Blog Post 7- Audrey Malone

Blog Post #7 - Elena

 How do flowering plants (angiosperms) like our Brassica oleracea plants reproduce?

In plant reproduction for Angiosperms, it is good to identify the male and female part of a flower.  On flowers there are the stamens, the male part, which include the filament and the anthers. The female part of the flower is called the pistil that includes the ovary, stigma and the style. The anthers are a fluffy part of the flower that produced pollen, and the stigma is a sticky part of the flower that is supposed to have pollen stick to it. 
Now pollinators play a big role in plant reproduction because they transport the pollen. Flower petals attract bees or other pollinators to come to it.  When the pollinator lands on the flower it rubs against the stamens, and little pollen grains stick to the pollinator. As that pollinator flies around and lands on another flower some of those mature pollen grains will come off and stick to the stigma. 
The pollen that sticks to the stigma has a tube cell and a generative cell. The tube cell from the pollen grain is released and travels down the pollen tube that is in the pistil of the flower. The tube cell travels down the stigma to the style to the inside area of the ovary. The generative cell then travels down the tube and will divide into two sperm cells.  The sperm cell will them try and target an ovule. Each ovule has potential to develop into a seed if it is fertilized, and has anegg cell and two polar nuclei. Once the sperm cells have found the ovule, one sperm cell will go into the egg cell and create a zygote, while the other will join with he two polar nuclei and develop into an endosperm. This process is called double fertilization. After the egg cell has become fertilized the ovule will develop into a seed, using the endosperm as food for development. 

Blog Post #7 - Alia Latimer

This first picture is of the flower before any of the dissection occoured. This particular flower was procured by the Mickey long center in the Humming Bird garden. The flower is an adaptation for the group of plants known as angiosperms which is the great majority of plants today.

This second picture is of the male reproductive system of this flower.We have peeled back the petals for a clear veiw. The anthers are where pollen and sperm are stored, the pollen being a trait developed long ago so that the need of water for the plants was no longer nessecary. originally the sperm would swim through the water between clumpings of plants, but ultimately couldn't go very far. With pollen there are now multiple ways of transfer.

In the third picture we have opened up to reveal some of the pollen inside. This pollen carrieres the sperm producing cells in contact with the eggs in order to create a seed. This allows the sperm to be carried by wind, not only meaning that it's carried much farther, spreading genetic diversity to a community, but also allowing it to better survivve on land and have to rely less on water.

In the fourth picture we have the stigma, located close to the opening of the flower. They have hairs that trap pollen that will fertilize the egg. To further increase efficiency most stigmas are also cover in a waxy or sticky solution. When Bees or other pollenators go from flower to flower they will land by or on the stigma transferring pollen from other flowers to the flower further helping with genetic diversity. When a bee flies several miles it is introducing plants from all over a neighborhood.

Our fith the picture is of the ovules. This is where the eggs are held and stored to be furtilized by sperm, and then released. You can see the eggs in the picture as well, hapliod cells that will eventually become a new plant. Those eggs become equipt with all they need to grow and thrive into a completely separate plant. Often times they will be carried in fruits because then animals spread them much farther than if they just fell below the original parent plant.

Blog Post #7 - Duaa Khan

Rutaceae are all around the world and mainly are fruit trees. Rutaceae are defined as plants that have flowers and produce seeds. Grapefruit plants are just one species of the 2,070 species classified as Rutaceae. Rutaceae are unique because of the way they reproduce. There are both male and female parts, the male part is called the stamen, and the female part is called the carpel/pistil wich make up the reproductive parts of the broccoli flower. The pistil includes the stigma, style, and ovary. The stigma is where pollen germinates, the style supports the stigma and allows pollen to travel to the ovary, and the ovary contains ovules that can be fertilized to create an embryo. The stamen includes anthers and filaments. Anthers create pollen, and filaments support the anthers. Though nonsexual, petals are also an important part of flowers. Petals function as an attraction for pollinators. Pollinators include bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. In cross pollination, pollinators transfer pollen from one plant to another. This process is called pollination. Pollen contains male sex cells, also known as gametes which are haploid cells. The pollen lands on the stigma and goes to the ovary by creating a tube in the style. In the ovary, ovules can join with a sperm cell (pollen) to become fertilized. This creates a diploid cell known as an embryo (seed). The ovary then becomes the fruit. This process is known as fertilization.

This is an image of a flower from our broccoli plant. As you can, most of the reproductive parts are visible, even without magnification. You can easily see the anthers, stigma, and the style. The petals are also visible, which help attract pollinators as well as protect the reproductive parts. 

Along with the bright yellow petals, you can clearly see the 6 anthers that are part of the stamen. The stigma and style, which are part of the pistil, are also visible. 

This image shows 6 stamen and a single pistil, but we will only focus on the stamen for now. The stamen is the male reproductive anatomy of angiosperms. It is fairly simple and only has two parts: the filament and the anther. The filament is a slender stalk that supports the anther. The anther is the more important male part. This oval-shaped structure on the end of the filament is where the male gametophyte, known as pollen, is produced.

The photo shows part of the pistil, or female reproductive anatomy, of our broccoli flower. The pistil consists of three parts: stigma, style, and ovary. The ovary is at the base and supports a long, tube-like style. At the end of the style is the stigma, a sticky surface for pollen to land on. This image focuses only on the stigma and style. As the pollen grain germinates on the stigma, it creates a pollen tube through the entire length of the style. The pollen tube grows out of the pollen grain and creates a tunnel from the stigma to the ovary. 

Here you can see the flower with nearly all of its parts stripped away. The stigma and style are still present, but the main focus of the image is on the ovary. The ovary is the larger, base portion of the pistil. The ovary contains many ovules (eggs) which develop into seeds once they are fertilized. With the ovary sliced open, you can see some of the ovules inside, but there is also a more clear one located slightly to the left of the pistil.

Blog Post #6 - Audrey Malone

     Our plant in the garden was initially growing and I had hope, but now it seems as though the broccoli plant sadly did not make it. Although other weeds and other plants have begun to grow throughout the garden and have greatly increased in biomass. The growth of the other plants is due to photosynthesis and the other plants cells dividing inside the plants allowing the garden to flourish. You can tell that the plants are receiving sunlight because they are growing using photosynthesis . During the process of photosynthesis the energy given from the sun is used to to convert carbon dioxide and water into a simple sugar, glucose. The process of photosynthesis begins as previously stated with the sun hitting the chlorophyll and as the leaves capture the sunlight. It's soon stored after in the covalent bonds of carbohydrate molecules. Later, the energy in the covalent bonds will be broken down in cellular respiration. Overall, photosynthesis is a multi step process that only needs sunlight, CO2, and water. You can also tell the plants are using cellular respiration because they are taking in the CO2 from the air and converting it into energy that is being used to grow all of the plants in the garden. Cellular respiration is the process in which energy is extracted to make ATP. ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate, it's a complicated organic chemical that provides energy. In the first stage of cellular respiration glucose is broken down in the cytoplasm of the cell. In stage 2 of cellular respiration pyruvate molecules are transported into the mitochondria of the cell. Therefore, moving on to the Krebs cycle. After, the Krebs cycle stage three occurs in which the energy in the energy carriers goes to an electron transport chain. While this step is happening ATP is being made.
    The enzymes Phosphoglycerate kinase and ribulose would be made when the plants RNA polymerase would become split and undoes the DNA because it would be using the process known as transcription and translation to make those proteins. As the RNA is copied it then gets sent through the messenger RNA or mRNA. After it would go to the tRNA which job is to transfer an amino acid to the correct codon. Lastly, when the tRNA reaches a stop codon it gets sent out as a competed protein. Proteins are fairly large (for a cell) complex molecules that are very important to the body in a plant or human. Proteins take on multiple important jobs they do almost all of the work in cells, and are required for structure and function in cells.

Blog Post #6 -Elena

1. How is your plant (or any plants in our garden, for that matter) getting bigger and adding biomass? Your explanation should correctly use the terms and concepts of cell division (mitosis), photosynthesis, and cellular respiration

Our plant is slowly adding biomass but it’s growth has stunted recently, most likely due to animals and insects. Other plants in the garden though, the weeds are growing very fast in biomass and have managed to take up most of the garden. This shows that the plants’s cells are dividing so that they are able to grow, they are also doing photosynthesis to get the nutrients they need to grow, the plants must also be doing cellular respiration because the plants are releasing oxygen and taking carbon dioxide in for photosynthesis and cellular respiration. 
During photosynthesis the plants are doing a chemical process that takes in sunlight and carbon dioxide and turns it into sugars that the plants cells can use for energy. Photosynthesis happens is when carbon dioxide enters the leaf through the stomata by diffusion. The water that is absorbed from the soil by the roots. The sunlight absorbed in the. Chlorophyll absorbs light energy, which is used to do photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process driven by energy, glucose molecules or other sugars, are constructed from water and carbon dioxide. The byproduct in the process is oxygen. 
Cellular respiration is basically the opposite of photosynthesis. The first step of cellular respiration is Glycolysis, where glucose undergoes chemical transformations, and in the end glucose gets converted into two molecules of pyruvate . In these reactions ATP is made, and NAD+ is converted into NADH. The second step of cellular respiration is Pyruvate oxidation, where each pyruvate goes into the mitochondrial matrix and is converted into a CoA. And Carbon Dioxide is released and NADPH is generated. The third step of cellular respiration the Citric acid cycle, where the acetyl CoA combines with a four carbon molecule and goes through a cycle of reactions, regenerating the four carbon starting molecule. ATP, NADH, and FADH2 is producaed, and carbon dioxide is released. The final step of cellular respiration is Oxidative phosphoryation, where the NADH and FADH2  deposits their electrons in the ecetron transport chain turning back into NAD+ and FAD. As the electrons are moving up the chan energy is beig released and used to pump protons to form a gradient. The protons then flow back into the matrix and through an enzyme called ATP synthase, making ATP. At the end of the transport chain oxygen takes the electrons and takes up protons to form water. 
Cell division is happening to create new cells. Cells in the plant go throught the stages of Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, and Cytokenisis to duplicate.  In prophase the chromosomes get thicker and visable, and the nucleus dissapears. In Metaphase the chromosomes line up in the middle and the spindles grab ahold of the chromosomes. Anaphase is when the spindles help the chromosomes separate in half and move to opposite sides of the cell. Then in telophase the chomosomes have made it to the opposite sides of the cell and a nucleus has formed around the setts of chromosomes, and the cell starts to split in half. Finally in Cytokinesis, the cell splits in half, and the end relust is two new identical cells. 

1. Phosphoglycerate kinase (PKG) and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) are two important enzymes used in photosynthesis. Describe how plants in the garden would make enzymes like these if a signal was sent to the nucleus to produce more of one of them. (Hint: enzymes belong to which category of biomolecule?)

Plants in the garden would make these enzymes when a RNA polymerase comes and undoes part of a DNA strand coping and transcribing it with RNA pairing bases to make a strand of RNA. Then after the DNA in put back together that new copied strip of RNA is taken to the ribosomes in the plant cell and there it is translated into amino acids which then build up into a protein or enzyme. 

Blog Post # 6 - Alia Latimer

Our plant itself, has either died, or lagged far behind the growth of it's surroundings. To be frank, I can't tell anymore. The plants in it's surroundings that we have come to know as weeds on the other hand are gaining biomass at a fast rate. They are very obviously in the ideal temperature, and getting the needed amount of resources to keep healthy. I can only imagine that although that change may seem effortless, thousands of millions of cells are hard at work to achieve this outcome. The cells are tirelessly replicating DNA and starting mitosis, over and over and over again. Through the five stages of cell division the DNA is unzipped , replicated, lined up, separated by the spindles, and a layer between the two sides takes form before finally separating. Any mistake during prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, or cytokeinis could lead to the end of both the original cell and the one being made. This is a delicate and stressful process not unlike many of the other processes that the plant cells undergo. Under the sun the plant preforms photosynthesis to make sugars that feed into cellular respiration. The sunlight's energy is recepted in the thylakoids of the cloroplast, where it is used to create sugars and oxygen. Those sugars and oxygen in return are used in the mitocondria to produce energy , water, and carbon dioxide. Both the endless cycle repeated many times just to grow maybe a centimeter over the course of a week.
No doubt that on an even smaller level the plant is sending signals through out it's stock to make proteins, triggering the process of transcription as the DNA is unzipped and copied into RNA, then brought through the cytoplasm to the nucleus where the ribosomes and Ribosomal RNA await to use the trascript to assemble the series of amino acids. All the cells have the same genes, but the RNA of each cell only reads a small portion, in order to produce the different desired traits. RNA is really responsible for the bulk of the process of protein creation since it is the Messenger RNA that actually holds the transcript of the DNA, the transfer RNA that brings the messenger RNA to the ribosome, and the Ribosomal RNA that is responsible for using the transcript to assemble the series of amino acids that make up the protein. Like marionettes, pulled into the dance of a puppet master that never tires, they transcribe and translate, replicate and divide, just going and going until their gone. Tossed to the wind and replaced by one of it's copies, a disposable piece in the process of growth.

Blog Post #6 - Duaa Khan

1)Over the course of this experiment, our Broccolis have grown quite a bit especially within the past 6 months or so. Although they did have some difficulty striving for their lives, they overcame their struggles and were able to grow to their full potential. The main component that had tremendously helped our plants strive substantially was mitosis, also known as cell division. 

   Mitosis is a type of cell division in which one cell (the mother) divides to produce two new cells (the daughters) that are genetically identical to itself. In the context of the cell cycle, mitosis is the part of the division process in which the DNA of the cell's nucleus is split into two equal sets of chromosomes. The great majority of the cell divisions that happen in your body involve mitosis. During development and growth, mitosis populates an organism’s body with cells, and throughout an organism’s life, it replaces old, worn-out cells with new ones. For single-celled eukaryotes like yeast, mitotic divisions are actually a form of reproduction, adding new individuals to the population. In all of these cases, the “goal” of mitosis is to make sure that each daughter cell gets a perfect, full set of chromosomes. Cells with too few or too many chromosomes usually don’t function well: they may not survive, or they may even cause cancer. So, when cells undergo mitosis, they don’t just divide their DNA at random and toss it into piles for the two daughter cells. Instead, they split up their duplicated chromosomes in a carefully organized series of steps.

   Additionally, miosis is a type of cellular division in which animals or plants multiply their cell numbers. Mitosis produces two identical daughter cells in each division. There are some differences between mitosis in plants and animals. Plants for example do not have centrioles and they don't change their shape before division like animal cells do. Mitosis in plants happens in the meristems of the plant that are located at the tip of the stems and roots. These two areas are responsible for production.

   Plants perform photosynthesis because it generates the food and energy they need for growth and cellular respiration. It is important to note that not all plants photosynthesize. Some are parasites and simply attach themselves to other plants and feed from them. For plants to perform photosynthesis they require light energy from the sun, water and carbon dioxide. Water is absorbed from the soil into the cells of roots. The water passes from the root system to the xylem vessels in the stem until it reaches the leaves. Carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere through pores in the leaves called stomata. The leaves also contain chloroplasts which hold chlorophyll. The sun’s energy is captured by the chlorophyll.

   Cellular respiration is a metabolic pathway that breaks down glucose and produces ATP. The stages of cellular respiration include glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, the citric acid or Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation.During cellular respiration, a glucose molecule is gradually broken down into carbon dioxide and water. Along the way, some ATP is produced directly in the reactions that transform glucose. Much more ATP, however, is produced later in a process called oxidative phosphorylation. Oxidative phosphorylation is powered by the movement of electrons through the electron transport chain, a series of proteins embedded in the inner membrane of the mitochondrion. These electrons come originally from glucose and are shuttled to the electron transport chain by electron carriers. Cellular respiration is what cells do to break up sugars to give energy they can use. This happens in all forms of life. Cellular respiration takes in food and uses it to create ATP, a chemical which the cell uses for energy. More specifically, cellular respiration is the process of breaking down sugar to the form of energy. This happens in all forms of life. Cellular respiration is the process that uses food molecules taken in by a cell to create ATP, a chemical which the cell uses as an energy-rich molecule to power all kinds of cell activities.

   Essentially, sugar (C6H12O6) is burned, or oxidized, down to CO2 and H2O, releasing energy (ATP) in the process. Why do cells need ATP? ALL cellular work -all the activities of life - requires energy, either from ATP or from related molecules. A lot of oxygen is required for this process! The sugar AND the oxygen are delivered to your cells via your bloodstream. This process occurs partially in the cytoplasm, and partially in the mitochondria. The mitochondria is another organelle in eukaryotic cells. like the chloroplast, the mitochondria has two lipid bilayers around it, and its own genome (indicating that it may be the result of endosymbiosis long ago). In some ways similar to the chloroplast, the mitochondria also has two main sites for the reactions: The matrix, a liquid part of the mitochondrion, and the cristae, the folded membranes in the mitochondrion. 1: Glycolysis ("splitting of sugar"): This step happens in the cytoplasm. One Glucose (C6H12O6) is broken down to 2 molecules of pyruvic acid. Results in the production of 2 ATPs for every glucose. But glucose is split into 2 molecules of pyruvate!). 2: Transition Reaction: Pyruvic Acid is shuttled into the mitochondria, where it is converted to a molecule called Acetyl CoA for further breakdown. 3: The Krebs Cycle, or Citric Acid Cycle: Occurs in the mitochondrial matrix, the liquid-y part of the mitochondria. In the presence of Oxygen gas (O2), all the hydrogens (H2) are stripped off the Acetyl CoA, two by two, to extract the electrons for making ATP, until there are no hydrogens left - and all that is left of the sugar is CO2 - a waste product - and H2O (exhale). The Krebs cycle results in the production of only ~4 ATPs, but produces a lot of NADH, which will go on to the next step. 4: The Electron Transport Chain and Chemiosmosis ("the big ATP payoff"). Occurs in the cristae of the mitochondria, the folded membranes inside the chloroplast. Electrons from Hydrogen are carried by NADH and passed down an electron transport chain to result in the production of ATP. Results in the production of ~32 ATPs for every glucose. The energy is used for a variety of reasons but mainly for growth. 

2)    The mechanism of transcription has parallels in that of DNA replication. As with DNA replication, partial unwinding of the double helix must occur before transcription can take place, and it is the RNA polymerase enzymes that catalyze this process. Unlike DNA replication, in which both strands are copied, only one strand is transcribed. The strand that contains the gene is called the sense strand, while the complementary strand is the antisense strand. The mRNA produced in transcription is a copy of the sense strand, but it is the antisense strand that is transcribed. Ribonucleotide triphosphate (NTPs) align along the antisense DNA strand, with Watson-Crick base pairing (A pairs with U). RNA polymerase joins the ribonucleotides together to form a pre-messenger RNA molecule that is complementary to a region of the antisense DNA strand. Transcription ends when the RNA polymerase enzyme reaches a triplet of bases that is read as a "stop" signal. The DNA molecule re-winds to re-form the double helix.

Blog Post 5: Sammy's Story of the Seed- Audrey

       Through this year I had worked on the Story of the Seed project. With my group consisting of Alia, Elena, Duaa, and Isha we did our experiment on broccoli and vinegar. In our experiment I learned that plants are so dependent on water that there really is no substitute even if the substitute is low in acidity. Something that surprised me in the experiment that some plants with slightly higher concentrations in acidity grew although they appeared to be unhealthy. Something that made me laugh throughout the project was my group mates because they made working on this project more fun than it already was. One thing that made me think deeply about in the project was that all life simply depends on water and with water being used up irresponsibly by humans we put in danger not only ourselves, but all living things around us. The most frustrating part of the project for me generally remembering to water the plants. I always remember a group member reminding me to do so.
     Although that was only my experience. Through Sammy's experience she had learned that taking care of plants is much more difficult that it appears. Something that she was very surprised on was that, "...my plants actually grew!" because she was unsure about all the steps it took to take care of a plant. One thing that made Sammy laugh was her group. A factor that made her think a little deeper was learning more about about the background about how plants grow and how they thrived. For example,"...how the carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles affect the plant...". She feels the most frustrating part of the project was having to remember to take care of the plants and just to check on them.

Blog post # 5 - Alia - Aidan's Story

My Story: When reflecting upon the Story of the seed project many thinks come to mind. It is an experience that has lasted the length of the semester and I found it had it's similarities to previous experiences planting thing at home, and differences. The entire study started with a test of the durability of the plants germination against acidity, where we found that they wouldn't grow in any sort of diluted vinegar. Then we moved them out to the garden where we left them to battle the elements, doing what we could to keep them watered and clear of competition.
Over the course of this I have learned about the process of growth, and the delicate balance that makes it possible. I was truly surprised when after being eaten by some sort of creature and being neglected for a few weeks our plant is still struggling along. Which also made me laugh a bit since despite how fragile life can seem, once it is established it will fight. Fight for it's right to survive and continue on. In fact it wouldn't seem that way at first glance, the longer you look the deeper it goes, you can see that the life being established is delicate, finicky, and hard to start. However there was also evidence to negate that, it has struggled to survive for weeks without much care, against plants that are perhaps better equipped to handle the environment, and has somehow made it against insects and other creatures that would have means to destroy it. To simply put it life is complex. So delicate and yet will hold on by the teeth to keep going. Life is determined. It was the delicate side of life that was frustrating, having seedlings die, and having to wait for them to grow. Then I suppose that if i would redo anything about this project, I would have liked to have planted more, and maybe have weeded just a bit more.

Aidan's Story: When asking Aidan questions, there was a theme to be noticed, a fellow curiosity to the delicate nature of life. When asked what he had learned he replied with a remark about how he had learned about how hard plants were to go and how difficult life was to sustain. When asked about what had amazed him he said that he was surprised that they again were so hard to grow, "...life is everywhere, certainly it should be more easy to get it to thrive." Besides this however he also mentioned that his teammates had been rather frustrating, yet amusing in their own way. He mentioned there troubles again and expressed a wish to also have plated more seeds in hope of better outcome. He said that something that made him think deeper was how easily the plants died, which was reminding once again of how delicate all life is, like a flame so easily extinguished.

Blog Post #5 - Genevieve's Story of the Seed - Elena

My response:
When reflecting on what my team has done and experienced during the year for our story of the seed project we have came to many interesting conclusions.  In our experiment we tested different levels of acidity trough different vinegars to see if the growth of broccoli plant would change.
Through our experiment I have learned that acidity levels doin fact have an effect on the growth of plants.  Giving a broccoli seed vinegar has shown to have a great affect on the plants germination and growth.  All of the plants that we gave vinegar to, in different amounts and types, none of the acidic based plants grew or even germinated.  This made us come to the conclusion that a broccoli plant and likely other plants will only survive and have the best results through very low acidic water.
I found this surprising.  Even when giving the broccoli plant very little of the vinegar types the plant still didn't grow.  I hypothesized that the plant would have grown slower and would have been stunted in it's growth. It was frustrating that only our control plants grew because it made our experiment come to a fast end after seeing that none of our actual test subjected plants were going to grow.  

Genevieve's response:
In Genevieve's experiment her group decided to grow cabbage.  They tested the cabbage with four different liquid types including water, sparkling water, sprite, and vinegar.  their goal in the experiment was to see if the growth and germination of the cabbage seeds would be affected when given different watering sources.  In the end she learned that the sparkling water was the best. source of watering.  The sparkling water given plant was the plant that grew the fastest.  It surprised her that the sparkling water given plant was the faster growing plant and that it worked so well.  They also ended with the conclusion that giving soda to plants and vinegar wasn't sufficient.  Both the soda and vinegar given plants never grew.

In a way I can relate to her experiment because we also gave our plants vinegar, and the vinegar plants died.

Story of the seed blogpost #5

Audrey found the project fun but also things like planting their plants properly confusing. Audrey learned about the cells and how different materials can change a lab experiment. She was surprised that she was planting properly and that it actually grew. What made Audrey laugh was her group mates. What made Audrey pause and think a little deeper is how much salt and sugar to put in each mixture. What she found frustrating was keeping her plant alive.

Blog Post #5: Duaa Khan - Olivia’s Story

As I look through the Story of the Seed Project, I learned several key components to help my plants sustain their life throughout the duration of the semester. Which overall includes, constant care, excessive weeding, and making sure my plants have maximum nutrients. It essentially all started when we began to test broccoli against various amounts and types of diluted vinegar. As the test ran through, we soon figured out that our plants were not able to germinate with any sort of acidic vinegar. More simply, the various types of vinegar were holding back the broccoli from growing to its full potential. We then planted our miniature broccolis in actual fertilized soil and saw a mass amount of difference. First off, the plants were able to grow so much more thoroughly and swifter without the vinegar preventing it from sprouting. Although the soil benefitted the plant quite a bit, another key element was beginning to cause a dilemma which was - Mother Nature. With the seasons taking a toll on the plant’s well-being, this made the seedling struggle greatly as they kept trying to sustain their lives. Something that honestly amazed me was how our plants were able to cope even when being eaten by small insects. To go along with that, we did not always water our plants every single day and without much of an effort, the plants did seem to still rise through. Usually plants aren’t able to survive for a long period of time when these elements come together and ultimately they take out the small seedlings. Something that personally made me laugh was simply how the plants were able to grow. They managed to get themselves together and push through their sufferings in hopes to stay alive in which they did. Even when being exposed to Mother Nature, they still made a broad effort to keep healthy and stay strong as they did. Something that made me think much more further about was the reasoning of the plants staying alive. Although they were neglected quite a bit, the mass amounts of rain helped them to strive along and hold through. Something that was a bit frustrating was mainly how several factors affected the plant and we had to precisely think about each and every one of them. Whether it was nature itself, insects and bugs, or the changing temperature.

While interviewing Olivia, she explained and pointed out her entire perspective of the experiment. Likewise, I learned from her experiences as she told me what was her troubles and contentments were throughout the semester. She also learned to be much more patient and wait for her plants to sprout at their own time. Not only that, but she learned to control her emotions and not get frustrated as her plants weren’t able to grow for awhile. She soon realized not to rush the growth the plants since they do essentially take time to germinate. Something that truly surprised her was how fast her plants were able to grow as she devoted more of her attention towards them. She began to realize that she must dedicate her time and effort to see the anticipated growth of her seedlings. She mentioned how she was “surprised by after a little while, how fast our plants started to grow.” The rapid results mainly came from the time and attention she put out to it. While running the experiment, something that made Olivia laugh was when the plants would grow for a bit then pause then continue to grow again. Olivia had to think deeper about how she was going to take care of her plants and making sure that they are thriving every step of their germination. She had to adjust her amplifying tactics to make sure the plants were growing to their full potential. Olivia got frustrated when her plants would have sort of like an on and off growth which really irritated her. She wasn’t able to figure out what her planted needed in order to survive which made things much more complicated. As I asked Olivia the question, she answered with the statement, “I couldn’t figure out why our plants have stopped growing.” Clearly, the process was difficult at first but through the difficulty, she overcame her obstacles and now her plants are thriving!