Mathematics Grade Prototype Curriculum Guide

Sample assessment

• 
  Monitor students’ understanding by checking their data sheets daily.
  
• 
  Have students write a story about the life of a sprout, using the terms roots, stems, leaves, flowers, photosynthesis, energy, seed, and sunlight.
  

Follow-up/extension

• 
  Students may grow their bean plants to maturity by carefully removing the plants from the cups and transplanting them into larger pots.
  
• 
  Have students graph their plants’ height growth on a line graph.
  
• 
  Students may conduct an experiment to discover the role of roots in the growth of the plant. Have them carefully cut off the roots of one plant and compare the growth of the modified plant to the growth of a plant with roots. The same may be done with the plant’s leaves.
  
• 
  Students may conduct an experiment to observe the function of the stem. Have students make a fresh cut in a stalk of celery and place the cut end in a clear cup of water containing red food coloring. Students should observe the red coloring as it moves up the vascular tubes (xylem tubes) of the plant. The red coloring will move through the stem and up to the leaves.
  
• 
  Students may observe the growth of roots. Have students insert three large toothpicks into a potato and suspend the potato in a glass jar of water.
  

Resources

• 
  Connections: Connecting Books to the Virginia SOLs. Fairfax County Public Schools and The College of William and Mary. http://www.fcps.edu/cpsapps/connections. Presents a database of more than 1,000 works of children’s literature and their connection to the Virginia Standards of Learning.
  
• 
  The Great Plant Escape. University of Illinois Extension. http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/index.html. Offers information on plant life and soil in a cute mystery format with Detective LaPlant.
  
• 
  Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). http://www.nsta.org/ostbc.
  
• 
  Project Learning Tree. American Forest Foundation. http://www.plt.org/. Provides details on this national environmental education program.
  
• 
  Project WET (Water Education for Teachers). http://www.projectwet.org/. Offers watershed resources through an online store.
  
• 
  Search for Literature: Literature for Science and Mathematics. California Department of Education. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/ll/ap/searchlist.asp. Offers a searchable database.
  
• 
  Virginia Naturally: Linking Virginians to the Environment. http://www.vanaturally.com/. Offers environmental resources for teachers.
  
• 
  Virginia Naturally School Recognition Program. Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. http://www.dgif.state.va.us/education/van_school_recognition.html. Provides information about the Virginia Naturally program to recognize environmental stewardship in schools.
  

Little Sprouts Data Sheet

Name: Date:

In the box at right, draw one of your beans.

Vital Statistics

Complete these sentences: “My bean is ____ mm at its widest point and ____ mm at its tallest point. It has the mass of ____ grams. I predict that the first part to begin growing will be the _________________.”

Again, draw your bean in the box at right, but also draw on the bean the place you think the first plant part will emerge.

Long-Term Observations

In the boxes below, draw your bean daily during the next two weeks. At the bottom of each box, write the date of your observation. Describe your observations on the back of this sheet or on notebook paper.

Date:	Date:	Date:	Date:	Date:
Date:	Date:	Date:	Date:	Date:

Let There Be Light!

Organizing Topic Investigating Plant Anatomy and Life Processes

Overview Students design an investigation to determine the relationship between plants and sunlight.

Related Standards of Learning 4.1; 4.4a, c

Objectives

The students should be able to

• 
  design an investigation to determine the relationship between the presence of sunlight and plant growth.
  

Materials needed

• 
  50 dried beans
  
• 
  Paper towels
  
• 
  Large clear jar
  
• 
  Water
  
• 
  Paper cups or small milk cartons
  
• 
  Potting soil
  
• 
  Metric rulers
  
• 
  Permanent markers
  
• 
  Graph paper
  
• 
  Attached data sheet
  

Instructional activity

Content/Teacher Notes

Two-to-three weeks before beginning this activity, spread about 50 dried beans on a layer of damp paper towels inside a clear jar, and place the jar near a window that admits sunlight. You will be germinating more seeds than you will need in case some do not make it. Keep the paper towel moist, but do not oversaturate. When the seedlings have developed leaves and roots, they can be transplanted for use in the light experiment. See Procedure on the next page.

To function and survive, plants need sunlight, air, water, soil, and space. In a process called “photosynthesis,” energy from sunlight stimulates the chlorophyll in plants’ leaves. The chlorophyll allows minerals and water collected through the roots to combine with carbon dioxide absorbed by the leaves to make carbohydrates (sugars and starches), which are the plant’s food.

Introduction

1. As the beans begin to sprout, discuss with students the conditions required for the seeds to sprout and grow. (The seeds need light, warmth, and water to germinate.)

2. Ask students if they think the seedlings could continue to grow inside the jar. (They could for a while, but eventually they would run out of space.)

3. Have students predict what would happen to the seedlings if sunlight, air, water, and/or soil were not available. (The plants would eventually die.) At this point you may want to point out that some plants, like water lilies, live without soil. Such plants are specially adapted to draw minerals directly from the water instead of soil. In this investigation, however, students will focus on land plants.

Procedure

1. Divide the class into five investigative teams. Challenge each team to design an experiment to determine whether plants can grow without sunlight. Students should use the Scientific Method Data Sheet as an aid in designing their experiment. Monitor each team as they think through the steps they will take.

2. Have the teams explain their designs, and see if there are any common ideas.

3. Divide the seedlings as evenly as possible among the groups, and have students carefully transplant each seedling into a cup or milk carton containing potting soil. Direct the groups to label their seedlings, using a permanent marker, for identification later.

4. Have the students divide their seedlings evenly into group A and group B. Have them place the plants of group A near a sunlit window; these will act as control plants. Have them place the plants of group B in a dark cupboard or closet; these will be the test plants.

5. When the students water the plants, be sure that those in both groups are watered at the same time and with the same amount of water.

6. As the plants begin to grow, have the students measure the plants at regular intervals and graph the two groups’ average growth on graph paper.

Observations and Conclusions

1. At the end of two weeks, ask the students the following questions:

• 
  Which group of seedlings grew the most?
  
• 
  What other differences did you observe?
  
• 
  What does a plant need to grow?
  
• 
  What parts of the plant seemed to be affected the most by the lack of sunlight?
  
• 
  What happens if a plant does not get enough sunlight?
  
• 
  Why did we place half of the plants in light and half in darkness?
  
• 
  Why was it important to water all of the plants the same?
  
• 
  Can you predict the results if we repeated the experiment but withheld the soil or the water instead of sunlight?