Students will investigate how to help a plant thrive by testing different care choices. They will learn about plant structures, photosynthesis, water, nutrients, and environmental conditions. Teams will create a care plan and grow journal with daily photos and observations, then use weekly check-ins to decide what is working and what to change.
Learning goals
Students will explain how plant structures, photosynthesis, water, nutrients, genes, and the environment affect growth. They will track daily observations and photos, then use weekly check-ins to improve plant care. Students will create and share an evidence-based action plan that helps a plant thrive while reducing waste.
Standards
[Next Generation Science Standards] MS-LS1-5 - Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
[Next Generation Science Standards] MS-LS1-6 - Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
[Next Generation Science Standards] MS-LS1-7 - Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.
[Next Generation Science Standards] MS-ESS3-3 - Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
Competencies
Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.
Products
Teams will keep a grow journal with daily observations, dated photos, care actions, and needed changes. Weekly check-ins will identify what is working and what to try next. The final product will be a plant care action plan explaining how to help a plant thrive while reducing waste.
Launch
Teams examine a healthy and struggling plant, photograph visible differences, and note possible effects of light, water, nutrients, and photosynthesis. Ask, “How can we design and test the best way to help a plant thrive?” Teams start a grow journal with the date, observations, care action, and what they may change at the weekly check-in, building toward a plant care action plan.
Exhibition
Teams display their plant, photo grow journal, weekly reflections, and plant care action plan. They briefly explain how photosynthesis, plant structures, water, nutrients, genetics, and environmental conditions affected growth. Visitors view the evidence and offer one idea for helping the plant thrive while reducing environmental impact.
