Notes to Instructors
Chapter 37 Plant Nutrition
What is the focus of this activity?
This activity focuses student attention on the fact that “plant foods” are usually inorganic;
What is this particular activity designed to do?
Activity 37.1 What do you need to consider in order to grow plants in space
(or anywhere else for that matter)?
This activity is designed to help students understand the basic requirements for plant
Answers
Activity 37.1 What do you need to consider in order to grow
plants in space (or anywhere else for that matter)?
Long-range, human-operated space travel and space stations may someday become a
reality. Before this can occur, however, we will have to develop sustainable methods of
agriculture suitable for use in space. One of the key methods being investigated is
hydroponics, growing plants in water supplemented with nutrients.
You are assigned to a team working on the design of plant growth systems for use in a
space station.
1. What types of plants would you choose to grow? Explain the reasoning behind your
choices.
There are many possible answers to this question. All answers should include how
much room the proposed crop plant requires for growth, and how much of the crop
Notes to Instructors 253
2. When you set up the growth system:
Note: Minimal answers to the following questions are provided.
254 Activity 37.1
a. What nutrients would you
need to add to the water?
List what you would
need, and why each
would be necessary.
b. What atmosphere would
you need to maintain?
List what components you
would need to maintain in
the atmosphere and why
each would be necessary.
c. Which of the
requirements in parts a
and b could be recycled?
What could not be
recycled? Explain.
Refer to Table 37.1 of
Campbell Biology, 9th
The atmosphere in the space
station would have to be
yield. You would obviously
have to balance the number
of plants versus animals (and
other carbon-dioxide
producers such as microbes)
on the station to control the
oxygen-to-carbon-dioxide
ratios in the atmosphere over
time.
Oxygen and carbon dioxide
could be recycled between
organic waste would build up
and, as a result, most
compounds other than
oxygen, carbon dioxide, and
water could not be recycled.