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Day 08 Pre-Class Assignment

University of Missouri

✅ Put your name here

Breathing and catching up

Looking at the concrete example of tomato may offer an explanation in spiral phyllotaxis.

Credits: Reinhardt and Gola (2022)

Learning goals for today’s pre-class assignment

  • Catch-up on pre-class assignments

  • Understand what phyllotaxis is and how math and plants are related.

Assignment instructions

This assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. the day before class, and should be uploaded into the appropriate “Pre-class assignments” submission folder. If you run into issues with your code, make sure to use Slack to help each other out and receive some assistance from the instructors. Submission instructions can be found at the end of the notebook.


Time to breathe a bit

The past sessions have been a crash course on Python and programming in general. This assignment is mostly a time for you to breath and reflect on all that you have learned in little time.

  • Day 01: Installing miniconda and Jupyter

  • Day 02: Navigating Jupyter Notebooks and the importance of good data visualization

  • Day 03: Basic Python commands and loops

  • Day 04: Algorithmic bias and the ethics of data science

  • Day 05: If/elif/else statements and control flow

  • Day 06: Functions

  • Day 07: AI usage

Like last time, take a moment to reflect on which concepts you still feel shaky and go back and review the respective Notebooks.


Plants, math, phyllotaxy, oh my!

If you have not started yet Homework 1, start by watching these three videos by Vi Hart on the connection of math, plants, and phyllotaxy: why do plants grow leaves the way they grow them?

These are the same three videos referenced in the Homework 01 Notebook.

from IPython.display import VimeoVideo
VimeoVideo("147913571", width=960, height=540)
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VimeoVideo("147799853", width=960, height=540)
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VimeoVideo("147913569", width=960, height=540)
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Congratulations, you’re done!

Submit this assignment by uploading it to the course Canvas web page. Go to the “Pre-class assignments” folder, find the appropriate submission folder link, and upload it there.

See you in class!

© Copyright 2026, Division of Plant Science & Technology—University of Missouri

References
  1. Reinhardt, D., & Gola, E. M. (2022). Law and order in plants – the origin and functional relevance of phyllotaxis. Trends in Plant Science, 27(10), 1017–1032. 10.1016/j.tplants.2022.04.005