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Introduction: Studying plants in a field
In the last activity, you saw that plants have variations. Some of
the baby plants look like the parent plant and some look a little
bit different. Variations in size of leaves mean that the offspring
can live with different amounts of sunlight.
In this activity, we'll go back to the Virtual Greenhouse and the Virtual Field to explore variations in Mystery Plants. When the environment changes, variations in offspring plants can help them live in different environments. Get started by clicking the blue arrow below.
The Virtual Greenhouse
You are back in the Virtual Greenhouse. This time, let's start with
a parent plant with thin leaves. Remember, plant offspring have
variations.
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1. You have only one seed. Plant the seed by clicking the seed packet button and then clicking inside the flower box where you think it will grow best.
2. Click the Play button
to start. If the plant is healthy, it will grow a flower, produce
seeds, and then new baby plants will grow!
3. Use the Information Tool to find out more about the baby plants.
4. Move wilted baby plants to a better flower box with the button.
Your challenge: Plant the seed in a flower box where it
will flower. Take a picture when all the baby plants have
grown a flower.
Adaptations: Plant leaves
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The Mystery Plants with thin leaves are adapted to an
environment where there is a lot of sunlight. The Mystery
Plants with larger leaves can live in places with less light
because their bigger leaves can gather more sunlight.
Mystery Plants produce lots of seeds. Some of the seeds grow into plants with leaf types that are a little larger or smaller than the parent's leaves. Look at the picture and then answer the question. |
Adaptations: Other plants
Leaves are adapted to their environments. Sunlight is just one part
of an environment. Plant leaves can have many different kinds of
adaptations for many kinds of environments.
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Cactus |
Venus Fly Trap | ||
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Cactus plants live in the sunny, dry desert. Their "leaves" are spines that prevent water loss. | Venus Fly Traps, which live in swamps where there are lots of bugs, have leaves that close when a bug lands on them. Venus Fly Traps eat bugs! |
Variation Experiment: Can offspring survive in different
environments?
Now let's go to the Virtual Field and see what happens! The medium
leaf plant still grows best in the middle of the field. The medium
plant has Size 5 leaves on the bar graph, but remember, it can have
offspring with different types of leaves. In this experiment, the
parent plant's seeds will scatter. Some may land in an area with a
different level of sunlight.
Instructions
1. Plant seeds by clicking the seed packet button and then clicking inside the field. Click the Play button
to start. Healthy plants will grow a flower and produce seeds. Then
those new seeds will grow into plants. And so on!
2. Watch how the plants in the field change as many seasons go by. You can use the slider to speed up time.
Your challenge: Take a picture when your field is full of
plants. Watch the graph change as each season passes.
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Virtual Field: Reading graphs
Below are pictures of the graph as a field was filling with flowers.
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Adaptations: Animals
Just like the differences in Mystery Plant leaves, animals have
adaptations that help them survive in different environments.
Charles Darwin observed birds called finches on the Galapagos Islands. On each island the finches' beaks were shaped differently. The foods they ate were different, too. On one island, large beak birds were able to crush bigger seeds and nuts. On another island, birds had pointy beaks, adapted to eating cactus plants. On a third island, birds had small beaks, adapted to pulling berries off branches. How did this happen?
Mr. Darwin guessed that a population of finches flew over to the islands thousands of years ago. Depending on which island they landed on, different food was available. The variations in the original population helped some birds survive while others died. The birds with better adapted beaks lived longer, had babies, and passed on the trait of beak shape to their offspring. After many generations, the birds on each island had unique beaks adapted to eating the available food.
| Finches | ||
Conclusion
Because of variation in the Mystery Plant's offspring, some of the
offspring were able to survive with more or less sunlight than the
parent plant. It took a while for lots of different plants to grow.
When the environment changes, variations within a population can
help the population adapt to living in a different environment. Over
time and many generations, these variations can even lead to a
different species of plant!
You have completed Activity 3. Good job! Click the X at the top of this window to close the activity and save your work.