Presenter: Stacy Driscoll

1. Presenter: Stacy Driscoll EDU 505 Living A Plant’s Life!

2. Introduction: • It’s morning! You open your eyes and you’re startled by a very bright light! This bright light is also very warm. But wait, you feel something down near where your feet should be! It feels soft and moist, like soil. Then you notice something tickling you where your legs should be…it’s grass. That’s right! You’re a plant. You’ll need to do some investigating about plants and find out what they need to survive if you have any hopes of becoming a kid again. Let’s not waste anytime!

3. Task: • First things first! You will need to identify all of your different parts and what it is exactly that they do for you. Then you will need to learn about what kinds of things (resources) you will need in order to live and grow. When you’ve learned all about yourself as a plant, you will then need to create a “plant guide” just in case any of your friends wake up as plants too, and not know what to do!

4. Process: Step 1 • Working in pairs, go to the following link and complete Mystery #1. You will be asked to identify the different parts of a plant and then match the parts with their job. Don’t worry, Detective LePlant will be there to help you! • http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gpe/case1/clmla.html

5. Process: Step 2 • Now that you know what you’re made up of, it’s time to learn what kinds of things you’re parts need in order to do their jobs so that you can live and grow! Click on the following link and watch the short video. You may watch it a 2nd time if you would like. • http://ksnn.larc.nasa.gov/k2/videos/s_whatplants_H.html

6. Process: Step 3 • Your thirds and final step is to create a “plant guide” for someone to follow just in case the same thing happens to them. Using what you have learned since you have been living life as a plant, create a poster that includes: • A drawing of a plant • All of the parts labeled on the drawing (stem, leaves, roots, flower, fruit, seed) • A brief paragraph describing what resources the plant needs in order to survive and what the parts of the plant do to help it grow.

7. Evaluation: • The successfulness of your journey will depend on the helpfulness of your poster. • Does your poster clearly identify all of the 6 parts of the plant (stem, roots, leaves, flower, fruit, seed)? • Does your paragraph include a description of what each part does? • Does your paragraph include resources that the plant needs in order to survive?

8. Evaluation Rubric: /26

9. Conclusion: • POOF! Surprisingly, you’ve been turned back into a kid! It must be because of all the hard work you just did! What a fun journey that was. Now you know so much more about plants…all the different parts and what they do; and all the important things a plant needs in order to grow. Try growing your own plant at home, such as a bean plant! You already know what it needs!

10. Teacher Page: • This Plant Life WebQuest was designed for 4th grade elementary students and aligns with the following NYS 4th grade Science Standards: -The Living Environment -Key Idea MST4.LE1 -Key Idea MST4.LE3 -Key Idea MST4.LE4 * For an extension activity, students can plant their own seeds and enter data into a table on the computer as a means to monitor the changes and growth of their plants. They can also conduct experiments to determine what happens to a plant if one or more resources are absent (i.e. no light and/or no water)