Teacher: Clara Schneider, Toto Wu

Date: March 20th, 2018

Grade Level: 2

Objective: Students will be able to construct a habitat for a specific type of plant and
explain how the habitat meets the plant’s needs for survival.

Standards:
NGSS:
2-LS2-1.
Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to
grow.
2-LS4-1.
Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different
habitats.

CCSS:
Life Science (Science)
3.2.F.1 Explain that organisms can grow and survive in many very different habitats.
3.2.C.1 Explain that there are identifiable stages in the life cycles (growth,
reproduction, death) of plants and animals

Engineering and Technology (Science)

7.3.C.9 Develop an understanding of engineering design
7.3.C.10 Develop an understanding of the role of troubleshooting, research and
development, invention, and experimentation in problem solving
7.3.D.11 Develop the abilities to apply the design process

Writing (English, Language Arts, and Reading)

4.2.A.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts
and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
4.2.B.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and
strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
4.2.B.6 With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to
produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
4.2.C.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of
books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).
4.2.C.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided
sources to answer a question.
Reading Informational Text (English, Language Arts, and Reading)
3.2.A.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to
demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
3.2.D.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including
history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2-3 text complexity
band proficiency, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Resources/Materials:
● Variety of seeds (dracaenas, cactus, lotus, cattail, sensitive fern)
● Soil
● Dirt
● Sand
● Cardboard boxes
● Containers
● Plastic bins
● Cups
● Helping Plants V.S. hurting plants T chart
● Chromebooks
● Research recording sheet
● Data collection sheet
● articles

Vocabulary:
Habitat- the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism
Litter- trash, such as paper, cans, and bottles, that is left lying in an open or public
place

Students will encounter these words throughout the lesson and they are pertinent to
understanding of concepts and activities. Some direct instruction of vocabulary may
have to be done, especially for students who do not speak English as their first
language. Words will be provided on a word wall with pictures and examples for
reference throughout the lesson sequence.

Engagement:

● Students will take a nature walk and observe plants around the school yard -
collecting litter as we go.
Ask students such questions as:
❖ Do you see anything in the garden/school yard that doesn’t belong there? How
do you think it got there?
❖ What do you think might happen to the plants and animals if there were more
garbage?
● Have a discussion about the things we have found in the school yard.
 ● Conduct a T chart of what is helping the plants grow and what is hurting them
(water, soil, sun is helping, litter/people are hurting them)
Ask students:
What did you put on the ‘helping’ side? Why do they go on this side? How go they
help?
What did you record on the ‘hurting’ side of your t chart? What made you put these
items in that category?

Broaden the horizon: Do you think these are only problems that we have in our
schoolyard? Where else might we find harmful things in the environment? Is there
anything we can do about it? (This will help set the framework for the second half of
the learning sequence)

(Resource #1)

Teacher Note: Since the objective of the nature walk is to identify the needs and
barriers of plants, teacher will need to make sure students are provided with
opportunities to observe the plants as well as the litter during the nature walk.

Exploration:

● Each group will be given a different plant.

● Plants with different habitats are provided for students:
➢ Dracaenas - prefer grow in the dark, need to avoid direct sunlight
➢ Cactus - live in mix of sand of soil
➢ Lotus - live in water
➢ Cattail - live in extremely moist soil
➢ sensitive fern - common plants in maryland, need full sun with ample moisture

● Students will work collaboratively on the chromebooks in a group to research

on the plants to decide on their habitat needs.
❖ While students are researching, engage them in conversations by asking
questions such as: What does you plant need to survive? Where can your plant
find these resources?
❖ Relate plant needs to human needs by asking: Are there certain things that
humans need to survive? Are there places that are better/worse for people to
live based on temperature, ground type, resources, etc.

● Students will be present a selection of materials that they could use for building
the habitats for their plants.
❖ By allowing students to choose their own materials, they must be able to justify
 what to use and what not to use based on knowledge of their plant needs. They
will have to apply knowledge they learned from their research to make their
decisions.
➔ Why did you choose the soda container for your plant habitat instead of the
shoe box? (Our group has a lotus plant, and we know that they live in water. A
shoebox will not hold water but a soda bottle will.)
➔ Why did you choose a light for your habitat? (Our group has a cactus and we
know that cacti live in the desert. Since it is very hot and sunny in the desert,
we think our plant will need a lot of heat and light from this light bulb.)

(Resource #2)
● Students will work together to build the habitat going through the engineering
design process- brainstorm, plan, build, reflect.
❖ Allowing students to guide themselves through the design process will allow
them to apply their knowledge of what their plant needs to their habitat.
❖ Discussion will engage students in defending their ideas with the knowledge
that they acquired during research (i.e. one student may suggest that their
group put a lamp over their plant because it needs light and warmth to grow,
while another student may point out that in nature that plant is only getting light
and warmth during the day time, so they will need to turn off their light at the
end of the day or put it on a timer)
❖ If a group has chosen the cactus, they may engage in a discussion about what
ratio of sand vs. soil they need in their habitat. If these types of questions arise,
remind students that they may need to continue further research to come to a
conclusion. They might research what benefits the sand gives vs. what benefits
the soil gives. Suggest what will retain most water, what will provide most
nutrients to the plant, etc.

(Resource #3)
● Students will keep a line plot and data chart recording growth of their plant over
time.
❖ As students collect data, they will also practice the skill of asking and
answering questions based on provided data.
❖ Students can do a gallery walk of other groups data and engage in discussion
about why one group’s plant may be growing faster, and another may not be
growing as much.
❖ This is also an opportunity to revisit the design process and remind students
that sometimes, when your design doesn’t work, you evaluate and redesign.
Give students the opportunity to change their habitat and observe the effect on
their line plot to determine whether or not their change was beneficial.
Possible Misconception: The misconception of the needs of plants. Students might
think plants can only grow in soil, and all plants need a lot of sunlight. For example,
cactus grow in a mix of sand and soil, lotus grow in water, and dracaenas prefer grow
in the dark.

Explanation:

● Once they have made their habitat they will individually conduct an explanatory
writing that explains the following questions.
➢ What materials did they use to build the habitats for their plants?
➢ What is the reason that you pick the materials for building your habitat?
➢ How did you build your habitat?
➢ Why will the habitat you built work to meet the needs of your specific plant?

● Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some

organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive
at all
❖ Students’ ability to construct an argument will give the teacher more formal
feedback to assess student understanding of the unique needs of organisms,
while also hitting an informative writing standard
(Resource #4)

Elaboration:

● Students will read informational texts about how littering is affecting plants
being able to grow and hurting our environment.
❖ Texts will be differentiated to meet students’ reading levels
❖ This extension will relate our in class experiment to something that they can
see in their everyday lives and something that is a concrete issue easily
comprehensible to that age group
● Students will make a multimedia PSA with their group to get the school to stop
littering (this could be posters around the school, written announcements,
video, skit for an assembly, etc.)
❖ Allowing students the freedom to choose how their present their information will
encourage students to take ownership of their learning and engage them more
than assigning them a certain format.
❖ In addition, providing opportunity to present information in multiple mediums
will help meet the learning styles of different students in your class. For
example, if a group did a skit, one child could lead the way on writing the script
 while one plans out props and actions, and another works to put the project
together electronically. It is important to allow students who have different
talents and intelligences to utilize these skills.
● Students could use Powtoon, Discovery Education boards for their
presentation\
❖ It is important to provide our 21st century learners with opportunities to explore
and gain confidence with different technological programs and resources.
Computer literacy is a growing need for today’s learners and workforce.
Students will need more support and guidance at the beginning (especially in
the earlier grades), but should then been phased out to more independent
technology use.
❖ This is also a good opportunity to integrate appropriate technology use into
your lesson. Reminding students what it means to be a good “digital citizen”
and other dos and donts of technology use.

Articles:
Facts on Littering for Kids (https://classroom.synonym.com/facts-on-littering-for-kids-
12564880.html)
Litter and Pollution (http://www.ecokidsusa.org/lap.html)
Oceans of Trash (http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3752034)

Evaluation:
Look at results of growing plants and reflecting on change made in the school

❖ The reflection portion is especially important in a longer lesson sequence such

as this. Students should engage in thoughtful conversations about what went
well with their design process and what they would change if they did it over
again.
❖ This is also a good opportunity to engage students in conversations about
collaborative work by posing questions such as:
➔ What was one thing your group did well when working together?
Communication? Compromise?
➔ What is one positive attribute that you contributed to your group?
➔ What is one way that you might improve to be a better group member? What
do you want to work on for next time?
Students will design a survey to pass out to the school to determine whether they
made a positive and impactful change in the school with their PSA and cleaning up
trash.

❖ Being able to determine criteria for success is an important critical thinking skill
 and allow students to analyze what they wanted to achieve with their project. A
teacher designed survey will not have the same effect as allowing students to
create it themselves.
(Resource #5)