Lettuce see the truth...

       In science this quarter, we started with Lab 7, exploring cells, and now we have come to the end of Lab 8, in where we took out understanding of cells into a deeper understanding. We investigated some things about a lettuce cell, and compared and concentrated it with another cell that we already looked it Lab 7, the elodea cell. It was amazing because even though they are both plant cells, I found out that they actually vary in differences. The main one that caused most of these differences was that the elodea cell was living underwater, however the lettuce cell is a land cell, making changes to the way they adapt to the environment and how they get what they need.
       We started with the elodea cell to get it back in mind and make new observations about it, since our understanding grew. We found out more about chloroplasts, and how they are very important to a plant cell. Chloroplasts are little cell parts found in any plant cell that is disposed in sunlight. When there are chloroplasts, then that indicates that the plant performs photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the action of the plant feeding itself by sunlight because plants do not have mouths like us humans do to chew down food, however they still need food. Chloroplasts are what usually make the 

plant green. They ca be located in some cells all over, but also in the spongy layer of a plant, in where a cylindrical cell holds up from 20 to a hundred chloroplasts! I also found out that the lodes cell was actually filled with water all over, but you could not tell. In addition, I noticed some space in between some cells, and found out that was the passageway in where all of the resources of the plant are passed around to reach every single cell. First in 40x, you could only make out the cell shape and the chloroplasts, but later we moved to 100x, which showed us much more! I noticed that one of the cell parts was not moving, and it looked like a chloroplasts, but it was still. I still haven't found out what it was, but I do look forward into it. However, all of this wasn't the fun part, it was just a review. The fun came when we moved onto the lettuce cells!
       The lettuce cells were amazing! The fusty time I looked at it, I was in shock. I thought that it would look more like the elodea cell because they were both plant cells, but I was wrong. They looked more like jigsaw pieces. We had to observe the top layer without scraping, and then the bottom layer scraping. The scraping made it easier to see because the cell layers were very thick so you could belt see anything through the layers. On 40 x, I noticed some circles in the middle of the view, and I found out that they were air sockets. Air sockets are what give the cell space for it to distribute it things equally amongst the whole plant. 

There are two passageways: The Zylum and the floum. The Zylum is where the water vessel connects and takes all of the water around the whole cell. Then there is the floum, where the food gets delivered through the whole lettuce. I do not think it was as interesting as the rest though. For 100x, the layers were so thick that we couldn't even make out anything! (We skipped it).  The next one was the bottom layer scraped. I think this was the most interesting thing of the whole Lab! Let me tell you why.... It started with 40x, we are I made out this weird looking shape that almost looked like a coffee bean. Later when we discussed it in class, I found that these were guard cells and inside it where stomas. A guard cell is shaped like a semi oval, and two of them are put together, which make them look more or less like this: The stoma is what is inside the guard cell, and it opens and closes. Think of it as a nose. It breathes in carbon dioxide and breathes out oxygen and water vapor. However, that can only happen when the water vacuoles are full. Around the stoma, there are vacuoles, cell parts that store trash, water, or food. In this case, it stores water, and it serves as an activation code. Whenever it is full, the stoma opens and does its job. On 100x, we noticed the same thing, but in a bigger size. I think it was awesome looking at the stoma and guard cells. I thought that all plants had stomas since they needed carbon dioxide, but elodea cells didn’t, which was very strange for me. Later on when I found out why, I was amazed. The reason why elodea cells have no stomas or guard cells is because it lives underwater, and instead of absorbing carbon dioxide, they absorb water. Why? You might ask. Well, because carbon dioxide is all over the water! I think that was such an amazing thing to learn!

Overall, I think this was very fun experience. At the end of this experience, I thought: why are we learning about plant cell, are they even important? That is when it hit me. They actually were important to us. We use them as oxygen resources and food resources. Since plants need what we don’t need and we need what plants don’t need, it falls in perfectly. The plants give us oxygen and we give them carbon. In addition, they help pollution and carbon emissions in the air that are not good for us. Plants and especially tress are helpful. In addition, plants are one of our main resources of food! I think that it was an awesome experience looking at things that have such a big matter and importance in my life!

Further Questions:
What would happen to the chloroplasts if a plant were placed in the darkness for a long time?
I think that they would stop fuctioning because of the lack of sunlight. BEcause of this, since the chloroplasts are what make the plant green, ithout its nutrients from the sun, it would drain the color from the plant, and make the plant black. I think the pant would turn black because just as I learned in my science fair experiment, when the plant does not obsorb any colors, it is black.
What would happen to the guard cells & stomata if a plant did not receive enough water for several days?
I think that what would happen is that the stomata would not breath in and out the air, therefore not giving the plnt enough carbohidrantes, causing the plant to die.