Lesson Title: “The Plant Factory”

By Kate M. Faris

Description
In this activity students will learn about the stems of plants and capillary
action; students will also compare how quickly plants “drink” or absorb when missing an
organ.

Grade level(s) 3rd Grade

Essential questions
 What affect would there be on a plant if one of its major organs were missing?
 Do leaves make a difference in the speed of capillary action?

Student learner objective – connections to the GLE’s

 Identify the major organs (roots, stems, flowers, leaves) and their functions in
vascular plants (e.g., absorption, transport, reproduction). (DO NOT assess the
term vascular) (LO.1.D.a) (1.6; 1.8; 3.5) DOK - 1
 Illustrate and trace the path of water and nutrients as they move through the
transport system of a plant. (LO.2.C.a) (1.2; 1.3; 1.4) DOK – 1
 Describe the basic needs of most plants (i.e., air, water, light, nutrients,
temperature). (LO.1.A.a) (1.2; 1.3; 1.6; 3.1) DOK – 1
 Read and interpret information from line plots and graphs (bar, line, pictorial)
(D1C3) (1.10) DOK 2

Featured Scott Foresman’s textbook

 Scott Foresman, 2006, TE pp. 4-29, 106, 150-151, 359-461
 Scott Foresman Leveled Readers, TE Chapter 1: Plants and How They Grow,
Plants and Trees Growing, Tree Life
Featured picture books
 From Plant to Seed, by Gail Gibbons
 The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle

Time needed
About 90 minutes

Academic vocabulary words (with definitions)

roots- The roots of a plant soak up vitamins and minerals. They also store food for the

plant- A young tree, vine, shrub, or herb planted or suitable forplanting

stem- The stem supports the plant. It has many thin tubes that carry water, minerals,
and food through the plant

flower- A flower is the part of a plant that makes seeds.

leaves- The leaves make food (sugar) for the plant. They also take in carbon dioxide
and release oxygen into the air

absorption- Process in which the plant sucks up water from the ground

transport system- a facility consisting of the means and equipment necessary for the
movement of passengers or goods

growth- The process of growing

life cycle- a series of stages through which an organism passes between recurrences of
a primary stage
Depth of knowledge level
DOK 3

Materials needed
 Fresh bunch of celery with leafy tops
 A few containers filled with about 6 inches of water
 Red or orange food coloring
 Timers
 Knife and cutting surface
 Rule

Lesson narrative:

Engage
Read one of the picture books to the class and talk about the basic needs of
plants. Focus the conversation on water and begin to question how plants “drink”. Ask
the students how they think plants drink and what parts of the plant help it drink, do you
think the leaves help the plant drink? Have the students discuss this in a small group
and come up with why the leaves help or not. Ask them how we could test this question
to find out.
Have prepared for the students some celery that has already absorbed some of
the red food coloring. Ask them how they think I made the celery have the red in it,
record observations on the board. Some may have seen this activity already, but that’s
ok because we are going to see if they think the leaves will make a difference or not.

Explore

1. Tell students they are going to conduct an experiment to learn more about capillary
action.
2. Cut off the bottom inch of the celery bunch while it is submerged in the tub of water.
Stand the bunch upright and then remove all the leaves from half of the stalks and place
them in a separate container. Finally, add food coloring to the water.
3. Have students hypothesize how capillary action might be different between stalks
with leaves and stalks without. List their hypotheses on the board or a flipchart,
indicating how many students chose each one. Have students create a bar graph
showing this information.
4. Place the celery tubs in a sunny location and remove two stalks every 20 minutes –
one with leaves and one without. Cut each stalk in five centimeter sections, from the
bottom edge up, until no color can be seen in the celery. Continue until no stalks remain
or until the colored water has been siphoned to the top of at least one stalk.
5. Have students evaluate their hypothesis and decide which one was supported by the
results in the experiment.

Explain
Do leaves make a difference in the speed of capillary action? Celery stalks with
leaves have a greater amount of transpiration. Water leaving the plant through the
leaves helps pull more water into the plant and up the stems
There are two things that combine to move water through plants --
transpiration and cohesion. Water evaporating from the leaves, buds, and petals
(transpiration) pulls water up the stem of the plant. This works in the same way as
sucking on a straw. Water that evaporates from the leaves "pulls" other water behind it
up to fill the space left by the evaporating water, but instead of your mouth providing the
suction (as with a straw) the movement is due to evaporating water. This can happen
because water sticks to itself (called water cohesion) and because the tubes in the plant
stem are very small (in a part of the plant called the xylem). This process is
called capillary action.
Elaborate/Extend
I would want to ask students if they feel as if this just applies to celery or if it
would be the same for all plants with leaves. I would also want them to come up with
testing a flower with and without the leaves and also with and without the flower.
(Project BudBurst also offers a lesson on how plants breath through their leaves; this
would be a great follow-up activity after this lesson)
Magic School Bus- Gets Planted, also does a very nice job of visualizing the
process of the roots “drinking” the water and then the water traveling up the stem.
Use the Kestrel to see how the temperature effects the rate of absorption in
different types of plants.

Evaluate
Have students fill out the graphing template and create a “flash statement” a
statement they can make about the graph just by looking quickly at the graph. For my
higher students I might give them a plain piece of graphing paper for them to label and
for my SPED students I would fill in some of the information on their graphing template.

Misconceptions
I feel as if the students will think that with the leaves missing the water will move
faster, but in all reality, the leaves help the capillaries absorb water at a faster rate.

Safety
The teacher should be in charge of the knife of all times so accidents don’t
happen.

Reading comprehensive strategies

 Inferencing: Students can use their prior knowledge and information from the
book to come up with ideas about plants.
 Predicting: Students will use information from the picture books and their text
book to make a prediction about how plants “drink”.
  Looking for important information: students will decide what they feel is important
when reading the text and talk about what is important while they are conducting
their experiment.

General suggestions for students and teachers

I will be doing this lesson in about four small groups so the students can then
compare their results with other groups. I will be in charge of the knife so groups will
need to start the activity about five minutes apart so I can visit with each group and
have them measure where to cut.

Create a “parking lot” in the classroom so while students are exploring and
coming up with other questions and other ideas to test, you can write them on a post it
so you can research them later.

Bibliography

 http://neoninc.org/budburst/educators/pdf/PBB_waterchain.pdf
 http://www.stevespanglerscience.com
 www.superteacherworksheets.com
 www.education.com

Student Pages

(see below)
Name:___________________________ Date:_______________________

Draw a picture of both plants before they Draw a picture of your plants after they were in the colored
were put in the colored water. water.

With Leaves With Leaves

Without Leaves Without Leaves

Describe how the celery stalk changed:____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

How does water travel through the celery?__________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Did the leaves on the celery make a difference at all?__________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Minutes in Water Observations

How far has the colored water traveled?
(in centimeters)
0 minutes

20 minutes

40 minutes

60 minutes

Celery with Leaves

Celery without Leaves

Minutes in Water Observations
How far has the colored water traveled?
(in centimeters)
0 minutes

20 minutes

40 minutes

60 minutes
 40 minutes

60 minutes

Which plant absorbed the water

faster?____________________________________

Why do you think this

is?________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Distance Colored Water has Traveled, in Centimeters

__
____________________________________________________________________
__

Compare your results with two other groups. Did your results seem to be the
same of different? If they were different, what would have made them different?
____________________________________________________________________
__
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____

Comparing Plants, with and without Leaves, Absorption Rate of Water