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2.12 choose equipment or resources to perform a first-hand investigation to gather first-hand data to draw transverse and longitudinal sections of phloem and xylem tissue
choose equipment or resources to perform a first-hand investigation to gather first-hand data to draw transverse and longitudinal sections of phloem and xylem tissue
- Talk to your teacher to help you decide which are the best plants to use for this activity. Obtain the plants by students bringing them from home or if necessary obtain them from a nursery.
- Choose appropriate equipment, which should include sharp instruments so you can do a clean cut, without tearing the plant material. The instruments you choose will depend on their availability at school.
- Perform the investigation by doing transverse and longitudinal cuts on stems of the chosen plants. One way of doing this is to embed the plant in material like a carrot or potato or if available in wax.
- Put the cut pieces in water, then mount them on a slide. You may choose to stain the material. If so, decide what is an appropriate stain. Cover the slide with a cover slip.
- Gather first-hand data by drawing the samples, while looking under the LP magnification of your microscope. It is better to draw just a few cells and do them as accurately as possible than draw many cells that don’t show clearly the differences between xylem and phloem vessels.