Plants (Brassica)

by Mathew Needleman
Open Court Resources.com
School:
Saturn Street Elementary School
Grade Level:
1
Students:
8 boys and 8 girls. Eight ELL students. One student receiving RSP services. Visual learning students need to see teacher model planting process to be able to complete it successfully. Allow some students to just draw pictures instead of writing in their journal.
Subject Area(s):
Science, Science as Inquiry
Goal(s):
Students will plant, observe, and record the growth of a rapid-cycling Brassica seed as typical of the growth of all plants.
Concept(s):
One way that plants can grow is from seeds.

Scientists must keep careful records.

Students will be able to use more advanced vocabulary in describing plant parts.
Standards:
CA- CCTC: Aligned CSTP's and TPE's
• Standard : CSTP: Standard for Assessing Student Learning
TPE: B. Assessing Student Learning
CSTP Description: Teachers establish and clearly communicate learning goals for all students. Teachers collect information about student performance from a variety of sources. Teachers involve all students in assessing their own learning. Teachers use information from a variety of ongoing assessments to plan and adjust learning opportunities that promote academic achievement and personal growth for all students. Teachers exchange information about student learning with students, families, and support personnel in ways that improve understanding and encourage further academic progress.
• CSTP Key Element : Collecting and using multiple sources of information to assess student learning.
 Question : collect, select, and reflect upon evidence of student learning?

CA- California K-12 Academic Content Standards
• Subject : Science
• Grade : Grade One
• Area : Life Sciences
• Sub-Strand 2: Plants and animals meet their needs in different ways. As a basis for understanding this concept:
 Standard a: Students know different plants and animals inhabit different kinds of environments and have external features that help them thrive in different kinds of places.
• Area : Investigation and Experimentation
• Sub-Strand 4: Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
 Standard a: Draw pictures that portray some features of the thing being described.
Objective(s):
Over the course of two weeks, students will observe and keep a journal of Brassica seed which communicates the seed's growth through words and drawings at least eighty percent of the Brassica plant structures evident in addition to its relative size and coloring.
Prerequisite Background Skills/Knowledge:
Seeds often grow in dirt. Seeds need light and water to grow.
Vocabulary / Language Skills:
Students will learn the words bud, pod, root, and stem in addition to leaf, flower, and root which they may already know.

The vocabulary will be used through discussion of the actual plant parts and those parts depicted in the students' drawings. Words will also be translated into Spanish when necessary.

Students will work on the science process concepts of observing and predicting.
Materials:
Water
Water container
Soil
Grow light
Cups
Brassica seeds
Student journals/calendars
Class calendar
Video Camera/tape
Classroom Management:
An orderly system of distributing dirt and water will need to be established. Students should be reminded not to touch their face after using dirt or get dirt on the floor.
Procedure:
Open
Ask students where plants come from. Someone will invariably answer, from seeds. Show the students one of the Brassica plant seeds and ask them to make a prediction of what kind of plant they think will grow from the seeds. Have them record their prediction in their plant journals.

Body
Model for students how to plant the seeds.

Distribute materials to students. Students will need cups and seeds and will come up a team at a time to get dirt. Students will then draw a picture of what the plant looks like planted on the next page of their journals.

Students will also complete a calendar on which to record major events in the life of their Brassica seed. The seeded cups will be placed under the growth light.

Each day, including the first, students will use a video camera on a tripod to take a short ( 3 sec.) picture of the Brassica seeds. At the end of the unit, the class will view the videotape to watch a time-lapse photographic record of their Brassica seed growth.

Over the course of the two week unit, students will continue to draw pictures and discuss their plant's growth. As the stems grow and buds form, new vocabulary should be introduced to help students discuss what they are seeing. Review vocabulary with students each day and have them record major events on their calendars, e.g. buds formed today.

Each day, the student's will use a video camera to photograph the plants which should yield a time lapse short video of the plants' growth over the two week period.

Close
Share journals. Watch time-lapse videotape.Have students evaluate their own journals in terms of how accurately they have represented the changing shape, size, (and color, if applicable) of the their Brassica plant. Students can add any new knowledge of plant parts to the K-W-L chart. Students can take their plants home, allow them to dry out, and use the seeds to plant more Brassica.
Assessment:
After observing Brassica plant growth over two weeks time, students will have recorded the growth of their plant eighty percent accurately through words and/or pictures including size, shape, and color of their plant.
Reflection:
The Brassica seeds grow very quickly; this provides the students with nearly instantaneous results and so it works quite well for the lower grades. Because of the science unit coming so late in the stage and my class being almost off-track we planted several things simultaneously. Next time, observing Brassica and keeping a journal could continue by itself for a couple of weeks. Students enjoyed watching the plants and learned the importance of recording accurate drawings and observations in order to have a record of what has occurred.

Next time, I would add a place for measurement on the observation form so students could know exactly how tall their plants were and even draw their pictures to scale. I also need a separate place in the recording journals for predictions if I have students predict again.

We also need to do some work as a class on observing for observing's sake. Students didn't always know what we appropriate observations. They might write something like, "I like this plant" instead of describing what they saw.

I think the use of videotape in the lesson was particularly effective in engaging students as well as providing some objective means against which students could judge the accuracy of the pictures in their own journals.