Action, Camera, Growth - Plant Cycle

Life Cycle Study will meet the needs of the entire school (K-2) - Georgia Performance Standards - SKL1, SKL2, S1L1, S2L1.

Essential Question - How does a plant grow and what does it need to survive?

Cognitive Teaching Strategies/Activities:

1 student from each 36 classrooms will assist the media specialist in building a greenhouse in the library. Another student from each of the classrooms will help the media specialist plant the seeds and water the plants and label them for each classroom. Students will come in daily from the classroom and observe the plant growth and mark it in their scientific journal. All the children in each classroom will have an opportunity to participate in the project (750children).

Teachers in the classroom will further assist by teaching a plant cycle lesson. Students will have to draw the growth that they see on the day of their observation. Each classroom will observe the growth by filming their plant in the various stages of growth. They will do charts predicting the growth rate. Students will bring in various seeds and then classify the seeds into various groups. Teachers will also conduct other growing experiments in their rooms using various kinds of seeds. Students will learn what a plant needs to grow and survive.

Students will be able to observe the video they created and record their observations and show their scientific journal they created. They will be able to describe a plant life cycle and describes what a plant needs to survive.

Each part of the lesson teaches to a different learning modality. All students of different learning abilities will be able to participate and learn.

Vocabulary:

Germinate, sprout, seed coat, root, nutrients, seedling, leaves, plant.

Materials needed:

Greenhouse, seeds, plant pots, soil, watering pot, fertilizer, flip video camera, memory card, computer storage like an external hard drive or flash drive, dvds, and journals for each class.

Assessment: Teacher observation of students' behavior and achievement on tasks as well as reading their scientific journals. The video the students create will also be used for assessment.