Plant-mania; choc-full of plants!

     Well hello there dear blog-readers! Welcome to Plant-mania! This is what we, The Science Explorers, entitle our 4th Quarter CEO. If you have read the previous post, you would know what a CEO is. But if you haven't, let us run you through. A CEO is a Creative Expansive Output. It is a quarterly project that expresses creativity, fun, and learning. It also stimulates the openness of a person to facts around him/her. Okay, crunch time. Please read on as our four members tell you about our CEO.

Encephalartos sclavoii

     First off, HELLO READERS! It's me, Misha! As read above, we will be discussing our 4th quarter CEO, which was about plants. My topic was about cycads, or the Division Cycadophyta. I worked with a partner [Khael from the Science Adventurers] and we did all we could to make our presentation both factual and fun. We did have a hard time looking for the subgroups. Anyways, you may be wondering, 'what is a cycad'? My answer to that, dear-blog readers, is this---------------->


     Beautiful, isn't it? Cycads look very much like palm trees, but in truth, they are only distantly related. Cycads bear cones for reproductive purposes meaning they are gymnosperms. Did I mention that cycads are dioecious, meaning that each plant can only produce one type of gamete or sex cell? They generally live in tropical areas and can survive in relatively dry environments. The most important thing I learned about cycads is that they are beneficial both ecologically and economically as food, firewood, and such. That's all for my part of the post.

Phaeoceros laevis

              Hello everyone. This is Zion. For the 4th Quarter, my CEO was about Division Anthocerophyta. The word Anthocerophyta came from anthoceros meaning horn and phyta meaning plant.  Division Anthoceropyta is also called Hornworts. Hornworts are non-vascular plants that reproduce using spores, not seeds. They may be found all over the world. Hornworts are one of the 3 simplest plants including Division Bryophyta and Division Marchantiophyta. In my CEO, I worked alone. I worked alone for it is hard to work in a group. Being alone has advantages. I can start instantly with my CEO but if I'm in a group, I need to talk with my group mates first and divide the work. There are also disadvantages of being alone. I did all the work by myself. No one also helped me discuss the CEO. For this CEO, I had a hard time searching for a lot of informations about Hornworts. I also found it a bit easier for I had more experience in making my CEO. The most important lesson that I learned about this CEO is that Hornworts provide seed beds for other plants. This is helpful so that every plant can have space to grow and a chance to live especially now that our country lacks trees.

Vitis vinifera

Hello everyone. Donny here! My fourth Quarter CEO is all about the Class Dicotyledones, or what most people call them, Dicots. I researched about this topic as a group, not individually. I learned Dicots are flowering plants. They are the largest group of vascular plants. Their leaves are net- veined. One characteristic of the dicots that differentiates them from the monocots are its petals, which come in multiples of four or five. The monocots have petals that are only in multiples of three. Dicots have over 100 families. They give food to some animals. An example of a dicot which bears fruit is the grape vine or the Vitis vinifera. It was not that easy for me and my group to talk about dicots because there are plenty of plants that had to be researched on. However, since we were a group, we got to split the work, which is a very good advantage. However, a disadvantage of being a group was that we sometimes depend on only one person. We all talked as a group to solve this problem. 

Nephrolepis exaltata

  Hi! It’s me, Anabel. My topic for the 4^th Quarter CEO is about Division Pteridophyta. Pteridophyta, also known as ferns are vascular plants meaning they have xylem and phloem which transports nutrients to every body part of the plant. They are multicellular and don’t have seeds or flowers. Instead, they use spores to reproduce. They have 4 subgroups or classes. For this CEO, I worked side by side with Marielle from A Date with Mother Nature. Being with a group or partner is helpful so that you can divide the work. You don’t need to do all the tasks. The most important lesson I learned is that ferns can be helpful to our agriculture.                                                           

     Well, there you have it folks, your very own taste of Plant-mania, although it is only but a glimpse of the many more wonders Plant-mania. We hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading, until next time!