Plants & Their Environment Level: 5th Grade Time Frame: Approximately 1 Quarter  Description: Students learn how scientists classify living things into five kingdoms.  They study bacteria, protist, molds, yeast, and mushrooms.  They also examine green plants, flowers, and collect leaves.

Overview Activity List Learning Objectives Standards Resources

Unit Overview Plants are a part of children’s everyday world, and by the time they reach late elementary school, children should be familiar with basic plant parts and needs, and with the diversity of plants in their local environment. At this time, students should have the opportunity to learn about an increasing variety of living organisms, both the familiar and the exotic, and should become more precise in identifying similarities and differences. Although the emphasis can still be on external features, finer detail should be included. In 5th grade, students can also begin to extend their attention from external anatomy to internal structures and functions, although the details should be left for middle school.  By 5th grade, students can also take a closer look at the functions of plant parts, and explore how these parts function in adapting a plant to its environment. Similarly, students should extend their knowledge of basic needs to how these needs are satisfied in the environment in which a plant is typically found, and how organisms interact to meet basic needs.  In the area of classification, students can begin to move from their own invented classification systems to those used in biology. This is not done to teach them the standard system (i.e., no need to memorize this), but to show them what features biologists typically use in classifying organisms and why. Classification systems are frameworks created by biologists for describing the vast diversity of organisms, suggesting relationships among living things, and framing research questions.

Learning Objectives
Students will know and/or observe:

• One of the most general distinctions among organisms is between plants, which use sunlight to make their own food, and animals, which consume energy-rich foods.
• Plants usually are green and usually don’t move around.
• Plants have a great variety of body plans and structures that contribute to their being able to make or find food and reproduce.
• Each plant has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.
• Plants have several different and distinct life cycles.
• Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species.
• Sexual reproduction in plants involves the combining of pollen and egg to form a seed.  Seed formation takes place in flowers.
• Some plants have the ability to reproduce asexually; that is, a new plant can grow from a leaf, stem, or root (without seed formation).
• Plants need a source of energy to stay alive and grow.
• Plants use the energy in light to make sugars out of carbon dioxide and water.  This food can be used immediately for fuel or materials or it may be stored for later use.
• Plants can respond to their environment to a very small degree (as compared to animals and humans).
• Organisms have basic needs and can only survive in environments in which their needs can be met.
• A plant environment can be defined by the amount of light available, the amount and quality of the soil, the amount of water available, and the temperature range to which the plant is exposed.
• Environments for plant growth can vary within a relatively small area.
• On the face of the earth, environments for plant growth vary widely and in all areas, there are plants adapted to growth in these environments.
• All organisms cause changes in the environment where they live. Some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, whereas others are beneficial.
• Changes in an organism’s habitat are sometimes beneficial to it and sometimes harmful.

 Students will practice:

• Formulating questions on a specific science topic and choosing the steps needed to answer the questions.
• Collecting data for investigations using scientific process skills including observing, estimating, and measuring.
• Constructing charts and visualizations to display data.
• Using data to produce reasonable explanations.
• Reporting and displaying the results of individual and group investigations.

Standards
Illinois State Standards: Late Elementary- As a result of their schooling, students will be able to:

 12A: Know and apply concepts that explain how living things function, adapt, and change

• Identify and describe the component parts of living things and their major functions.
• Describe simple life cycles of plants, and the similarities and differences in their offspring.

12B: Know and apply concepts that describe how living things interact with each other and with their environment.

• Identify physical features of plants that help them live in different environments.

11A: Know and apply the concepts, principles, and processes of scientific inquiry

• Formulate questions on a specific science topic and choose the steps needed to answer the questions.
• Collect data for investigations using scientific process skills including observing, estimating, and measuring.
• Construct charts and visualizations to display data.
• Use data to produce reasonable explanations.
• Report and display the results of individual and group investigations.

Illinois Science Assessment Framework: Grade 7- Students prepare for the 7^th grade ISAT in grades 5-7. This unit addresses many of the concepts that students will be expected to know and understand, including the following. 

Classification

12.7.01      Identify common insects, flowers, birds, reptiles, and mammals by their features 

Genetics and Reproduction

12.7.15.1      Understand the basics of plant reproduction and define and state the purposes of pollen, ovules, seeds, and fruit

Botany

12.7.16            Identify the common characteristics of most plants; they nearly all have green parts, many are woody, the majority have flowers, and unlike animals, nearly all plants live their lives rooted in one place in the soil.

12.7.17            Understand that the energy for life primarily derives from the sun; understand the process of photosynthesis

12.7.18            Identify the basic anatomy of leaves: blade, vein, and petiole; classify leaves as dicot or monocot, simple or compound, and palmately compound or pinnately compound

12.7.19            Classify roots as either fibrous roots or tap roots

12.7.20            Understand that  flowers are the reproductive organs of flowering plants and that their function is to produce male gametes (sperm) and female gametes (eggs) and to provide a structure for fertilization.

12.7.21            Understand that some of the structures of flowers are adaptations that enable plants to reproduce sexually while they remain stationary. Understand that a plant’s production of pollen is one such adaptation, since it can be transported (by wind, water, insects, and other organisms) to the parts of flowers that contain eggs. Know that this process is called pollination.

12.7.22            Identify a seed as a reproductive structure consisting of a plant embryo and its stored food.  Understand that in flowering plants, the seeds develop into a structure called a fruit, which houses and protect seeds and may also help to disperse them to new locations.

 Environment and Interaction of Living Things

12.4.06            Identify the basic needs of living things: plants need air, water, nutrients (minerals), and light.

12.4.07            Know that the world contains many kinds of environments and that different animals and plants are suited to live in different environments.

12.4.08            Understand that each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in its growth, survival, and reproduction.

12.4.09            Understand that human activities can change the number of species in an area, whether by increasing it or decreasing it.

National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks for Science Literacy- As a result of activities in grades K-4 (5-8), students should develop an understanding of the following fundamental concepts and principles:

• Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. 

• Animals and plants have a great variety of body plans and structures that contribute to their being able to make or find food and reproduce. 
• Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms reproduce sexually. 
• A great variety of living things can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features to decide which things belong in which group. 
• One of the most general distinctions among organisms is between plants, which use sunlight to make their own food, and animals, which consume energy-rich foods. 
• Organisms have basic needs and can only survive in environments in which their needs can be met.
• All organisms cause changes in the environment where they live. Some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, whereas others are beneficial.
• Changes in an organism’s habitat are sometimes beneficial to it and sometimes harmful 
• Some source of energy is needed for all organisms to stay alive and grow.

• Plants use the energy in light to make sugars out of carbon dioxide and water.  This food can be used immediately for fuel or materials or it may be stored for later use.

Resources.

Champaign Community Unit School District #4 * Mellon Administrative Center
703 South New Street * Champaign, IL 61820 * 217.351.3800