Water for life

Provided Resources

• Top Score Wins PowerPoint
• Task PowerPoint
• Task sheet – 1 per child
• Plenary cards printed on double backed card & trimmed into 6 individual cards, teachers’ notes

Additional Resources

• Bean seedlings in our investigation – make sure all labels are still clearly visible (redo these if necessary)
• Session 1 task sheets to note measurements & observations
• Tokens for the game - Top Score Wins, use counters, cubes or marbles – (up to 80 tokens for 6 teams)
• 3 empty squash bottles with the labels removed
• 3 bottles of different food colouring (e.g. red, green and blue)
• Clear, sealable plastic tubs or bags to protect data loggers outside
• Stems of white flowers e.g. carnations or chrysanthemums and sticks of leafy celery (enough of each for 1 per table next session)
• Data loggers with light & temperature sensors & ideally software to display data in tabular & graph format

Teaching

• Spot differences in the health of seedlings and begin to think about reasons.
• Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants.

Activities

1. Continue to take notes and measurements on the bean seedlings in investigation.
2. Report to the class on how their requirement seems to be affecting the health/growth of seedlings.
3. Play a team game to recap on knowledge gained so far and introduce a few new concepts.
4. Set up an experiment to investigate the way in which water is transported within plants.
5. Use data loggers to measure light levels and temperature over a 24 hour period.
6. Make a summary of class findings from the seedling investigation with notes and drawings of results.

Investigation - exploring/classifying and identifying
Make a list of plants the aliens will need to take to the space farm. Classify according to human use for leaves, stems, roots, flowers, fruits and seeds.
Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants.

Vocabulary
Data logger, light level, temperature, wilting, yellowing, requirement, measure, record