Our Learning Garden - Grade 4 Lesson 1-6
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Lesson Summary- Lesson 1- Begins examining the concept of heliotropism (sunflowers follow the sun) and
exploring how solar panels mirror the behavior of sun flowers (sun followers). 4-1-06 Investigate how
technological developments often mirror physical adaptations.
The students will engage in activities to understand the concept of heliotropism and watch a short video.
Lesson 2 -Students explore the food web, students learn how energy transfers in the web via photosynthesis. 4-110 Recognize that the food chain is a system in which some of the energy from the Sun is transferred eventually to
animals. GLO: D2, D4, E2.
Students role play in an interactive food chain game. We continue the sunflower theme as the sunflowers are the
producers. 4-1-11 Construct food chains and food webs, and classify organisms according to their roles. Include:
producer, consumer, herbivore, omnivore, carnivore, predator, prey, scavenger.
Lesson 3- Explores how the food chain is affected by the activities of man. We explore the concept of
biomagnification so that students can understand how they are affected. 4-1-14 Investigate natural and humancaused changes to habitats, and identify resulting effects on plant and animal populations. Include:
endangerment, extinction. GLO: B1, B5, D2, E3
Lesson 4 further investigates how Investigates how technological developments often mirror physical adaptations.
4-1-06 . We examine the sunflower seed and the spiral placement of seeds. The students do a simple experiment
that involve packing shoes . This lesson includes a short video “Nature by Numbers” in which we expand the
concept to math (technological developments often mirror physical adaptations)
Lesson 5- Brings continuity to the subjects discussed as we explore the distribution of leaves in nature to
efficiently gather energy from the sun. How math enables leaves to make maximum use of sunlight like solar
panels.
Lesson 6- Students grow sunflower greens to observe and record leave distribution,
Our goal is to meet many curriculum outcomes as we introduce the students to eating
sunflower greens that are incredibly nutritious
All lesson plans and related files for download - ourlearninggarden.ca
The files are open so feel to change content to class requirements.
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Lesson Plan 1
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Lesson Summary- Lesson 1- Begins examining the concept of heliotropism
(sunflowers follow the sun) and exploring how solar panels mirror the behavior of
sun flowers (sun followers). 4-1-06 Investigate how technological developments
often mirror physical adaptations.
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Students get to explore hands on the concept of heliotropism. Sunflowers follow the sun
Watch the video –“How time flies and sunflowers catch (follow the sun) the sun “ 2.02
minutes
Activities –have the students draw pictures of the sun and sunflowers, you can then have the
suns walk from to the from the East (sunrise) to West (sunset) path in the classroom. The
students can pretend they are sunflowers following the sun (heliotropism).
Have the students follow the sunrise and sunset (path of the sun, like sunflowers do).
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Sunflower follow the sun to collect energy.
This energy is used for photosynthesis
Solar Panels follow the sun to collect energy
The energy can be used to heat water or to heat solar cells that convert the suns
energy into electricity
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The Sunflower name also originates from the fact that growing
sunflowers do something pretty amazing.
They actually turn their faces toward the sun to follow it!
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Sunflowers face
In the
afternoon
in the morning.
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Turning to the the sun is called heliotropism,
Helios is a Greek word that means SUN
Tropism in Greek means turning
HELIOTROPISM= Sun + turning
Would you like to pretend you are a sunflower, turning towards the sun?
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Why would sunflowers face East in the morning ?
Use students as markers in the classroom to identify East, West, North,
and South in the classroom.
Have students draw North,
South, East and West signs.
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Why would sunflowers face West in the evening ?
In the
afternoon
Have some students draw the sun and enact the path of the sun, sunrise to sunset.
The student can pretend they are sunflowers following the sun.
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“How time flies and sunflowers catch the sun”
Link to film
Download film at
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Solar Panel
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Solar panel axis rotate to track the sun
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Solar panel axis rotate to track the sun
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Lesson 2
• Lesson 2 -Students explore the food web, students learn how
energy transfers in the web via photosynthesis. 4-1-10 Recognize
that the food chain is a system in which some of the energy from
the Sun is transferred eventually to animals. GLO: D2, D4, E2.
• Link to Play some online food chain games
• Students role play in an interactive food chain game. We continue
the sunflower theme as the sunflowers are the producers. 4-1-11
Construct food chains and food webs, and classify organisms
according to their roles. Include: producer, consumer, herbivore,
omnivore, carnivore, predator, prey, scavenger.
• The Food Video Web 3 minutes
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• Sunflower follow the sun to collect energy.
This energy is used for photosynthesis
• Solar Panels follow the sun to collect energy
The energy can be used to heat water or to
heat solar cells that convert the suns energy
into electricity
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Play some online food chain games
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The Food Video Web 3 minutes
Link to video
Download at
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PLANTS MAKE THEIR OWN FOOD
They don’t bake , fry or boil it
They Photosynthesize it
THE SUN IS THE
BEGINNING OF
THE FOOD CHAIN
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•Plants capture the sunlight and use
it as food. Sunlight is very important
to plants because that is one of the
ingredients for there food.
•The ingredients plants need to
make food are
SUNLIGHT
AIR
• SUN
•WATER
•AIR
•SOIL
WATER
NUTRIENTS
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SUNLIGHT
AIR
Plants make a green food called
chlorophyll. That is why the leaves
are green
WATER
NUTRIENTS
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SOIL
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THE SUN IS THE BEGINNING OF THE
FOOD CHAIN
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The Food Chain always
starts with plants
If the soil or water are
not clean or chemicals
are used to grow plants,
it travels to you and me
in the food chain.
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Your teacher will assign you a
position in the food chain
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If you are a carnivore draw the
caveperson
People eat plants, such as vegetables and fruits.
We also eat animals and animal products, such
as meat, milk, and eggs.
Consumers can be carnivores (animals that eat
other animals) or omnivores (animals that eat
both plants and animals).
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If you are a herbivore draw a picture of
a chicken
Consumers
The next trophic levels are made up of animals that eat
producers. These organisms are called consumers.
Primary consumers are herbivores. Herbivores eat
plants, algae, and other producers.
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If you are an egg what are you in the
food chain?
You can grow into chicken if you are not
consumed by a consumer. Are you an animal
by product?
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If you are a producer draw a
picture of a sunflower with seeds
Producers
Producers make up the first trophic level.
Producers, also known as autotrophs, make
their own food and do not depend on any
other organism for nutrition. Most autotrophs
use a process called photosynthesis to create
food (a nutrient called glucose) from sunlight,
carbon dioxide, and water.
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FOOD CHAIN GAME
• Activity – best done in smaller groups of 8-10(adjust number based
on classroom size).
• A)Four students are sunflower plants give them each some seeds
• B)Two students are the chickens
• C) Two students can be the egg
• D) Two students can be the cavepersons
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• IMPORTANT for students to learn that if one part of the food chain
is disrupted the entire food chain can collapse! That is why you do
not eat all the seeds, eggs or chickens!
• Have the chicken eat some seeds, Lay an egg, then have the
caveman destroy the food chain by eating all the chickens and eggs.
• Do another variation where sunflowers die and there are no seeds
so the chickens starve.
• Have the students do a food chain where the eggs do not hatch
because of chemical in the food chain.
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Pollution on land and farmers fields drain into rivers
and lakes
Pesticides and pollution can effect the strength / thickness of the birds egg shell.
Oil, lead and mercury are some of the causes. Higher you are in the food chain the higher
concentrations of toxins you eat.
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Lesson 3
• Lesson 3 –examines the relationship between
food chain and pollution
• Students are introduced to the concept of
biomagnification.
• 2-4-12 Identify substances that pollute air and
water, and describe ways of reducing such
pollution. GLO: B3, B5, D3, D
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Pollution can effect the shells of eggs
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What do you think happens when a
egg shell is thin and weak?
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What do you think happens when a
egg shell is thin and weak?
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What do you think happens when a
egg shell is thin and weak?
The eggs will not hatch and you do not
get any chicks.
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Eagle were nearly extinct
as their egg shells are very
sensitive to pollution.
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Does pollution an a food chain affect you?
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Biomagnification
Blue dots are pollution
What is happening?
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Species on the food chain get more chemical or pollution in
their body as they go up the food chain.
This process is called biomagnification.
It comes from the word magnify.
Do you have a magnifying glass?
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Yellow circle is pollution
What is happening?
Is this biomagnification?
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Pollution runs into our rivers , lakes and oceans
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Pollution runs into our rivers , lakes and oceans
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Some farmers aerial spray crops with chemicals to kill weeds
Where do all the chemicals go?
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Some farmers sprays crops with chemicals to kill weeds
Where do all the chemicals go?
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Pollution runs into our rivers , lakes and oceans
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Can you draw a picture of biomagnification?
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Identify what the source of the pollution is – glyphosate farmers use this to control weeds
Draw all the species in the food chain
Show the process of biomagnification
glyphosate
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Lesson 4
• Lesson 4 further investigates how Investigates
how technological developments often mirror
physical adaptations. 4-1-06 .
• We examine the sunflower seed and the spiral
placement of seeds.
• The students do a simple experiment that involve
packing shoes .
• This lesson includes a short video “Nature by
Numbers” in which we expand the concept to
math (technological developments often mirror
physical adaptations)
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Look closely at the sunflower.
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Do you see a pattern?
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Is it a spiral pattern
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Nature by Numbers
A movie inspired on numbers, geometry and nature, by
Cristóbal Vila -4 minutes running time
Youtube Link to movie
Down load at
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Nature is great at math and uses math often.
The spirals you see in the sunflower are a math
formula that allows the most seeds to get placed
in the head of the seed
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Sunflowers use math as well to place the most seeds in
the plant. See the spiral pattern . It is a math formula
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Nature is great at math and uses math often.
Can you copy nature and position the shoes
differently?
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Nature is great at math and uses math often.
Can you copy nature and position the shoes
differently?
Try it with your classes shoes.
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Try it with your classes shoes. What Happened?
How many more shoes were you able to put in a box?
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Plants are alive, just like people and animals. How do we know
this?
Living things all do certain things:
•They grow and die.
•They need energy, nutrients, air, and water.
• They produce young. (Example sunflower seeds)
•They are made up of cells.
•They react to what's around them (Example sunflowers
follow the sun)
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Lesson 5
• Lesson 5- Brings continuity to the subjects
discussed as we explore the distribution of
leaves in nature to efficiently gather energy
from the sun.
• How math enables leaves to make maximum
use of sunlight like solar panels.
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Technology mimics nature
• Solar panel and sunflower
heliotropism
• Spiral seeds in sunflower
use math formula that can
be used for packing
efficiently
• Let’s study leaves as they
efficiently gather energy
from the sun.
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Draw and label where the 4th leaf will grow.
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Draw and label where leave 5 and 6 will grow.
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The leaves grow in a spiral pattern to receive the maximum
amount of sunlight to assist in photosynthesis.
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Many plants use math to position the leaves receive the maximum
amount of sunlight. Follow the line from start to finish and follow the
order of the 10 leaves.
Can you number the leaves?
Leaf 3
Leaf 1
Leaf 10
Leaf 4
Leaf 2
Leaves are positioned to enable them all to
make maximum use of sunlight. This concept
prevents leaves from shading one another so
they get maximum sunlight
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Lesson 6
• Lesson 6- Students grow sunflower greens to
observe and record leave distribution
• Students learn to develop data collection and
observation skills for 10- 14 days.
• Our goal is to meet many curriculum
outcomes as we introduce the students to
tasting and eating sunflower greens that are
incredibly nutritious
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Lettuce is a leaf
Sunflower Greens
LEAF
LEAF
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Try eating some plain, in soup or on a sandwich.
REMEMBER TO GET YOUR TEACHER TO RINSE THEM!
Sunflower Greens taste great and are very healthy!
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•Plants capture the sunlight and
use it as food.
•Sunlight is very important to
plants
•It is one of the ingredients for
there food.
•The ingredients plants need to
make food are
SUNLIGHT
AIR
SOIL
• SUN
•WATER
•AIR
•SOIL
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WATER
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We will be growing sunflowergreens from the kit and harvesting some
when they are dicotyledons . Dicotyledons have two leaves.
We will let some grow to record and observe the formation of leaves
They are rich in chlorophyll, enzymes, vitamins, and proteins.
The greens are a rich source of lecithin and Vitamin D.
They are 25% percent protein by weight.
TASTE GREAT AND ARE HEALTHY!
Put them on sandwiches, salads or in soup.
Eat them anyway you want to.
.
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Instructions for Growing Sunflower
Greens
1) Soak the seeds in cool water for 12-24 hours. .
2) Rinse the seeds before planting
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Instructions for Growing Sunflower Greens
3) Put the soil into the tray, water with 350 ml of water
(add fertilizer packet to water)
4) Remove the seeds from water, rinse / strain and spread
out evenly on top of the soil.
5) Gently/lightly press the seeds into the soil.
6) Spread the soil on top of the seeds, so that the seeds
are completely covered around 2cn of soil.
7) Lightly water the tray
8) Place the tray about 40 -50 centimeters from the
fluorescent lights or grow lights. (in 3-4 days the
sunflowers will start to emerge and will be ready to eat in
about 7 days, they will have 2 leaves.
Continue to next slide
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Instructions for Growing Sunflower Greens
9) Continue to water to keep soil moist
When the sunflowers emerge about 6 (tall-they
will have two leaves, cut them and rinse. Eat the
stems as well, great in salads or garnish on
sandwiches
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1. Observe record and draw the they leaves as they emerge.
2. What did you notice about the emerging leaves?
3. Do they grow in a manner that exposes the leaves to the most solar energy?
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1. Observe record and draw the they leaves as they emerge.
2. What did you notice about the emerging leaves?
3. Do they grow in a manner that exposes the leaves to the most solar energy?
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1. Observe record and draw the they leaves as they emerge.
2. What did you notice about the emerging leaves?
3. Do they grow in a manner that exposes the leaves to the most solar energy?
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1. Observe record and draw the they leaves as they emerge.
2. What did you notice about the emerging leaves?
3. Do they grow in a manner that exposes the leaves to the most solar energy?
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• AIDRIAN O’CONNOR
• +1.646.201.9482 | aoconnor@unitone.org |
www.unitone.org
• http://www.natures-word.com/sacredgeometry/phi-the-golden-proportion/phi-thegolden-proportion-in-nature
• http://www.natures-word.com/sacred-geometry/phi-the-goldenproportion/phi-the-golden-proportion-in-nature
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA
• http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/08/Sunflower-seed-golden-angle-diagram.001.png
• http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/2012/08/
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FibonacciChamomile.PNG