ORCHIDS UNIT    

Unit Overview

Instructional Objectives

Science and literacy

  1. Students will gather and organize information on the orchid industry dealing with propagation, growing and sales.
  2. Students will conduct research in the library, Internet, and orchid nursery field study.
  3. Students will be able to write a business letter and a well-organized written report representing data collected in their research.
  4. Students will compile their written information in a report, brochure and skit or interview.

Technology

  1. Students will demonstrate basic skills in word-processing.
  2. Students will be able to access the Internet/World Wide Web, and then navigate between sites to collect information.
  3. Students will be able to analyze and evaluate electronically retrieved information.
  4. Students will be able to use PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Paint and Publisher.

Instructional Design (Teaching and Learning Activities)

Scientific Investigation Activity

Students investigate the life cycle of an orchid plant, the propagation of an orchid plant and the marketing of an orchid plant through research and field work.

Teacher’s Role

· Introduce orchid plants by displaying different orchid plants and discussing their differences to other house plants and their origin in the wild (one class period)

· Distribute orchid notes and allow students to go over plants using notes to note plant parts, characteristics and reproductive parts (one class period)

· Display past projects as examples, review Internet etiquette, Internet research and basic word-processing skill, and provide brainstorming time (one class period)

· Allow students to work on research on their group activity using provided site list. (one to two class periods)

· Facilitate field studies on virtual tour and actual field trip to the nursery. (field trip - one day, virtual trip - one class period)

· Distribute orchid notes and allow students to go over plants using notes to note plant parts, characteristics and reproductive parts (one class period)

· Facilitate field work and data collection (one class period a month)

· Facilitate rough draft of written project (two to three class periods)

· Facilitate brochure lesson (one to two class periods)

· Facilitate interview/skit lesson (two to three class periods)

· Post Rubrics

· Monitor activities

Student’s Role

· Access orchid notes, Internet, e-mail and virtual trip (several class periods)

· Collect data from actual field trip (one day)

· Collect data from Internet sites and create a business letter (one to two days)

· Create a brochure on Publisher (one class period to design and one class period to finalize)

· Create a rough draft of written report (one to two class periods)

· Create group skit/interview (two to three class periods)

· Finalize group skit/interview (one class period)

· Present group skit/interview to the class (one to two class periods)

Advance Preparation

The teacher must be able to:

  1. use the Internet as a source of information
  2. use Publisher, Microsoft Word, Excel and Paint
  3. use CD’s to access specific information
  4. use video camera and upload to a computer
  5. save electronic images onto a floppy disk from various sources including the web
  6. use basic word processing skills

The student must be able to:

  1. use the Internet
  2. use Publisher software
  3. use Microsoft Word
  4. use Excel
  5. use Paint
  6. possess basic word processing skills

Activities

This orchid project is used in an elective class that lasts about 9 weeks and only a part of this class time is used on this project. The unit is comprised of four lessons that integrate field studies, Internet studies and classroom exploration.  The business letter rubric is used for the e-mail lesson and the science rubric is used to assess written work.

Lessons

ORCHID VOCABULARY

LILY ASPER TRUST

ORCHID INDUSTRY RESEARCH

ORCHID NURSERY FIELD STUDY