Finding features
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- identify the external features of a plant.
- categorise plants based on their external features.
- identify the salad items as different parts of plants.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- sort plants into groups.
- label the different parts of a plant.
- engage in group discussions to compare their ideas.
- explore how to record scientific findings (through teacher modelled class science journal).
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- students' identification of the external features of a plant.
- Can they identify the leaves, fruit, stems, roots?
- Can they identify any similarities/differences between roots on various plants?
- students' categorising of the edible plants parts.
- Can they group (leaves, fruit, stems, roots) the edible external parts of different plants?
This could also be considered summative assessment of the Science understanding: observe external features of plants and animals and describe ways they can be grouped based on these features.
Refer to the Australian Curriculum content links on the Our design decisions tab for further information.
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard-copy)
Seeds planted in Lesson 2
Demonstration copy of What parts of a plant can I eat? Resource sheet
Demonstration copy of Parts of a plant Resource sheet
Sorting salad investigation
A variety of edible pant parts for students to taste and sort into categories, including:
- leaves: spinach, lettuce, parsley etc.
- fruit: apple, tomato, orange, capsicum etc.
- stems: celery, spring onion, chives etc.
- roots: carrots, radish, turnip, beetroot. Note potatoes are not a root, but a tuber.
See safety notes in the Preparing to teach this sequence tab in the Sequence overview for allergy warnings and considerations.
Plates/bowls for sorting plant parts
Large labels: leaves, fruit, stem, roots
Access to water, soap and/or hand sanitiser for hygiene purposes
Alternative Investigating roots investigation
Plants with roots attached, for example, hydroponic lettuce, bunch of carrots/radish/beetroot with the leaves still attached, weeds carefully pulled from the garden
Each group
Alternative Investigating roots investigation
Viewing device
- No tech option: Magnifying glasses (several to share)
- Low tech option: iPads or digital cameras (several to share)
- High tech option: Microscope
Each student
Parts of a plant Resource sheet
Lesson
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkRe-orient
Add to the 'How seeds grow - Observation recording table' in the class science journal, modeling how to draw a diagram showing the changes that have occurred to the seed/plant, or adding a photograph. Add labels such as ‘stem’ and ‘leaves’ if enough growth has occurred and these are visible.
If concluding the seed growth observation today, write a final observation explaining the growth of the red kidney bean. For example: “We observed a red kidney bean grow into a small plant. First the bean grew one small white root. It then continued to grow more roots downwards, as well as a light green stem upwards. Lastly it grew new green leaves.”
Optional: Students might draw and write their own observations in their individual science journals if appropriate.
Remind students what they have been learning about during this sequence.
- What parts of plants have we been studying in science so far?
- Seeds, leaves, flowers.
- Which senses have we used?
- Touch, sight, smell, hearing.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkIdentifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkEating plants
In the class science journal, refer back to the page ‘What do we want to learn about plants and animals?’ referring to a question about how plants taste, if there is one.
Pose the questions:
- Which parts of a plant can I eat?
- What do plant parts that grow in the ground look like?
- Can we eat the plant parts that grow in the ground?
- Omit this question if only undertaking the Investigating roots alternative investigation.
Add them to the class science journal if needed.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkSorting salad
Inform students that, for safety reasons, we do not usually taste things in science because they might be dangerous or poisonous or contaminated. But today is a special lesson and we will be tasting/eating things that scientists have shown are safe for us to eat. Remind students that they should only ever taste or eat things if a trusted, responsible adult or elder has given permission.
Discuss edible plants with students, including the dangers of eating unknown plants.
- Do you have something in your lunchbox that has come from a plant?
- What have you eaten that comes from a plant?
- Do we eat plants every day?
- Do we think plants are healthy for us? Why or why not?
- Can we eat any/all plants? Why not?
- Some plants are poisonous and can cause us to get very sick. Some people are allergic to some plants and should not eat or even touch them.
- How do we know if a plant is safe to eat?
- Our parents, grandparents, and other trusted adults teach us which plants are safe to eat when we're young. We learn about other plants that are safe to eat as we get older,
- We can try new plant food we find in the supermarket, because we know they have been tested to make sure they are safe to eat.
Ensure all students have washed their hands well in preparation for the following activity.
View and discuss the variety of plant foods you have prepared for students to eat.
- Have you eaten any of these foods?
- Do you know their names?
- Do we need to cook it or can we eat it raw (uncooked)?
- How do you know?
Show students the prepared labels: leaves, stalks/stems, fruit, roots. As a class, sort the foods into these categories, placing them near the corresponding label. Do not correct errors at this stage. Remind students that we can re-arrange the bowls at any time.
Note: To support recording later, you might like to organise the labels and food samples into columns and rows to simulate a table. After sorting, take a photo and use photo editing software to create a simple table by add dividing lines. This shows students an explicit example of creating a table and demonstrates how tables are helpful for recording and sorting information.
Discuss safety around eating (e.g. not walking around or talking with food in our mouth). After ensuring that all possible safety precautions regarding food allergies have been taken, allow students to taste the foods. This could be very structured, with students tasting one food at a time under the teachers' direction. Alternatively students could be allowed to individually select items for tasting. This decision should be made in consideration of the students' and the school/class context.
Determine if there are any foods should be moved to a different category based on how they taste. If students have categorised food incorrectly, take the opportunity to question them and allow them to rethink their answers.
Record the final decision about the categories the foods belong in, either by taking another photo, or by using a data table in the class science journal titled "The parts of plants that we can eat".
Optional: Use the opportunity to clarify the difference between flower, fruit and seed. Show students a cut piece of fruit with the seeds visible, then discuss the following points:
- Part of a flower (the ovary) becomes the fruit.
- Fruits contains seeds.
- Seeds are spread by wind, water and animals (including humans) to grow new plants.
- Some seeds can be eaten by humans (such as pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds) but some seeds are poisonous, so we must never eat seeds unless we have been told they are safe by a trusted adult.
Scientific definition of a fruit
Students are likely to be most familiar with the culinary use of the word ‘fruit’: the edible, fleshy, sweet (and sometimes sour) part of the plant.
Students are likely to be most familiar with the culinary use of the word ‘fruit’ that refers to the edible, fleshy, sweet (and sometimes sour) part of the plant.
However, biologists view fruit as both the fleshy and the dry ripened ovary of a flowering plant that encloses the seed(s). These seeds are capable of generating new plants.
So, whilst students might easily identify apricots, bananas, apples, grapes etc. as fruits, they might not consider bean pods, corn grains, and (in their shells) acorns and almonds as fruits. They might also consider more savoury, lower sugar content fruits such as tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums etc. as vegetables, even though they are all technically fruits.
A gumnut is also a fruit, as are the cluster of hard woody balls on a tea tree, since they both contain seeds.
For students to begin developing their understanding of plants’ life cycles, the emphasis in the junior years should be:
- Part of a flower (the ovary) becomes the fruit.
- Fruits contain seeds.
- Seeds are spread by wind, water and animals to grow new plants.
- Many plants grow from seed, but not all of them (ferns, mosses).
Students are likely to be most familiar with the culinary use of the word ‘fruit’ that refers to the edible, fleshy, sweet (and sometimes sour) part of the plant.
However, biologists view fruit as both the fleshy and the dry ripened ovary of a flowering plant that encloses the seed(s). These seeds are capable of generating new plants.
So, whilst students might easily identify apricots, bananas, apples, grapes etc. as fruits, they might not consider bean pods, corn grains, and (in their shells) acorns and almonds as fruits. They might also consider more savoury, lower sugar content fruits such as tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums etc. as vegetables, even though they are all technically fruits.
A gumnut is also a fruit, as are the cluster of hard woody balls on a tea tree, since they both contain seeds.
For students to begin developing their understanding of plants’ life cycles, the emphasis in the junior years should be:
- Part of a flower (the ovary) becomes the fruit.
- Fruits contain seeds.
- Seeds are spread by wind, water and animals to grow new plants.
- Many plants grow from seed, but not all of them (ferns, mosses).
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkInvestigating roots (alternative investigation)
This investigation has been designed as an alternative to Sorting salad. Undertake this investigation if Sorting salad is not suitable for your students or context. If time and resources permit, you might undertake both investigations.
Discuss what roots are. Ask students to predict whether all plants’ roots look the same/similar.
If you have completed Sorting salad, let students know their opportunity to taste things is now finished.
If you have not completed Sorting salad, explain to students that they will only use their sense of sight for this part of the activity, and discuss why it is important not to taste things during this investigations:
- We don’t know if all of the roots are edible—some might be poisonous.
- The roots are not washed and clean.
- They might have dirt or bacteria on them which could make us sick.
Optional: Take students weed gathering to gather more weeds with roots. Rinse roots to make the roots more visible.
Present students with a range of roots to observe and compare, such as: lettuce with roots still attached, a carrot, parsnip, weeds with roots attached.
- Which part is the root?
- What similarities can you see?
- What differences can you see?
In collaborative teams, students take a closer look at the roots, using:
- NO TECH: magnifying glasses
- LOW TECH: digital camera/iPad zoom
- HIGH TECH: microscope
On a page in the class science journal entitled “What do plants look like under the ground?” record observations of roots and write one sentence that evaluates the findings.
Root systems
The main root system of a plant is usually located at the end of the stem under the ground.
The main root system of a plant is usually located at the end of the stem under the ground. Some plants have aerial roots growing above the ground. Roots can perform many functions for the plant, including:
- absorbing water and nutrients including nitrogen.
- anchoring a plant in place.
- storing food reserves.
Root systems can be much more extensive than the leaf systems we see above ground. A tree’s root network can stretch out twice as far as its branches. As roots branch out, they become very fine, until they are barely visible to the naked eye. If you look carefully you can see ‘root hairs’, which maximise the contact area between roots and the surrounding soil.
When some plants are first growing, they invest most of their energy into growing a very long thick root (tap root). This allows some trees to seek a water table, which provides a more secure source of water than rainfall. It can also become a storage organ, full of nutrients and energy reserves (for example, a carrot) ready to regrow the leaves and stems of the plant if they are damaged by winter frosts, eaten by an animal, or if the plant wants to create flower stems quickly.
The main root system of a plant is usually located at the end of the stem under the ground. Some plants have aerial roots growing above the ground. Roots can perform many functions for the plant, including:
- absorbing water and nutrients including nitrogen.
- anchoring a plant in place.
- storing food reserves.
Root systems can be much more extensive than the leaf systems we see above ground. A tree’s root network can stretch out twice as far as its branches. As roots branch out, they become very fine, until they are barely visible to the naked eye. If you look carefully you can see ‘root hairs’, which maximise the contact area between roots and the surrounding soil.
When some plants are first growing, they invest most of their energy into growing a very long thick root (tap root). This allows some trees to seek a water table, which provides a more secure source of water than rainfall. It can also become a storage organ, full of nutrients and energy reserves (for example, a carrot) ready to regrow the leaves and stems of the plant if they are damaged by winter frosts, eaten by an animal, or if the plant wants to create flower stems quickly.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkSo what can we eat?
Using the What parts of a plant can I eat? Resource sheet:
- If students have engaged in Sorting salad, review how they sorted their salad items, moving any if required. Add the names of other parts of the plants students can identify to the correct category.
- If students have engaged in Investigating roots, discuss the information on the resource sheet, identifying the foods they recognise, categorising which part of the lettuce is edible, and adding other plant items students know are edible. Discuss how we know which plants are edible, and which are not, and rules around being safe when trying out new plant food. See the Sorting salad lesson step for question prompts.
Using the Parts of a plant Resource sheet, students label the parts of the plant correctly by drawing a line between the label and the correct plant part.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
- add relevant words and images to the class word wall.
- reflect on how students were working like scientists, using their senses to study and group the external features of animals.
- Which of our senses did we use today? How were they helpful?
- Can we identify a root just by looking at it? Or do we also need to taste it?
- Do scientists always use all their senses? Or do we sometimes just use some of our senses?
Adapting to your context
When assessing student learning at Foundation level, use your own discretion as to how much assistance you will provide.
When assessing student learning at Foundation level, use your own discretion as to how much assistance you will provide. To make this decision, consider:
- What specifically am I assessing?
- The ability to correctly identify and name the parts of a plant.
- Do the students have the skills to read the words independently?
- If not, how can I assist them with the task and accurately assess their knowledge at the same time? How will I record evidence of their knowledge?
When assessing student learning at Foundation level, use your own discretion as to how much assistance you will provide. To make this decision, consider:
- What specifically am I assessing?
- The ability to correctly identify and name the parts of a plant.
- Do the students have the skills to read the words independently?
- If not, how can I assist them with the task and accurately assess their knowledge at the same time? How will I record evidence of their knowledge?