Thrive and Survive
Plant structures, functions, and adaptations for survival.
Becky Welch, Jill Ellington, Megan Mcghee

ICE5 Summer Institute 2009
Thrive and Survive

Description

Learners explore the importance of plant structures, their functions, and various adaptations made for survival. They will investigate how leaves and seeds are adapted for survival and reproduction. Students will cooperatively research plants from various biomes and report on their adaptations.

Suggested Grade Levels: 2 – 4

Lesson Objectives Connecting to the Standards

The student will identify the needs of plants.
The student will know structural organs of plants, and their functions.
The students will know that adaptations allow plants to survive in their environment.
The students will know that leaf adaptations are structural adaptations that help contribute to a plant’s survival.
The students will understand that there are a variety of seed adaptations that help seeds scatter.
The student will understand that structures of living things are adapted to their function in specific environments.
The student will use reference materials to obtain information related to science concepts.
The student will use a variety of tools to observe and study minute details of objects.
The student will pose questions about objects, organisms, and events in the environment.
The student will compare and contrast observations and results.
The student will develop descriptions and explanations using evidence.

MO GLE’s

3.1.A. / Describe the basic needs of most plants (i.e., air, water, light, nutrients, temperature)
3.1.B. / Describe and sequence the stages in the life cycle (for a plant) of seed germination, growth and development, reproduction, and death (i.e., a flowering plant)
3.1.D / Plants and animals have different structures that serve similar functions necessary for the survival of the organism.
3.1.D.c / Identify the relationships between the physical structures of plants
and the function of those structures (e.g., absorption of water, absorption of light energy, support, reproduction)
3.1.D.a. / Identify the major organs (roots, stems, flowers, leaves) and their
functions in vascular plants (e.g., absorption, transport, reproduction) (Do
NOT assess the term vascular)
4.3.C / Natural selection is the process of sorting individuals based on their ability to survive and reproduce within their ecosystem.
7.1.A / Scientific inquiry includes the ability of students to formulate a testable question and explanation, and to select appropriate investigative methods in order to obtain evidence relevant to the explanation.
7.1.B / Scientific inquiry relies upon gathering evidence from qualitative and quantitative observations.
7.1.C / Evidence is used to formulate explanations.
7.1.D / Scientific inquiry includes evaluation of explanations (hypotheses, laws, theories) in light of scientific principles (understandings).
7.1.E / The nature of science relies upon communication of results and justification of explanations.

Scott Foresman Textbook

4th Grade – Chapter 2, pp. 41-72

3rd Grade – Chapter 1, pp. 2-31

2nd Grade – Chapter 1, pp. 1-32

Leveled Readers: Animals and Plants (1st), How Plants and Animals Live (1st), All About Plants (2nd), Desert Plants (2nd), How Living Things Grow and Change (2nd), Plants (2nd), Plants and Animals (2nd), Plants and How They Grow (3rd), Plants and Trees Growing (3rd), Where Plants and Animals Live (3rd), Energy from Plants (4th), How Plants Grow and Change (4th), Plant and Animal Classification (4th), Weird Plants (4th), Plants (5th)

Featured Picture Books

Time Needed

This lesson will take several class periods. Suggested schedule as follows:

Day 1: Engage (DOK 1) by reading the book Lucy’s Secret and planting “secret seeds.” Explore (DOK 2) plant life cycles with ongoing plant observations. Evaluate Prior Knowledge with student journaling and OWL chart.

Day 2: Explain (DOK 1) plant structures with foldable model of a plant. Explain (DOK 2) the function of each plant structure using Scott Foresman 3rd grade text or the Leveled Reader Plants and How they Grow. Engage (DOK 1/2) students by setting up Potted Plant demonstration.

Day 3: Explain (DOK1) transpiration with potted plant demonstration. Explore (DOK 3) with Leaf Lab. Explain (DOK 1) structural leaf adaptations. Explain (DOK 1) by reading DK Eye Wonder Plants.

Day 4: Explain (DOK 1) scattering by reading The Tiny Seed. Explore (DOK 3) with Seed Lab. Explain seed adaptations. Students explain results of the experiment to the class. Explain (DOK 1) by reading DK Eye Wonder Plants.

Day 5: Explore (DOK 2/3) with research groups. Students explain (DOK 1) examples of adaptations to classmates.

Day 6: Evaluate (DOK 4) with Alien Plant Project or GPS Lab (DOK 1)

Academic Vocabulary Words

  • adaptations

  • biome

  • environment

  • germinate

  • habitat

  • pollinate

  • scatter

  • seedling

  • structure

  • survive/survival

  • transpiration

Background Knowledge

This unit should follow an animal unit where the students learned about animals, their needs, and adaptations for survival. Students should have an understanding of some of the various biomes around the world. Students should also have some background about plants needs and life cycle as this will only be reviewed.

Materials

Secret Seeds:

 Seeds 5 seeds per student (use something other than Lima Beans). The lesson authors suggest Great Northern Beans.

 Plastic Test tubes 1 per student. The test tubes should be pre-drilled with two holes at the top on opposite sides.

 Other items needed: string or yarn for creating test tube necklaces, potting soil, Dixie cups , graduated cylinders, hand lenses, rulers, and science notebooks.

Potted Plant Demonstration:

  • A living house plant(s) or large potted plant
  • A plastic sandwich bags (1 per pair of students)
  • A twist-tie for securing the bag closed (1 per pair of students)

Leaf Lab:

  • Paper towels (4 sheets per group) The authors suggest using Select-A-Size towels for a quicker experiment time.
  • Water
  • Baking sheet (cookie sheet) or Scott Foresman Plastic Trays (2 per group)
  • Waxed paper (2 sheets per group)
  • Adhesive tape
  • Heat lamp or other light source (optional)

Seed Lab:

  • Hand lenses
  • Variety of seeds for each station
  • Fan(s)
  • Tub(s) of water
  • Pieces of fux fur, felt, cotton socks
  • Measuring tape (cm)

The authors suggest setting up two of each station based on a class size of 24.

Other Materials:

  • Construction paper for foldable book (Day 2) – one piece per student
  • Posterboard or large chart paper for demonstration foldable (teacher use Day 2)
  • Paper and wide variety of craft supplies for Alien Plant Project (Day 6)

Student Pages

  • Leaf Lab Sheet and Rubric
  • Seed Lab Sheet and Rubric
  • Biome Adaptation Sheet
  • Alien Plant Student Sheet and Rubric
  • Example of Plant Foldable

Narrative

Day 1

Engage Read Lucy’s Secret to the class. Ask students to practice making connections as you read the text aloud. Some teachers like to have students write their connections on sticky notes as they read to share after the story.

Explore After reading and sharing connections engage the students by telling them that today they will get to choose “secret seeds” to grow themselves. The teacher will have a variety of different seeds for students to plant. The students will plant the seeds in plastic test tubes which they will wear around their neck at school until germination is complete. Have students predict what their plant will look like. Each student should draw what he/she believes the adult plant will look like. (Tip: Don’t use Lima Beans-kids have seen these Great Northern beans will grow thorns on the stem within 2 weeks.)

Evaluate Prior Knowledge The teacher can use this first journal entry to assess the students’ prior knowledge and any misconceptions on plants. After students have time to journal make a whole class OWL chart. Students will use simple hand tools (i.e hand lens) and notebooks to study and journal about their “secret seed” for the duration of the plant study.

Day 2

Explain The teacher and students will make a model of a plant using a tri-fold foldable (see example in Student Pages). The teacher will model making the foldable using large butcher paper or posterboard. Explain Then using SF Text the teacher will lead the students though a determining importance lesson focusing on the needs of all plants and the function of each plant organ. Use either the third grade book pages 6-13 or the leveled reader Plants and How they Grow. As students read about the function of each part they will add details and descriptions to their foldable. See a sample foldable in student pages section. Have students place foldable into science notebook. Assess the students understanding by noting one or more new or interesting facts they understand better about a plant after the lesson. This may be a simple line of learning in their notebook.

Engage students again by setting up the Potted Plant Demonstration. At the end of the lesson, the teacher will ask students to journal in their science notebooks about a plant observation lesson. The teacher will place a living plant near a window. Pairs of students will cover one of the largest leaves with the sandwich bag and secure the bag closed with the twist-tie. (Remind students to be careful not to injure the plant by twisting the tie too tightly.) The teacher will ask the students to draw a picture of the plant with bagged leaf at that time of day. The students will then be asked to predict what they bagged leaf will look like the next day.

Day 3

Explain Potted Plant Demonstration.

Observe the bag preferably after several hours depending on light and temperature conditions. (Quick tip: You may be able to speed the transpiration process by adding a sun lamp.) Have the students draw and journal again about the plant. Ask the students to respond in their notebooks about their initial prediction. Did they think the plant would change? Did it change? If so, how?
Explain to students that upon careful observation, you will see that the bag has collected water from the plant’s leaves. Plants absorb water from the soil through their roots. This water travels up the stem to the leaves and that which is not used during the process of photosynthesis is released through the leaf. This loss of water is called transpiration. Ask students to record a line of learning in their science notebook.

Elaborate Leaf Study-Leaf Lab on Structure and Function
Next tell the students that based on the knowledge that a plant loses water through its leaves, you would like them to make a hypothesis for a science experiment. Hand out Leaf Lab student sheet Question: Do you think a plant with larger or smaller leaves would lose more water? Do you think a plant that has a waxy covering would retain more or less water than one without a waxy covering?

The students should make their prediction on their Leaf Lab Student Sheet.

Wet each of the paper towel sheets so they are equally damp, but not dripping. Lay one of the paper towels so it is flat on the cookie sheet to represent a large flat leaf shape such as Oak leaf. Roll a second paper towel lengthwise and place it on the cookie sheet near the first paper towel. The rolled towel represents a Pine needle. The third paper towel will be left flat and covered with a sheet of waxed paper to represent a large leaf with a waxy coating. The final paper towel will be rolled lengthwise, and then covered by rolling a sheet of waxed paper around it. Place the waxed paper-covered towel roll on the cookie sheet with the other towels. (Make sure the waxed paper is securely wrapped around the paper towel. A small amount of adhesive tape would work best ) Position the cookie sheet so it will receive direct sunlight from a window or place outdoors in direct light. Have students check the status of their “leaf” models every 10-15 minutes.

After 45 minutes, unroll the rolled paper towels and compare the dampness of ther towels. The flat towel without wax paper layer should be driest. The rolled towel should be drier on the outside, but still damp in areas on the inside. Both waxed paper-covered towel should be the wettest of all.
Have students document their results on the Leaf Lab student page.

Explain to students that the more surface area a leaf has, the greater the amount of transpiration that can and will occur. Plants that have very large leaves transpire great amounts of water and therefore need to live near where water is abundant, such as the Sycamore tree which lives in the Riparian woodland.
Smaller surface areas allow less water loss. Therefore plants that have very tiny leaves can survive in areas where plants with large leaves would dry up. In other words, the Chamise can live in the driest areas of the Chaparral because it has very tiny lives.
Some plants retain more water by covering their leaves with a waxy coating, as does the Scrub Oak.

Plants have adapted their leaf shapes and coverings (such waxy or non-waxy) to help them survive in their environment So, if you see a plant with large leaves, you know it requires a great deal of water to survive. Plants with small or stiff, wax-covered leaves do not require as much water.

Provide students with more examples of how plants adapt to drier climates or areas with limited water supplies by reading DK Eye Wonder Plant pages 38-39.

Day4

Explain Read the book The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. Determine important science material in the story review the life cycle of a plant. Prompt the students to think of other ways that seeds move. (Wind scattering is in the story) Introduce the term “scattering” and discuss the function of scattering seeds.

Explore Tell students that today will be exploring the special adaptations seeds have for being scattered. The teacher may wish to model how to fill in data tables and/or demonstrate station directions.

Testing Stations

A. The Wind Test

Stand fan on chair at edge of desk so center of fan is aligned with desktop. Hold each seed 10 cm above and 10 cm in front of blowing fan. Let go. Record how far it travels. Repeat for each seed. 4 seeds

B. The Hitchhiker Test

Press seeds onto different test materials/fur to see if they stick. Record your observations.

Faux fur (craft store) felt cotton sock

C. The Water Test

Drop seeds one at a time into tub of water and stir. Record your observations.

Explain After the lab have students share their results. Compile data to make a class table for each station. Ask students to examine the data by considering these questions. What characteristics do the seeds that passed each test have in common? Is any one travel trick "better" than the others? Will all methods work equally well in all environments? How might the ability to travel in more than one way benefit a seed? Then read SF pg 18-19 or read DK Eye Wonder Plants pg 20-21 to further their understanding.

Day 5 Explore

The students will be grouped an assigned a biome to research. Each biome group will work cooperatively using a variety of resources to complete their Biome Adaptation Sheet. One good resource could be the 2nd grade Scott Foresman Science book pg 16-25. Then the students will be mixed into teams with a representative from each Biome Research team. Explain Then students will then be responsible for teaching each other about their biome’s plants and their adaptations.

Day 6 Evaluate

The students will invent a new alien plant species. They will apply scientific concepts as they independently create models and develop a written description of the plant to demonstrate their newly acquired knowledge.

Teachers may also assess students using one of the three provided GPS Labs. The labs would also work well as a review before the Alien Plant Project.

Misconceptions

Organisms adapt quickly instead of slowly, through several generations

Traits are developed by individuals in response to their individual needs.

All plants grow in dirt

All plants have flowers