Plants are Us: our changing relationship with plants
Grade 7
Curriculum links for this unit:
Science Unit A: Interactions and Ecosystems (Social and Environmental Emphasis)
1. Investigate and describe relationships between humans and their environments, and identify
related issues and scientific questions
Science Unit B: Plants for Food and Fibre (Science and Technology Emphasis)
3. Analyze plant environments, and identify impacts of specific factors and controls
4. Identify and interpret relationships among human needs, technologies, environments, and the
culture and use of living things as sources of food and fibre.
Social Studies
Topic C - Canada: How have different cultural groups adapted to life in Canada?
New Social Studies Curriculum
7.1 Toward Confederation - 7.1.2 appreciate the challenges of co-existence among peoples
7.2 Following Confederation: Canadian Expansions - 7.2.3 appreciate the challenges that
individuals and communities face when confronted with rapid change
Integrated Unit Plan – from www.geoec.org/lessons
Page 1
Activity: The Lorax
Time: 2-3 hours
Background: This activity has been adapted from Focus on Forests – An activity guide
for teachers on Forests and Forest Managaement
Instructions for the Teacher
Read the Lorax to the class (or watch the film). The Lorax is a story that helps students
understand the problems that can result from poor forest management and to predict the
benefits of good forest management. Here are a few suggestions as follow-up to the
story:
1. A team of three students represents the Lorax and another team of three represents
the Once-ler. Each team records its opinions on cutting the Truffula Trees and
then presents them in a group debate. Based on this debate, the audience (the rest
of the class) decides whether the Truffula Trees should be cut down.
2. You are the Truffula Forest manager. What messages can you give the Once-ler
so that all of the Truffula trees won’t disappear? Write down your conversation
with the Once-ler and role-play with a partner.
3.
Write a story using one of the following ideas:
a. Write a sequel to the Lorax. You now have the last seed of the Truffula
Tree? What will you do with it?
b. You are the Lorax. You have a chance to speak to all of the people who
are buying Thneeds to try to convince them to save the Truffula Tree.
Write your speech.
c. You are a Swomee-Swan or a Humming-Fish. You must leave the land of
the Truffula Trees because of the pollution. Where will you live? What
food will you find there? How will you adapt to your new home?
4.
Create a model of the Lorax forest community. Include the living components,
such as the Truffula Trees, Humming-Fish, Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, the
Lorax, and the Once-ler and the non-living components, such as the buildings, the
machinery, the equipment and the materials produced by the thneed factory. Use
a sand table, flannel board, crafts, cut and paste or modeling clay.
Integrated Unit Plan – from www.geoec.org/lessons
Page 2
Activity: Plant Watch
Time: 2-3 hours
Instructions for the Teacher (taken from the Devonian Botanic Garden)
“Plantwatch is a monitoring program that uses phenology, the study of the seasonal
timing of life cycle events, to link students as the “eyes of science”, tracking the green
wave of spring moving north. Students develop scientific skills while observing
springtime changes in plants and learn about biodiversity. Students monitor the
flowering of up to eight plants and report the bloom times to central scientists over the
Internet or via electronic mail. Resulting maps are posted weekly to the Internet. Teacher
manuals illustrate the plants, their North American distributions, and describe the
program and curriculum connections. Schools can establish ‘Plantwatch Gardens’,
planting some of the key indicator species.
Observers have fun and learn through watching, recording and comparing their results
with other locations. They learn about ecological relationships while contributing
electronically to a climate change-monitoring program. With climate warming, we are
seeing a trend to earlier flowering in Western Canada. This valuable seasonal information
can help farmers and foresters correctly time operations such as planting, fertilizing and
crop protection, and to predict harvest timing. It also is useful in wildlife management
(e.g., in early springs more deer fawns are successful), human health (pollen warnings for
allergy sufferers) and tourism (best times to photograph or observe particular flowers,
animals, etc.)”
Based at the University of Alberta’s Devonian Botanic Garden, home of the Alberta
Wildflower Survey, Plantwatch is seeking observers across North America, throughout
the range of the following key indicator species:
Common purple lilac, Syringa vulgaris (worldwide, a cultivar);
Aspen poplar, Populus tremuloides (continent-wide);
Prairie crocus, Anemone patens (Prairies and north);
Saskatoon, serviceberry, Amelanchier species (continent wide);
Western trillium, Trillium ovatum (western forest);
White trillium, Trillium grandiflorum (eastern deciduous forest);
Purple saxifrage, Saxifraga oppositifolia (arctic, mountains); and
White dryad, Dryas octopetala/intergrifolia (arctic, mountains).
If you would like to participate in this project, you can register using the home page, or
contact us by phone or e-mail. A “How to Plantwatch” manual is available for teachers.
Contact: Elisabeth Beaubien, at the University of Alberta’s, Devonian Botanic Garden in
Edmonton, T6G 2E1, phone: (780) 987-5455/3054 www.devonian.ualberta.ca/pwatch/
Integrated Unit Plan – from www.geoec.org/lessons
Page 3
Activity: Be a Tree
Time: 20 – 30 minutes
Instructions for the Teacher
In this dramatic activity students pretend to become trees as, through guided imagery,
they become an aspen tree and go through an entire set of seasons.
Be a Tree, page 10 Five Minute Field Trips URL: http://www.geoec.org/lessons
Activity: Make a Tree
Time: 30 minutes
Instructions for the Teacher
This is a fun way to introduce trees in a role-play that teaches all about tree biology.
Students act out the various parts of a tree, from its big tap root and shallow lateral roots
to its heartwood and xylem, phloem and outer bark.
Make a Tree, page 10 Five Minute Field Trips URL: http://www.geoec.org/lessons
Activity: Research on pesticides and issues
Time: 30 minutes – 1 hour
Instructions for the Teacher
Discuss pesticide use with students and have them do some research on the pros and cons
of pesticides. Here is some information taken from the Alberta Government web-site:
URL: http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/resedu/general.cfm
“A pesticide is a substance that kills pests. A pest is no different than any other organism
struggling to survive and reproduce. The major difference between what we call a pest
and other living organisms is that a pest endangers the well being, health, or environment
of humans. The most serious pests are those which affect human health and food
production. Pests that affect human health are usually insects and animals that carry
diseases. Pests that affect food production are insects, weeds, fungi, and rodents. The
word pesticide means "killer of pests". Usually, pesticides are classified according to
their intended targets. The more common pesticides are:
• Insecticide - kill or control insects
• Herbicide - kill or control plants
• Fungicide - kill or control fungi
• Rodenticide - kill or control rodents (rats and mice)
• Miticide - kill or control mites”
Integrated Unit Plan – from www.geoec.org/lessons
Page 4
Issues in Pesticide Use: Pesticides have improved our life in many ways and yet they
have also created problems for people and the environment. These are complex problems
that do not have simple solutions. Take a look at some of the issues which pesticide use
has raised over the years, for example, pesticide use kills some of the wildlife in the area.
Can the pesticide be washed off? How is pesticide use affecting human health?
Food for thought …
“ Choose your family’s food carefully! We have gotten used to buying whatever food we
want at our supermarkets at low, low prices. I believe there have been some big tradeoffs to produce such quantities of cheap food….There is a proven link between the rise in
herbicides and pesticides used to grow our food and rises in cancer 4. ”
Suzanna Fielden – Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co.
Activity: Wild Edibles and the historical use of plants
Time: 30 minutes – 1 hour
Instructions for the Teacher
Go for a hike in the bush, or simply discuss in the classroom using pictures how someone
could survive in the bush using only “wild edibles” or “bush tucker”. (do not eat anything
unless you know that it is not poisonous and explain to the students that they should have
a naturalist or guide show them what berries and foods in the wild can be eaten and what
can not be eaten)
Below are a few quotes from some websites on medicinal plants. There are some good
points to share and discuss with your class:
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/crop7192 - perspectives
“A number of Canadian plants used by native people in traditional medicine have found a
place in our modern pharmacopoeia. For example, the west coast's Cascara Sagrada
(Rhamnus purshiana, Rhamnaceae) provides the safe and effective anthraquinone
glycoside, cascaroside A, found in many commercial laxative preparations. Several
alkaloid-containing plants have become important, including green hellebore (Veratrum
viride, Liliaceae) of BC and AB as a source of antihypertensive protoveratrines and
bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis, Papaveraceae) from our eastern forests as a source of
the antibiotic sanguinarine. Two Canadian plants recently have become famous as
sources of anticancer agents: the eastern may apple (Podophyllum peltatum,
Podophyllaceae) from which etoposide and teniposide lignin glycosides are derived, and
the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolius, Taxaceae), from which taxol is obtained. The
complexity of the chemical structures of these active principles is a good indication of
why, while total chemical syntheses are possible, in most cases it is more economical to
extract the active principle or its precursor from the source plant.”
Integrated Unit Plan – from www.geoec.org/lessons
Page 5
Another Resource on medicinal plants:
http://www.cnf.ca/magazine/spring04/connect.html
“Saskatoon writer, educator and eco-herbalist Kahlee Keane had a singular objective in
mind when she and companion David Howarth co-authored The Standing People: A
Field Guide to Medicinal Plants for the Prairie Provinces. That goal was to educate others
to respect native medicinal plants in their fragile prairie ecosystem. She feels that through
education others will come to appreciate the delicate balance that exists in nature and
begin to willingly incorporate ethical wildcrafting techniques when harvesting wild
medicinal plants.
“We humans have a shared heritage with the plant kingdom. We ‘grew up' together—
there is a deep kinship here. However, through our rapacious exploitation and destruction
of planetary ecology we have foolishly struck at the core of the very support system we
rely on,” says Keane. Her recent book cites 13 factors that contribute to what she warns
could ultimately be the extinction of a number of species if steps aren't taken to designate
them as endangered. Among those factors are clear-cutting, commercial harvesting,
global warming, herbicides, pesticides, pollution, and loss of habitat.
“Continued interruption of the ecosystem creates disease for the earth and subsequently
for all humans. Although not as apparent to the eye, unethical harvesting of medicinal
and culinary wild plants does contribute to the desecration. Once a species disappears it
can never be recreated,” says Keane. Documented examples of rare or endangered wild
native medicinals (all root crops) include ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), goldenseal
(Hydrastis canadensis) and coneflower (Echinacea spp.).
Some discussion ideas:
1. What plants have provided medicinal value to which disease or ailment?
2. Does anyone know of any other plants found in our forests which provide
medicine? (lateral buds of a balsam poplar have acetylsalicyclic acid (aspirin)
properties. Look at the south-facing side of a trembling aspen….it has white
powder which acts as a sunscreen.
3. How are humans slowly disrupting our plant ecology?
4. What types of plants did Alberta Native Indians eat?
5. What sort of challenges do native people around the world face now?
6. Why is it so difficult or even impossible for them to lead a traditional
lifestyle?
Useful Resources:
1. Pesticides; Your Questions Answered
http://www.cps-scp.ca/pesticidequestions.htm
2. Mama Earth Natural Living
http://mamaearth.com/linksoutdoorssurvivalist.html
3. Raw Food Network
http://rawfoodnetwork.com/books_wildfoodandforaging.html
4. Is what you put on your lawn killing you?
Integrated Unit Plan – from www.geoec.org/lessons
Page 6
http://www.safe2use.com/ipm/lawn.htm
Integrated Unit Plan – from www.geoec.org/lessons
Page 7