Week 5: Where do Living things Come from?

 The questions that we were investigating this week was, where do living stuff come from? Where does it go?

To investigate those questions in lab, we focused our study on a cactus that somehow ended up in an old cemetery near North Liberty, Iowa. We discussed different reason that seeds could get to different places. We tried to explain this phenomenon with a model. My group used a 3-D model that focused on seed dispersal from mammals (specifically bears. We showed how a bear could walk up to a plant to eat a fruit and that the seeds could stick to the bear's fur. Some of the seeds will drop right away, and some could drop far, far away. Using models, we learned different ways that seeds disperse depending on the conditions.

Model showing seed dispersal from animals

We learned that plants use animals,  wind, explosions, gravity, fire, and water to disperse their seeds. It is vital for seeds to disperse because there are limited resources in one area.