A researcher brings a sample of dry soil to the lab, wets it, provides ample amounts of fertilizer, and places the soil in a container in a greenhouse. Which type of plant would be least likely to emerge?

Question

A.  Pine seedling
B.  Sunflower
C.  Corn
D.  Wheat
E.  Liverwort

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
What type of thinking is required?

Gather Content
What do you already know about plant propagation? What other information is related to the question?

  Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?

  Reflect on Process
  Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?

Answer 1

E.  Liverwort

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
        · This question is asking about the likelihood of the emergence of various plant types from dry soil.
What type of thinking is required?
        · Apply level:
            o You are being asked to take what you already know and use, or apply, it to the propagation of different types of plants.
 
Gather Content
What do you already know about plant propagation? What other information is related to the question?
        · Liverworts are bryophytes, which is a group that includes the mosses.
        · Mosses require water to reproduce.
        · Pines are gymnosperms, and they place their seeds in cones. They do not require water to reproduce.
        · Sunflower, corn, and wheat are angiosperms. As seed plants, they do not require water to reproduce.

  Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
        · As seed plants, pines, corn, wheat, and sunflowers could all have seeds in the dry soil that would germinate if sufficient levels of light and water were present.
        · Since liverworts are bryophytes, they must have water to reproduce. Young would not form in dry soil, and since adults are not present in the dry soil, these plants would not appear.

  Reflect on Process
  Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
        · Apply level:
            o Answering this question correctly depended on your ability to use plant propagation in a new situation. If you got an incorrect answer, did you remember that pines, corn, sunflowers, and wheat are seed plants, or that liverworts require water to reproduce? Did you have trouble extending methods of plant propagation to determine the correct answer?