Seed to Seedling | Pre-K - Kindergarten 

Students plant seeds to explore seed germination and what seedlings need to survive.

• K-LS1-1. Plants need water and light to live and grow.

Plants & Pollinators | Grades 1- 2

Students use dissection to understand the purpose of a flower and model pollination to explore the relationship between plants and pollinators.

• 1-LS1-1. Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
• 2-LS2-2. Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.

Plant Adaptations | Grades 3 - 5

Students explore how plants have adapted to survive the challenges in their environments.

• 3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
• 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Photosynthesis | Grades 6 - 8

Students use microscopes and refractometers to understand how plants make their own food.

• MS-LS1-6. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms

Look, No Seeds! Chromosome Exploration 

Students work together to dissect a fruit and extract the DNA from within its cells. Then, students model the meiosis process to better understand why some plants don’t produce seeds.

• HS-LS3-1. Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.

Plant Adaptations | Grade 3

Students investigate the connection between environmental challenges and plant adaptations. Students construct explanations for why plants have certain traits given their environments.

• NGSS: 3-LS3-2 - Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits: Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.

Form & Function | Grade 4

Students explore plant form and function and construct arguments for how external structures help plants survive challenges in different environments.

• NGSS: 4-LS1-1 - From Molecules to Organisms: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Plant Survival | Grade 5

Students investigate how plants obtain necessary matter and energy in different challenging environments.

• NGSS: 5-LS2-1 - Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.