1. Plants are pretty tough. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain.
  2. Plants are not tough at all. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain.
  3. In class we discussed a Science Process Model. Draw and label this model and describe it’s shape.
  4. Give an example of everyday activity showing the steps in the science process model.
  5. The 4-H Children’s Gardens are made up of many theme gardens. What is a theme garden? Why are theme gardens important? What is a specific example of a theme garden?
  6. One of our plant guests was Marigold. Why is this plant guest especially important to HRT 100 this year?
  7. Where are the growing points on the above-ground part of a plant? Were are the growing points on the roots of plants? What is the name of these growing points?
  8. Plant cells have a vacuole. How much of the cell does this structure take up? What is inside the vacuole? What happens to the vacuole when a plant freezes? When the temperature rises above freezing what happens to the vacuole?
  9. How do plants usually get the nutrients they need for growth into the plant?
  10. What is the difference between nutrient content and nutrient availability in a soil? Is one more important to a plant than the other? If so which is more important? Why?
  11. You have a compacted soil in your garden area. Explain how the air space, water space and solid space will be different than it would be in a non-compacted soil. How do you expect this to affect plant growth?
  12. What are the special tissues that are used to move water through a plant? What is unique about the cells in these tissues? Why is that unique characteristic important?
  13. Plants can grow in some very unusual places. A friend show you a photo of a plant growing in a crack in the sidewalk in the downtown of a large city. What unique environmental conditions does this plant face?
  14. A friend gives you some fruit that you have never seen before. You store it in the refrigerator for a couple of days and then take it out. Shortly after putting it on the counter it begins to turn brown. Based on this information, you think you can predict the climate this fruit is native to and why it turned brown so quickly. Explain.
  15. Draw a graph of plant growth in relation to temperature for a plant that would be considered a cool-season plant. Show (label) the minimum, maximum and optimum temperatures for growth of this plant. Draw a second plant growth curve on this graph for a warm-season plant.
  16. Not all of the light energy that falls on a leaf is converted to chemical energy via photosynthesis. What happens to the light energy not used in photosynthesis? Why is this important to a plant?
  17. Explain why a plant looses water when its’ stomates open up to let carbon dioxide in. (think about the analogy I used in class).
  18. Draw a plant, label the six main plant parts and list what each plant part does. There are some functions that are common to most (all) plant parts. What is this common function?
  19. Plants have a process called photo-respiration. How does this work in a C3 plant? How does this work in a C4 plant?
  20. What is a plant geek talking about when she/he asks what zone you live in?
  21. I gave you flowers (well at least a photo of flowers) for Valentine’s Day and you were asked to give flowers to someone. Why and what does that have to do with this class?
  22. What is a microclimate and how are microclimates important to the fruit industry in Michigan?
  23. We took cuttings of some plants and are growing new plants from them. Answer these questions about these cuttings:
    · What are the important tissues in the stem for vegetative propagation? Where are thy located? (Draw a picture)
    · Why did we add auxin (a plant hormone) to the cuttings?
    · Why did we put our cuttings on a mist bench?
    · What changes happen to this piece of stem and in what order?
    · How will this plant be the same and/or different than the plant the cutting came from?