Withering Plants- Stressing Over Lost Water
- This hands-on laboratory activity allows students to explore the role of stomata in regulating leaf temperature and water loss from plants under different environmental and climate conditions.
- Students will observe the nature and distribution of stomata of plants growing under such varied abiotic stresses and use the data to quantify differences in these plants.
- Use this laboratory activity, 'Changing Planet: Withering Plants- Stressing Over Lost Water', to enable students to explore the role of stomata in plants in regulating leaf temperature and controlling water loss from leaves under different environmental conditions.
- This includes a complete laboratory activity plan with background information in the form of a reading and links to other relevant readings and videos. A materials list and a link to download student worksheets is also provided.
- Follow the directions, as mentioned in the laboratory activity plan. This will firstly, enable students to gain background information- through a reading and a short video- about the climate related factors like high temperatures and low water availability due to changing precipitation patterns, that can affect plants.
- Then, the students will prepare slides and microscopically observe the stomata in leaves and study their differences in plants grown in diverse conditions of temperature and water availability.
- Students can use the data from their observations to represent and compare the distribution of stomata using graphs, in different plants of the same species but grown under varying environmental conditions.
- Finally, discuss other plant physiological parameters that may be affected by climate related factors.
Developed by Missy Holzer, Jennifer Bergman and Roberta Johnson of the NESTA/Windows to the Universe team