PLANTS IN ACTION
This term Year 3 are studying the life cycles of plants. We will be learning about the various stages in the lives of flowering plants by observation and investigation.
Parts of a Flowering Plant
The Wonderful World of Seeds
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GERMINATIONSeeds are amazing things. They contain everything a new plant needs to begin growing. They can also lay dormant (asleep) for a very long time and then burst into life producing a plant. (Click on image above to see a time lapse of a seed germinating)
Watch the video on the right for a great explanation of how seeds become plants. Click on the image of seeds on the left to see a very good explanation of how seeds germinate (begin to grow). There's even an explanation of how to collect your own tomato seeds to grow and how to grow sprouts. |
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2000 year old magnolia seedClick on the image below to watch a video describing an incredibly old seed that came to life!
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Plants in Space!!The image below is of a sunflower seed that was germinated on the International Space Station. Astronauts are now able to grow (and eat) lettuce on the station!
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PLANT GROWTH
Green leaves (and stems) get their colour from chlorophyll - an incredible molecule that allows plants to capture the energy of sunlight to make their own food. Photosynthesis - the process by which they do this - is an incredible process that is also keeping you and me and everything else on Earth alive!! Click on the images below and watch the video to understand how plants do this.
Leaves - the food making factories of plants
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Plant growth in the forest
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The Curious case of the Peanut - a fruit that grows underground!!!.
So! I discovered that a peanut (which develops underground is not part of the root system of the plant but is in fact, the fruit and seed!! So after the lovely yellow flower is fertilised, the ovary enlarges and grows towards the ground forming a structure called a 'peg'. After the peg grows into the ground, the peanut begins to develop at the end. A single plant can produce up to 40 or more peanuts in this manner.
FLOWERS!
Why do plants make flowers??
If your answer was "to attract bees to get nectar" ... that's only part of the story. Flowers are essentially the seed making factories of the plant. Click on the videos and photographs below to learn all about the parts of a flower and how they help a plant REPRODUCE.
This is a difficult concept to get your head around but - every fruit comes from a flower!! That's right - every banana, apple, pumpkin, cucumber, chilly, watermelon, strawberry, mango, lychee ..... all of them grew from a flower!!
Click on the links below and learn more....!
This is a difficult concept to get your head around but - every fruit comes from a flower!! That's right - every banana, apple, pumpkin, cucumber, chilly, watermelon, strawberry, mango, lychee ..... all of them grew from a flower!!
Click on the links below and learn more....!
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POLLINATION
Watch the slide show below to understand why plants need bees and bees need plants! And of course not just bees but many many other pollinators as well.
Even in winter, there are flowers in bloom if you stop and look ... Look at the beautiful flowers in our neighbourhood and also from the succulent garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.
Seed Dispersal
One of the interesting discoveries that many students made through this unit was the startling diversity in seeds and fruits that exist in our world. Here are some videos illustrating that variety - most from the wonderful BBC documentary series The Private Life of Plants.
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Seed aviation - a look at some of the wonderful aerodynamic shapes created by evolution long before humans invented flying machines
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How does being eaten by an elephant save an acacia seeds life?
Warning: Features footage of elephants doing their business! |
Why does the Australian mistletoe bird need to dance?? Find out in this lovely video.
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A Cucumber is a Fruit???? and other wonderful discoveries about plants
It has been wonderful fun having so many of our misconceptions challenged in this unit. Hopefully all the Year 3s will always remember another of Mrs. Rao's 'laws' - "It is has seeds inside, it must be a fruit"!! Watch the video below for more revelations.
INDIGENOUS PLANT USE
As we discovered when we examined the plants that we eat - almost all of our food plants are not native. This wasn't of course always the case. Aboriginal Australians who have been on this land for 60,000 years have been using the native flora not just for food but medicine, shelter, weapons and much more. Watch this interesting clip from ABC Splash to find out just a little bit more.
