Lesson 4

Watch Me Grow

Objectives:

• Students will identify what plants need in order to survive: air, food, light and water.

Time Required:

• Four one- hour sessions

Vocabulary:

• air - the invisible mixture of gases that surround the earth; the atmosphere.
  

• water - the colorless transparent liquid occurring in earth as rivers, oceans and falling from the sky.
  

• light - energy from the sun.
  

• food - any substance taken in by a plant or animal to keep it alive and enable it to grow.
  

Materials:

• Two plants per group

• Spreadsheet Program

• Growth Observation Chart

• Science Experiment Form (for use with experiments)

• word processing program

Procedures:

• Review parts of a plant.

• Discuss similarities between plants and people.  Plants and people need some of the same things (air, food, light, and water) but get and use them in different ways. Discuss how plants would be effected without air, food, light, and water.

• As your students learn what plants need in order to survive, involve them in hands-on experiments to see how denying a plant what it needs to sustain life will have serious effects.   Compare how plants of the same kind grow when one plant gets more or less air, food, light, or water than another plant.

Experiment #1:  Help, I Can't Breathe

Experiment #2:  I'm Thirsty

Experiment #3:  Let the Sun Shine

• Each group of students should have two plants.  One plant is the control plant that will be given food, water, sunlight, fertilizer, etc.  This plant should show a normal plants growth pattern.  The second plant will be denied something it needs to live.  Allow your students to decide what variable they will change and how.

• Have your students take notes on their plant activity.  Have students observe, measure and record the plant growth, using the Plant Growth Observation Chart.  (Younger students can  cut a piece of string as tall as the plant and paste or tape it into their journals or Observation Charts.) Students should watch for the number of leaves, the color of the leaves, the condition of the leaves (wilted or fresh), the growth of the plant (larger, or the same size), and any other information to help when watching its progress and observing its reactions to the differences in water, light, etc.

• At the end of observation period, have your students use any spreadsheet program to create a spreadsheet and a graph of their results.

• Revisit K-W-L and add new information learned.

Evaluation:

• The students will be evaluated on the final outcome of their spreadsheet and graph.  They will also be evaluated for participation in the experiments and correct completion of the Science Experiment Forms.  This activity is participatory in nature and involves the teacher as a facilitator.  The teacher can observe students during the activities/experiments.

Extension Activity:

•  Students can complete a plant word search or create their own plant word search at Discovery School's Puzzlemaker.

Home Learning:

• Students can write a story from the plant's point of view using any word processing program.  The students can act as the plant explaining why it is important to provide it with the essential needs such as air, food, light, or water and how denying it of these things can have serious effects on the plant.

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