Goals: The students will appreciate the value and role of plants
in their world.
Objectives:
The students will be able to identify the five parts of a plant (root,
stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds).
The students will be able to identify the function of each part.
The students will be able to identify sunlight, carbon dioxide, water,
and minerals as requirements for the growth of plants.
The students will be able to identify the following six ways plants
help people survive: food, oxygen, clothing, shelter, medicines, and beauty.
NationalScience Standard(s):
Teaching Standard B- Guiding and Facilitating Learning
Teaching Standard C- Assessing, Learning, and Teaching Teaching Standard
D- Designing and Managing the Physical Environment
Assessment Standard A- Coordination with intended purposes
Assessment Standard B- Measuring Student Achievement and Opportunity
to Learn
Assessment Standard C- Matching Technical Quality of Data With Consequences
Assessment Standard D- Avoiding Bias: Assessment practices must be
fair.
National Mathematics Standard(s):
Standard 1 - Mathematics as Problem Solving
Standard 2 - Mathematics as Communication
Standard 3 - Mathematics as Reasoning
Standard 4 - Mathematical Connections
Standard 5 - Estimation
Standard 10 - Measurement
Standard 13 - Patterns and Relationships
NationalScience Benchmark(s):
By the end of second grade, students should know that: Some animals
and plants are alike in the way they look and in the things they do, and
others are very different from one another. Plants have features that help
them live in different environments. Stories sometimes give plants and
animals attributes they really do not have. (page 102) Most living things
need water, food, and air. (page 111); Living things are found almost everywhere
in the world. There are somewhat different kinds in different places. (page
116); Plants and animals both need to take in water, and animals need to
take in food. In addition, plants need light. Many materials can be recycled
and used again, sometimes in different forms. (page 119); Different plants
and animals have external features that help them thrive in different kinds
of places. Some kinds of organisms that once lived on earth have completely
disappeared, although they were something like others that are alive today.
TennesseeScience Benchmark(s):
PROCESS OF SCIENCE: Themes; Observing (a,b), Questioning,(a,b,c) Collecting
Data (a,b), Analyzing (a,b,c), Explaining (a,b,c), Communicating (a) UNIFYING
CONCEPTS OF SCIENCE: Themes; Scale and Model, Form and Function, Organization,
Interactions, Change HABITS OF MIND: Historical and Cultural Perspective
(a and c), Assumptions (b), Estimation and Computation (a,b,c), Methods
(b,c,d,e), Creative Enterprise (a,b,c,d)
Summary of instruction used to build Knowledge Base:
Integrated Activities:
1. "BAG IT"--Q? How do you collect, compare, sort, and classify
plant parts? Each child will take a paper bag home and collect the five
examples of plant parts (root, stem, leaf, flower, and seed). The next
day they will label, examine and compare the similarities and differences
of the plant parts. They will record this on their data-capture sheet.
As an extension, they will then play a "matching" game with the
whole class to discover similarities and differences in plants.
2. "FOOD FOR PLANTS"--Q? Is there a relationship between
the leaves and the growth of a plant? Each group will need three newly-sprouted
plants of the same size. They will pinch all the leaves off of plant 1,
pinch half the leaves off plant 2, and not pinch any leaves from plant
3. Over a period of days they will collect and analyze the data by measuring,
watering, and continuing to pinch the leaves in the same fashion.
3. "JUST A SIP, PLEASE" Q? How much water does a plant need
to grow? The students will plant four plants of equal size in four paper
cups. Three equal size in four paper cups. Three plants will receive varying
amounts of water each day for 10 days. The fourth plant is to be grown
in a cup of water. The students will predict which plant will achieve the
highest growth. The plants are measured and results are recorded on the
first and last days of the experiment.
4. "RUN TO THE SUN"--Q? How do plants react to sunlight?
The students will prepare two shoe boxes with mazes which a sprouting potato
must travel through as it reaches for sunlight. One shoe box has a hole
for the sun and the other does not. The students will predict what will
happen to each potato. Each days growth will be recorded for two weeks
to determine the effect of sunlight.
5. "BREATHING BUDDIES"--Q? Do plants add oxygen to the air
we breathe? Students will learn of the interdependency between animals
that release carbon dioxide plants need into the air, and plants that release
the oxygen into the air that animals need. Students will determine that
in order for fire to burn, oxygen is needed. Students will predict and
record the timed outcome of an experiment using plants, glass jars and
candles. They will compute exact timing by using stopwatches.
6. "WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED"--Q? How many of your clothes are
made entirely or partially from the product of the cotton plant? Allow
students the opportunity to look at and examine a cotton plant that has
produced cotton. Have students brainstorm the ways that plants can cover
them. Have students estimate how many clothes they wear contain cotton.
Practice finding and reading clothing content labels.
1. "FLOWER POWER"- Q? How do we match flowers with the seeds
they produce? The children will observe flowers and seeds and use what
they know to match each flower and seed card appropriately.
2. "I'M DIFFERENT"--Q? Do plants always grow from seeds?
Children will cut the underside of a begonia plant leaf and put it in potting
soil with the cut side down and put a few pebbles on top of the leaf and
record results. They will also use a potato plant and toothpicks to observe
the potato over a period of days.
3. "I CALL THIS HOME"-Q? What is in the soil to help plants
grow? The students work in cooperative groups examining four types of soil:
sandy, rocky, woodsy and potting soil. Each group makes sieves from paper
cups to use in examining the properties of each type of soil by using the
five senses. By comparing and contrasting the students will predict which
types of plants would grow best in each kind of soil.
4. "TIME TO DYE"--Q? How do we make dyes from plants? Students
will assemble an assortment of different-colored clothes. Discuss foods
and their colors.
Mathematics Activities:
Major Materials/equipment requirements: SEE EACH ACTIVITY SHEET
THE ADAPTATION GAME is the culminating activity for the unit on plants.
The students will show through this activity all that they have learned
about plants. In order to successfully complete this game the children
will demonstrate knowledge of where plants live, what would eat each plant,
what pollinates each flower, and how the plants spread their seeds.
Assessment for Performance Assessment Task:
'THE ADAPTATION GAME:
Group's number_____
Members of Group__________________________________________________
Performance Criteria (Evaluation):
A. During the oral report and presentation of drawing the students
will:
1. Name the plant 1-2-3-4-5
2. Identify the parts of a plant by drawing it on the board 1-2-3-4-5
3. Tell where it grows and accurately illustrate it's environment
1-2-3-4-5
4. Tell who wants to eat the plant and accurately illustrate the
prey 1-2-3-4-5
5. Tell who pollinates it's flowers and accurately illustrate it
1-2-3-4-5
6. Tell how the plant spreads it's seeds and accurately illustrate
it 1-2-3-4-5
B. During the activity the students will show evidence of :
1. Working cooperatively in their group 1-2-3-4-5
2. Contributing to their group 1-2-3-4-5
SCORING RUBRIC:
Each group will be evaluated by being assigned a rating of 1 (low)
to 5 (high) for each performance criteria and the following descriptors
will be utilized:
40-36 Excellent "Roots"
35-29 Above Average "Stems"
29-25 Average "Leaves"
25 and below Below Average "Blossoms"
(OPTIONAL) Connections to other subjects:
Language Arts: Literature connections--The Big Tree by Bruce Hiscock,
The Fall of Freddie the Leaf by Leo Bogonia, Corn Is Maize: The Gift of
the Indians By Aliki , Poem Stem by William Cole, Grandpa Tree by Mike
Donohue, and Hidden Stories in Plants: Unusual and Easy-to-Tell Stories
from Around the World Together with Creative Things to Do While Telling
Them.; The children can complete a "Plant Journal" to go along
with the unit.
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