Plant Adaptations Primary
Primary Teachers' Guide
Education @ Adelaide Botanic Garden is made possible by a partnership between The Department for Education and Child Development and the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide.
Acknowlegements
Content: Steve Meredith and Michael Yeo
Illustrations: Gilbert Dashorst
Contents
- Bookings
- Subscribe
- Purpose and Australian Curriculum Connections
- How to use this guide
- Before and after the visit
- When in the garden (Guidelines for school groups)
- Trail Map
- Plant information, key points and discussion ideas
Bookings
Bookings are essential
Whether teachers are planning a self managed visit or a session planned with the education manager, for reasons of risk management, emergency alert and OHS, bookings are essential for all school visits.
Phone: 82229311
Fax: 82229399
Online: www.botanic.sa.edu.au
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To discuss possibilities or book the Education manager for a session
Phone: 82229344 or Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Subscribe
Stay up to date with what's happening by subscribing to our e-info newsletter.
© 2013 The State of South Australia, Department for Education and Child Development and the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide. This publication is protected by copyright. It may be reproduced by South Australian teachers for use with their students.
Purpose and Australian Curriculum Connections
Purpose of Plant Adaptations
Target year levels: 4 - 7
Key ideas: As an environment develops or changes, plants adapt or die.
Students will investigate 2 extreme environments, the desert and the rainforest and investigate how plants have adapted to too much water and not enough light or too much light and not enough water.
Students are encouraged to observe, analyse, inquire, record, hypothesize and connect knowledge they already have with new learnings.
TfEL: Provide an authentic context in which to engage learners and build their understanding whilst using a range of learning modes.
How to use this guide
Purpose of Plant Adaptations
Target year levels: 4 - 7
Key ideas: As an environment develops or changes, plants adapt or die.
Students will investigate 2 extreme environments, the desert and the rainforest and investigate how plants have adapted to too much water and not enough light or too much light and not enough water.
Students are encouraged to observe, analyse, inquire, record, hypothesize and connect knowledge they already have with new learnings.
TfEL: Provide an authentic context in which to engage learners and build their understanding whilst using a range of learning modes.
Before and after the visit
The plants on the trail are numbered and may be found by referring to the map of the Adelaide Botanic Garden and by looking for plant name labels.
- The student guide should be photocopied so that each student has a copy of student activity materials and the map.
- Prior learning – it would be useful if students have a basic understanding of some of the terms used in the trail.
- This excursion is outdoors; students may require sun protection. In the colder weather raincoats or umbrellas are good. There are lots of protected spaces in the garden.
Before the visit:
Discussions:
• Why we look the way we do.
• Climate change and how living things cope.
• The essential needs of plants
Vocab introduction:
|
JP |
Primary |
Secondary |
|
adaption |
adaptation |
adaptation |
|
Common features |
Common features |
Common features |
|
Climate change |
Climate change |
|
|
Photosynthesis |
Convergent evolution |
|
|
Photosynthesis |
||
|
Chlorophyll |
||
After the visit:
Encourage students to bring their family back again at a different time of the year.
When in the Garden
(Guidelines for school groups)In the garden students must be supervised at all times.
Before starting your walk please remind your group that:
- Gardens are peaceful places for people to relax and enjoy
- Walking slowly and talking quietly ensures everybody and everything will enjoy the gardens
- Plants are fragile, touch them gently
- Flowers, leaves, bark, seeds etc. growing on plants or lying on the ground are there for all to enjoy. When you have finished with plant material found on the ground always return it to the garden
- Keeping to paths and not walking on beds or borders avoids damage to plants.
The garden is a special place. Please leave it as you find it.
Map
Plant information, key points and discussion ideas
THE
Introduction
On arrival at the
They may come up with no leaves, spines, grooves, rounded shapes etc. Ask them to think about the purpose of such structures as they now begin to work with the plants.
Conditions in the
Students are first asked to consider five aspects of the non-living environment. By circling the appropriate words students should be able to establish the general conditions under which these plants grow in the desert.
As a rule deserts experience high temperatures, dry humidity, dry soil, light winds and full sun however all responses from the table occur at different times in the desert. Desert plants have to cope with a variable environment.
Plants of the desert
On this page students will record their observations of five desert plants. They will observe:
LEAVES Does the plant have leaves or not?
SPINES Does the plant have spines or not?
COLOUR Is the plant dark or light green in colour?
GROOVES Does the plant have grooves or not? These are long indentations which run lengthwise along the stem generally from the top of the plant to the ground.
The various observations the students will make concern the problem plants face with the lack of water and high temperatures in the desert environment.
LEAVES Leaves are absent on the cactus plants. This reduces the loss of large mounts of water through pores in the leaves. Aloes store water in their thick, succulent leaves.
SPINES Spines provide shade for the stem and reflect heat because of their lighter colours.
In some cases cacti spines are able to condense dew into droplets.
COLOUR Compared with the plants surrounding the
GROOVES Grooves may assist the plant by strengthening stems, providing shade, channelling rainfall or dew onto the roots They also allow for the expansion and contraction of the plant as it gains and loses water.
THE BICENTENNIAL CONSERVATORY
Introduction
The plants in the Conservatory come from
Take the lower path from the entrance and ask students to observe both the 'weather' and the plants as you wander to the other end. The stark contrast in growth with desert plants should be noted.
Conditions in the Conservatory
The southern end of the Conservatory is a good spot to sit the students down and discuss the environment of the rainforest as mimicked by the Conservatory conditions.
Students should note the warm temperatures in summer (22OC-31OC), high humidity (more than 70%), wet soil, no wind and reduced sunlight. Within the rainforest proper there is little variation of these conditions hence the need for a Conservatory to grow rainforest plants in
Plants of the Rainforest
On their activity page students will record observations regarding five plants located in different parts of the Conservatory. They will observe:
LARGE LEAVES Are the leaves large?
DRIP TIP Does the leaf come to a point in one or more places?
COLOUR Is the leaf dark green or light green?
STEM COLOUR Are the stems green?
The various observations the students will make concern the problem plants face of too much water and too little sunlight on the rainforest floor. The two groups of plants looked at on this trail have very different structures that enable them to survive equally well in their two very different environments.
LARGE LEAVES The larger the leaf, the greater the surface area for light absorption.
DRIP TIP The tip at the end of the leaf drains water from the plant. Less water on the leaf reduces the growth of moulds, lichens and mosses on the surface of the leaf. This extends the life of leaves.
COLOUR
There is little sunlight at the bottom of the rainforest. The dark green colour of the leaves increases their capacity to absorb sunlight.
STEM COLOUR Green stems increases the amount of sunlight the plant can capture. This leads to an increase in food production.