From Seed to Seed:
Plant Science for K-8 Educators

Grades: 5-8

Associated Lesson Topics:

• Flower anatomy
• Sexual reproduction
• Pollination

National Standards:

• SCIENCE: Standard C
• LANGUAGE ARTS: Reading 5, 7, 10

Planting the Seed...

How many different parts of the flower can you name? What is the function of these different parts? How do we, as humans, take advantage of flowers? Have you ever eaten a flower? Can you think of any flower characteristics that we can use to identify plants?

Teacher Information:

This activity is designed to assess what students have learned about the different parts of the flower. Before this activity, students should be familiar with the functions of sepals, petals, pistils (ovary, style, stigma), and stamens (anthers). In addition to driving pollination and sexual reproduction, these flower parts play an extremely important role in the identification of flowering plants. In this activity, each student will design a flower with the specifications that you give them.

Necessary Materials:

• Flower cards. Make up enough flower cards for each student to have one. Make all of the cards different from one another. On each card, provide the information that the students will need to successfully build their flowers. For example,
  
  Sepals = 5
  Petals = 7
  Style = 1
  Anthers = 10

• Construction paper.
• Scissors.
• Glue.
• Pipe cleaners.
• Yarn.

Procedure:

• Provide each student with a flower card.
• Once students have read the information on their cards, they should build the requisite flower. You can decide whether or not to allow them to use their notes or a textbook.
• Have students assign an inventive name to their flower.
• Collect their flowers along with the flower cards for assessment.

Harvesting the Crop...

What animal or insect pollinator might be attracted to your flower? What led you to make this suggestion? How do you think those plants that do not have all of their parts carry out sexual reproduction? What are some advantages and disadvantages of incomplete flowers?

Would you like to know more?
Additional Online Resources

• Wildflower Wonderland-Web site from Golfview Elementary School in Florida which provides suggestions on how to teach wildflower identification and the importance of preserving native plants.
  http://www.brevard.com/golfview/wildflowers/

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