Plants and People

Lesson Title: Plants & People:

Grade Level: 5-8 Science Discipline: Life Sciences & Environmental Sciences

Concepts to be Constructed: Plants are amazing organisms with very special adaptations, from physical features to methods of seed dispersal, plants are important to animals and people. Trees are plants. Trees are all individuals with different characteristics but made up of the same parts, just like people. Plants are used to make medicines, food, clothing, paper, houses, energy, and gardens. Sub-Concepts: Trees and flowers are plants. Wildflowers are often mistaken for weeds but they have many useful qualities and are pretty too!

Materials Needed: Blind Folds (1 for every 2 students) Large old athletic socks (big enough to fit over shoes, a pair for each student) Wildflower Mystery Cards

Safety Precautions and/or Special Procedures:

1st E: EXPLORATION. Process Skills: Observation, Classification, Communication, Measurement, Questioning, Interpreting Data, Using Numbers, Inferring EXPLORATION activity: Duration: 45 minutes Objective: Students will become aware of the many different types of trees. Students will also learn the numerous adaptations of a tree and how they help it to survive. Method/Procedure: 1. Take the students outdoors, pair them up, making sure that any students with special needs are paired with an understanding and helpful partner. 2. Explain to the class that they are going to get up close and personal with some trees. 3. Have the students take turns being blindfolded. 4. The student being the guide must look out for hazards and guide their partners safely to a tree. 5. Have each pair of students take turns guiding each other to a tree. 6. Once at the tree, have the students feel the bark, smell the bark, feel for any branches or leaves, wrap their arms around the tree, feel down toward the base of the tree for any roots sticking up above the ground. Tell them to get to know their tree very well. 7. Once they have gotten to know their trees, their partners must guide them back to where the teacher is standing, and take off their blindfold. Now they must find their tree. 8. Once they have found their tree, switch roles and repeat. 9. Once all students have met a tree, gather them together for the explanation phase.

2nd E: EXPLANATION; Duration: 15 minutes Key questions and desired answers: How did you feel about meeting a tree? What types of things did you feel on your tree? How did you find your tree? What made you sure that the tree you found was actually your tree? Was there anything special about your tree? Procedures/steps toward concept construction: 1. Lead the class in an open discussion about their trees and meeting trees. 2. Talk with the students about the physical characteristics of trees. They are all individuals just like people. They all have are all different sizes, have different textures, different leaves and root structures. 3. Ask the students how they would feel to actually be a tree. 4. Give each student a tree part role. 5. Lead them in constructing a class tree. 6. Build each part of the tree, having the students stand, sit, lay down, etc. to become a part of the tree. Explain each part as it is added to the tree, using the teacher copy of the be a tree cards. 7. Remind the students to make the noises described on their tree part card. 8. Once the tree is constructed, have everyone in unison make the tree come to life by making the noises and doing the actions listed on their tree part card. 9. Lead another open discussion about the Be A Tree activity. Ask the students how they felt about being a tree. 10 Help the students to visualize the concept by using the following sentence starters: Trees are... The different tree parts include....

3rd E: EXPANSION of the Concept Duration: 1 to 2 hours Process Skills: Observation, Classification, Communication, Questioning, Interpreting Data, Inferrence Activity (procedures/ steps): Part One: Seeds stick to me 1. Assign students investigation teams. 2. Have the materials manager from each team get the materials needed for the activity: a pair of socks for each student, poster board, glue and markers. 3. Take the students to an overgrown area in the schoolyard. 4. Have the investigation teams put the socks over their shoes, and walk through the overgrown area. 5. Allow 10 minutes to walk the field. 6. Bring the students back, and have them observe their sock...there should be a sufficient amount of burrs stuck to their socks. 7. Have the students remove their socks very carefully. Have them pick off the burrs and place them into plastic bags. 8. Take the students back inside for classification and observation of their seeds. 9. Tell the students that the things that stuck to their socks are seeds. Some plants spread their seeds with the help of animals. When a furry animal brushes up against a plant, the seeds stick to them. The animal travels other areas, dropping the seeds as they go. This helps the plants to reproduce over a wide range. 10. Have the students examine their seeds, put them into groups with similar characteristics, and glue them to the poster board. 11. Have the students list the grouping characteristics next to their seed groups on the poster board. 12. Share the final product with entire class and discuss grouping and classification characteristics.

Part Two: Wildflower Mysteries 1. Students try to discover the identity of the mystery plants described on the cards below. 2. Duplicate the mystery cards & laminate on cardboard. Need one set for each group, also give each group a field guide (I believe they are yellow and are on the shelf by bertha). 3. Set boundaries, but make sure all the plants can be found within those boundaries. 4. Divide the kids into 3 or 4 groups (depending on how many helpers you have). 5. Announce to the kids that some of the great mysteries of the plant world are found on the cards that they are about to use. The members of the group must work together to attempt to discover the identity of the plant on the card. 6. When the group thinks it has found the identities of all of the plants; the answers must be verified by the teacher. 7. Suggest that the groups cooperate and work as harmoniously as possible. 8. Find a central point in the boundaries and announce that this is the plant mystery headquarters. All groups must report to this place to check the accuracy of their answers. Give the students 15-20 minutes to find the answers. The first group to answer all the mystery flowers correctly wins! Let the other teams finish though! When the time is up, gather the class and discuss the correct answers for each of the mystery cards

4th E: Evaluation of the Concept. Hands-On Assessment: Use an embedded assessment to evaluate the students' science and process skills demonstrated during the activity. Focus on students' strengths as well as making notes of skills that need to be developed.

Pictorial Assessment: Have the students create informational posters to display in the school about the importance of plants for people. OR have the student draw a picture of a tree, label its parts and give descriptions of what each part does. Remind them to include sentences about the heartwood, xylem, phloem and cambium even though we can't see them in the picture.

Reflection Assessment: Have the students submit a written or oral writing discussing the similarities between the parts of a tree and humans. What makes humans and trees alike, and what makes them different?

References. Cornell, J. (1989). Sharing nature with children. Nevada City: Dawn Publications. Kane, P., Rosselet, D., Schierloh, J. & Anderson, K. (1992). Bridges to the natural world: A natural history guide for teachers of grades pre-k through six. Bardsville, NJ: New Jersey Audubon Society. Martin, R., Sexton, C., Franklin, T., & Gerlovich, J. (2005) Teaching science for all children: An inquiry approach. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Pellowski, A. (1990). Hidden stories in plants: Unusual and easy to tell stories from around the world together with creative things to do while telling them. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Project learning tree: Environmental education pre k-8 activity guide. (2005) Washington, DC: American Forest Foundation.

Adaptations for special needs: Some adaptations are embedded within the lesson for more adaptation suggestions see the Teaching Adaptation Suggestion Table in the environmental education adaptation suggestion section.