Plant Physiology 2010 MSH 101 MWF 11 am

Plant Physiology 2010 MSH 101 -- MWF 11 am Lab W 1 -4 pm MSH 75

Tracking down the green • No pictures of earth, forests, plants, leaves.

Looking closer PCB 01

chlorophyll

Why plants are cool • Responsible for almost all of life on earth – Oxygen, food • You see them everywhere – Understanding: your life is more interesting • They are useful – Food, fiber, drugs, building material, aesthetics, culture, shade • They are interesting

Plants interesting? • • Venus flytrap Pitcher plants Castor bean (ricin) Giant sequoia – miniplants • • • Spices Pollination Interesting sex lives Biology Cells

General Topics • Background: plant bodies, cells, skills • How plants do things – Interact with water, minerals (tissues & cells) – Interconvert energy (light, chemical forms) – Make chemical compounds – Control what goes on chemically in cells – Respond to the environment – Develop from seeds into trees (etc. )

Value of this course • Fulfill a requirement • Fill out big chunk of biology – Plant kingdom – How organisms work (high level) • Make your life more interesting • Prepare for further education – “most valuable course” – “best preparation”

Class requirements • Problem sets • Lab handins weekly – No long reports – Mostly graphs and abstracts, some data • Plant growth & development project • 4 quizzes, 3 tests (every other week) – Includes labs for that period • Final exam • Attendance? – What to do if you miss a class

You need • Class manual – $10 today (Wednesday) – Labs, exercises, reference, helpful stuff • Text – Comprehensive – At least one per lab group – Need to use after each lecture • Intro Biology text • Flash drive • Fat notebook

How to do well • Come to class • Read text after class • Form a study group now – See Appendix D (“How to survive…”) • Use supplementary material – www. uni. edu/berg, weblog – Instructor’s notes (on web or Web. CT) – Downloads (on web or Web. CT) – Your Bio I-II text • Turn in good assignments on time

You can get individual help • • After class In lab Email, phone, weblog Office hours

Hard class? • Lots of information • Some complex ideas – Maybe you learned a junior version before – We learn the senior version • Things to tie together • Need to use new skills – Thinking – Technical (graphs, computers, writing)

Your study group • Insures frequent contact with material – Keeps you from getting behind • Answer each other’s questions – Helps asker and answerer – Understanding and remembering • Helps with problem sets • Can share a book

Labs • Lab is really important – – Hands on experience Skills Understanding Communicating • Handins most weeks • Scored +, or – – + adds 1 pt to next test grade, - subtracts 1 pt – has no effect (OK, but not wonderful) – Easy way to get extra points

Fish versus fishing • You can give people fish, and it helps them once • You can teach people fishing, and it helps them forever (even with nonfishing activities) • Most people want fish right now (training, not education) • This course is mostly about learning to fish • Like a foreign language – – need vocabulary (facts) need grammar (relationships, processes) can't use the grammar without the vocabulary is useless without the grammar • Poincaré: Science is no more a pile of facts than a house is a pile of bricks

Goals for PP: Help you • • • Native plants, agriculture, gardens, house plants Reason & communicate Science as a process (lab experiments, project) Interested in plants (even animal people) New lab techniques that are used throughout science Analyzing and presenting material Future teachers (and parents) tricks they can use Fun (solemn vs. serious) Mostly fishing, not fish

Questions about the course? More details in the course manual. Now to start the content

Physiology = how things work • Verb-oriented, not noun-oriented • Biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology: provide mechanisms and constraints • Physiology: mechanisms and constraints for evolution, genetics, ecology, and behavior • Levels: cellular, tissue, organ system, organismal.

Water in plants • • Moves from soil to seed From soil into plant to leaves to air Into cells from surroundings Questions – Why does it move? – What makes it actually move? – What route does it follow? – What controls how much moves?

Right now • Huddle in groups of 2 -3 • List how you can get water to move – Physical methods – In plants, animals or rest of world • Finished? Talked to another finished group • 1 -2 minutes • Will list on board

Water movement Plant Physiology UNI 2009

Water moves • • Downstream Wet laundry to air Humid air to salt or sugar Ice to salt on sidewalk Moist soil to seeds or roots Up a tree trunk From outside a cell to inside – Or vice versa • From plant to air

What can make water move? • Pressure – evaporation • Gravity • Solutes • Hydrophilic materials

What do these have in common? • • Pressure: high to low Gravity: high to low Solutes: free water becomes bound Hydrophilic substances: free to bound • All from high energy to low energy water • Thermodynamic story

Universal principles • Water moves from high energy to low – Expression of entropy • Energy of water molecules – Physical component (pressure, temp) – Chemical component (interaction with solutes) • Our task: understand apply to biology • We will be able to predict and explain

Kitchen plant physiology late morning mid-afternoon night next morning