Wisconsin Fast Plants: Wisconsin Fast Plants and Light

Although land plants represent merely one branch in the eukaryotic tree of life, they are essential to the energetics and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Land plants appear to have arisen from a single colonization of the land surface around 450 million years ago. In the early phases of this colonization, plant innovations centered on the elaboration of a new kind of plant body capable of withstanding the rigors of life on land and exploiting the new opportunities that terrestrial existence provided. Subsequently, this phase of vegetative innovation was followed by successive transformations of the reproductive system, for example, resulting in seeds and flowers, which facilitated increasingly efficient reproduction and dispersal. The unfolding of land plant diversification from a single origin makes it possible to understand all living groups in a relatively simple phylogenetic framework, in which increasingly less inclusive groups are characterized by successive innovations in plant structure and biology.

Conducted in 1914 as part of an agency effort to reclaim tribal water rights, these are compelling first-hand accounts that detail the tribe’s increasingly compromised agricultural production in the Gila River Valley following the expansion of Euro-American settlement
after about 1850.

Although less than 3 percent of the original vast landscape survives, the tallgrass prairie remains a national treasure, glowing with a vast array of colorful wildflowers in spring and summer, enriched by the warm reds and browns of grasses in fall and winter. This comprehensive manual, crafted by the staff of the Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa, will be an essential companion for everyone dedicated to planning, developing, and maintaining all types of prairie restorations and reconstructions.

This manual is intended to give you all the information necessary to successfully grow a life cycle of Fast Plants with students, plus ideas for more Fast Plant explorations.

Fast Plants offers fourth graders the opportunity to observe, experiment, and record data about the life cycle of a plant

Spiraling through life with fast plants provides a wealth of background information, activities and ideas, Through growing a Fast Plant and understanding its life cycle, the foundation is set for students to launch into experimentation and inquiry-based learning.

Learning the concepts of the cycle of life with plants.