Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning

Lesson 5E Lesson
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Trees in the Wind

Growth and Development of Organisms

Heather Shaffery, Heather Shaffery, Chelsea Archie | Published: May 30th, 2025 by K20 Center

  • Grade Level Grade Level 6th, 7th, 8th
  • Subject Subject Science
  • Course Course Life Science
  • Time Frame Time Frame 3-4 class period(s)
  • Duration More 180 minutes

Summary

In this lesson on how plants grow and develop, students will research specific plant behaviors and perform classroom investigations to learn how the environment affects plant growth. Students will focus on using evidence to explain their ideas and make predictions. (Funding provided by USDA Project No. 2012-02355 through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, Regional Approaches for Adaptation to and Mitigation of Climate Variability and Change.)

Essential Question(s)

How does the environment influence plant growth and development?

Snapshot

Engage

Students observe and generate questions about the cause(s) of unique plant growth phenomena in several environments.

Explore

Students choose a plant phenomenon to investigate, construct an initial explanation about how the environment causes the observed phenomenon, and then find evidence through research to support or refine their explanation.

Explain

Students share their phenomena with the class and construct explanations for how the local environment influenced the patterns they observed.

Extend

Students collect data from an indoor plant investigation to use as further evidence regarding the impact of the environment on plant growth.

Evaluate

Students use their own data to support a revised explanation of the phenomena they investigated. Then they make predictions about the role of genetics in the phenomena they observed.

Materials

  • Lesson Slides (attached)

  • How I Know It handout (attached, one per student)

  • I Notice, I Wonder handout (attached, one half-sheet per student)

  • I Used to Think, But Now I Know handout (attached, one per student)

  • Phenomenon Explanation handout (attached, one per student)

  • Plant Growth Observations handout (attached, one half-sheet per student)

  • Explore Research Notes handout (attached, one per student)

  • Internet-connected devices

  • Plant phenomena media

  • Fast-growing plants

  • Materials for growing plants in various conditions

Engage

15 Minute(s)

Use the attached Lesson Slides to guide the lesson. Introduce the lesson title on slide 2, the essential question on slide 3, and the lesson objective on slide 4.

 Move to slide 5. Distribute a copy of the I Notice, I Wonder handout to each student. Introduce the I Notice, I Wonder instructional strategy and have students make observations and ask questions about pictures of trees growing sideways. Remind students that "I notice" statements should be qualitative observations, not inferences. Use the information on slide 6 and work with students to distinguish between the two. Remind them that "I wonder" questions may or may not be testable or scientific, which is acceptable at this point. Use this opportunity to help students practice asking scientific questions.

Trees growing sideways in Redondo Beach, CA. Photo credit: Chelsea Archie
Image Source: Ben. (2011, February 20). Slope Point. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/55198242@N03/5460426633

Transition to slide 7. Facilitate a whole-class discussion and document a class list of observations and questions by asking students to share what they wrote.

Explore

30 Minute(s)

Move to slide 8. Divide students into pairs and direct them to select a plant phenomenon from a short list. Inform them that they will be researching the questions they developed using their chosen plant phenomenon. For example, they may choose to examine plants that turn red in sunlight, Impatiens capensis (exploding "touch-me-not"), or Mimosa pudica sensitive plants.

Go to slide 9 and distribute the Phenomenon Explanation handout. Instruct students to use their chosen phenomenon as their starting place to investigate the life history of their plant (e.g., how it grows and reproduces, where it is found, etc.). Before beginning research, have students write down their phenomenon of choice and an initial explanation for how the environment contributes to it on their handout. 

Next, distribute the Explore Research Notes handout (attached), which contains questions and note-taking prompts to guide students in their research of the chosen phenomenon. From here, instruct students to expand their research to gather information that will help them construct a more accurate explanation later.

Explain

25 Minute(s)

Go to slide 10 and distribute the How I Know It handout (attached). Introduce students to the How I Know It instructional strategy. An example How I Know It graphic organizer is shown on slide 10. Throughout this portion of the lesson, invite students to use the strategy to develop their graphic organizer. Ask them to record everything they know about how the environment affects plant growth based on their prior knowledge and the research they conducted during the Explore on the inside of the circle. Outside the circle (inside the square), ask them to provide evidence that supports the ideas they listed. These pieces of evidence could be personal learning experiences, quotes or brief summary statements with their sources, or other observations.

Transition to slide 11. Ask each student group to share their research findings. Since multiple groups will likely have the same phenomenon, after the first group reports, ask the additional groups to provide any other information they found in their research. As an alternative to a group-by-group, whole-class discussion, have the groups who studied the same phenomenon team up to develop a visual (poster, Google Slides presentation, etc.) representation of their collective research. The class could then share out through group presentations or a Gallery Walk/Carousel of research posters.

As students learn about their classmates' research, remind them to add ideas inside the circle of their How I Know It graphic organizer and cite their classmates' presentations in the square outside the circle. If this is a whole-class discussion, take a few minutes after each group to allow students an opportunity to update their graphic organizers.

Move to slide 12. After the share-out, provide additional content details students might need that they did not discover on their own. These details will depend on the phenomena students are researching, and they should highlight the environmental factors involved. Take time to address students' misconceptions as well, either through direct instruction or guided questioning of the class. Revisit the class "wonders" from the Engage and have the students answer any questions the class has uncovered in their research.

After the share-out, move to slide 13 and introduce students to the Why-Lighting instructional strategy. Provide students with an opportunity to explore some additional reading resources (see a list of options provided in the box below). Ask students to think about what environmental factors are affecting plant growth and how those factors are affecting the growth and development of plants as they read. Direct them to highlight any important information they find and add additional ideas to their graphic organizers as they read.

Following the reading, transition to slide 14. Have the class come together and develop a list of all the environmental factors affecting plant growth that they have discovered. Record the list on a poster or whiteboard and leave it available to students for the next portion of the lesson.

Extend

30 Minute(s)

Go to slide 15. Provide students with an opportunity to develop investigations that explore the effects of environmental factors on actual plants. Instruct students that their investigations should involve either growing their own plants or working with plants that are already established (e.g., from a nursery or garden center). Allow students to self-select their environmental factors for investigation and provide the scaffolding and boundaries appropriate for your classroom.

Distribute the Plant Growth Observations handout (attached). Direct students to record their plant growth observations on the handout. After the investigations have concluded, instruct students to revisit their ongoing How I Know It graphic organizers. This time, have them add final ideas from their own plant growing experiences. 

Move to slide 16. Give students time to reflect upon the content of their graphic organizers. Ask students to determine the most important ideas they captured during the lesson that explain how the environment affects plant growth. Instruct students to highlight, circle, or otherwise mark the ideas which they feel are the most important effects of the environment on plant growth. Then, ask them to further refine their lists by deciding which sources of evidence are most reliable (e.g., readings, peer presentations). If students have not evaluated the quality of scientific information, this would be a good opportunity to work on that science practice.  When students have finished their annotation, allow them to ask any clarifying questions they still have.

Evaluate

15 Minute(s)

Revisit class questions from the Engage "Wonder" statements and try to answer any questions that remain.

Go to slide 19. Have students revisit their initial phenomenon explanations. On their Phenomenon Explanation handouts, have them revise their original explanations or write new explanations based on their understanding of how the environment affects plant growth. Remind students that the revised or new explanations should include the evidence students selected from their How I Know It graphic organizers in addition to the scientific details.

Resources

Publisher

K20 Center

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Standards

ACT College and Career Readiness Standards - Science (6-12)
IOD403: Translate information into a table, graph, or diagram
IOD505: Analyze presented information when given new, simple information
SIN401: Understand a simple experimental design
SIN404: Identify similarities and differences between experiments
EMI401: Determine which simple hypothesis, prediction, or conclusion is, or is not, consistent with a data presentation, model, or piece of information in text
EMI502: Determine whether presented information, or new information, supports or contradicts a simple hypothesis or conclusion, and why
EMI602: Determine whether presented information, or new information, supports or weakens a model, and why
Next Generation Science Standards (Grades 6, 7, 8)
MS-LS1-4: Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
Oklahoma Academic Standards (8th Grade)
8.LS1.4 : Use arguments based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.

Facilitator Resources

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  • Lesson Slides - Trees in the Wind

Learner Handouts

Click on a file type icon to download an attachment.

  • Explore Research Notes—Trees in the Wind
  • How I Know It—Trees in the Wind
  • I Notice, I Wonder—Trees in the Wind
  • I Used to Think ... But Now I Know—Trees in the Wind
  • Phenomenon-Explanation-Trees-in-the-Wind
  • Plant-Growth-Observations-Trees-in-the-Wind

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