Keeping Track | Accurate Observations |
Communicating Observations | Extra Credit Points
Spring
2004 Syllabus
Lecture Presentations
Sample Exam Questions
Extra
Credit Plant Project
Glossary
Terms
Study
Suggestions
BSCI
125 Lab
A plant will be given to each student to take care of as
an extra credit project.
Keeping Track of Things:
- Keep a journal that records the growth, flowering, and (hopefully not) the death of your plant.
- The longer you keep your plant alive this semester, the better your journal project will turn out. If you hand in a journal that simply states ‘plant died’, then you probably will not get 10 points for the journal!
- Be creative! Some suggestions for your journal notebook:
- use a permanently bound notebook as your journal
- use loose-leaf paper gathered by a plastic report cover
- use the creative ‘scrap booking’ style and make your own notebook! your imagination is the limit!
- Use pencil, pen, color pencils, color prints, photographs of your plant etc... Most of all, remember to have fun!
- Keen observation is the key to successful science explorations. Twice a week, observe your plant and make notes on plant characteristics such as differences in height (how tall is your plant at day 8…day 10 etc.), leaf shape (what different leaf shapes occur), leaf color, and number of flowers (if any).
- To organize your data, you can set up a small spreadsheet table recording some of the potential changes in these plant characteristics.
- Make notes on potential problems you encounter (yellowing leaves, wilting, insect attack…. etc) and solutions you tried to reverse these life-threatening problems.
- Did any of the solutions tried actually reverse the problem? Even if there are no apparent problems, is there some change that may make the plant grow better? Try it.
- Be sure to incorporate pictures, drawings or graphs to clarify observations described in the text of your journal.
Communicating your observations:
- Written explanation is essential. Make sure you write your observations or findings in your journal along with any pictures or tables that you might have.
- 15 points of extra credit will be based upon the quality and accuracy of your final plant journal project.
- All completed journals are due in class on the last day of classes (Dec 11th).
- See
syllabus for course grade details.
For further details on your plant type, plant care, links, etc., go to: http://www.life.umd.edu/classroom/bsci124/plants.html
Fall 2003
Dr. Edgar Moctezuma
Department
of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics
College of Life Sciences | University
of Maryland, College Park