Traveling Seeds
Grade Levels: 3 - 5
Objectives
- Students will use vocabulary related to seed travel.
- Students will learn why seeds travel.
- Students will learn three ways that seeds travel.
Materials
- Traveling Seeds worksheet
- Traveling Seeds website
(http://www.sfscience.com/english/grade_3/unit_A/chap_1/act_3/1.htm) - Educational websites about spreading seeds and seed growth
Procedures
- Introduce key vocabulary: environment, floating, gliding, hitchhiking.
- Have students visit the Traveling Seeds website and write predictions about how they think seeds travel before they print out the activity worksheet or visit the other websites.
- Ask students to complete the worksheet using the information they find at the websites.
- Have students work individually or with partners.
- Set up a time when students can come together to share their predictions and discoveries.
Assessment
Use a rubric to assess students' ability to make predictions, navigate the Internet, participate in a group discussion, and understand the concept of seed travel.
Extension Activities
- Choose from a large collection of cross-curricular activities for all grade levels.
- Explore outstanding lessons and activities in the Plants theme.
- Have students explore a Dandelion website to find out about "nature's parachute." While visiting the site, students can link to other topics that explore air travel. Challenge students to try some of the air projects.
- Have partners or teams work together to design and make seeds that float, glide, or hitchhike. Allow time for students to share their creations with the class.
Standards Correlations
National Science Standards
Students develop an understanding that:
- plants and animals progress through life cycles of birth, growth and development, reproduction, and death; the details of these cycles are different for different organisms.
- each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.
- all organisms cause changes in their environments, and these changes can be beneficial or detrimental.
National Educational Technology Standards
Students:
- use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
- demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems.
