Everett Children's Adventure Garden: Plants

 

- Grade level: Elementary

- Learning Standard:
The student asks questions about natural phenomena, objects and organisms, and events and discoveries.
The student acquires information from multiple sources, such as experimentation and print and non-print sources.
- Time Requirements: Preparation Time: Several hours (including a pre visit)
Class Time: Month
- Topics Covered: gardening, plants, parts of plants and their functions, seed sequencing, photosynthesis, habitats (wetlands)
- Pre-Visit:
Purpose: Preparation of students for their visit.
Objective: Introduce the students to the topics.
Materials Required: posters, pictures, books, magazines, various examples of growth stages of a plant (seed…), root farm, seeds, soil, Internet, Field Journals
Students Learning Prerequisites: Through in class discussions, activities, lessons, and experiments students will be able to identify parts of a plant and briefly state their functions. In their field journals various vocabulary
words will have been defined: xylem, phloem, stamen, pistil (…). In addition, a diagram of a plant with the parts labeled will have been drawn in the field journal. Each student will also have started to germinate a seed in
a ziploc bag.
- Visit: At the garden the class will be divided into their predetermined groups. Each group will rotate visiting the seven areas/galleries of the garden. In each gallery there are different experiments, tasks, and activities the students will participate in and complete. For example, in the Vincent Astor Foundation Sun, Dirt and Water Gallery students will observe and compare the color, size, and health of the plants growing in the giant test tubes. At the Bendheim Kids Herbarium students will learn how to collect, press, label, and mount a plant to create a herbarium specimen.
- Post Visit:
Assessment: Have students share what they learned and observed.
Extension: In the classroom students will create a book of press flowers and leaves. Each specimen will be identified. In addition, each student will make a terrarium for continuous study. If possible regular visits to the
neighborhood garden may continue. To conclude the plant study the class will have a plant party since by this time students have discovered that many roots, stems, and leaves can be found in the grocery store.
Possible Questions
- Do plants get food from dirt?
- Can plants live with out sunlight?
- What do plants need to grow?
- How does a garden grow?
- What is a garden?
- How do flowers get water?
- Do plants breathe?
- What are pistils and stamens?
- Why are flowers beautiful?
- How does the Venus's flytrap eat insects?
- How do some plants float in the water?
What is a herbivore?
Why are plants important?

 

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