Designing a Plant Part

A plant part of their own in the November darkness

       Before finishing our fava bean experiments, we started on another chapter from module 2:  Plant Parts. Students took a pre-test (discussed later), I went over plant parts and functions with a white board, we made veggie-part wraps, they tested their understanding with laminated photos of plant parts we eat, and we attempted the leaf study. Unusually high kid energy caused the last activity to fall apart so we switched to a movement game to practice plant part names (it proved popular). All this took about three one-hour classes, during which we also checked fava experiments, planted garlic, pulled corn (quite a feat), and sowed a clover cover crop.   

Putting together the parts: who gets to keep it?!

       After the intro activities it was time again for a main project: building plant parts. This was much simpler for these 1st and 2nd graders than the fava experiments but we had to start the experiments first so the beans could grow. After telling each child what plant part they would build I had them look for and examine examples from the garden of 'their' part. Next they built their parts out of recycled objects while we conversed about what sound each part would make if it could (e.g. roots slurped up water and nutrients).
      Come week four/five I had my two groups take post-tests (not part of the web curricula). At age six/seven and with some not having started English literacy they needed more support than my volunteer and I could provide. However they were much less confused than with the pre-tests and were still asking to go to garden class the next day.

A flower

 

At first when I asked questions like, "What does the fruit do for a plant?" I got answers like, "It helps the plant feed us!" Eventually the answers became, "It protects the seeds."

Roots dangle below the suspended plant

Hot glue is popular and hot!

 In January I pursued the parts/functions theme with my small crew of 3rd-5th graders. I was surprised that they didn't have any better sense than the 1st and 2nd graders of what the different parts, e.g. roots, do for plants. Provided four lessons, we spent the first week investigating underground plant parts, the second week stems and leaves, and third seeds and their accessories -flowers and fruit, with the promise of cooking each week.  
 Lesson 1: with eyes closed they passed around edible roots and underground stems from the garden and store -observing differences in smell and texture (e.g. elephant garlic and ginger), and then cooked up a very red winter stir-fry.
Lesson 2: drew stems/leaves from the garden and store, assisted by a few rulers, magnifying glasses, and a camera. I emphasized realism (what they saw) over style (what they imagined) and asked them to list similarities and differences (e.g. size, color, branching pattern) on our small whiteboard. The list was hard for them to articulate but setting the camera to 'micro' and passing it to anyone finished with a careful sketch motivated them and helped them key in to the diversity (see Photos Kids Took page). 
Lesson 3: chopped the previous lesson's stems/bulbs and steamed them while looking up the functions of the major plant parts on-line. No one had heard of wikipedia, which turns out to have a page for each plant part. While eating and planning their model they requested I supply glue guns and white glitter -good ideas.
Lesson 4: building the model followed by an oral quiz. Rather than aim to build a realistic looking model, I told them to build-in some indication of the function(s) of each part and assemble the model in 25 minutes. For the quiz, everybody got a small photo of a plant part we eat (e.g. broccoli, cucumber, etc) and needed to name the part and basic function. The latter was not very inquiry-based but I wished I'd done it on day one because four out of the six had no idea but started getting it via this group conversation... e.g. can someone help her? why do you think it's a fruit? yes -it has seeds inside because fruits protect/nourish seeds.

We spent the last five minutes spicing and eating our own bowls of seeds (popcorn) with fruit (chile & lemon "pico-de-gallo"), a bulb (onion powder), a root (tumeric), and something from a completely different kingdom (yeast).