Survival

A plant has a basic structure that helps it survive in its own environment.

In this activity the classroom breaks into teams of two to four students, and then models a plant.

The teacher presents a challenge for the students, such as designing a plant that will be able to survive in a desert or on the forest floor with lots of shade.

The students then model the plant, with roots, stem and leaves, and try to help the plant have defenses. Humor is allowed, for example, if the students want to arm the plant with a defense against an animal, and so on.

This activity can be used to reach the Oregon Science benchmarks of

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.

The method to use with this experiment is to encourage the students to ask their own questions about light. Once the questions are asked then the scientific process can be used to design an experiment.