Survive and thrive
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- observe and discuss a time-lapse video of seedlings moving towards the Sun’s light.
- represent and explain their understandings about the basic needs of plants.
- discuss how different plants live in different places where their needs are met (habitats).
- complete final observations and measurements of plant growth (optional—you may wish to continue tracking plant growth for an extended time period).
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- discuss the class observations and time-lapse video of plant movement.
- verbally share the findings of their ongoing plant investigation with the class.
- create a graph of each plant’s growth (optional).
In this lesson, assessment can be formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- students' ideas about the needs of plants. Have students identified the basic needs of plants?
- what students think about plants in different environments. Are they able to recognise that plants live in different places and that these places meet their needs?
- how students are using their data and evidence to make claims. Are their claims based on the evidence they have collected?
In this lesson, assessment might also be summative, in relation to the needs of plants for survival.
Students working at the achievement standard should have:
- made a claim about the basic needs of plants.
- used the data and evidence they have collected to support their claim.
- identified that plants live in places where their needs are met.
- used scientific vocabulary when appropriate.
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)
The seedlings from the investigation begun in Lesson 2
The video Changing the direction of the light during plant growth - Time lapse (2:09 min)
Printed copy of Sun Resource sheet
1 x torch (optional)
If the two seedlings students have been nurturing since Lesson 2 have grown enough, and a difference in the growth between the seedlings is obvious, then students will be able to answer their investigation question and the investigation can be concluded.
However, for a number of reasons you might also need or want to continue to allow students to nurture and track their seedlings’ growth for a longer time frame. In this case, these activities can be returned to at a time that suits.
If you choose to conclude the plant growth investigation in this lesson
Demonstration copy of Which grew tallest? Resource sheet
Demonstration copy of Different plants in different places Resource sheet
Each group
Optional: Sorting plant needs Resource sheet
If you choose to conclude the plant growth investigation in this lesson
Which grew tallest? Resource sheet
Glue
Each student
Individual science journal (digital or hard-copy)
If you choose to conclude the plant growth investigation in this lesson
Completed copies of the My plant predictions Resource sheet from Lesson 2
Lesson
The Launch phase is designed to increase the science capital in a classroom by asking questions that elicit and explore students’ experiences. It uses local and global contexts and real-world phenomena that inspire students to recognise and explore the science behind objects, events and phenomena that occur in the material world. It encourages students to ask questions, investigate concepts, and engage with the Core Concepts that anchor each unit.
The Launch phase is divided into four routines that:
- ensure students experience the science for themselves and empathise with people who experience the problems science seeks to solve (Experience and empathise)
- anchor the teaching sequence with the key ideas and core science concepts (Anchor)
- elicit students’ prior understanding (Elicit)
- and connect with the students’ lives, languages and interests (Connect).
Re-orient
View and review the growth of the seedlings since Lesson 2. Compare each group’s two seedlings to see if there are any obvious differences in the growth of the plants, and if they can answer their investigation question.
- Are both seedlings growing?
- Is one growing better/faster/taller than the other?
- Does one look healthier than the other?
- Why do you think this is happening?
- What might this tell us about what plants need to grow and stay healthy?
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 FrameworkDo plants move?
Review the four factors students are investigating to see if they help plants grow and stay healthy: sunlight, water, space and soil.
Discuss with students what they would do if they were thirsty and wanted a drink of water, for example: walk to fridge/kitchen, get their drink bottle, have a drink.
Pose the questions: Can plants move to get to water if they need it? Can they move to get sunlight or the space that they need? Can plants move so that their needs can be met?
Discuss students’ initial ideas.
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 FrameworkFollowing an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkTime-lapse observations
Watch and discuss the plant movement time-lapse video. To support students to see where the source of light is coming from, you can place a large label, sketch or photograph of the sun next to the screen where the direction of light is indicated in the video.
- This is a time-lapse video, what does that mean?
- They film something that takes a long time to happen, then they make the video play faster, so that we can see things that would normally take a long time to happen, in just a few minutes.
- In what direction were the plants first growing in the video? What were they growing towards?
- The plants were growing towards the sun/light.
- Did you see the plants move in the video, or change direction? Where did they move to? Why did they move?
- The plants were growing diagonally/on a slant/towards the sun, then they started to grow straight upwards. They moved when the light moved. They were moving to grow towards the sun.
- If this is a time-lapse video, what does that tell you about how long it took the plants to move? Do you think they moved quickly or slowly?
- Have you ever seen plants move before?
- What made the plants move? Did they move by themselves, or did something else move them?
- Students may have seen plants moved by wind, or animals. They may have seen them dug up and moved around a garden or moving when they are bringing them home. These movements are caused by outside factors and are not independent movement caused by the plant itself.
- Can a plant move around like a person can? If it doesn't like where it's planted in the garden, can it move to another location?
- What would happen to a plant if it was planted somewhere where it couldn't get what it needed?
- Why is it difficult to observe plant movement?
- Plants grow and move very slowly, so it's hard to see it without special equipment or a time-lapse video.
Role-play with students the movement of plants. Students spread out around the classroom, imagining they are the plants they have been investigating. Discuss what parts of their bodies can be used to represent the different parts of the plants—e.g. students’ legs/tummy/chest could represent the stem of the plant, their arms might represent leaves or branches, their head might represent the flower.
Holding a picture of the sun (Sun Resource sheet), ask students to show what direction they would be leaning if they were plants trying to get sunlight. Move around the classroom, with students changing their direction to follow the source of sunlight as you move.
SAFETY NOTE: Encourage students to not repeat this role-play when outside. Discuss why you are using a cartoon-style image of the sun, the dangers of looking directly at the sun, and why they should not do this.
Discuss the role-play, and how students were exploring how plants move by acting like them: creating a model of how plants move, to support their understanding.
Pose the question: Would plants move as quickly as we did during our role-play modelling?
Discuss how they were moving much faster than plants would, and how sometimes when we model something we have to make changes, like speeding up the movements, so we can see it more quickly. Relate this to the time-lapse video watched earlier.
Optional: As an additional model, use a torch to simulate how plants change the angle of their leaves (hand) to receive more sunlight (torch light).
Optional: Discuss students’ ideas about whether plants move to get water as well as sunlight. Consider if roots might grow deep into the ground, or in specific directions if there was a source of water in that direction.
Scientific models role-plays
How am I developing my students’ capacity to use models to understand complex concepts?
Scientists use models to represent and visualise complex ideas. Models can help bring these ideas into focus, leading to more questions and better explanations. Models are also used to communicate ideas to others. They can be evaluated and refined over time.
In this sequence, students are exploring how plants can move independently (albeit in a limited way) through modelling—viewing a visual representation when watching the time lapse video, then using role-play as a physical model to further refine their understanding.
It is important to understand that models also have limitations, and we should encourage students to think critically about these. Models are approximations and are often simplified to make them easier to understand. They can be missing important details. The adequacy of a model (i.e. what it shows, what it doesn’t show, what affordances it provides) should be examined and discussed to determine whether it is ‘good enough’ for its current purpose.
In this case, students are role-playing as plants, but they are moving at a much faster pace than plants would naturally. However, the benefits of being able to role-play this movement is ‘good enough’ to be helpful for students’ developing understanding. The discussion about this fact is important.
Scientists use models to represent and visualise complex ideas. Models can help bring these ideas into focus, leading to more questions and better explanations. Models are also used to communicate ideas to others. They can be evaluated and refined over time.
In this sequence, students are exploring how plants can move independently (albeit in a limited way) through modelling—viewing a visual representation when watching the time lapse video, then using role-play as a physical model to further refine their understanding.
It is important to understand that models also have limitations, and we should encourage students to think critically about these. Models are approximations and are often simplified to make them easier to understand. They can be missing important details. The adequacy of a model (i.e. what it shows, what it doesn’t show, what affordances it provides) should be examined and discussed to determine whether it is ‘good enough’ for its current purpose.
In this case, students are role-playing as plants, but they are moving at a much faster pace than plants would naturally. However, the benefits of being able to role-play this movement is ‘good enough’ to be helpful for students’ developing understanding. The discussion about this fact is important.
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 FrameworkWhat do plants need? | Concluding the plant growth investigation
This lesson is the last exploration into plants. In Lesson 5 students will begin to explore the needs of animals.
This is a good time to conclude the plant growth investigation (begun in Lesson 2) if the seedlings have grown enough. If not, return to this step, and the subsequent integrate discussion, in a later lesson.
Using Which grew tallest? Resource sheet, teams glue the popsticks (or other measurement method) to the relevant graph in the order they were taken, creating a graph that allows them to track and compare the seedlings' growth over time.
By reviewing their graphs, they make a claim and draw conclusions about what plants need to grow and be healthy by completing the following sentence stems:
- The plant with ______________________ grew the tallest. It was healthy.
- This tells me that plants need _______________________ to grow and stay healthy.
- Write three words below to describe the plant that didn’t get what it needed.
After each team has completed the Which grew tallest? Resource sheet, they compare their findings with their predictions made on the My plant predictions Resource sheet during Lesson 2.
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 FrameworkFollowing an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkSharing results | Concluding the plant growth investigation
Teams share their claims and evidence with the class. You might review the questions recorded in the class science journal in Lesson 2. Pose each question one-at-a-time and invite students who investigated that question to share their results.
Write a series of concluding sentences to answer each investigation question, included what happened to the plant that didn't receive what it needed. For example:
- Plants need sunlight to grow and stay healthy.
- Plants need water to grow and stay healthy.
- Plants need space to grow and stay healthy.
- Plants need soil to stay healthy.
Compile a list of words to describe the unhealthy plants that did not get what they needed.
Ask students if they think that all plants have similar needs for growing and staying healthy.
Explain that scientists think that plants have similar needs to grow and stay healthy:
- Water and nutrients from the soil.
- Light (although depending on the plant, the amount required may vary)
- Water, but not too much
- Space or room to grow.
Using Different plants in different places Resource sheet discuss how different plants need different types and amounts of nutrients, water, and sunlight. So, plants live in places where their needs are met.
- Are these two environments the same?
- What kind of environments are they?
- How would you feel if you were walking amongst these ferns in the forest?
- What is a forest environment like?
- How would you feel if you were walking in the outback or in a dry, dusty place on a sunny day?
- What is an outback/dry/desert environment like?
- How do the plants in each of these places look different?
- Tall straight trees and ferns compared to grasses and few trees.
- How do the plants look similar?
- Both have greenish colours.
- Which of these places do we think gets more rain? How do you know? Why do you think that?
- The forest gets more rain. You can see it is very green, which happens in rainy places. It is also misty. The outback is dry and dusty. This happens when there is no rain.
- What might this tell us about the plants that grow in a forest compared to the plants that grow in a desert?
- Plants that grow in a desert must need less water to grow. They don't get much water, but the plants are still growing and look healthy, so they must get enough.
- The plants in a forest must need more water to grow. Forests get lots of water, and the plants are still growing and look healthy, so they need to have lots of water.
- What do you think happens if we try to grow a plant somewhere that its needs are not being met?
See the embedded professional learning Adapting to your context—going further for advice on consolidating and extending your students’ learning about plants.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
- discuss what will happen to the seedlings now the investigation has finished.
- add to the class word wall (vocabulary, drawings, images) related to the needs of plants.
- discuss how students were thinking and working like scientists during the lesson. Focus on the evidence, such as the growth data, and whether the evidence supported their initial claims.
- consolidate students' learning about the needs of plants by completing the Sorting plant needs Resource sheet, as a class, individually or in pairs. Cut around and sort the items into two groups: things that plants need and things that plants don’t need.
Adapting to your context—going further
How can I further extend students’ understanding about the needs of plants?
This lesson concludes the investigations about the needs of plants. Before moving on to investigating the needs of animals, you may choose to further consolidate or extend your students’ learning about plants. This provides an opportunity to look more closely at plants in the local surroundings and/or further assess their learning. Some suggestions include:
- Go on an expedition through the schoolyard/nearby parkland to compare the plants that are growing in sunny areas to the plants growing in partly shaded areas. Discuss which plants are thriving with their needs being met and which plants are less healthy because their needs are not being met.
- Design and make a label for a plant that is found in the local area/school grounds: include watering requirements, full sun/party shaded, amount of space etc.
- Complete the Sorting plant needs Resource sheet, either as a class, individually or in pairs. Cut around and sort the items into two groups: things that plants need and things that plants don’t need.
- Invite the students to repeat the activity from Lesson 1, drawing and labeling the needs of a healthy plant, in order to demonstrate their developing knowledge.
- Take students on an excursion to a local botanic garden, arboretum, parkland, greenhouse or native flower gardens.
- Invite a horticulturalist from a local plant nursery or the local Council, or a ranger from the local National Park, or a crop farmer to speak with students.
This lesson concludes the investigations about the needs of plants. Before moving on to investigating the needs of animals, you may choose to further consolidate or extend your students’ learning about plants. This provides an opportunity to look more closely at plants in the local surroundings and/or further assess their learning. Some suggestions include:
- Go on an expedition through the schoolyard/nearby parkland to compare the plants that are growing in sunny areas to the plants growing in partly shaded areas. Discuss which plants are thriving with their needs being met and which plants are less healthy because their needs are not being met.
- Design and make a label for a plant that is found in the local area/school grounds: include watering requirements, full sun/party shaded, amount of space etc.
- Complete the Sorting plant needs Resource sheet, either as a class, individually or in pairs. Cut around and sort the items into two groups: things that plants need and things that plants don’t need.
- Invite the students to repeat the activity from Lesson 1, drawing and labeling the needs of a healthy plant, in order to demonstrate their developing knowledge.
- Take students on an excursion to a local botanic garden, arboretum, parkland, greenhouse or native flower gardens.
- Invite a horticulturalist from a local plant nursery or the local Council, or a ranger from the local National Park, or a crop farmer to speak with students.