Education Outside
Seed Saving
After a discussion of the factors that affect seed germination, class groups harvest and preserve seeds from the school garden.
Illustrative Mathematics
Growing Bean Plants (Grade 2)
After planting a bean seed in a jar, young scientists observe the growth patterns over several days. As the bean becomes a sprout, and the sprout becomes a plant, partners measure and plot the data. They notice patterns, practice...
Curated OER
Where Do Plants Get Their Food?
Plants need food to survive, just like any other living organism. Young biologists analyze an experiment performed in 1610 by Jan van Helmont to determine if plant nutrition is obtained through the soil. First, lab groups work together...
Tech Museum of Innovation
Seed Dispersal
Engineering challenges are not just man-made ... nature has its own set of them. A hands-on STEM activity has groups designing a seed dispersal system. Each group can only use one sheet of paper — a tough task!
Curated OER
Seed Surprises
Students investigate seeds and their growth. In this agriculture instructional activity, students read the book How a Seed Grows and discuss the seed cycle. Students examine real seeds and identify their properties. Students create a set...
Curated OER
Sumptuous Sprouting Seeds!
Third graders investigate the wonderful and wondrous world of plants. They examine the inside of a seed, explore the different parts of a seed, plant their own seeds, watch them sprout and then eat them! They describe, using their...
Curated OER
Seed Germination
Students explore the process of seed germination. In this botany lesson, students complete an experiment with seeds. Students observe soaked and dry seeds. Students allow the seeds to germinate and make observations during this time....
Curated OER
Seeds in Flight Information Sheet
Seeds in flight are amazing things. Hand out a great information sheet for learners to read. They'll discover facts about seeds, why they spread, and examples of how different seeds get from here to there.
Curated OER
Edible and Medicinal Plants: Field Trip Guide
Though it's designed to guide a field trip to the New York Botanical Garden, you could take resource like this one to a local park, wilderness area, school garden, or even a weedy empty lot. Middle schoolers identify plant parts and...
Curated OER
Sowing Seeds: the Beginning of the Fast Plant Life Cycle
Students plant seeds, observe and tend plants. They identify major plant parts, how to germinate and troubleshoot problems with plants; and, that plants need water, light, and soil nutrients to thrive. They create a Plant Growth Data Log.
Curated OER
Seed Dispersal
Students explore seed dispersal by designing their own wind dispersed seed structure. Using one piece of paper and a box fan, they construct a seed dispersal structure, record the distance their seed travels, and answer discussion...
Curated OER
Retelling the Tiny Seed
Here is a very age appropriate idea that can be stretched, modified, or used as is. Learners review plant parts, discuss pollination, read the story The Tiny Seed, and write a retell sentence. Their sentences describe to way a seed...
Curated OER
Parts of the Plants that we Eat
First graders study plants and their parts to see what parts are edible. In this plant lesson students are assigned plant parts and they are to put them in the right category.
Curated OER
Life Science: Plant Life Cycles
Practice defining words that have to do with plant life cycles. The list included here is mainly for structural units, but could be used to review their relevance and the process of the life cycle.
Curated OER
Kick-Off Seed Explorations
Students explore fruit seeds and recognize that fruit seeds grow into plants like their parent fruit. For this seed lesson, students classify seeds. Students complete a KWL. Students name the fruit the seed is from.
Curated OER
Plants have needs, too!
Plants can die if they don't get enough sunlight and water. Kindergartners observe a picture of a hanging plant and grass under a tree, and interpret which each plant has died. Next, they grow watercress seeds in wet cotton to compare...
Curated OER
Seed Dispersal Quiz
Quiz your kids on how various plants get their seeds dispersed and ready to bloom. They will answer either wind, animal, water, or explosion as a mode of dispersal for the seeds of eight different plants. Tip: Customize this presentation...
K12 Reader
Plant Life Cycles
Plant life cycles are the focus of a life science worksheet that is designed as a reading comprehension exercise. Readers respond to five questions based on the passage.
Berkshire Museum
The Three Life-Giving Sisters: Plant Cultivation and Mohican Innovation
Children gain first-hand experience with Native American agriculture while investigating the life cycle of plants with this engaging experiment. Focusing on what the natives called the Three Sisters - corn, beans, and squash - young...
Agriculture in the Classroom
Seed Match
Using this resource, your team of green thumbs discuss why plants are a part of a healthy diet and the different ways they are used in daily life. They then observe the characteristics of different seed as they attempt to match them with...
Curated OER
Introduction to Plants
A vast overview of avascular and vascular plants, this PowerPoint displays all of the notes your botanists need to take. It lists primitive plant groups and their characteristics. It separates gymnosperms and angiosperms, also detailing...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Mosses and Ferns
Mosses and ferns are some of the world's oldest types of plants. Here is a quality 10-slide presentation set to gentle background music for beginning botanists to view and enjoy. Accompanying captions explain that these are both...
Curated OER
What's Wetland Allelopathy?
Students study plants and what they need to thrive and survive. They make plant extracts from chosen wetland plants and test their allelopathic effects on the germination rate, radicle growth, and hypocotyl growth of test seeds of other...
Curated OER
Plants: Scattering Seeds
Middle schoolers collect and microscopically examine seeds from the school yard and neighborhood. In small groups, they draw and discuss the shapes of the seeds to determine each plant's method of dispersal. they also test two types of...