Pip Journey Bellwork
Story Bellwork Biology • 5-Minute Warm-Up
Pip's Journey Bellwork
Vocabulary in Context Polar • Cohesion • Adhesion • Solute • Solvent
Name:
Date:
Period:
Score: __/12
Reading: The Great Canopy Climb
Read carefully and observe the bold vocabulary terms
Deep in the soil, a water molecule named Pip woke up beside a grain of potassium salt. Because Pip’s oxygen atom pulls shared electrons closer than its two hydrogen atoms, Pip is an inherently polar molecule—sporting a partial negative charge on top and two partial positive charges at its base. With these electric charges, Pip quickly surrounded and dissolved the salt crystals. In this underground mixture, the dissolved salt was the solute, and Pip acted as the powerful liquid solvent.
High above, warm morning sunlight struck the leaves of a towering oak tree, causing water to evaporate and creating an upward pull. Pip surged into the tree's microscopic xylem tubes. To climb against gravity, Pip gripped the cellulose walls of the tube. This attraction between water molecules and a different polar surface is called adhesion.
Pip wasn't climbing alone. Through cohesion, Pip’s positive hydrogen ends grabbed onto the negative oxygen ends of neighboring water molecules through hydrogen bonds. Together, they formed an unbroken liquid chain that pulled millions of droplets all the way to the top of the canopy!
1 Part A: Story Clue Match
Match the word to Pip's action in the story (5 pts)
1. Polar
2. Solute
3. Solvent
4. Adhesion
5. Cohesion
A. Pip linking hands with other water molecules to make an unbroken chain.
B. Pip gripping the cell walls of the plant's xylem tubes.
C. Having an uneven distribution of charge (negative top, positive base).
D. Pip acting as the liquid that dissolves the mineral grain.
E. The potassium salt crystal that got dissolved by Pip.
2 Part B: Reading Analysis
Answer using evidence from the text (4 pts)
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How did Pip’s polarity (partial positive & negative charges) allow Pip to act as a solvent for the salt?
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Explain how cohesion and adhesion worked together like a "climbing team" to pull Pip up the oak tree:
3 Part C: Concept Check
Circle the best response (3 pts)
8. If Pip leaves the tree and beads up as a droplet on a waxy leaf, what property keeps the droplet rounded?
A) Cohesion
B) Adhesion
C) Solute
D) Heat capacity
9. When Pip dissolves powdered sugar in morning dew, sugar is the ______ and water is the ______:
A) solvent / solute
B) solute / solvent
C) polar / nonpolar
D) adhesion / cohesion
