Learning Exercise

A. Have your class write their answers to the following questions.
1. Ask the class what influences plant growth?
2. Is light need for plant growth?
3. Can plants grow upside down or without gravity?

B. Require the students watch the following movies and write their responses to
the same questions listed above.
1. Site location:
http://sunflower.bio.indiana.edu/~rhangart/plantmotion/earlygrowth/germination/germ.html
2. List of movies to watch:
? Germination
o Corn
o Sunflower
o Arabidopsis
? Photomorphogenesis
o Sunflower dark & light
o Dark-grown Arabidopsis
? Tropisms
o Arabidopsis shoot phototropism
o Tomato phototropism
o Corn phototropism
o Cool corn phototropism
o Sunflower phototropism
o Arabidopsis shoot gravitropism
o Corn root gravitropism
o Coleus shoot gravitropism
o Sunflower gravitropism
C. Next have the students get into groups of three to four.

D. Have the groups perform their own time lapse photography.

1. Give groups plastic boxes, soil, seeds and water.
2. Have students place soil into the boxes and plant the seeds in a long row.
3. Students should then water the soil. Remember not too much or too little.
4. Place boxes in window sill or have artificial lights set up.
5. Have the students place a box over half of their seeds to block sunlight.
6. Students should then take a picture of their soil before the seeds start to
grow and once or twice a day.
7. After two weeks have half of the groups position their boxes on edge.
8. Groups should report on their plants once a week with a brief written
description.
9. Labeling or naming the group?s boxes will help with identifying pictures
later on.
10. Make sure soil has sufficient moisture everyday.
11. At the end of the month have the students place their photos into a sequence
slide show. This will show the movement and growth of the plants

E. At the end of the process have the groups write a paper on the effects of
light and gravity on plant growth. Then have eachgroup present their time
lapse ?movie? and narrate the ?movie?. The whole movie will be short so the
group may want to view it slide by slide and then as a whole after their
presentation. This is a good way to motivate and increase student interaction
with the chapter on Plants.