Plants: Roots

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. Model planting process for students. When introducing new words for things (like Vermiculite) be sure to hold up that item that you are naming.
Subject Area(s):
Science, Science as inquiry
Goal(s):
Roots can be planted to grow new plants.
Concept(s):
Carrots, radishes, and sweet potatoes come from plant roots.

Some roots are edible.

Roots must be cut in a certain place to grow a new plant.
Standards:
CA- CCTC: Aligned CSTP's and TPE's
• Standard : CSTP: Standard for Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for all Students
TPE: D. Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for Students
CSTP Description: Teachers plan instruction that draws on and values students? backgrounds, prior knowledge, and interests. Teachers establish challenging learning goals for all students based on student experience, language, development, and home and school expectations. Teachers sequence curriculum and design long-term and short-range plans that incorporate subject matter knowledge, reflect grade-level curriculum expectations, and include a repertoire of instructional strategies. Teachers use instructional activities that promote learning goals and connect with student experiences and interests. Teachers modify and adjust instructional plans according to student engagement and achievement.
• CSTP Key Element : Developing and sequencing instructional activities and materials for student learning.
 Question : plan to use instructional strategies appropriate to the complexity of the lesson content and student learning needs?

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 e: Students know roots are associated with the intake of water and soil nutrients and green leaves are associated with making food from sunlight.
• 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 b: Record observations and data with pictures, numbers, or written statements.
Objective(s):
After conducting this experiment students will be able to describe the scientific process steps they took to determine if the root would grow with ninety percent accuracy.
Prerequisite Background Skills/Knowledge:
Students must be familiar with the function of roots.
Vocabulary / Language Skills:
Carrots, radishes, and Vermiculite, eyes (as it relates to potatoes)

Real life examples will be provided for students to view and use in experiments.

Students will discuss variables on this lesson as not only are we planting different kinds of vegetables but we are also planting different parts of each.
Materials:
Carrots
Radishes
Potatoes
Vermiculite
Cups
Classroom Management:
Each table should have a "getter" to be responsible for getting supplies for his/her table. Students will need to be divided into groups to study different vegetables (carrots, radishes, and potatoes).
Procedure:
Open
Discuss roots with students. Ask students if we ever eat roots. Students will most likely say no. If they do, show them a carrot or radish (one with tops still attached) and ask them how it grows. Using their knowledge of plant parts, students may need only a little prompting to conclude that the part we eat is the root.

Tell students, we have seen that cutting off a part of the plant from its stem and planting it gives us a new plant. Do you think that cutting a root and planting it will yield new plants? Allow students to make predictions.

Body
Have different teams of students work with different vegetables. Have each team cut their vegetable in threes or fours. Each piece will be planted in a cup with Vermiculite. Students will keep track of the growth of each piece to discover which piece will grow.

Close
After two weeks, have students make their own conclusions about which part of the root yields a new plant when planted. Add this new knowledge to the KWL chart.
Assessment:
Students will be able to describe the steps of the scientific process in terms of their roots experiment with ninety percent accuracy.
Reflection:
This lesson was effective but not entirely necessary in terms of observing the growth process. We have done so much growing up to this point that students were far too willing to conclude that what we planted would grow because everything else we planted had grown. To me, it was interesting to see which part of the carrot we planted would grow but the children were not much interested in that question. So we did plant the vegetables but observed them only informally. Different groups worked together and reported on different vegetables. The most useful information gained from this experiment was the knowledge that we eat plants, and plant roots. This was a new concept to students and I believe it will stick with them. I would do this again but not concurrently with the other planting necessarily. It's a good lesson which is that inquiry is most valuable when you are investigating questions that are meaningful to students.