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Cells and Systems 6-8 / Week 12 / Friday
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Week 12 · Design a Growing Station

Friday

Redesign, and begin the report
// Criteria, constraints and the Cells and Systems report
⏱ about 20 min

Friday: Redesign, and Begin the Report

Rocket has cut a second flap of foil and is taping it above the jar like a small roof.

"The sides worked," he says. "The stems are straighter. But the control is still a little taller."

"So what do you notice about where the station's light comes from?" Raven asks.

"Front and sides. Not the top." Rocket angles the roof flap down. "Now some light bounces onto the tops of the leaves."

Nova hovers over the new roof. "Keep what worked, change one thing," she says. "And write it all down."

"Everything?" Rocket asks. Raven opens a fresh page titled Cells and Systems. "Everything. Twelve weeks of it."

Redesign from the data

A solution needs to be tested, then modified on the basis of the test results, in order to improve it. Today you make one change.

Keep the part that scored best. If the stems are straighter, keep the foil or the turning. Change one thing aimed at the criterion that is behind.

Change only one thing, and write it down. If you change three things at once, you cannot tell which one helped.

Keep measuring both jars through the weekend. Saturday is your final reading, and the weekend is when you present it.

ONE CHANGE AT A TIME
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Why change only one part of the station at a time?
The stems are straight but height is behind. Which is the better redesign?

The Cells and Systems report

Over twelve weeks you investigated life from a single cell to a whole garden. The report pulls it together in your own words.

A good report has a section for each big idea, a sentence of evidence from your own Windowsill Log, and a diagram.

Use the outline below. Each section is one paragraph. Your journal prompts this weekend walk you through them.

Cells and Systems report: the outline
1. Living things: all living organisms consist of one or more cells. Evidence: your week 1 sorting tray and seed jar.
2. Inside a cell: membrane, nucleus, mitochondria, and in plants a cell wall and chloroplasts. Evidence: your bag-of-water model.
3. Cells to systems: cells form tissues, tissues form organs, organs form organ systems. Evidence: your pulse and breath counts.
4. Senses: receptors respond to stimuli and send messages to the brain. Evidence: your ruler-drop times.
5. Plants make food: sunlight, carbon dioxide and water in; sugar and oxygen out. Evidence: your covered leaf.
6. Food becomes you: molecules broken apart and rebuilt, energy released. Evidence: your paper chain and foggy mirror.
7. Growing up: environmental and genetic factors. Evidence: your light and dark jars.
8. Making more: structures and behaviors raise the chance of reproduction. Evidence: your flower and paper seed.
9. The growing station: your criteria, constraints, data and redesign.
Course reviewTrue or false?
All living organisms consist of one or more cells.?
The nucleus houses the cell's DNA.?
Mitochondria release energy by breaking down glucose.?
Chloroplasts use carbon dioxide, water and light energy to make glucose and oxygen.?
Cells form organs, and organs form tissues.?
Genetic factors and local conditions both affect how a plant grows.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEThese are the facts the report is built on, and each one has evidence in your log.
LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION, SMALLEST TO LARGEST
  • ?Cell
  • ?Tissue
  • ?Organ
  • ?Organ system
  • ?Organism
WHY THIS EXERCISEThis ladder from week 5 holds the whole course together.
Which green organelle carries out photosynthesis in plant cells? Type one word.
WHY THIS EXERCISEThe growing station exists to feed this organelle light.
Try it
Make your one redesign change now and write it in your data table with today's date.
Measure both jars at your usual time and record day 2 of the test.
Safety first
A grown-up does any new cutting. Fold foil edges and angle reflectors down, never toward eyes.
Sprouts and jar water are lab materials, never tasted. Wash your hands after the lab.
Draw the cover of your Cells and Systems report: a cell, a leaf, a flower and your growing station.

Strong engineering, scientist. Tomorrow is Nature Day: the final reading, the report and a family presentation.

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