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Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science

Professional Development > Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science > 0. Bottle Biology | Bottle Basics > 0.7 Track Our Progress: Assessing Variation

Track Our Progress: Assessing Variation

Click on one of the three growing systems in either of the pictures below to see a close-up of one of our Assessing Variation systems either 2 or 5 days after planting. Also examine the close ups of the fully grown fast plants and turnips at the bottom of the page and note the differences between these different varieties of the Brassica rapa species. See the Assessing Variation activity instructions for questions to consider and use the Assessing Variation Data Sheet (PDF) to record your observations of variation in the three plant populations.

Day 2

Fast Plants 1

Fast Plants 2

Turnips -1

Turnips - 2

Lettuce - 1

Lettuce - 2

Turnips -2

Day 5

Fast Plants 1

Fast Plants - 2

Turnips - 1

Turnips - 2

Lettuce 1

Lettuce -2

Day 12

Fast Plants Close-Up

Turnips Close-Up

Sections

0.1 TerrAqua Column

0.2 TerrAqua Column | Track Our Progress: Is It Alive?

0.3 TerrAqua Column | Track Our Progress: What Is It? | Terrestrial System

0.4 TerrAqua Column | Track Our Progress: What Is It? | Aquatic System

0.5 TerrAqua Column | Track Our Progress: Now You See It

0.6 Field Population System

0.7 Track Our Progress: Assessing Variation

0.8 Track Our Progress: Selective Herbivory

0.10 Track Our Progress: Brassica and Butterfly Life Cycles

0.10 Brassica & Butterfly System

0.11 Track Our Progress: The Salad Bar

0.12 Track Our Progress: Mother Knows Best

0.13 The EcoColumn

0.14 Track Our Progress: Basically, I’m a Fungi

0.15 Track Our Progress: Decomposition Tea

Sessions

session 0 Bottle Biology | Bottle Basics

Session 1 What Is Life?

What distinguishes living things from dead and nonliving things? No single characteristic is enough to define what is meant by "life." In this session, five characteristics are introduced as unifying themes in the living world.

Session 2 Classifying Living Things

How can we make sense of the living world? During this session, a systematic approach to biological classification is introduced as a starting point for understanding the nature of the remarkable diversity of life on Earth.

Session 3 Animal Life Cycles

One characteristic of all life forms is a life cycle — from reproduction in one generation to reproduction in the next. This session introduces life cycles by focusing on continuity of life in the Animal Kingdom. In addition to considering what aspects of life cycles can be observed directly, the underlying role of DNA as the hereditary material is explored.

Session 4 Plant Life Cycles

What is a plant? One distinguishing feature of members of the Plant Kingdom is their life cycle. In this session, flowering plants serve as examples for studying the plant life cycle by considering the roles of seeds, flowers, and fruits. A comparison to animal life cycles reveals some surprising similarities and intriguing differences.

Session 5 Variation, Adaptation, and Natural Selection

What causes variation among a population of living things? How can variation in one generation influence the next generation? In this session, variation in a population will be examined as the "raw material" upon which natural selection acts.

Sessions 6 Evolution and the Tree of Life

Why are there so many different kinds of living things? Comparing species that exist today reveals a lot about their relationships to one another and provides evidence of common origins. This session explores the theory of evolution: change in species over time.

Session 7 Energy Flow in Communities

Communities are populations of organisms that live and interact together. The structure of a community is defined by food web interactions. The process of energy flow is the focus of this session as the interactions between producers, consumers, and decomposers are examined.

Session 8 Material Cycles in Ecosystems

Studying an ecosystem involves looking at interactions between living things as well as the nonliving environment that surrounds them. Life depends upon the nonliving world for habitat, as well as energy and materials. In this session, material cycles will be explored as critical processes that sustain life in an ecosystem.