Instructional Lesson Plan- STEM 434

Lesson Overview
Overview
Lesson Author: Conley Hausle Date: 7 October 2018
Grade Level: Second Grade
Subject Area: Science (what plants do and how they are used) and Health (identifying foods from plants
and animals)
Time Allotment: Initial lesson will be about an hour, but students will spend ten to twenty minutes a day
working in the garden throughout the year.
Short Description:
In this lesson, students will learn that plants provide oxygen, homes and food for many animals (this
includes humans!). This integrates with the health standard that requires students to identify foods that
come from plants and animals. This will occur by identifying what foods come from plants and growing
a garden of edible plants like tomatoes and celery, which will be eaten by the class (barring any food
allergies) at the end of the year.
Standards
State Curriculum Standards met in this lesson:
Science: Earth Resources: Standard 2.8 The student will investigate and understand that plants
produce oxygen and food, are a source of useful products, and provide benefits in nature. Key concepts
include C: plants provide oxygen, homes, and food for many animals

Health: Essential Health Concepts: Standard 2.1 The student will identify the major body systems, healthy
food and beverage choices, emotions, and social skills, and explain how each is connected to personal health. B:
Identify foods that come from plants and animals.
Instructional Outcomes:
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
 Identify a plant
 Explain that plants provide food, oxygen, and homes
 Identify at least five foods that plants provide
 Work with each other to grow a garden
Focus: “Big Ideas” & “Essential Questions”
 Plants provide food, oxygen, and homes for many animals, including humans.
 Many foods come from plants.
 Humans can grow some plants to provide their own food.
 What foods come from animals?
 What foods do you know come from plants?
 Where do you think oxygen comes from?
 What is a fruit?
 What is a vegetable?
 How do plants provide homes for animals? How do they provide homes for people?
 Can you all grow plants? Why or why not?
 What foods can we grow in a garden?
 Do you think there is an advantage to growing your own plants for food?
Procedures
Lesson Set/Launch
The teacher will start by showing a. plant life cycle video. The teacher will then introduce the concept of
some foods (like vegetables and fruits) coming from plants, as well as the idea that plants provide
oxygen and shelter. This will include the teacher asking questions of her students to get them involved
and to determine what they already know. After this, the teacher will have a set of 25 cards. Students
will identify if the image on each card is a food, if it comes from a plant, if it is both, or if it is neither.
This will allow the teacher to ascertain how much her students understand this concept already, as well
as give the students an introduction to the topic.
Rationale:
I will relate this lesson to my students by asking what fruits and vegetables they eat. This will require
them to utilize their personal experiences. Furthermore, I will sue the project of a class garden to make
my students work together and produce a product they can (hopefully) be proud of. I can even show
them that they can grow their own food. This is the kind of lesson I would have loved as a child.
Techniques and Activities:
1. (Engage): Teacher will introduce topic to students via a video and class discussion. Teacher will
also indicate to students that what they learn in this lesson will be used throughout the school
year in a year long project.
2. (Explore): Students will learn about plants and the food, oxygen, and shelter they provide. This
will be done via a class discussion, as well as through materials (like the video and worksheet)
that the teacher will provide.
3. (Explain): Students will respond to the teacher’s cards to make sure they understand the lesson
and can identify food plants.
4. (Evaluate):Students will label a diagram of plant parts.
5. (Evaluate): The students will take a quiz on the material they have learned.
6. (Elaborate): Students will select the plants they will be growing in the garden (the only
requirements being that the plants are not too expensive and that the plants produce food).
7. (Explore): The students will spend the rest of the school year caring for the garden. This will be
done in daily spurts of fifteen to twenty minutes. This will allow the students to understand how
to care for plants and growing their own food will give them a sense of accomplishment.
8. (Elaborate): The students will do more research on the plants they are caring for, and they will
find the way to best care for them.
9. (Explore): At the end of the year, the students will eat the plants they have grown (barring any
food allergies).
Lesson Closure:
The original lesson (the one about plants being food) will close with students picking the plants we will
grow in the class garden. This will hinge on the students understanding what plants are and are not
food. The students will be assigned to groups caring for the plants they chose, and they will be told that
throughout the year they will be caring for this garden. The students will be more engaged because they
get to pick the plants they grow. They will also get to pick how the plants we grow are prepared for
eating, although this will occur later in the year.

Assessment/Evaluation:
  Each student will take a quiz on plants. It will be a simple quiz that will show if they know that
plants produce food, can give some examples of foods produced by plants, and if they know the
difference between plant foods and non-plant foods.
 Students will label a diagram of plant parts.
 The students will also be evaluated on their teamwork while cultivating the class garden. They
will need to prove they can work together (mostly) harmoniously in order to achieve their desired
result (a viable garden).

Student Products:
Students will grow a class garden throughout the semester. Each student will be assigned a specific
plant to care for (some plants may have multiple students caring for them). At the end of the school year
the class will take any fruits or vegetables grown in the garden and will eat them (again, barring any
food allergies).

Supplemental Activities:
Extensions:

Students who grasp the concept well will be charged with making up ideas for a meal based on the
plants the class is growing. They may also be charged with doing research to figure out how to properly
balance a meal and make it (somewhat) nutritionally sound, again using the plants we are growing as a
basis for the meal. They may also help their peers who need remediation.

Remediation:

Students who need remediation will likely work with the students that understand the topic best. This
will allow them to get a different explanation than the one that the teacher gives, an explanation that
they may understand more. They will also likely be assigned to larger plant care groups, where they will
have more help from both the teacher and other students. Finally, I would have them re-watch the turtle
diary video and play the game that goes along with the video.
Adaptations for Special Learners:
Learners with Disabilities

 If a child is hard of hearing the teacher would seat them closer to the teacher and provide a lot
of printouts for the child to read/ look at images on.
 If a child has dyslexia the teacher would get them a recorded version of all instructions to help
them follow along.
 Each adaptation would be tailored to the individual student’s disability.

ESL Students

 The teacher would make sure any printouts they had had a lot of pictures on them to indicate
what was going on, even if they didn’t understand what was written.
  The teacher would try to have an interpreter if I needed one.
 The teacher might utilize translator apps to help facilitate communication.
 Plants in the garden will be labeled in multiple languages, depending on the languages the
students speak

Gifted Students

 These students would be tasked with helping other students who are struggling
 They would also do a slightly harder assignment on plants used for food.
 These students would have their own personal plant to take care of in addition to the class
garden.

Differentiated Instruction & Cross-Curricula Integration:

This lesson will be a year-long affair. It will assess the students’ abilities to care for plants, keep a
journal, and work together. The journal will improve their writing and art skills. Their literacy skills will
be improved by any further research they do about the plants in their garden. This lesson will be most
closely integrated with health, as the children will learn what plants are good for them, and that some
plants are better for you than others.
Resources
Materials and resources needed for this lesson.
Soil
Pots
Seeds
Gardening Tools (like a watering can and a trowel)
Flash Cards (on quizlet)
Printouts on how to grow certain plants (the specific plants will be determined when the children vote on
them)
Quiz
Rubric
Plant Labeling Worksheet (obtained from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Plant-
Labeling-Worksheet-Free-2366184)

Technology resources needed for this lesson

Computer
Internet Connection
Overhead projector

Web Addresses needed for this lesson:

www.quizlet.com
https://www.turtlediary.com/game/farm-game.html
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Plant-Labeling-Worksheet-Free-2366184