Unit Title: The Living Environment: Plants Grade Level: 1
Organizing Concepts: change, cycles, living organisms
Subject/Topic Areas: Science, Math
Key Words: living/nonliving, organisms, process skills, environment, plants
Unit Designer: W. Smith Time Frame: 2 weeks
School District: Webster Central School District School: Klem Road South Elementary School
Link to Content Standards
Brief Summary of Unit (including curriculum and unit goals)
What enduring understandings are desired?
What essential questions will guide this unit and focus teaching and learning?
What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?
Performance Tasks (summarized)
OTHER EVIDENCE
Quizzes, Tests, Prompts, and Work Samples (summarized)
Unprompted Evidence (e.g., observations and dialogues) Student Self-Assessment
What sequence of teaching and learning experiences will equip students to develop and demonstrate the desired understanding?
5E Lesson Plans: Smartboard Notebook file will be developed for each lesson below.
Lesson #1 – Classifying, Comparing/Contrasting, Living & Non-living
Prep: 2 large circles made from masking tape on the floor; 6 hula hoops, hand-lenses
Engage: Tell the students that they are going to learn how to classify items. Start by having the students classify themselves using the 2 large circles on the floor. Examples: sibling/no sibling; pet/no pet; child/adult, etc. Discuss how they needed to think about how they were similar or different than their classmates.
Explore: Before taking the students outside, demonstrate how to use a hand lens. Once outside, demonstrate how to explore and classify the items inside the hula hoops (on the ground and in the air above the hoop) as living or nonliving. Show how to record information on the paper with pictures/labels. Allow groups 5-10 min. to explore within their hoops.
Explain: Bring the groups together outside around another hoop. Have students share what they thought was living or nonliving and explain their thoughts. Ask probing questions. Students should state that living organisms take in nutrients, grow, and reproduce. Explain that plants also go through another process called photosynthesis which is where the green leaves take in carbon dioxide, a gas in the air) and give off oxygen (another type of gas). Living organisms also eventually die.
Extend: Share examples of items that become difficult to label as living or nonliving and discuss. (a stick is nonliving because it no longer grows, reproduces, etc.) Explain to students the scientific definition of living (anything that is or has ever been alive) and nonliving (anything that is not now nor has ever been alive). Remember that the difference between nonliving and dead can be confusing to youngsters. Give an example of something that is dead but still classified as living, such as a log.
Evaluate: Allow students time to revise their information sheet to correctly classify items from their hoop as living or nonliving. Students should begin to label items in their classroom as living or nonliving.
Lesson #2 – Observing, Measuring, Comparing/Contrasting, Bulbs
Prep: Bean seeds soaked overnight and split open (one per student), 2 different types of bulbs per partner group (Red Emperor tulip and crocus or daffodil), hand-lenses, balance scale, inch rulers
Engage: Pass out the split bean seeds and show the students the seed coat, the location of where the stem will begin to grow, and the food for the plant. Next, show the class one tulip bulb that has been split open and identify the same parts. Discuss how the food for this plant is much larger. Explain that this plant will sit underground all fall and winter and not start to grow until spring. That is why the bulb is much bigger – it needs more food stored up. Tell the students that they will be working like scientists on observing and measuring different bulbs.
Explore: Pass out the tulip bulbs to the groups. Review how to use the hand lens. Have students use the hand lenses to make observations. Record student observations on the Smartboard. Next, demonstrate how to measure the length of the bulb with a ruler. Have each group measure their bulb then share the number with the class. Record the information on the Smartboard. Demonstrate how to find the mass of the bulb using the balance scale and gram weights. Have each group find the mass of their bulb and share the number with the class. Record the information on the Smartboard.
Repeat the process with the other bulb.
Explain: Ask students to compare/contrast the two bulbs. How are they alike? How are they different? Use the data to create graphs of the length and weight of the bulbs using the Smarboard. Ask students to share why they think one bulb is larger and has more mass than the other bulb. Record answers on the Smartboard. Ask how they could find out the answers to their questions.
Extend: Choose one of the questions generated by the students and discuss the steps they could follow to conduct their own experiment.
Evaluate: Teachers will observe the students skill with measuring, graphing, and asking questions related to the activity.
Depending on the student generated questions, another lesson may be planned to implement their scientific inquiry investigation with the bulbs.
Lesson #3 – Observing, Comparing/Contrasting, Predicting
Prep: 3 types of soil (silt, clay, sand) in zip lock baggies, 3 of the same type of house plant, 3 of the same type of potting containers, 3 aluminum trays per group, water, graduated cylinders and beakers, paper cups
Engage: Tell the students that you have a problem. You bought some house plants but weren’t sure what type of soil to plant them in. One worker at Lowes said to use soil A, the worker at Home Depot said to use soil B, and the worker at Harris Nursery said to use soil C. Ask the class if they will help decide which soil is best for growing the plants.
Explore: Pass out the soil samples to the groups and have them explore first through observation keeping the soil in the bags. Record student observations on the Smartboard. Next, have students open bag A and use their hand lens and their sense of touch to describe the sample. Record responses. Repeat with bags B & C. To check the permeability of water, have student put one cupful of soil A into the graduated beaker. Give each group a graduated cylinder filled with ____mL of water. Instruct them to pour the water into the beaker and observe how the water soaks into the soil. Repeat with the other samples. Record observations on the Smarboard.
Explain: Review that plants need water, nutrients, and sunlight in order to survive and grow. Ask which soil sample students think would work the best for our house plant. Discuss reasons. Complete the Notebook page, “If we have three different soil samples, then soil ___ will be the best for growing our house plant because_______________. Explain that this is the process scientists use to test an idea. First they observe, then they ask questions, then they test their ideas.
Extend: Ask students how we can test our hypothesis using the soil samples and the three plants. Discuss how scientists only change one variable (thing) at a time when they conduct an experiment. For this experiment, the only variable we will change is the soil. Ask the class what other variables we must keep the same. Use probing questions to help elicit responses. (Where should we keep the 3 plants? How much water should they get? etc.) Set up the experiment and keep a class journal of the growth of each of the plants.
Evaluate: After enough time has passed so students can visibly see the changes in growth, ask them why the plants are not growing at the same rate.