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Grade:
K-2
3-5
6-8
9-12
Information
for Teachers
Lifecycles of Plants: Growing Through
Changes
This unit consists of a two- to three-week in-classroom study that is
paired with a trip to the Garden. Teachers wanting to participate in
this program are required to go through an orientation with Garden
staff.
Through an investigation that begins in the classroom and continues at
the Garden, students explore the pattern of change that occurs during
the life-cycle of a plant. As a seed grows from a seedling to a mature
plant, then flowers and ripens its fruit, it produces a new crop of
seeds. Students observe, measure and record these changes as they grow a
variety of plants from seed in the classroom. Through their experiences,
students build an understanding of a plant life-cycle as a predictable
sequence of change that occurs as a plant grows from a seed to produce
the seed that starts the next generation. Click here for a copy of
the
Lifecycles
unit. Click here for a copy of the Lifecycles
powerpoint
presentation. If you
are unable to open the powerpoint,
click here for a
PDF version.
Interdependence: Links Between Plants
and Animals
This unit consists of a two- to three-week in-classroom study that is
paired with a trip to the Garden. Teachers who want to participate in
this program are required to go through an orientation with Garden
staff.
Through an investigation that begins in the classroom then moves to the
forest itself, students explore the interdependence of life in a
longleaf pine forest community. They discover ways the animals use and
depend on the plants as well as ways woodland plants depend on the
animals. Students learn about ways animals use forest trees, shrubs,
wildflowers and other groundlayer plants: for food, for nests and homes,
and for shelter and hiding places. They also investigate ways the plants
are dependent on forest birds, insects and other animals: to pollinate
flowers, to disperse seeds, and as the decomposers that return nutrients
in dead organisms back to the soil for growing plants. Helpful websites
include:
Click here
for a copy of the
Interdependence
unit.
Longleaf forests:
http://www.longleafalliance.org
http://www.jonesctr.org/index.html
http://www.ttrs.org
Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers
http://rcwrecovery.fws.gov/rcw.htm
http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/redcockadedwoodpecker/
Pitcher Plants
http://www.uga.edu/gpca/
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html
Gopher Tortoises
http://www.gophertortoisecouncil.org/
http://www.uga.edu/srel/gopher.htm
Plant Adaptations
In this unit students will explore the diverse adaptations that enable
plants to survive and clothe our planet in green. Any plant must meet
certain basic needs to live, yet plants grow in widely varying
conditions all over the earth. Students investigate adaptations that
allow plants to survive in dry conditions, in the water, in poor soil,
in shade and through the winter. As they study these five tough
environments, they develop an understanding that every kind of living
organism has a unique set of adaptations to its environment. Students
relate the concept of adaptation to the real world problems of city
street trees, a human-created environment that combines all five tough
conditions. They learn about scientists' current research on the urban
forest, how to measure environmental growing conditions of local street
trees, and how to select trees which are adapted to survive these
conditions. The unit culminates as students choose an action to help the
urban forest in their area.
Click here for a copy of the
adaptations
unit.
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Killer Plants!
This program teaches students the unique ways in which
carnivorous plants obtain nutrients and how protection of these
special plants is so important. How does a Venus Flytrap know
when to close? How do Pitcher plants "eat" their prey? |
Beginning August 2006, there is a $2 per
participant fee in Garden educational programs to cover
programmingcosts. In case of limited resources, please
contact Carolyn Altman at 912.486.7816.
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