ESCI 215
Chapter 18
Teaching Children about the Plant
and Fungi Kingdoms
What to think about
• What is the focus of the chapter?
• How is it tied to the curriculum?
• What can you take away from it?
Outline
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Chapter focus
Connections to the curriculum
Review Inquiry
Objectives (science content)
- How seeds travel, germinate, and grow into plants,
- How plants reproduce,
- The parts of a plant and their functions, and,
- An introduction to the Fungi Kingdom.
• Chapter topics
• Discussion and activity
Focus
• This chapter focuses on teaching children about
the plant and fungi kingdom. It presents
information on food reproduction in plants;
seeds; seedless reproduction of plants; the parts
of a plant; and microscopic life forms. There are
activities suggested that will help students learn
about various aspects of plant life. There are
suggested sites and software and information
about assessment. The topics are easily applied
to southern environments but can be adapted to
northern regions.
Important Note
“Science builds on the networking of knowledge
from many people researching the different
ideas that often unknowingly build the
foundation of a concept one brick at a time”
(Friedl & Koontz, 2005, p. 348)
Connections
(NWT Science and Technology Curriculum K-6 (2004), p. 13)
Learning about various aspects of plants are covered in
grades 1, 3, 4, and 6
Curriculum Connections
GRADE
1
3
4
6
General
points
from
learning
outcomes
-Learning about basic
aspects of growth in
plants
-Living things need
water, air, and energy
(food)
-Develop an
awareness that living
things depend on
their environment to
meet their basic
needs
-Describe changes in
growth, and patterns
they observe
-Describe external
characteristics
-Learn the
importance of plants
-Investigate a variety
of plants in their
environment
-Identify, describe,
and compare
differences and
similarities
-Investigate the
effects of seasons on
plants
-Explain how features
help them survive
-Plan investigations to
answer questions
they ask regarding
plants
-Understand the role
and identity of plants in
a habitat
-Classify plants in a
habitat
-Identify through
planned investigations
and asking questions,
the various factors that
affect plants in a
specific community in
terms of needs and
adaptations
-Construct food chains
-Show effects of habitat
loss
-Learn about
classification
systems to
classify and
investigate
processes,
functions,
characteristic
s,
commonaliti
es, etc. of
living things
-Start using
scientific
names to
classify
organisms
(NWT Sc. & Tech. Curr. K-6, 2004)
Inquiry Review
• Steps
- Set up the event
- Asks students to investigate
- Resolve the discrepancy
The approach can be applied through an activity
or an experiment
Case Study
Jimmy planned a fall field trip for his grade 3 class. Before
the trip, Jimmy introduced some plants to the
students. The plants introduced were from the grocery
store. He had a fern, a flower (artificial), fruit, and
vegetables. He asks the students if they knew what
they were. After naming each of the items, he asked
the students to put them into groups.
When students put them into groups they identified them
using a binary sort system:
- we eat and we don’t eat
- grows above ground and grows in the ground
- with a flower and without a flower
Case study continued
The sorting system was guided by the groups.
One group made a classification tree and one
listed features under each item. Although
each system is different and not complex, the
students were able to identify similarities and
differences.
At the end of the activity, Jimmy provided
details about the field trip.
Case Study continued – Field Trip
1. In three days the class would be going to Sylvia Grinnell/
Park/ on the land to collect plants
2. Each group (groups of two) would have equipment
3. Students would select two plants to sample and bring
back
4. They had to take notes on the location, colour, type (if
they know it), and use
They could guess the type and use
* If students selected mushrooms, they could still take
them as a sample
5. In class they would try to identify their plant by answering
questions and collecting information from resources
already selected
Case Study – In class
Sample of lab questions and
notes
On the fourth day students
took notes and answered
questions in their lab books.
If there were outstanding
questions, they would be
answered from their
research.
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Case Study - close
• On the fifth day, Jimmy had pictures of all the plants
collected printed and labeled on the back. There were
additional pictures printed 5 of each with 7 on a sheet.
• These images would be used to create a class
classification key of the plants they collected based on
questions they answered (not a lineage classification system but
they are practicing their skills of classifying)
• The “Class Classification System” with explanation from
the Jimmy would now provide a foundation for learning
about plants in our community throughout the unit.
Analyze the Case Study
• What type of lesson(s) is/are it/they? Activity
or experiment?
• How is learning through inquiry applied?
• Identify process skills and content evident in
the case study.
General Points – Case Study
• The activity in the first class set the stage for an experiment
that would result in a classification system that students can
refer to when learning about plants in their environment
• Inquiry is applied by getting the students to investigate plants
of interest to them and providing explanation after the
students complete their project
• Skills used through out the activity include:
- observing
- identifying
- describing
- comparing
- collecting data
- predicting
- classifying
- inferring
-contrasting
Carl Linneaus and the Lineage classification
system
• Linneaus was a Swedish botanist that
developed a system of classifying plants and
animals using a two-part descriptive label
(binary sort) and was the person known to
recognize the sexual nature of flowers
• Taxonomic classification for organisms is now
done using domain, kingdom, phylum, class,
order, family, genus, and species
(Science Desk Reference, 1999)
Food Production in Plants
• Plants produce their own food via
photosynthesis
(http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2009/herman_jaci/nutrition.htm)
Plant Parts
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Roots
Stem
Leaves
Chloroplast
Stomas
Flower *reproductive organ
(Brooker, et al. 2010)
(Mallory and Aiken, 2004)
Seeds
• Seeds are the offspring of flowering plants (angiosperms)
• Some plants produce fruit that protects seeds
• Pollen from male and females mutate in the ovary of the
female plant to produce seeds
• Some self-pollinate (adaptation)
(http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/petal_01)
How seeds travel
Fly
Stick
Get carried
around
Seeds to Plant
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Germination
Seeds coat
Food supply
Embryo
Response to gravity – Statocytes and statolisths
Hydroponics
Seedless Reproduction
RUNNERS
BULBS
CUTTING AND GRAFTING
SEEDLESS REPRODUCTION
Cloning
http://www.ulster.ac.uk/scienceinsociety/clonin
g_plants.pdf
Student run websites for a cause
http://www.earthrangers.com/wildwire/thisjust-in/help-save-the-real-reindeer/
Microscopic life
• Protists – one-celled organisms that
manufacture their own food, i.e. Paramecia
and diatoms
• Monerans – unicellular organisms. i.e bacteria
in your food, stomach, intestines, and toilet
• Fungi – Eukaryotic organisms that feed off
dead matter (decomposers), i.e. yeast and
mushrooms
Microscopic Communities
• Microbial mats in polar regions
Resources and Technology
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Life science divisions of academic institutions
Nunavut Plant Books
Elderly women
NRI
Online research resource centers
Government Agencies
Assessment
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Assessment to evaluation
Reflective learning
Research skills
Practice of process skills
Discussion and Activity
• Growing months for plants in cold climates is relatively short especially
within the school calendar year. One of the expectations in the curriculum
is that students will learn about their own environment. Considering that
there might not be easily accessible local plants and microbes that are
alive during a unit that involves them; discuss how you would account for
this and still teach about plants and microorganisms from the local
environment.
• HISTORY OF PLANTS
As a group, Organize the information in the beginning of the chapter into a
timeline. NOTE: dates and information are not provided for every one so
you are expected to get that information to complete the timeline.
References