TSOTS Assignment #4: An Ecological Analysis of the Garden and your Plants

Now that you have read about and discussed some of the factors that influence the forms and behaviors of ecosystems, apply those ideas to the appearance and behaviors of the garden in which your Brassica oleracea plants are growing by developing an analysis guided by the following questions:

1. What are some abiotic factors on which your plant depends for its survival? What about biotic factors that affect your plant? Describe some of these factors.
2. How do you know your plants are engaged in competition? For what are your plants competing, and who is the competition?
3. How are "winners" and "losers" determined in this struggle? Is it always so clear cut who "wins" and who "loses?" What makes that determination complicated sometimes?
4. Describe other types of interaction (besides competition) in which your plants are involved. Make sure to explain how this interaction affects each organism involved.
5. What evidence is there in the garden that succession (or something like it) is occurring in the garden ecosystem? Does it seem more like primary or secondary succession?

It is advisable to address each set of questions in a separate paragraph. This will improve readability of your analysis.



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TSOTS Assignment #3: Biogeochemical Cycles and Your Plants

Now that you have some idea of how the many parts of an ecosystem are interwoven and interact to keep life going, consider and respond to the following questions:

1. What changes do you notice in your plants this week? Describe the overall appearance of your plant.
2. How do your plants participate in the movement of water in the biosphere? How do your plants' roles in the water cycle relate to the changes you observed in your plants this week?
3. How do your plants participate in the movement of carbon in the biosphere?  How do your plants' roles in the carbon cycle relate to the changes you observed in your plants this week?
4. How do your plants participate in the movement of nitrogen in the biosphere?  How do your plants' roles in the nitrogen cycle relate to the changes you observed in your plants this week?

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TSOTS Assignment #2: Project Description

Instructions for  TSOTS Assignment #2:

1. Compose one paragraph (4 to 5 sentences) in which you explain what you think The Story of the Seed project is all about and what you think you might learn by doing it. This paragraph should go in a section just below your "My Bio" assignment.
2. When you are ready, hit "Publish" to make your changes live on your biology portfolio website. 

If you are having trouble coming up with a description of this project, see my "About" page.

This Student Blog Post Assignment should be completed within one week of it being assigned.

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TSOTS Assignment #1: My Bio

 Before you do anything else with your individual biology website today, make sure you verify that it was set up correctly per Mr. Bursch's instructions. If there are any issues you must resolve those FIRST.

Once you have have verified that your site was set up correctly, you will complete your first official assignment for The Story of the Seed project--yes, that means this one is for points! By Monday, you'll need to publish a simple bio about yourself on your The Story of the Seed page of your individual biology website. In your post, please include responses to the following questions:

- What is your name? In what places have you lived (city and state is enough)?
- Have you ever gardened or grown food before? What did you grow and what do you remember about the experience?
- Talk about a person or people in your life who you think know a lot about gardening, farming, horticulture, plants, and/or making food from scratch. Who is this person? What is their relationship to you?


EXAMPLE I

My name is Joe Green. I am originally from Waukesha, Wisconsin. I moved here in 2002 with my mom and older sister. My Grandparents still live in Wisconsin and sometimes we get to go back and visit them in the summer.

I haven't really gardened that much, but sometimes I help my mom with her rose plants. I don't really cook that much, but I like to watch my sister cook and ask her about the ingredients she puts in the food she is making. She's a pretty good cook, but not as good as my grandma. My grandma and grandpa have a huge garden back in Wisconsin and my grandma makes pickles from the cucumbers she grows in the summer. They're tasty, but my favorite thing is pickled watermelon. I know it sounds gross, but it is so good! Whenever we go back I always spend some time helping my grandpa out in the garden. I don't really know what all of the plants are or how he gets them to grow so big, but it's cool to learn about them. Maybe after this project is over I will know a little more about some of these plants like kohlrabi.

EXAMPLE II 

I'm Marisol Martinez and I am from Salinas, CA. My grandmother, my dad, and his brother moved to San Jose in 2007. I have family in Salinas, Watsonville, Hollister and Mexico.

I cook many of the meals at home so I know how to cook. I learned most of what I know from my grandmother. She grew up in Tamaulipas, Mexico. My favorite thing to make that I learned from her is mole de olla con lentejas. I don't know exactly how to say it in English, but one of the ingredients is little seeds that kind of look like tiny beans. My grandmother probably knows the most about food and cooking of all of my closest relatives. I like coliflor, but my group is growing brussel sprouts. I like gardening. In my third grade class we had a garden and I planted carrots and we got to eat them at the end of the year. They were really sweet and very orange in the middle.

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Welcome to the Story of the Seed!

The Story of the Seed is a yearlong project where students follow the life of a domesticated plant from seed to seed. The project was to designed to connect to, be threaded through, and tie together all of the eight units of Mr. Bursch’s secondary-level introductory life science class (Biology in the Dynamic Earth) at Willow Glen High School. Students in this course are assigned by the teacher to project working groups within the first two weeks of the school year. Each group receives seeds of one particular cultivar of Brassica oleracea (examples of common Brassica oleracea representatives are broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage). The seeds are germinated during the first experiment of the year, after which the students place all sprouted seeds into growing trays or small pots. These trays and pots are placed under grow lights to grow larger before transplanting out into one of the raised beds in the school’s main garden. After selecting and transplanting the strongest and healthiest ones of their plants into the garden, the students in each group closely monitor the growth and development of their young plants and follow them (hopefully) all the way to the flowering and fruiting stages of the plant’s life cycle. Throughout the project students ask and answer their own questions as well as those posed by the teacher, perform independent research, make predictions, write and refine hypotheses, make careful measurements, take photographs, record and analyze data, draw conclusions, and maintain a blog where they present all of the former.

Hot Cheetos Ain't Got Nothin' on Me!

Yeah baby! You know you're getting hungry!

Ah... Girl look at that broccoli, Ah... Girl look at that broccoli, Ah... Girl look at that broccoli,

I'm tasty and you know it!