Learning Objectives
- Youth will collect and examine the characteristics of different plant types. Students will identify edible plant parts and summarize plant life cycle. Student’s will discuss the importance of plants in a healthy diet.
Background:
Plants are made up of many different parts. Each plant part serves a purpose and performs a specific function. The six main parts of a plant are roots, stem, leaves, flower, fruit, and seeds. Some plants have very distinct and easy to see parts, others can be very unusual and hard to identify. For example, a tree has plant parts that are pretty easy to see and identify but a cactus looks strange and most people don’t realize that the prickly part of a cactus are not thorns but actually the leaves of a cactus plant! Plants have a variety of growth habits meaning they grow in all kinds of habitats and can take on many different shapes or “growth habits” such as vines, ground covers, shrubs, upright stalks, trees, underwater and everything in between. Some plants even grow high in the tops of trees without any soil at all. These are called ‘epiphytes’ and include orchids and mosses. In this lesson, you will learn to identify parts of a plant that are edible.
Materials and Resources
1. Scavenger Hunt_Plant Parts
2. Parts of a plant_Polly Powell_GGMGA
3. Plant parts_key
4. Roots; Radish, beets, or carrots
5. Stem; Celery or asparagus
6. Leaf; Mixed Greens
7. Flower; Broccoli or cauliflower
8. Fruit; Sweet Peppers
9. Seeds; Pumpkin and sunflower seeds
Opening Activity: ~15 minutes
Possibly 25 minutes in which the youth go outside and collect things that represent plant parts. This will set them up for the main lesson.
Content Lesson and Activities: ~60 minutes
The activity flows from the introduction activity. The youth eat their way through different functional parts of a plant; seeds, stems, leaf, flower, and fruit. As the role models distribute the parts of the plant they are also explaining plant-part functionality relative to the health of the plant and utilizing plant-part worksheets.
*Check to make sure there are no food allergies & wear gloves
1. Start by asking learners some of the different things we use plants for (review of lesson 1 Source Search Relay). Bring to their attention that all those products utilize different parts of the plant. Give some examples: wood for floors, houses is from the trunk of a tree or the stem, cotton for clothes and fabrics is made from soft fluffy fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds, rubber for tires, bottom of a shoe, basketball, garden hose is made from the sap of a tree.
2. Introduce the activity: we are going to create our own plant from all the parts of other plants. Hand out paper plates and parts of the plant worksheet. Instruct learners to taste some and save some of the sample that you are handing out. Give them enough to taste right away and to create a plant model. They can eat their model after the activity is finished!
3. Seeds: hand out pepitas or sunflower seeds. Seeds are how plants travel (wind, water, in the belly of an animal, hitching a ride). Youth can taste some seeds but they need to save some for their plant model too. Have the youth fill out their worksheet as you talk through the purpose of seeds.
a. Some plants have many seeds: Can they give examples of seeds? Dandelion, grass, almonds, corn kernels, peanuts, Apples, oranges, watermelon, peppers, strawberries (on the outside of the fruit!)
b. Some plants just have one big seed or pit: can they give an example? (avocado, peach, coconout, olive)
c. Seeds hold all the energy that a plant needs to start growing (example: a mighty oak tree comes from a tiny acorn)
d. Seeds get to where they are going, find some soil, get warmed by the sun, add a little water, and germinate. The first part of the plant that a seed produces is a Root called a radicle.
4. Roots: hand out beet, radish, or carrot.
Ask the youth if they can think of another example.
Here are other examples; Sweet Potato (regular potatoes are actually stems), turnip, rutabaga, ginger
Root functions:
a. Anchor the seed in place
b. Gather nutrients and water from the soil
c. Store water and nutrients
5. Stem: hand out celery.
Ask the learners if they can they think of another example.
Here are other examples: Cinnamon, asparagus, potatoes
Stem functions:
a. Hold the plant upright
b. Move water and nutrients from soil (roots) to the leaves
c. Take water and nutrients from leaves (photosynthesis) back down to the roots
6. Leaves: hand out some of each so the learners have a variety of shapes and colors to taste (spinach, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, arugula, etc.)
a. Photosynthesis (plants are autotrophs, they make their own food using energy from the sun)
b. Regulates transpiration (water and gas exchange)
7. Flowers: hand out broccoli or cauliflower “florets”
Ask the learners if they can they think of another example.
Here are other examples; broccoli heads, artichoke, calendula, nasturtium, violets, pansies, orchids
a. Attracts pollinators; first stage of plant reproduction
b. Creates fruit
8. Fruit: hand out sweet peppers (one per youth) and have the leaners open it up to find the seeds before tasting.
Ask the learners if they can they think of another example.
Here are other examples: apple, pear, grapes, cherries, oranges, plus veggies as the plant’s “fruit” (seed container), e.g., peas, beans, zucchini, tomato.
a. Holds the seeds of the plant; created from ovary of flower
9. Back to the seed: final stage of plant reproduction
10. Youth should have constructed a model of a plant from all their plant parts(examples below). They may eat their plant model if they choose.
Compost the scraps and put in worm bins from lesson #6
Closing Activity: ~15 minutes
Utilize objects that students can identify as parts of plants (examples: laminated pictures, coconuts, asparagus, banana leaves, etc.)
Journal prompt: what is your favorite part of the plant and why? Can you think of any man-made tools or items that function the same way your favorite plant part does?
Lesson Resources and Credit for Adaption:
Johns, Marilyn, et al. TWIGS. UC Cooperative Extension, San Mateo & San Francisco Counties. “Eat Your Plants Nutrition Activity #3,” “Plant Part diagram”, pp 69-71.
Morris, Jennifer and Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr. UC Davis Nutrition Dept. Nutrition to Grow On. California Department of Education Publication. “Plant Parts We Eat,” pp 16-19.
Evers, Connie L. How to Teach Nutrition to Kids, 1st edn. 24 Carrot Press. “Veggie Plant Parts” and “Plant Part Art Activity.” pp. 50-52.
Media Attributions
- lesson 7
- lesson 7_2