Botany

After planting a seed and observing its growth, write three sentences about the sequential process of germination.

Draw a diagram of the parts of a flowering plant, giving a description of the function of each part.

Spend some time at the Plant Conservation and Endangered Plants websites. Then write a persuasive essay about the importance of protecting threatened plant species, supporting claims with evidence.

Cut open a variety of fruits (apple, avocado, pumpkin, etc.). Count the number of seeds in each one. Place the fruits in order from the fewest to the greatest number of seeds.

Plant bean seeds in both darkness and light. An extension might include planting seeds in both warm and cold temperatures, or using different amounts of water. Measure the growth of the plants each day. Make a chart to compare the growth of plants under different conditions.

Design a garden plot on graph paper in the shape of a rectangle. Compute the area and the perimeter. Extension: Given an area measurement (20 square feet), decide how long and how wide the garden needs to be. Are there more ways than one to design the garden to contain a particular area?

Living things need water, air, and resources from the land, and they live in places that have the things they need.

Examples of relationships could include that deer eat buds and leaves therefore they usually live in forested areas and grasses need sunlight so they often grow in meadows. Plants, animals and their surroundings make up a system.

All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water and light to live and grow.

Examples of observations could include that animals need to take in food but plants produce their own.

Young animals are very much, but not exactly, like their parents. Plants also are very much, but not exactly, like their parents.

Individuals of the same kind of plant or animal are recognizable as similar but can also vary in many ways.

Examples of observations could include leaves from the same kind of the plant that are the same shape but can differ in size.

All organisms have external parts… Plants have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.

Plants also respond to some external inputs.

Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking plant solutions could include stabilizing structures by mimicking roots on plants, or keeping out intruders by mimicking thorns on branches.

There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water.

Some plants can depend on animals, wind, and water for pollination or to move their seeds around.

Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem's solutions to other people.

Plants depend on water and light to grow.

Examples of evidence could include needs and characteristics of the organisms and habitats involved. The organisms and their habitat make up a system in which the parts depend on each other.

Many characteristics involve both inheritance and environment.

Examples of the environment affecting a trait could include normally tall plants grown with insufficient water are stunted.

Many characteristics of organisms are inherited from their parents.

Different organisms vary in how they look and function because they have different inherited information.

Reproduction is essential to the continued existence of every kind of organism. Plants and animals have unique and diverse life cycles.

Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.

Examples of plant structures could include thorns, stems, roots, colored petals.

Examples of cause and effect relationships could be plants that have larger thorns than other plants may be less likely to be eaten by predators.

Emphasis is on the idea that plant matter comes mostly from air and water, not from the soil.

The energy released from food was once energy from the Sun. The energy was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).

Examples of models could include diagrams, and flow charts.

The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants. Some organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, break down dead organisms (both plants and animals) and therefore operate as "decomposers”. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introduced species can damage the balance of an ecosystem.

Matter cycles between the air and soil and among plants, animals, and microbes as these organisms live and die. Organisms obtain gases and water from the environment and release waste matter (gas, liquid, or solid) back into the environment.

Emphasis is on the idea that matter that is not food (air, water, decomposed materials in soil) is changed by plants into matter that is food.

Food webs can be broken down into multiple energy pyramids. Concepts should include the 10% rule of energy and biomass transfer between trophic levels and the environment.

Emphasis is on describing the transfer of mass and energy beginning with producers, moving to primary and secondary consumers, and ending with decomposers.

Food webs are models that demonstrate how matter and energy is transferred between producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem. Transfers of matter into and out of the physical environment occur at every level. Decomposers recycle nutrients from dead plant or animal matter back to the soil in terrestrial environments or to the water in aquatic environments. The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem.

Plants, algae (including phytoplankton), and many microorganisms use the energy from light to make sugars (food) from carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water through the process of photosynthesis, which also releases oxygen. These sugars can be used immediately or stored for growth or later use.

Emphasis is on tracing movement of matter and flow of energy.