Smart Plants:

How can I classify plants according to their characteristics and uses?

Created by Theresa Spreen and Terra Kaliszuk; Black Gold Regional Schools.

Curriculum Connections: Science 4, Unit E

1. Describe the importance of plants to humans and their importance to the natural environment. Students who meet this expectation should be able to give examples of plants being used as a source of food or shelter, and be aware of the role plants play in the environment; e.g., preventing erosion, maintaining oxygen.

3. Describe common plants, and classify them on the basis of their characteristics and uses.

Project Premise:

Students will create original smartboard centres for their classmates – in these centres, students will categorize different plants according to their characteristics and uses.

Key Vocabulary:

·  Coniferous

·  Deciduous

·  Fruit

·  Vegetable

·  Weed

·  Decoration

·  Toxic

·  Edible

·  Medicine

·  Food

·  Shelter

·  Clothing

INTRODUCTION

1.  Clarify key vocabulary terms.

2.  Assign partners; give each pair of students a topic assignment.

Plant Characteristics / Plant Uses
Group A: Coniferous/Deciduous / Group E: Medicine/Food
Group B: Fruit/Vegetable / Group F: Shelter/Clothing
Group C: Weeds/Decoration
Group D: Toxic/Edible

3.  Together with their partner, students brainstorm picture ideas for their two categories.

o  Students need to choose 2 plants per category that they are not normally familiar with to “stretch their brains” – this may require some internet research.

CREATING SMARTBOARD CENTRES

4.  Together, pairs create an interactive Smartboard activity:

a)  Go to Smartboard Gallery > Lesson Activity Toolkit> Activities

b)  Choose one image-based activity template:

·  Category Sort – Image

·  Image Match

·  Vortex Sort – Image

5.  To go along with their interactive Smartboard activity, student pairs create a printable legend, showing their pictures and the name of each plant.

6.  Once the Smartboard activities and printable legends have been created, separate student pairs and re-group the class into pods of 6 students – each pod should have one representative from each topic pair (A, B, etc.)

o  Each student should have their activity set-up on the netbook, as well as their printed legend available for the student doing the activity.

o  Students rotate around their pod to play each game, refer to the printed legend when necessary, and track the information on their individual handout.

DEBRIEF & REFLECTION

7.  After the pods have rotated through each of the 6 activities, students make groups of 3 and compare their tracking handouts to determine accuracy of information.

o  Students add/delete/revise information on their tracking handout as necessary.

8.  Regroup as a class to debrief and reflect on the activity:

o  What did you discover?

o  What did you have trouble with?

o  Would your categories change if we were talking about uses by animals, and not humans?

ASSESSMENT SUGGESTIONS

This mini-project lends itself well to a variety of formative and summative assessment options.

o  Assess student reflections for depth of understanding (re: classifying plants by their characteristics and uses) using a rubric or co-created checklist of criteria

o  Ask students to answer the final reflection question in writing and assess for depth of understanding.

o  Ask students to complete a second classification activity to sort plants according to their characteristics and uses.