Spring Time Activities
Seeds and Germination
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A SciShow Kids (5 min video) tells what a seed needs in order to germinate. The parts of the seed is shown.
SciShow Kids (5 min. video) does an experiment where they try taking away water, sunlight, or grow in sand to see how they grow.
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This UnTamed Science (3 min video) explains the difference between a mono-cots and and dicot. It is for the curious teacher or upper elementary student.
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Lesson: Stomata and Respiration
The fourth lesson looks at the leaves and stomata. Students are assessed on what they know about water transported through a plant and secondly what they learned about leaves through the introductory lessons.
Read Aloud (fiction chapter): Top Secret by John Reynolds
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Project Budburst Activity: Plants Exchange Air (Takes one 30 min class, followed by 2-20 min observations)
Comparative Question;
Is the most amount of water vapor collected from Leaf A, Leaf B, Leaf C or Leaf D? Are the stomata located on the top or bottom of the leaf? Materials: Vasoline, ziplock bags, labels, sunny days Copies of packet A-Z Science "Gas Exchange in Leaves Data Sheet" found under "Process Activities" under Plant unit. Suggested Vocabulary: carbon dioxide, leaves, oxygen, photosynthesis, stomata, transpiration, water vapor, ,
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 https://anjungsainssmkss.wordpress.com
/2012/02/14/stomata/
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Project Budburst Activity:
Explore leaf shape, color, texture and size. (45-60 min) Suggested Vocabulary: transpiration, mid rib, side vein, stomata
Video on transpiration in the rain forest (2 minutes)
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All About Roots
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Project Budburst Activity: Compare fibrous and tap roots (60 min.)
Comparative Question:
How does a tap root differ from a fibrous root?
Materials: Dandelions and another weed to share with a partner. Hide the top part of the weed for a mystery picture. |
Image from fatalii.net/Bonsai_Chiles_Bonchi
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Background Knowledge:
Tap root is a large and thick straight root that tends to grow down. There are other roots that grow laterally.It is seen when the plant is a dicot. It is often hard to pull up but hard to transplant. The dandelion and carrots are good example of a tap root. Dicot flowers tend to have 4 or 5 petals or multiples of 4 or 5. The fibrous roots are seen with monocot and has many branched roots. It is seen with many grasses. Leaves are usually long and narrow. The leaves tend to have parallel veins.The flowers tend to have 3 petals or multiples of 3. Adaptations:
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Image from diffen.com/difference/Dicot_vs_Monocot
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Tap roots are dicots. Fibrous roots are monocots
Parts of a Flower
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Project Budburst Activity: Flower Parts
Introduction (fiction picture book): On Meadowview Street by Henry Cole (Discuss "Did this little girl change the world?") Materials:
One half class set of same type of flower One half class set of a variety of flowers One half class set of tweezers Parts of flower diagram Comparative Question: How are two different types of flowers alike and different in structure from each other? Teacher background information on the shape of flowers. This slide show talks about the male and female parts of a flower.
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Image from www.naturopathichealth.tumblr.com/
Teacher background information on the flower structure and function (12 min video)
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Project Budburst Activity: Pollen (30 min)
Materials:
Students note the animals and types of flowers they are attracted to (11 min. video). This can be used for ideas students can design their own flowers.
Naturalist Outreach discusses the different kinds of pollinators (20 minutes).
A video on flowers (20 minutes).
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All About Bees
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Book by Raymond Huber and Brian Lovelock (5:58 min video).
National Geographic presents how awesome bees are to the Earth (2 min.).
Bee Girl explains why bees are important (6:45 video).
Bee sure to check out the Kids and Bees page and see the video on the waggle dance.
Bee StructureIn one minute watch a bee go through the metamorphosis process.
A Bill Nye video on insects (2 minutes).
Enchanted Learning printout of a bee for student labeling.
Can you figure out what the structure of the bee is by reading the description? Try it!
For Dummies website gives the anatomy of the honeybee.
Enchanted Learning cloze
Want a bee board game and cards? Check out this link.
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http://bbe-tech.com/bees/bee-identification/
Bee BehaviorThe role of the different bees in the hive (about 2-3 min.).
How does a bee become a queen? is a 4 min. video clip on how a bee is fed royal jelly to become a queen.
PBS video of what happens inside the bee hive. (2:41 video)
BBC presents why a hive may be made of hexagonal shapes (3 min.).
Short 2 min. video watching a bee pollinate a flower.
Smithsonian Channel explains the waggle dance among honeybees (3 min.).
Phineas and Ferb do the waggle dance (1 min 42 seconds).
Learn all about bees in a schoolyard and some safety measures (about 10 min.).
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Bee Stuffs Its Pollen Baskets (about 2 1/2 min.)
Pictures of the pollen baskets with pollen pellets.
Bee Colony CollapseTed Talks "Why are honey bees disappearing?"
Bee sensors are used to track bee paths (1:20 min)
Robotic bees used for pollination (2:30 Video)
A second robotic bee video by Nova (2:21 min).
Moving HivesLiving Hives discusses pollination of orchards. (4 min 37 secs)
News video on an overturned truck
Flight of the Honey Bee (about 2 minutes) showing how hives are transported from place to place during seasonal changes.
Two live cams of a bee hive
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Additional Resources
Create a bee fact game using some free game board templates.
http://www.mes-english.com/games/boardgames.php
http://www.mes-english.com/games/boardgames.php
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Seed Dispersal
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Project Budburst: How Seeds Are Spread (45-60 min)
Watch this dandelion change from flower to seed (about 2 min.).
Talks about how dandelion seeds are dispersed efficiently (about 2 min).
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image from treeonline.wordpress.com/
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A 3 minute video from Stembites on seed dispersal.
The different ways seeds are dispersed (12 min).
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Dissecting and Planting Flowers
What parts of a plant do we eat?
