Historical perspectives

Researching the Past, to Discover the Future

Submitted by sarahp on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 11:54

Grade Level: 8-12

Materials:

Posterboard for six groups of students

Exploration

1. As a class, list what the students think are the most important plants for their nation. Discuss why each of these plants may be on the list. Ask the students to give a general location of where these plants (regions and climates) are grown.

Module 1: Teacher's Guide

Submitted by sarahp on Sun, 08/01/2010 - 01:22

Time: 8 days, 30-45 minutes/day

Overview: Students explore the importance of mountains, how mountains are made, and graphical representations of mountains on maps.

Objectives: To spark student interest in the investigation of mountains and to increase familiarity with mountain characteristics and formation.

National Standards Addressed (attached below)

Introduction to Plant Breeding

The following activity is from the Harvest of History, an online fourth grade curriculum that introduces students to agriculture of the past and present, emphasizing its importance in our lives.

Biodiversity Matters

Scientists have learned to breed and engineer crops that can grow bigger and faster, and are disease resistant. But at what cost to our cultural and ecological diversity? Although there are certainly benefits to these advances, many experts are concerned that this focus on "engineered" plants has caused us to rely on too few species of crops and to lose vital genetic information available from naturally evolved plants. Another threat to "genetic diversity" is rapid deforestation, which destroys many wild species of plants.

Invention Investigation

Objectives

Students will:
- Study the characteristics of a plant to come up with ideas about how it was used historically or is now used.
- Discover that plants play an important role in history.
- Learn about less obvious but important contributions plants make to their lives.

Central Concepts

- Plants are a part of our daily lives.
- Plants provide important economic products other than food and landscaping.

Collecting Plants: A Pressing Project

Submitted by editor on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 14:59

Making Herbaria, Field Guides, Gifts

When European explorers struck out in the 16th century to discover parts unknown, they often returned with samples of plants they'd met along the way. As this collection of treasures soon exploded, botanic gardens were hard pressed to keep living samples of the whole lot. So botanists devised a solution: create a collection of pressed plants.

Curriculum Connections

Exploring Schoolyard Microclimates

Cultivate Inquirers

Invite the class to brainstorm what the word "microclimate" might mean, then try to agree on a definition or description. (It refers to the climate of a small, local area that differs from the general climate because of differences in sun/shade, temperature, wind, or moisture.) Ask, What factors might affect the climate in a given location? Then have small groups investigate the school grounds, find places they think might have different microclimates, and describe each location.

A Garden Fit for a Dinosaur

Submitted by admin on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 10:32

Although dinosaurs are extinct, many of the plants found in their habitats are still thriving today. By incorporating these prehistoric plants into your landscape, you can bring the world of the dinosaurs to your own backyard or school garden.

Prairie Visions

"Although our region was once covered with 18 million acres of prairies, only one percent of those remain," explains White Bear Lake, MN, school parent volunteer Anne Reich. "Our students are used to seeing grasses in lawns, but had little clue about the amazing beauty, diversity, and adaptations of grasses and other native plants in a prairie ecosystem," she adds.

Squeezing Water from Rocks

Submitted by admin on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 15:15

"It's so dry in our part of New Mexico that our school gardeners diverted runoff ditches and set up collecting tanks to catch rainwater runoff," reports Santa Fe, NM, parent volunteer Molly Toll. The elementary school gardeners, still challenged to provide enough moisture for their precious plants, decided to set up nine plots to experiment with ways to maintain moisture for plants.