Module 9 & 10 Story #4

Yeah, no book review.  I’m sorry.  It just didn’t happen.  Oh, well.  I’ll pick up sometime.  I thought about just doing it today, but I decided I should do a story post instead.  And sorry that these have been so long in coming.  Schedules just don’t always work for me. 🙂

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Mandy pulled the ear-bud out of her right ear, and handed it to Brian. “You can have both.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled, without looking away from the laptop screen.

“Why watch a movie about trains?” asked Mandy, flopping down next to Katie on the motel couch. “I’d rather talk to you. Tell me more about kelp and cells!”

Katie finished her paragraph and slid the bookmark into her book. “What do you want to know?”

“I want to know why kelp is in the same kingdom as microscopic stuff.”

“Simply because it is made out of one eukaryotic cell. Kingdom Protista is divided into two groups: algae and protozoa.”

“Algae?” asked Mandy, wrinkling up her nose. “Like the stuff that grows in our fish tank?”

“Yeah, like that. Except kelp fits into that group too.”

“Really?”

“Yep. But Protozoa are usually made up of one cell, and often behave like animals—they move around of their own accord, and usually they eat other organisms, though some of the time they use Photosynthesis. Algae are more like plants. They do not have specialized structures like leaves, stems and roots; but they make their own food like plants. And they can’t move around.”

“But that kelp we found looked like a leaf,” protested Mandy.

“Yes, kelp looks like a plant, but it isn’t.”

“Hm, tell me more about plants.”

“There’s not a lot to say about them. One interesting thing that they talked about in my science-book was vegetative reproduction, which is the process by which one part of a plant can form new roots and develop into a complete plant. This means that if you take a small part of a plant and put it in water, it can grow new roots and leaves, and turn into a completely different plant. I’ll show you!” Katie jumped up and ran out of the bedroom. “Mama! Do we have a potato?”

Her mother looked confused. “A potato?”

“Yeah, a potato.”

“No, honey, I’m afraid not; but we might be able to buy one. What do you need it for?”

“A science experiment. Do we have a carrot?”

She thought for a moment. “We have baby carrots, would those work?”

“Yes. I only need one. I want to put it in water and show Mandy how it grows roots.”

Mom smiled. “Oh, I see.” She got a Ziploc bag out of the refrigerator, and pulled out a carrot. “Did we use toothpicks or something when we did it with you?”

“Yes, we did. Do we have any?”

“No, I don’t think so. Could you just lay it down in the water?”

“Yeah, I’ll try.”

Katie found a coffee-mug in the bathroom that said Starfish Motel on it in big green letters, and filled it with half an inch of tap-water. She broke the carrot in half and put one half in the cup. “Can we set this on the table where it can get some sun?”

“Sure,” Mom answered. “For now. We may have to move it occasionally to eat.”

“It should grow roots before we have to go home,” Katie told Mandy. “We can check on it every day.”

8 thoughts on “Module 9 & 10 Story #4”

    1. You definitely should! You stick toothpicks in the side of the vegetable to hold it over the top of a cup so that one end is in the water. You can use carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other things too.

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