1. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow? (Day 5, 6, 7, or 8) Kennewick School District

2. Overview At this stage of the growing cycle (approximately Day 5, 6, or 7—possibly 8), the plants have grown tall enough for students to measure and record their height in centimeters on a graph. This is an opportunity for students to apply graphing skills to the experiences they are having growing plants. This is a hidden slide for teacher information. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

3. Lesson Objectives  Students learn how to measure their plants to the nearest centimeter.  Students begin keeping records of their plant growth on a bar graph. This is a hidden slide for teacher information. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

4. Background Measuring, or making quantitative observations, is one of the most basic skills of science. One of the benefits of the exercise is that it stimulates students to make concrete comparisons precisely. Rather than saying “My plant is bigger than your plant,” students can boast “My plant is two whole centimeters bigger than your plant!” Of course, measurements may be done with a ruler, but students might enjoy the two other methods described in the Procedure section of the teacher’s guide. Using paper strips to measure and graph offers a very concrete experience for the child. Using centimeter cubes, which are available in many classrooms, is more abstract. This is a hidden slide for teacher information. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

5. Background (cont.) To monitor the plant’s progress accurately, measuring and graphing need to be done frequently throughout the unit. Because the plant will be growing most actively during the first 18 days of the cycle, it is very important to schedule the maximum number of measurements during that time. From Day 9 to Day 13, readings will be most dramatic because this is when the plants have their growth spurt. (Read more about this in Lesson 7.) After Day 18, there will be relatively little upward growth. But it is important to continue measuring and graphing (perhaps only once a week) not only for additional practice but also to confirm that growth has indeed slowed. Students will discover that the reason for this is that the plant is busy developing flowers and seeds. This is a hidden slide for teacher information. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

6. Materials list For each student:  Student notebook  1 quad of plants  1 sheet of centimeter graph paper (see Appendix F of teacher’s guide)  1 strip of paper precut to 1 centimeter wide (see Appendix F of teacher’s guide)  1 pair of scissors For the class:  1 bag of 500 snap-together centimeter cubes  Glue  Crayons STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

7. Wisconsin Fast Plants Growth Graph  Place the Wisconsin Fast Plants Growth Graph into your notebooks.  Write today’s date and the age of the plant in the appropriate place.  Choose one plant to measure for the rest of this unit.  Move your name label to that cell of your quad to mark the plant you have chosen. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

8. Measuring with paper strips… STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

9. Measuring with paper strips…  First, hold the paper behind the plant. The bottom of the paper should rest on either the potting mix or the pot rim.  Mark the height of the plant by drawing a line on the strip.  Fill in the squares below that line.  Double-check by holding the paper up against the plant again.  Cut off the darkened squares.  Lay the darkened strip on the sheet of graph paper above the correct day number and glue it in place. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

10. Continue measuring and recording the height of your plant. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

11. Clean up. Return all equipment to the distribution station and throw away trash. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

12. Discussion  What measuring and recording techniques did you learn during this lesson? We will be using the same measuring techniques each time we measure and graph the plants. STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

13. Discussion  Why is it important to continue to measure the same plant each time? Did you remember to write today’s date and the age of your plant on the graph? STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?

14. Update your Table of Contents STC Plant Growth and Development Lesson 5: How Does Your Plant Grow?