Lesson Title: Seed Dispersal Drama

Transcription

1 Lesson Title: Seed Dispersal Drama Statement of Purpose: This lesson explores the different methods of how seeds are dispersed in an ecosystem. Lesson Summary: Students will explore the six methods of how seeds are dispersed: poppers, passers, grabbers, fliers, droppers, and floaters. They will use skits in order to teach their teammates about each of the methods. LEARNING GOALS: Enduring Understanding emphasized: U1 Learning can be joyful, empowering, and inspire a sense of wonder. U2 Environment and community require many interconnected systems. Knowledge developed: K2 Students will know that in a given place some organisms thrive and some don t. K3 Students will know that organisms interact in a various ways. Skills developed: S3 PREDICTING, ANALYZING, INTERPRETING and REPRESENTING information using creative, scientific, and verbal approaches. Age group: 4th 6 th grade Venue/s: Anywhere with an open space Materials: Whiteboard Seed examples Time: -Set up: none -Lesson/activity: minutes Assessment: Students will match types of seed dispersal with each performance by peers, using evidence from the skits performed. Hook: If students have read The Tree That Came Home, begin the lesson referring back to when Doug s life began. Where did the tree come from? How did it get to where it first germinated? What did it need to survive? This can similarly be done with other books, like The Tree in the Ancient Forest or even The Lorax. Alternately, begin with a few examples of seeds maple samaras, fir cones, and cedar cones are great examples. Assess students prior knowledge: what are these? Where do they come from? What purpose do they serve in an ecosystem?

2 The core lesson: Introduce the term seed dispersal: the process of moving seeds away from the parent plant. Depending on student prior knowledge, begin with the term disperse what does it mean, when do you use it? and build up to seed dispersal from there. Examine any two plants of the same species that are not right next to each other wherever you are teaching the lesson. For example, in Creaky Tree Meadow you might look cedar trees on opposite sides of the meadow and discuss how they came to be there. Explain that as a field group you will be learning about all the different methods plants use to disperse their seeds. Each pair or group will create and perform a short skit representing one method of seed dispersal. Write the names of the six methods on your whiteboard: poppers, passers, grabbers, fliers, droppers, and floaters. Explain to the students that after seeing all the skits they ll have to use evidence of what they saw to make an educated guess of which name matches which skit! (Alternately, use page 13 of the student journal to introduce the types of seed dispersal they re listed at the bottom of the page and use this page for a ballot during performances.) Divide students into six groups or pair. (If you have enough students to do one method per group, or into three groups if you have fewer students. The instructor and chaperone can be a group, too!). Give each group a slip of paper* describing their seed dispersal method (or two if you have three groups), and examples like fir cones, fruits, or samaras if you have them: 1. Poppers: Poppers have stalks that hold the seed to the plant. Over time the stalk gets dry and weak, and when the plant is moved (by wind or something brushing against it) the stalk snaps ("pops") and sends the seed flying. Examples: Many grasses do this. 2. Droppers: Droppers don't have any actual dispersal method; they in fact just drop their seeds to the ground. 3. Fliers: Fliers have wing-like structures that help the fruit "fly away" when it falls off the plant. Examples: Maple trees. 4. Floaters: Floaters have light fluffy strands that help the seed float away on the lightest of breezes. Examples: Dandelions, milkweed, cattails. 5. Grabbers: Grabbers are known as burrs: those prickly little round things that get stuck in your socks when you walk through a field or brushy area. They have little barbed structures that grab onto clothes or an animal's fur. 6. Passers: Passers are edible fruit, often very sweet, that get eaten by animals, then pass through their digestive tracts, then get "deposited" somewhere else complete with fresh fertilizer! Examples: All the sweet fruits we like to eat: apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, tomatoes, etc. *Cards with pictures for each dispersal method to print out are at the end of this lesson plan. Give students 5 10 minutes to plan and practice their skits. Make sure they spread out enough so they don t overhear each other! Emphasize that they should NOT use the name of the method in their skit, since their teammates will be trying to guess using the clues they give them in the

3 skit. You may suggest that if there are different characters in their skit (a seed and a coyote, for example) they introduce who each character is at the beginning of their performance. Then, call them back to perform. During the performances, have the list of the six dispersal methods visible (or have students open their journal to page 13). Each group or student can keep a tally of which skit they think was each method, perhaps making their own ballot in their field journal. At the end, invite each group to reveal the name of their method. Have students assess how many they had correct on their ballot. Discussion Questions to enhance learning: Throughout the lesson: How can a seed move away from its parent plant? What types of plants use these methods? Can you think of more examples for a particular method of seed dispersal? What evidence from a group s skit do you have for choosing a certain name for that dispersal method? At closure/debrief Why is it important for seeds to be dispersed in an ecosystem? Why might different plants use different methods for seed dispersal in an ecosystem? What would happen if a certain method of seed dispersal failed? Can you think of a way one might fail? How are other parts of an ecosystem involved in seed dispersal? Abiotic factors? Other biotic factors? Animals? Conclusion: Debrief the skits as a whole, extending the conversation to the importance of seed dispersal, and its connection with the rest of the ecosystem. Keep a lookout for different dispersal methods you see for the rest of field study that week! You could additionally extend the lesson to have silent charades after learning about each of the seed dispersal methods. Have one student silently act out a plant using a specific dispersal method and have other students guess which one it is! Safety Considerations: Watch out for emotional safety as students prepare to perform. Taking the stage in front of peers can be a real risk, no matter how informal. Extension Idea: If you are going to visit the garden, or are including a discussion of cultural elements, add one more type of seed dispersal: gardening! One pair of students (or even the instructor and/or chaperone) could act out humans planting seeds from a packet or saved seeds from a previous year of gardening. This allows the discussion to move to the human role in seed dispersal, and possibly even into invasive species and restoration efforts.

4 As you travel around the IslandWood property in the following days, point out plants to students and ask for the dispersal method, or challenge students to find their own examples of plants that use particular dispersal methods. Created by Shelley Levin on February 4, Seed Dispersal Cards to Print Poppers Droppers Fliers Poppers have stalks that hold the seed to the plant. Over time the stalk gets dry and weak, and when the plant is moved (by wind or something brushing against it) the stalk snaps ("pops") and sends the seed flying. Examples: Many grasses. Floaters Droppers don't have any actual dispersal method; they in fact just drop their seeds to the ground. Example: Douglas Firs simply drop their cones to the ground. Grabbers Fliers have wing-like structures that help the fruit "fly away" when it falls off the plant. Examples: Maple trees. Passers Floaters have light fluffy strands that help the seed float away on the lightest of breezes. Examples: Dandelions, milkweed, cattails. Grabbers are known as burrs: those prickly little round things that get stuck in your socks when you walk through a field or brushy area. They have little barbed structures that grab onto clothes or an animal's fur. Passers are edible fruit, often very sweet, that get eaten by animals, then pass through their digestive tracts, then get "deposited" somewhere else complete with fresh fertilizer! Examples: All the sweet fruits we like to eat: apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, tomatoes, etc.

5 Planted This seeds are planted by humans. Naturally, these plants may use any other type of dispersal method, but humans help out in this case by saving seeds and planting them, usually in a specially prepared and cared for garden.