Building Blocks of Science® A New Generation: Discovering Plants

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Grade Pre-K/TK. The Discovering Plants Unit Kit includes a Teacher's Guide and enough supplies and apparatus for a class of up to 24 students. During the unit, students discover what plants need to live and grow. They examine seeds, plant them, and tend to them as they move through the life cycle from seed to plant. Students examine all parts of the plant up close—including the roots—to observe and record what each looks like and what it is used for during the life cycle. Students focus on general similarities and differences between plants, contrasting several types in the classroom and out in the natural environment, comparing sprouting seeds, counting emerging leaves, measuring stem growth, and watching flowers unfold and seedpods develop. The unit concludes with students designing and executing simple experiments using the class garden to find out how light, water, and growing conditions can affect plant growth and health.

The Discovering Plants unit addresses the following standards:

Next Generation Science Standards*
Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1.A: Structure and Function
LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms
LS1.D: Information Processing
LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits
LS3.B: Variation of Traits

Engineering Practices

• Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
• Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Crosscutting Concepts

• Patterns
• Structure and Function

American Association for the Advancement of Science
Diversity of Life

• Some animals and plants are alike in the way they look and in the things they do, and others are very different from one another.

Heredity

• There is variation among individuals of one kind within a population.
• Offspring are very much, but not exactly, like their parents and like one another.

Cells

Interdependence of Life

Flow of Matter and Energy

Lesson-by-Lesson Summary
Lesson 1: What Is a Seed?
Students begin by observing a variety of seeds and pose questions about what might make them germinate. They set up simple experiments to try to find out if seeds need water, light, heat, soil, or a combination of those ingredients to begin growing.

Lesson 2: Planting the Community Garden
Students analyze their experimental results in order to make conclusions about what triggers germination. Working in teams, students set up the community garden, tend to the needs of the plants, report observations, and record new questions as they arise.

Lesson 3: Planting Our Own Bean Seeds
In Lesson 3, students plant their bean seeds. They make predictions about what they expect will happen, and they prepare to tend their individual plants and follow them through the complete life cycle. Over time, students observe and record germination and leaf and stem growth, as well as flowering and seedpod development.

Lesson 4: Tending and Observing the Community Garden
Students share observations they have made while tending the community garden. Based on their observations, they begin to develop questions to investigate about plant growth and development.

Lesson 5: What Are Roots?
By this point in the unit, the plants in the community garden have emerged above ground, and students uproot them to see what is happening below ground. They observe the roots with hand lenses, discuss their function, and follow up by going outdoors to examine tree roots in nature and test their function as anchors.

Lesson 6: Our Plants Grow and Change
As students' bean plants develop over time, students record leaf and stem growth, as well as flowering and seedpod development. They also take multiple measurements of plant height and use that data to construct a growth graph. All of these observations will be consolidated in the Bean Book at the end of the unit.

Lesson 7: What Do Plants Need?
In Lesson 7, a story sets the stage for more experiments. Students learn how too much water, not enough water, no light, and animal activity can affect plants. They set up simple experiments in the community garden to find out for themselves how environmental conditions cause changes in plant growth and health.

Lesson 8: Big Trees and Little Trees
Lesson 8 introduces a pine tree seedling. Students observe a photo of a pine seedling and compare it with an illustration of a mature pine tree. Students identify the parts of each plant and discuss the function of each part. They go outdoors to look for both young and mature trees and to observe how animals use the trees.

Lesson 9: The Life Cycle of a Bean Plant
In the culminating lesson, students make use of their own data to describe the life cycle of the bean plant. They reinforce the concepts by putting the stages of the life cycle into the correct sequence. After examining all their work products, students reflect on their experiences with plants. They assemble their Bean Books, design covers for them, and take both the Bean Books and the plants home to share their experiences.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.