The Plant Game. To make flowers you must first make both leaves and roots. WHY? What do the leaves and roots do for a plant?

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1 The Plant Game To win at any game basketball, football, or video games players must have a good strategy. Some players go on the offensive and take advantage of the weaknesses of other players. Sometimes players will go on the defense and conserve energy to prepare for when conditions get difficult. So.How is a plant like a basketball player? It may surprise you to learn that living organisms have strategies for survival. These strategies are genetically programmed, and allow the organisms to be responsive to the environment. Different species have evolved different strategies which allow them to win (survive) in their habitat. If they are removed from their particular habitat and moved to a different one, it s unlikely that they will be able to survive successfully with the new rules or conditions. In this lab, you will pretend to be a plant and you will devise a strategy that will allow your plant to reproduce (make flowers). The object is to make a lot of flowers before the first killing frost of autumn strikes! After all, in nature, the most successful organisms are those that reproduce, passing more of their genes to the next generation than do others of their species. To make flowers you must first make both leaves and roots. WHY? What do the leaves and roots do for a plant? Plant Part Part Job Reason to buy leaves Leaves Photosynthesis: Makes food (glucose) from the Leaves are necessary for photosynthesis suns energy Absorb water for the plant Water is needed for Roots photosynthesis 1 P a g e

2 The more leaves you make the more photosynthesis your plant can carry out, which in turn allows you to make more sugar. The more sugar molecules you collect as a result of photosynthesis, the more leaves, roots and flowers you can buy in the game. (this simulates greater plant survival) However, if you have more leaves, under certain conditions, you may lose too much water through transpiration and you may be unable to live! Roots are your only way to acquire water in conditions like this! 2 P a g e

3 In this game you will need: Leaf Roots Flower Glucose 3 P a g e

4 Materials Needed Per Team 20 small vinyl coated paper clips 1 dowel or straw or wooden splint 1 set of about 40 sugar tokens 1 set of about 20 green leaves 1 set of about 10 flower cards ml graduated cylinder 1 pipet and Pi-pump or bulb 1 calculator or piece of scrap paper 1 small beaker to act as water reservoir 1 Weather Report and Growth Costs Card Playing the game Starting the game: Everyone begins with a full graduated cylinder, one leaf, and one paper clip "root." 1. Set up your seedling as shown in the diagram below. Fill graduated cylinder with 100 ml of water (soil). Place two paper clips (roots) onto middle of dowel and hang one leaf on dowel. Newly germinated seed in spring when soil is saturated with water 2. Die will be rolled in order to determine the weather conditions surrounding your plant. You will use the weather chart to determine how much photosynthesis and/or transpiration occurs during each condition. This determines glucose production and water loss. 3. Record information in the scorecard and calculate the number of sugars produced as a result of the weather conditions and decisions that you have made. 4. As your plant produces glucose molecules, you will be able to buy leaves, roots and flowers. As you add to your plant, it will change your glucose production as a result of photosynthesis and water loss due to transpiration. 4 P a g e

5 Scorecard Day Number Roll of the die Number Photosynthesis Take how of leaves factor? many sugar tokens? 1 = 2 2 = 3 = 4 = 5 = 6 = 7 = 8 = 9 = 10 = 11 = 12 = 13 = 14 = 15 = = 18 = 19 = 20 = 21 = 22 = 23 = '24 = -25 = 26 = 27 = total sugars Make leaf, root, or flower? Put how many sugars back? New total sug a r s

6 Data Analysis Write out the answers to the following questions using complete sentences. 1. How did your plant grow? Create a histogram from your scorecard data using three different colors for each part of the plant (leaf, root, flower). Plot your data for each day. 2. Do successful strategies have a certain period in time where there is rapid leaf growth? Rapid root growth? 3. When do successful strategies seem to make the most flowers? Did this plan work every time? Explain. 4. How did the relate to the number of flowers in plants that resulted in your class? 5. How did the number of roots relate to the number of flowers in plants that resulted in your class? 6 P a g e

7 Cost of Plant Parts Cost: 10 Glucose Molecules Cost: 10 Glucose Molecules per Root (paperclip) Cost: 21 Glucose Molecules per Flower 7 P a g e

8 Weather Conditions Number on Die WEATHER PHOTOSYNTHESIS RAINFALL OR TRANSPIRATION 1 Chilly, downpour no photosynthesis gain 20 ml of water 2 cool light rain make I sugar gain 5 ml of water 3 very humid overcast make 2 sugars lose I ml of water 4 warm, partly cloudy make 3 sugars lose 2 ml of water 5 humid, sunny make 4 sugars lose 2 ml of water 6 sunny, very dry, hot make 4 sugars lose 4 ml of water Adapted from CIB T Plant Game by Kathy Hoppe, 2010

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