VCU School of Education



VCU Early/Elementary Program

Science Lesson Plan

By: Kristen Parsley

I. Purpose:

• The purpose of this lesson is for students to be able to identify a flowering and non-flowering plant. They will also be able to tell some differences and similarities of the two classifications of plants

• The corresponding SOL for this lesson is for first grade and is:

o 1.4 – Life Processes – The student will investigate and understand that plants have life needs and functional parts and can be classified according to certain characteristics. Key concepts include c) characteristics (flowering/nonflowering)

• The corresponding NSTA Content Standards are:

o Science as Inquiry – abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry Understanding about scientific inquiry. Will develop skills necessary to become independent inquirers about the natural world.

o Life Science – Characteristics of organisms. Life cycles of organisms. Organisms and environments.

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II. Objectives:

• The student will be able to correctly indentify 6/8 flowering and non flowering pictures, given a worksheet and chart, from memory.

• The student will be able to verbally tell what the main difference is between a flowering and nonflowering plant with 90% accuracy, given the word “flowering” and “nonflower”, using only memory recall.

III. Procedure:

a. Introduction

Students will be learning the differences in flowering plants and nonflowering plants. They will also be categorizing just like scientists do. This lesson is part of the Life Processes unit. This lesson is the third and final lesson in the unit on Life Processes. The students will first investigate different plants and come up with the difference that one has a flower and the other does not to start the discussion about flowering and nonflowering plants.

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TEACHER/SUB NOTES

• According to the SOL the student does not need to know a formal definition of flowering and nonflowering plants, but they do need to know how to classify each.

• Flowering Plants – they rely on pollination for reproduction and rely on dispersion to continue their life cycle. At some point during the plants life cycle it will produce a flower.

• Non-Flowering Plants – they do not produce flowers or seeds, most of the time. Instead of seeds they produce spores (very very tiny specks of living material that are made on the underside of leaves or somewhere on the plant. They look like dust and move around by wind) When spores land they produce more plants. Some nonflowering plants do produce seeds, like pine trees, but for the most part they produce spores. It’s important to know that they never produce a single flower during the plants life cycle.

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b. Development Based on the 5 Es

• ENGAGEMENT

o The teacher will have students sit at their tables and direct their attention to the front of the room. There will be a green fern, and a daisy at the front of the class. The teacher will tell the students that they are going to be scientists today and study plants! They will be investigating differences between the two plants that they see.

• EXPLORATION

o The students will then have one daisy and one fern put on their table to observe. They will be given about 3-5 minutes to look at each plant and come up in their heads with some differences and some similarities with the plants.

o The teacher will have a large Venn diagram on the board and she will ask the class to share their similarities and differences. The teacher will write the answers that the students come up with in the diagram. (One of the answers that need to be given is that one plant has a flower and the other plant does not.)

o After that answer has been given along with some others, the teacher will focus the student’s attention to flower and nonflower answer to further the discussion and understanding between the two.

• EXPLANATION

o The teacher will now tell the students that the main difference we will be exploring between the two plants is that one makes a flower and one does not. It is important to note that this is only one difference between the plants, not the only one, but it is the difference that they will be exploring.

o The teacher will then take the Venn Diagram down and write on the board two categories “Flowering” and “Nonflowering”. A discussion about what makes them different will follow.

o The first thing that will be discussed is that flowering plants produce seeds. Ask the students if they have ever planted a seed before for a plant to grow.

o Now explain that nonflowering plants do not make seeds, they produce spores. She/he will explain that they are very tiny specks of material that are produced by the nonflowering plants. The students will be instructed to look on the underside of the fern to see the black or red or brown spots where the spores are produced.

o Next the teacher will tell the students that the spores are too small to see, and what they are looking at is where the spores are produced, not the actual spores themselves.

o Now go over again that flowering plants have flowers during some point in the plants life and they make seeds, and nonflowering plants do not have flowers and produce spores. On the board the teacher will write these characteristics under the correct heading.

o Next ask the students to raise their hand and give some examples of flowering and nonflowering plants. As the students make suggestion have some pictures of both flowering and nonflowering plants, and put them under the category that they belong in, if the students come up with what is pictured.

o The teacher will also give examples (of what is pictured) and put the pictures on the board in between having student suggestions. The pictures that will be on the board will be (flowering – red roses, Gerber daisies, and a red apple tree; nonflowering – Boston fern, fly agaric mushroom, and wintergreen boxwood).

o Red apple and fly agaric mushrooms will be explained as to why they are in the categories they are in. Before apples are produced a flower is, and apples have seeds, just like the characteristics on the board for flowering plants.

o The mushroom is a plant that does not produce seeds, it produces spores on the underside of the mushroom and does not have a flower, just like the characteristics for the nonflowering plant.

• EXPANSION

o The students will then work in stations to practice categorizing flowering and nonflowering plants.

o One station will be at the computers where they do a Kidspiration activity. The other station will have a large chart with flowering and nonflowering as headings. The students will work the teacher at this station to put pictures of plants in the right category. As they categorize each picture of a plant they will give an explanation as to why they think it goes into the category that they chose.

o This will help the teacher have more of a one-on-one type learning environment to get a feel for the students’ understanding of the concept.

• EVALUATION

o After each student has had a chance at both stations they will go back to their tables and work on a worksheet that will be taken as a grade.

o The worksheet will have pictures of flowering and nonflowering plants, and a chart like the one they worked with in the station. They will cut and paste the picture under the correct category.

o As they finish the students will be instructed to either look at books with different flowering and nonflowering plants, or write about their favorite plant and whether it was flowering or nonflowering and draw a picture. (Depending on the level of writing skill of the student will determine which the student will do).

c. Summary

• Once everyone has finished their worksheets they will return to their desks and the teacher will ask the students what one difference is between flowering and nonflowering plants. The responses that are wanted are that flowering plants produce flowers and seeds most of the time and nonflowering plants do not produce flower and instead of seeds produce spores most of the time.

IV. Materials needed for the lesson and Safety

o Enough ferns and Gerber daisies for two students to share one of each

o Kidspiration activity for computer

o Pictures of flowering and non flowering plants to display

o Flowering and nonflowering plants worksheet

o Large Venn Diagram

o Whiteboard or chalkboard and something to write on them with

o Computers

o Make sure to let students know not to eat the plants.

o Find out ahead of time if there are any allergies to any of the plants being used and make the appropriate adjustments.

V. Evaluation Part A:

• While teaching the lesson I will be able to gauge if students understand the concept by how much they participate, and how accurate their participation is.

• They will be graded using the worksheet to know if they can correctly classify pictures of flowering and nonflowering plants. The rubric will help determine the grade.

• While I am helping them in their stations they will verbally be able to explain the main difference between flowering and non flowering plants.

VI. Differentiation

• For students with difficulties the diagrams will be at the front of the classroom for them to refer too.

• For students who need to be challenged they will write a short story when they are done with their worksheet about flowering and nonflowering plants.

• For visual learners they will be able to see the charts and things being written on the boards. For auditory having discussions and talking about this content will help. For tactile learners working on the computer and having plants to see and touch will help them.

VII. Evaluation Part B: (Post-lesson assessment and reflection of the lesson to be completed after the lesson has been taught)

• I am very happy to say that all of the students meet the objectives! Not every student received a grade of 100%, but they met the goal of 80% and 90% accuracy that is described in the objective.

• The lesson absolutely did meet the needs of the learners. I planned to have a multi-dimensional lesson that had 5 to 10 minute parts. I thought this was necessary for first graders in order to keep their attention. There had to be some adjustments to the actual lesson, which I was disappointed in, but needed to happen. The class had play practice that took longer than it was supposed to so some part of the lesson had to be adjusted. I chose to only have a few students work on the kidspiration activity instead of having every child. There were only 5 computers and it would have taken too long for everyone to have a turn. I wanted the students to complete the worksheet, and have a class discussion. I thought this would be more helpful in meeting the objectives. All in all the entire lesson went smoothly and I was very happy with myself.

• The engagement in the beginning, and the whole class discussion were the strongest parts of the lesson. I had real plants for the students to look at and come up with similarities and differences. They did amazing! It took a couple of minutes for someone to come up with “one has flowers and the other doesn’t” but they eventually did. Also, the students had never heard the word “spores” before, and having a plant that had spore making parts helped the students understand what it was. I think if I were to have just had the word and no visuals the students would not have understood as well. When we did the whole class discussion the students did better than I thought. They were coming up with some examples of flowering plants that I would have never thought of! The pictures I had helped them understand better the difference between flowering and nonflowering. They had a hard time coming up with nonflowering plants, but once I made a suggestion and put a picture up they were able to come up with some more. My favorite part was when one student named an apple tree as a nonflowering plant. I had this in my pictures to talk about, but didn’t think the discussion would happen this way; I was excited it was brought up by a student! The students then talked with each other about why they thought it was flowering or nonflowering. I then put the picture under flowering and had some students explain why that was. They nailed it! They said “an apple has seeds” and “before there are apples there are flowers on the tree”.

• My weakness was once again classroom management. The lesson was at the end of the day and the students were very restless. There were a few times when the cooperating teacher needed to interrupt to get the students focused again. For the most part they were engaged, but touching and messing with the plants became an issue. That is what I would change about the lesson. For first graders having visuals was a good idea, but having these plants at their desks was not such a good idea. They argued over it a little and the plants had to be taken away earlier than I had planned. Next time, I will still have real plants, but I will sit them down on the carpet and have them look at the plants and come in groups to see them up close instead of having them at their desks.

Kidspiration Activity I created.

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|Flowering |NonFlowering |

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Directions: Cut out each plant and glue it in the correct category.

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