Home

                             Teacher's Pages 

 Activity 17- Creating Models and Concept Maps to Show How Plants Get Their Food

                                                                                   Activity 17 - Students Pages


Apply new ideas - Teacher Fade

Purpose: 

To apply all the ideas about photosynthesis and food transport in plants in creating models of
the plant processes. The teacher can use these tasks as key assessment tools.

Materials:

Props for skits:

Large poster board representations of cotyledons, sun, question mark, etc.,
Watering can container of "plant food" minerals/fertilizers
Construction paper and scissors for students to make some additional props or labels
Sugar cubes mixer of some sort -- wire whisk, hand mixer

For Concept Maps:

Large poster paper for each group or pair of students
Markers
Scissors
Post-it notes (optional)
"Word cards" (use the word sheet in the masters section or create your own or have students create their own)

Optional: The Magic School Bus Gets Planted: A Book about Photosynthesis (based on an
episode from the animated TV series)

Options and Recommendations:

You may choose to have your students to one or both of the representations. It is NOT wise to have students attempt both representations on the same day.

It is critical that the students get a chance to present and get feedback about their models, whether they do the skits or the concept maps or both.

FRAME

Read or talk about models as suggested here.

Introduce either activity in terms of creating models.

You may want to establish certain rules for each activity, such as:

Skits must involve all group members with speaking parts.
Skits must use all the vocabulary words listed on the handout.
Skits must include at least one question that you are still wondering about plants.

Concept maps must use all the vocabulary words listed on the handout.

Additional words are encouraged.

Post-its may be used in the planning stages, as the group negotiates placement of words.

Post-its may be used in the final draft for words that need to move to different places in the presentation of the concept map.

Arrows connecting words must be labeled to tell the relationship between the two connected words (this may too advanced for some students to do effectively at this point).

ACTIVITY

Group Work: Allow at least 20 minutes for students to work. The skits will take more time.

REFLECT AND CONNECT

Presentations: Involve the audience as scientists who are reacting to/critiquing the models that are being presented. Give each audience member a feedback form to guide their listening (in masters section).