Provide hands-on activities for practice and mastery. Check for understanding of concepts and skills by using relevant standard materials, i.e. worksheets, text problems, workbooks, teacher prepared exercises, etc.
Text questions,
Leaf, light & starch inquiry, Stomata inquiry, Root/stem lab, Water transport inquiry
Activity:
"Is light necessary for the production of starch in plants?" from Biology: As Scientific Inquiry by Ron Thompson. Students design an experiment in which one plant is place in the dark and one in the light for 1-3 days, starch tests are conducted on the leaves (must heat the leaves in water to break down the cell walls and boil in alcohol to extract the chlorophyll before applying iodine solution to determine if starch is present or not). Once students are certain that they do need light for starch production, many contradictions are presented such as "How come potatoes are made of starch when they grow under ground in the dark?" This is followed by a second experiment in which the leaves without starch that had been in the dark are placed in beakers in the dark, one with water and one with glucose solution. After 1 day, the glucose leaf tests positive for starch even though it had been kept in the dark. Students must then modify their previous conclusions. Glucose is needed to make starch, but light is needed to make glucose (photosynthesis).
2) Microscope labs to look at the structure and function of:
• stomata
• monocot and dicot leaves
• roots
• monocot and dicot herbaceous stems, woody stems
3) Study guides, annual ring and twig growth worksheet, questions from text.
4) Water transport inquiry lab (PDF file with each experimental set-up is attached). Students must hypothesize and design experiments using bean plants to determine:
• What role does the amount of leaf surface area play in the movement of water through a plant?
• Which plays the most important role in the movement of water through a plant, the absorption of water by the roots or the evaporation of water from the leaves?
5) As time permits, have students work with growing plants using hydroponic technology.
