(Article provided by: By: Mikki Hastings and Brittany Garza)
“There are three types of people in this world. Firstly, there are people who make things happen. Then there are people who watch things happen. Lastly, there are people who ask, what happened? Which do you want to be?” -Steve Backly
According to the worlds view on humanity, you fall into one of the three categories, but have you ever stopped to think about scientific views on being successful? Throughout schooling at CHS, we have learned that being a successful scientist means to be a person who falls under all three categories: someone who makes things happen, observes what happens, and also asks what happens. Even though the school year is only three weeks old, we have already dove into the world of science and have been provided with knowledge that will last us a lifetime. If I were to ask you right now what one reason we can survive on Earth was, would you believe me when I say plants? Plants give off oxygen that we breathe, provide green cover to the Earth, give us shade, and provide us with bio fuel, medicinal treatments, food, timber and shelter. But, if you dig deeper into the function of plants, they are more complex than meets the eye.
Thus far in Advance Biology, we have been studying vascular and nonvascular plants (plants with true roots, stems, and leaves, and plants without true roots, stems, and leaves). We have also learned about plant reproduction, structures, and functions. One thing we found interesting is asexual reproduction: reproduction that does not involve the union of gametes and in which a single parent produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parent. By using asexual reproduction, people would want to produce the biggest and best types of plants can find a strong and successful crop and practically clone the plant. There is a downfall to this though. Through asexual reproduction, no genetic variation occurs and if a drought or group of bugs were to come through, they wouldn't just wipe out one plant, they would wipe out the whole group of plants.
We haven't just been learning through the textbook though. In these past few weeks, we have taken science into our own hands. Through conducting an experiment with radish plants and three different types of fertilizers with different elements, we were able to observe and get first hand results as to how plants grow. The purpose of this experiment conducted in Advanced Biology was to see which minerals would affect the growth of radish plants the most. We planted ten radish seeds, each in their own square inch planting square, and put a different combination of fertilizers on eight of the seeds. Throughout the next two weeks, we recorded data, observed the growth of our plants, and every few days we would re-apply the fertilizers to the radish sprouts. At the end of the experiment, we wrote a paper on the purpose of the lab, the data we recorded, the results we establish and the conclusion we made. We also stopped to ask what happened and why the results came out the way they did.
We also got the chance to observe the roots, stems, and leaves of Monocots and Dicot under the lens of a microscope. Not only did this give us a chance to view the structures of plants, but we were also able to learn the parts of the microscope as well as what they were used for.
If we have learned one main thing so far this year, it would be to step out of your comfort zone and to be a person who loves to learn, loves to make things happen, loves to sit back and watch things happen, and to most of all loves to question what happened a dig deeper into the detailed world of science. Being able to be a part of Mr. Bradley's Advanced Biology class has taught us that, and much, much more.
