Biodiversity has been sustained on Earth for at least 3.5 billion years regardless of environmental changes. This successful evolutionary history is marked with great biological innovations by organisms developing structural features and processes that constantly meet their environmental requirements. For example, many plant species have adapted to maintain optimal sunlight in order to maximize the processes of photosynthesis, flowering, pollination, and fruit development. In this lab, you will learn the mechanism used by plants to capture light energy with maximum efficiency and to apply this mechanism in finding sustainable solutions for acquiring renewable energy from the sun. We need to replicate time-tested and sustainable plant strategies like biomimicry and photosynthesis if we want to meet our long-term needs with little environmental impacts and increased efficiency.
Pre-lab (4 points)
After completing the pre-lab, please take the Pre-lab Quiz on Canvas by the due date. If you type your answers on this document, you can copy-paste text into Canvas.
Question 1: Read the 4-page article “Inspired by Nature” by Deborah J. Knight. This article is posted in the same location as this lab.
Question 2: What is heliotropism in plants? You will need to conduct some online research. Because this is considered common knowledge, you do not need to cite your source.
Question 3: Do you think heliotropism is advantageous for plants? Draw a curve on the blank graph below to predict the effect of the angle of the sun on the power output of a fixed (stationary) solar panel. Imagine the solar panel is placed at the 90 degree location, on the X-axis, with the sun ‘rising in the east’ at 0 degrees, and moving across the graph to ‘set in the west’ at 180 degrees. Take a picture or screen shot of your graph, and be prepared to upload it into Canvas. There is no right or wrong hypothesis.
Question 4: You will need a program for graphing data in this lab. As part of your pre-lab, please make sure you have access to either Excel or Google Sheets. For a free student download of Microsoft Office, please see the last page of this file. In the quiz, you will be asked if you have a program for graphing data.
Sample Solution
