Activity 1.2: Expressing Ideas About How Plants Grow (30 min)

Ask students to write down questions they have after taking the pretest. Explain that we will try to answer most of those during the Plants Unit.

If you decide to use the Big Idea Probe: Houseplant for a Busy Family, have students complete it and share their ideas. See Using Big Idea Probes and Assessing the Big Idea Probe: Houseplant for a Busy Family for suggestions about how to use the Big Idea Probe.

Use the link in slide 3 of the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions About How Plants Grow PPT (or above) to have your students observe a radish plant growing.

• Show Slide 4 and ask students to share ideas about the questions on that slide.
• In response to the second question on the slide about what radish plants need, note whether the students mention four basic needs:
  • Water
  • Air
  • Sunlight
  • Soil nutrients

Show slide 5 of the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions About How Plants Grow PPT.

• Tell students that now they will take a few minutes to think and record their ideas about what happens when plants grow on their own.
• Give each student one copy of 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions Tool for Plants Growing.
• Give students about 5 minutes to complete the tool as individuals.
• Encourage students to think about things they have seen in the world to help inform their ideas.

Show slide 6 of the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions About How Plants Grow PPT.

• Tell students that now that they have had a chance to record their ideas on their own, it is important to compare their ideas to their classmates’ to see how they are similar and different, and also so we know how many different ideas there are in the class
• Divide students into pairs and have students compare their ideas on the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions Tool for Plants Growing with each other. As students are sharing, circulate through the groups. Consider asking questions such as Do you agree with each other about XX? Where did you learn about that? What experiences have you had to help you with your explanation?.
• At this point, do not correct any wrong ideas; treat this as brainstorming.
• Pay attention to patterns in students’ ideas, or specific individual ideas that diverge from the patterns as both may be valuable to discuss as a whole class later.

Tell students that now that they have had a chance to write their ideas as individuals and as pairs, it is important to look at the range of ideas in the class. Again, at this point, do not correct any wrong ideas. Treat this as brainstorming: all ideas are on the table.

• Show slide 7 of the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions About How Plants Grow PPT.
• Give each pair 2 sticky notes.
• Tell students to write their most important idea from their 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions Tool for Plants Growing on a sticky note and put it on the board under the “Your Ideas” column.
• Tell students to write their most important question from their 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions Tool for Plants Growing on a sticky note and put it on the board under the “Your Questions” column.

Lead a whole class discussion to examine the variety of student ideas and questions on the poster. Use the talk and writing moves at the beginning of this lesson to help with facilitating the class discussion – see the Notes part of the slide.

• Show slide 8 of the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions About How Plants Grow PPT. Note that this slide is a duplicate of the previous one but with a new heading. Take this time to discuss students’ ideas, organize them according to patterns, etc.

Show slide 9 of the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions About How Plants Grow PPT. Have students partner-read the 1.2 Plants Storyline Reading: Learning from the Work of Asima Chatterjee which explains the storyline of the unit and connects it to the work of scientist Asima Chatterjee. Have students read using the Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy. See the Questions, Connections, Questions Reading Strategy Educator Resource document for information about how to engage students with this strategy.

• After pairs are finished reading, have students share with the class what they found interesting and any questions they have.

Show slide 10 of the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions About How Plants Grow PPT.

• Tell students that they will revisit these ideas later in the unit to see how their thinking changes.
• The class can also return to shared ideas on Slide 7.

Show slide 11 of the 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions about How Plants Grow PPT.

• Pass out a Learning Tracking Tool for Plants to each student.
• Explain that students will add to the tool after activities to keep track of what they have figured out that will help them to answer the unit driving question.
• Have students write the activity name in the first column, "Expressing Ideas and Questions about How Plants Grow."
• Have a class discussion about what students did during the activity. When you come to consensus as a class, have students record the answer in the second column of the tool.
• Have a class discussion about what students figured out during the activity that will help them in answering the unit driving question. When you come to consensus as a class, have students record the answer in the third column of the tool.
• Have a class discussion about what students are wondering now that will help them move towards answering the unit driving question. Have students record the questions in the fourth column of the tool.
• Have students keep their Learning Tracking Tool for future activities.
• Example Learning Tracking Tool