Teacher Corps Teaching Team (Ms. Shaffren)

Biology I

4th period

June 15th, 2007

 

 

50 minutes

 

 

Objective:

 

The student will identify the characteristics of plants via demonstration. (6b)

The student will differentiate between the major divisions of the plant kingdom, namely vascular vs. non-vascular. (6b)

 

Materials: Paper or plastic cups, straws, white board or overhead, markers or vis-a-vis and transparencies, notes sheets for students, including a fill-in the blank sheet and the general characteristics of plants hand-outs, water, pictures of plants, especially vascular and non-vascular examples.

 

 

Warm-up:

 

Describe and give an example for each of the following kingdoms:

 

 

Monera

 

Protista

 

Fungi

 

Plantae

 

Animalia

 

 

 

Set:

Yesterday we classified organisms into kingdoms according to their characteristics. Today we will be looking more in-depth at one of these, the plant kingdom. We will identify the characteristics of plants and distinguish between some different kinds of plans.

 

Have students raise their hands and keep them in the air. After a while, notice students dropping their hands. Ask them why they are doing this. After all, plants can stand with their limbs held out 24 hour a day. What’s different? The difference is cell walls, one of the major characteristics of the plant kingdom.

 

 

Procedure:

 

1) Warm-up quiz and collect

2) Set

3) Discussion of cell walls in plants, what their made of, etc. Use the notes sheets from organelles to refer back to.

4) Notes & Discussion on other important characteristics of plants; use fill in the blank notes. Discuss why plants are green, producers, photosynthetic, autotrophs, ask where plants get their energy and where students get theirs, tie into ecology- direct instruction

5) Hand out paper cups with water. Tell the students that they are plans, and must drink without moving their bodies, even their heads. Next, give students straw, and point out that the same activity is much easier now. Explain that some plants have what’s called a vascular system, which allows them to get water and nutrients through tubes and therefore become taller and more developed that some others. This is a major division of plants- vascular vs. none vascular. What plants do you think are non-vascular? Vascular? Why do you think that? How do you know? 7 minute writing on this to be counted as a quiz grade.

6) Have students draw a plant on the board. Point out that the plant they drew was vascular, and have them distinguish between vascular and non-vascular plants. Play a game with this if there is extra time.

 

Closure: Today we have learned about characteristics and divisions of the plant kingdom. What are the characteristics? What are the divisions we talked about? Remember we will have a quiz on this tomorrow. What kinds of plants that you see everyday are vascular? Non-vascular? Tomorrow we will look at characteristics of animals and fungi.

 

 

Assessment:

 

Informal- Observe class participation and note taking (M). One of the teachers who is not teaching can walk around and make sure that notes are filled out (C).

 

Formal- The student will take a graded (D) quiz (M) on plants characteristics and divisions (C).

The student will write a paragraph (M) on vascular vs. non-vascular plants (see above) that will be graded (D) on completion, effort, and thoughtfulness.