PLANT Nutrition & Transport

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Objectives

  • Be able to understand how plant survive
  • Learn the different methods plants use to obtain nutrients
  • Human eat food, what about plants?

materials

  • Computers with Microsoft Excel 
  • Blackboard

LESSON

Plants absorb nutrients from air and soil.  According to the amount the plant requires, the plant nutrients can be classified as macronutrients and micronutrients.  Primary macronutrients include nitrogen (N); phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Secondary macronutrients include calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S).  There are total 9 micronutrients: boron (B), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), chloride (Cl), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo) and zinc (Zn).  

Macronutrients are usually not proficient in cultivation soil and need to be supplied in fertilizer.  Other ways to obtain nutrients include nitrogen fixation by bacteria, carnivorous feeding and symbiotic associations with fungi. Plants absorb nutrients from the soil. These nutrients are transported upwards via the xylem. The driving force is the evaporation from leaves via guard cells.  This process is called transpiration.  On the contrary to transpiration, leaves make carbohydrates and these need to be supplied to roots and stems.  This transportation occurs in phloem in vascular tissue and in both directions, downwards and upwards.

PowerPoint on Plant Nutrients (30 minutes)

Plant Nutrition.ppsx
File Size: 1145 kb
File Type: ppsx
Download File

Demonstration of Excel Software
(20 minutes)

Excel will be used for the lab next class. Student will be given a brief introduction to the software and should pay attention since they will be require to use it to log data and plot graph.

1. Demonstrate how to enter variables 
2. Show how to perform basic arithmetic calculation on Excel
3. Demonstrate how to plot graphs
4. Show how to shift from one sheet to another, organize data
5. Show how to transfer graph and table from Excel to Word 
 

Homework

1. Make the tables needed to log data for the photosynthesis lab next class
2. Tables have to follow the below instructions
  • Have columns for: height, leaf count, description of plant (wide column), rigidness of plant
  • Have rows titled: control group, experimental group, independent variable, dependent variable