Life Processes Science 4.

4
Review Lesson
Practicum 4th Grade

SOL Standards (2010 version): 4.4 The student will investigate and understand basic plant
anatomy and life processes. Key concepts include
a) the structures of typical plants and the function of each structure;
b) processes and structures involved with plant reproduction;

Context and Background Information: After a week of learning about and writing notes
on parts of a plant, their function, photosynthesis, life cycle of a plant, and flowers and
pollination, students will assume the role of a botanist who is investigating nearby
plants!

Project Based Assessment (PBA):

Title: What plants are near me?

Goal: Your task is to name and describe the function of a plant of your choice. If your plant has
a flower you also need to describe its parts and their functions. If your plant does not have a
flower you will need to imagine what the flower might look like (it must include all the parts of
a flower)

Role: You are a botanist (scientist who studies plants).

Audience: The target audience is the JMU Arboretum website visitors.(I am currently contacting
the arboretum about adding the student’s finished products to their website or Facebook page)

Situation: The challenge involves getting outside, looking at what plants are around you,
choosing one to investigate further and to explain it. The JMU Arboretum wants to know what
kind of plants local elementary students are interacting with.

Product: You will create a labeled drawing, photo, model of your plant and an overview
narration (on SeeSaw) describing the parts and functions of your plant and flower. If you have a
model you can record yourself using your chromebook to show the plant and do your narration.
Optionally, you can write out your descriptions in paragraph format on SeeSaw.

Your product must meet the following standards:

● The name of the plant (could be the scientific name) this may require some
research or help from parents
● Correctly labeled parts of a plant: roots, stem, leaves, flowers, fruit (if there is
any), seeds, flower
 ● Correctly labeled parts of a flower: sepal, filament, petal, ovary, stamen, style,
anther, ovules, stigma pistil
● Correct descriptions of the functions of the plant parts
● Correct descriptions of the functions of the flower parts

Timeline:

Date Description

10/29 ● Use Jamboard as an exit ticket for plant review. Question: Is there anything else
about plants that you want to know?
● Introduce Plant PBA to students
○ Show video on investigating local plants to hook students
○ https://youtu.be/aqYsg2gE7qg
○ “To wrap up and finish our unit on plants, I have created an opportunity for
you all to get outdoors and investigate the plants that you live around just
like what we watched in the video! Before we meet in class on Monday I
want you all to get outside, choose a plant that catches your eye (or that
you just like) and take a picture of it with your Chromebooks! Now keep in
mind that you will be working with this plant for a few days so you might
want to choose one where you will be able to see it often to study it! On
Monday I will assign you all a place to submit your photo of your plant. “

11/2 ● Have photo of plant and bring it to class-submit it on SeeSaw

○ “Using this photo, you will create a recreation of the plant you chose! This
could be a drawing, model using clay or playdough, or use SeeSaw to draw
your plant. Your recreation needs to be clear and neat. On SeeSaw, I have
posted an example of what my drawing looked like to give you an example
of the level of detail and neatness that is required. There is also a checklist
posted to Google Classroom under Science-Plant Review Project Checklist
that explains what needs to be included in your recreation (all parts of a
plant and a flower with it’s parts labeled. . On the SeeSaw activity there is a
teacher rubric that Mrs. Sandridge and I will be using to grade your final
project. If it is not obvious what your plant’s flower looks like (like Dillon’s)
then you are free to make up a flower of your own and then label that. You
all will have the rest of our science block today to work on this. Mrs.
Sandridge and I both want to see that you put a lot of effort into your
recreation and make sure it’s neat! As a reminder you can use your science
notes to help you label and describe the plant and flower functions”
● Full work day on project
○ Teachers will help where needed
● Have a teacher rubric and a student checklist posted to SeeSaw
● Wrap up
○ “Okay,I hope that you all took the class time today to get started on this
project. On Thursday you will be paired up with a classmate and review
each other's work using a peer editing checklist. So, in order for you to do
that you must have your project posted to SeeSaw by Thursday. After
 editing and reviewing your peer’s project, you will all have the opportunity
to go back and fix or change anything on your project before finally
submitting it on SeeSaw again.”

11/5 ● Students will have their rough draft of project done

and ● This day is for peer review and revisions
11/6 ○ Students will be given a peer review rubric to check their partner’s work
with
● First of all I want to say thank you for the few students who actually started their
plant project! I worked really hard in trying to come up with a project that would
be fun and creative for all of you while also covering the notes that we needed to. I
am very disappointed that many of you have not yet started even though you had
two full days of no school to work on it. So for right now, I want everyone to go to
google classroom, open up the assignment under science labeled PLANT REVIEW
PROJECT CHECKLIST, keep that open on a tab. Open a new tab to go to SeeSaw and
go to the activity PARTS OF A PLANT REVIEW PROJECT. Before I answer any
questions, I want each of you to either read or listen to the directions that I have
posted for the activity on SeeSaw. Then take a minute or two to look at the student
sample and listen to the recording I made that described my project with the
explanation of the plant functions. After doing all that, then you can start asking
me questions about the project. Now I am going to have those students who did
start be put in breakout rooms so that they can share what they did with a partner.
If you are in a breakout room, make sure you have the project checklist open so
that you can use that to check your partner’s work. Feel free to screen share with
your partner so that they can see your work!

11/10 ● Final PBA due on SeeSaw

● Students will have the opportunity to share their project