Rikku of the Al Bhed (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_merriest) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2011-02-01 12:07 pm
the_merriest) wrote in fandomhigh2011-02-01 12:07 pm
Entry tags:
Science is Awesome!!!, Class #5, Period 3, February 1st
Class today was meeting in the Danger Shop, which had been converted to a botanical garden -- open walkways, ponds, trees, and lush plant life peeking out from every corner. As for the teacher herself, Rikku seemed a little more tired than her usual, but she was still smiling, if not bouncy.
"Hey, welcome back," she said. "This week, we're doing a little more showing than telling. I hope that's okay. The subject we're gonna cover is botany, but I'm only gonna give you a quick overview of it, before I let you run loose here."
There weren't any experiments or anything, but taking in a botanical garden seemed like it was important enough to count as a class activity, anyway.
"Okay, botany is the study of plants, which means it's a sub-topic of biology, since that's all living creatures. Plants are way more important than people even realize. They give us food, either directly or indirectly -- I mean, if you're eating a steak, that's a cow, but the cow was fed on grass. They also can be used as medicine, or fuel, or even woven to make fabric. And studying them sometimes lets us understand animal life better, too.
"Plants take in energy in the form of sunlight, via something called photosynthesis, and by water, which they get by putting roots into the ground. Plants also have grown in ways that can be adaptive of their environments. I mean, in the desert, you get cacti, which can save up water over long periods of time, and which have prickles so predators stay away. There's also a plant known as the 'corpse flower' which gives off a scent like rotting meat. Why? So they can lure flies and beetles in for pollination. Plants are way smarter than they look, although as far as I know they're not sentient or anything."
Unless you were talking about Ochus, but those weren't so much plants as monsters that kind of looked like plants, so that was probably off-topic.
"I grew up in a dessert, so for most of the plants we grew, we used hydroponics -- it's a way to grow plants in water and mineral solutions, without using soil. It's really fascinating, but it's kinda technical for this class, so instead I'm just going to say, let's all go take a long walk in the gardens. Everything here is labeled, and you don't have to stick together or anything ... just wander off and find something pretty to look at. Maybe that's not very scientific, but sometimes you just need to appreciate nature, you know?"
Even artificially-created nature that came from the Danger Shop. Shhh.
Rikku smiled at her students. "If you have any questions, or want to learn more, you can come pester me while we're walking around, or talk to me after class. Otherwise, enjoy."
"Hey, welcome back," she said. "This week, we're doing a little more showing than telling. I hope that's okay. The subject we're gonna cover is botany, but I'm only gonna give you a quick overview of it, before I let you run loose here."
There weren't any experiments or anything, but taking in a botanical garden seemed like it was important enough to count as a class activity, anyway.
"Okay, botany is the study of plants, which means it's a sub-topic of biology, since that's all living creatures. Plants are way more important than people even realize. They give us food, either directly or indirectly -- I mean, if you're eating a steak, that's a cow, but the cow was fed on grass. They also can be used as medicine, or fuel, or even woven to make fabric. And studying them sometimes lets us understand animal life better, too.
"Plants take in energy in the form of sunlight, via something called photosynthesis, and by water, which they get by putting roots into the ground. Plants also have grown in ways that can be adaptive of their environments. I mean, in the desert, you get cacti, which can save up water over long periods of time, and which have prickles so predators stay away. There's also a plant known as the 'corpse flower' which gives off a scent like rotting meat. Why? So they can lure flies and beetles in for pollination. Plants are way smarter than they look, although as far as I know they're not sentient or anything."
Unless you were talking about Ochus, but those weren't so much plants as monsters that kind of looked like plants, so that was probably off-topic.
"I grew up in a dessert, so for most of the plants we grew, we used hydroponics -- it's a way to grow plants in water and mineral solutions, without using soil. It's really fascinating, but it's kinda technical for this class, so instead I'm just going to say, let's all go take a long walk in the gardens. Everything here is labeled, and you don't have to stick together or anything ... just wander off and find something pretty to look at. Maybe that's not very scientific, but sometimes you just need to appreciate nature, you know?"
Even artificially-created nature that came from the Danger Shop. Shhh.
Rikku smiled at her students. "If you have any questions, or want to learn more, you can come pester me while we're walking around, or talk to me after class. Otherwise, enjoy."
Re: During the Lecture - SCI05
Re: During the Lecture - SCI05
"You do know that 'Illinois Smith' is a movie, right? Stealing from people is totally not the way museums get stuff."
anymore"It's illegal and that totally makes you the bad guys."Re: During the Lecture - SCI05
Re: During the Lecture - SCI05
... okay, no she didn't.
Re: During the Lecture - SCI05
"I think," he decided, "that you may have confused adventuring, which is what I do, with... science!"
Hey, look at that! They were back on topic!
Re: During the Lecture - SCI05
Re: During the Lecture - SCI05
Case closed.
Re: During the Lecture - SCI05