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Activity 1: The Virtual Greenhouse
Introduction: Studying the natural world
Have you ever wondered about the different plants and animals living all around you? Scientists make discoveries about the wide variety of living things on the earth every day.



In this activity, you will investigate Mystery Plants in the Virtual Greenhouse. You will learn how plants are adapted to live in different environments. Click the blue arrow below to get started!
Plants: Growing in the wild
Plants grow all over the world. The environment plays the most important role in where plants can live and what they look like.

Some plants have large leaves that help them get the most amount of sun. They grow best in shaded areas. If they get too much sun, their leaves turn brown and may die. Other plants have very thin leaves and grow best in sunnier places. These plants can not live in the shade. The plants below need different amounts of sunlight.


Hosta

Artemisia




1. Which of the plants below grows best in the shade? Hosta Artemisia
The Virtual Greenhouse: Growing plants
It's time to grow plants in the Virtual Greenhouse. The flower boxes below all have different amounts of sunlight. The box at the top has the most light and the box at the bottom has the least light. A healthy plant grows a flower. Unhealthy plants are brown and wilted.

Healthy Plant Unhealthy Plant
Instructions

1. Plant the seeds by clicking on the seed packet button and then clicking inside the flower boxes. You can plant seeds wherever you want. There are 20 seeds in the seed packet.

2. Click the Play button to start growing the plants. If the plants do not grow, click the Reset button and try again.

Your challenge: Find the flower box where the Mystery Plant grows a flower. Then take a picture. Your picture will be saved in your Lab Book.





2. In which flower box does this Mystery Plant grow best? A B C D E 3. What happens to plants that were planted in the other flower boxes?
The Virtual Greenhouse: Where did the plants grow?
Open your Lab Book by clicking at the bottom of the page. Look to see in which flower box the Mystery Plant grew a flower. Close the Lab Book and answer the questions below.




The Virtual Greenhouse: Flower box challenge
Now you have two new types of Mystery Plants with different size leaves. Can you figure out where all three plants grow best? Remember that a healthy plant will flower.

Instructions

1. Plant all the seeds by clicking on the seed packet button and then clicking inside the flower boxes. Hint: Try planting each type of seed in different flower boxes.

2. Click the Play button to start growing the plants. If no plants grow, click the Reset button and try again.

Your challenge: Find which flower box each Mystery Plant grows best in. When you see flowers click the Make graph button. Then, take a picture. Your picture will be saved in your Lab Book.








http://otrunk.concord.org/examples/EvolutionReadiness/models/species/images/plants/varied-plants/flower10cropped.png http://otrunk.concord.org/examples/EvolutionReadiness/models/species/images/plants/varied-plants/flower5cropped.png http://otrunk.concord.org/examples/EvolutionReadiness/models/species/images/plants/varied-plants/flower1cropped.png Plants
The Virtual Greenhouse: Where did the plants grow?
Did you notice that each type of plant grows best in a different flower box? Where does each type of plant grow best? Look at the picture in your Lab Book to help you remember.






4. In which flower box does this plant grow best? A B C D E 5. In which flower box does this plant grow best? A B C D E 6. What differences in the plants help them live better in certain flower boxes?
The Virtual Greenhouse: Counting flowers
Scientists use graphs to help them see the data they collect more easily. In the Virtual Greenhouse, you grew a lot of plants. To help you count how many plants were healthy and had flowers, you made a graph. The picture below shows plants that are growing in the Virtual Greenhouse and a graph of the flowers.


7. Look at the graph. Which plant type has the most flowering plants? Plant Leaf Size 1 Plant Leaf Size 5 Plant Leaf Size 9 8. How many flowers does Plant Leaf Size 1 have? 2 5 9
The Virtual Greenhouse: Mystery Plants
In the Virtual Greenhouse, you planted three Mystery Plants. Each type of plant grew well in a different flower box.







9. Can the three plants live in the same environment? Yes No 10. The three Mystery Plants above need different amounts of _____? water sunlight nutrients in the soil
Conclusion
In the Virtual Greenhouse, you planted seeds and they grew to be healthy plants with flowers. But they never made new seeds, which means they did not have offspring. In the next activity, we'll explore what happens when plants have offspring. You will experiment more with Mystery Plants and learn about those offspring. Will they all grow in the same amount of light?



You have completed Activity 1. Good job! Click the X at the top of this window to close the activity and save your work.