Content Lesson Plan: 45 Minutes Total

Content Lesson Plan: 45 minutes total

Aim: How does a tiny seed grow into a plant?

Objectives: SWBAT describe what a seed is. SWBAT recognize and describe the parts of a seed. SWBAT understand the growth process a seed goes through to become plant.

Set Up – 5 min Students come in and  Get their notebook  Copy these questions (summary frame) into their notebooks

Q: What is a seed? Q: What parts of the seed are important to plant growth? Q: What environmental factors affect seed growth? Q: What stages would a seed go through to become a plant?

Purpose Overview – 2 min I refer to the “essential question” on the board to connect this lesson to previous lessons. The essential question is, “How is life passed on from generation to generation in plants and animals?”

Mini-lesson: “Seeds” – 15 min I verbally explain the answers to the questions in the summary frame as the students take notes. I will include diagrams on the overhead..

Aim: How does a tiny seed grow into a plant? Q: What is a seed? Seeds are the result of male pollen from a plant uniting with the female egg. This action produces a seed. Q: What parts of the seed are important to plant growth? Three parts to the seed: the outer seed coat, the endosperm and the embryo itself. 1. Outer Seed Coat: Protects the internal parts of the seed during a period called dormancy, prior to germination (when growth begins). Dormancy is a protected state during which a seed "waits" for favorable growing conditions. Germination usually begins when the embryo is exposed to water. The water swells the embryo inside, bursting the seed coat and setting growth into motion. 2. Endosperm: Serves as a food source, during the earliest phase of growth, when the embryo has no leaves and therefore no means of photosynthesis. It serves the same function as the yolk in a bird egg, providing high-energy food to the developing embryo. 3. There are three main parts to the embryo. A. Primary Root: the first structure to emerge from the seed during germination. It penetrates the soil very rapidly, forming a slender, usually unbranched taproot. B. Cotyledon: serves a function similar to that of the endosperm, supplying food to other parts of the developing embryo. C. Embryonic leaves, also known as seed leaves, develop into the plant's first leaves above ground. These leaves open within a few days after the plant emerges from the soil and begin photosynthesizing almost immediately.

Q: What environmental factors affect seed growth? The amount of oxygen, temperature and moisture. Q: What stages will a seed go through to become a plant? Seeds grow and it is called Germination. First, a radicle grows out of the seed down into the soil to get nutrition from the soil and roots form out of the radicle. Next, a stem called a plumule grows up out of the soil to become the future stalk of the plant. Finally, leaves begin to grow and the seed has become a plant.

Video- 2 minutes: Watch video located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=d26AhcKeEbE&mode=related&search= I will stop the video a certain points to point out stages of growth and how the parts of the seed become recognizable parts of the plant.

Group Work – 10min I have my students take a quiz with 8th Grade Exam-level questions. Each group of two or three can work together as I circulate to encourage good group work and minimize copying of answers. The quiz will consist of the following questions from “Test Wizard”: 2594, 3866, 2197 and 2877. I will collect the quizzes and grade them before class tomorrow.

Results Review / Closure - 10 min I will review the answers to the quiz, asking students to describe their answers. I will use this review and the actual answers to the quiz as opportunity to assess how well the students understand the topic.

Clean Up – 1 min With exactly one minute before the bell I direct students to return all supplies and pack up.