The beginning of this is an activity that matches plants to their environment.

Modeling activity - Each plant is modeled and then explained how it has adapted to its environment.

Plants used on the activity sheet

Sayroyo cactus

air plant

succulent

Dandelion

Clover

This modeling activity should lead to many questions. There are coloring sheets for each of the plants, which sets up the environmental conditions necessary for growth.

We now set up an environment and the children get to design a plant to live in that environment.

Modeling activity: We are going to build a colony on Mars. We will have to build a module to allow the plants to survive. What would this module include?

In this activity, much effort will go into setting up the structure and some inner structure furniture. There may be a few aliens and even an unfortunate astroid attack.

Important parts of model are to have a source of carbon dioxide (that can be a person of an animal), or mechanical devices.

Source of water. Water should be supplied to the plant, at least through the roots. Roots should also be kept in the dark in some way.

Water can also be supplied through the leaves, and this makes sense to keep the plant clean.

Nutrients have to be supplied in some way. The nutrients can be in water supply, in the media, or delivered in some way. The important point is nutrients are supplied, not the manner used.

Temperature - temperature must be maintained in the range the plant can tolerate. The moon has extremes of temperatures and the plants must be protected. Again the point is that the temperature is maintained, not how it is maintained.

Light - the plant should have at least 12 hours a day of quality light. A lighting device should be added to the model, it should be at least 12 hours, and it should be quality light (full spectrum).

Humidity - This will be a very hard concept to grasp, and will not necessarily be understood by the time of the model. Humidity should be controlled between 65 and 85%. It can be understood at model time as water in the air.

Notes to the teacher:

1.Ask questions about objects, organisms, and events that are based on observations and can be explored through simple investigations.

2. Plan a simple investigation.

3. Collect data from an investigation.

4. Use the data collected from an investigation to explain the results.