, new cells wouldn't be created and most cells would die much, much faster. Cellular ...