Self Evaluation S2

Self Evalutation S2 

This class has been a wild ride with lots of twist and turns, ups and downs, highs and lows, etc. I feel as though I have improved over the course of the year; however, there are still 3 main aspects of my performance that I feel like I could improve.

1) Laziness- I am a very lazy person and often wait until the night before to cram for the exams. I really should work on keeping up with the class and not waiting until the last minute to learn everything...

2) Website- I feel as though my website has been very sub-par this entire year because I have failed to keep it consistently updated. This goes along with my laziness, I really should work on this...

3) Labs- I feel like in the labs this year I have been a little bit too clueless and relied to much on the help of my partner. I hope to become a more self-sufficient person in the near future.

Plant Transpiration Lab

Epic Boredom

Questions

1)The process by which plants get nutrients from the air and lose some moisture in the process.

2)The experimental controls used in the experiment were the fan, the light, and the other strange device.

3)When the conditions were windier, the rate of transpiration greatly increased. 

4)The fan increased the rate of transpiration much more than that of the light.

5)The highest rate of transpiration belonged to the Zebra Plant. The rates varied because these plants all exist naturally under very different circumstances.

6)There would be less transpiration because less moisture would be able to enter the plans and the air would remain outside of the plant.

7)By losing water, the plants are able to eliminate toxic chemicals and remain healthy. 

Hormonal Plants

Hormonal Plants 

Auxins

Auxins control the growth of plants. These auxins possess the ability to allow the stems of plants to elongate and to be able to enable other parts of the plant to grow. Auxins also have the ability to control a plant's reaction to light and other stimuli. 

Abscisic Acid

This acid performs the opposite actions of the auxins in the plant. This acid slows the growth of plants in order to preserve the plants when there is not enough water around. This acid also has the ability to put the seeds of the plant into a dormant state when it is necessary. 

Ethylene

Ethylene is a gas produced by plants under a positive feedback loop. This ethylene controls the ripening of the fruits on a plant.

This is Bogus (Botany of Desire)

The Plants Control Us?

Anonymous Artist staticflitr.com

In the paper Botany of Desire the author made an extremely unusual argument that plants manipulate us into planting them. This manipulation is carried out because the plants have intentionally involved to be tastier, prettier, and more appealing. This theory is both revolutionary and absurd.

Dale Mettam

This paper essentially turned the tables on who truly controls the balance of nature. According to this articles, plants actually have a say in whether or not they get planted and control their own destiny. The plants are in fact controlling the humans by appealing to our basic senses...

Adam Holliday

The author used dogs to argue that animals have evolved to become "cuter" and more attractive to humans in order to be bred and thus maintain their existence. The author contrasted the number of dogs present in the world to the number of wolves and let the math do the rest of the work. Although this example is valid, I still do not agree with the author's opinion. 

Anoymous Arist from closeentertainment.com

The belief that plants are intelligent and have evolved specifically in order to appeal to the human senses is very absurd. Human preference is an entirely subjective field, and therefore would be impossibly for a plant to evolve to please. The constant fluctuation of human preference would also constantly throw off the plant's ability to conform to human desire. All in all, I honestly did not buy any of what this author was claiming.