Plant Exploration

Plant ID idea - to start with plants for energy flow and matter cycling

Keep in Mind: in Observation lessons – we are helping to uncover students’ gifts to be self-learners – their superpowers of observation, curiosity, making connections, and coming up with explanations.

[The goal of education should be to learn how to learn – to be self-directed learners for life. Always keep learning. Learning really gets fun when you are OUT of school – when you own it, when you are following your own curiosity and questions.]

Directions:

Set Up:

• Place a few numbers (can use flagging with numbers on it) on plants you want the students to learn about - use plants that are in their plant keys in their journals. Students can rotate between plants, depending on the diversity of plant life available at your site and your student numbers, you could have from 3-6 plants marked for this lesson.

• Discuss names with students - what is the first thing you learn when you meet someone new, usually (their name). Do you know everything you need to know about them? (no!) Do you know anything about them, except their name? (nope) What good are names, then? (discuss - bring up that they are a starting point, not an end point. RWK quotes about names)

• We'll be spending some time getting to know these plants, then we'll try to figure out their names using a dichotomous key, then we'll spend a little more time getting to know more about our plants using our observation toolkits (INIWIRMOITM)

• Put students into groups of 2-3 and send each group to a different numbered plant

• Use a blank page in journal (record metadata), have them draw their plant and write down their observations - leave space for the name - show by words and pictures any ecosystem connections, too.

1. Have students do INIWIRMO on numbered plants first – with partners

   1. Each person come up with at least

      1. Three notices

      2. Two wonders

      3. One reminds you of

      4. Optional – I think maybe

2. About learning Names of Plants:

   1. Quotes from Robin Wall Kimmerer:

      1. “It’s a sign of respect and connection to learn the name of someone else, a sign of disrespect to ignore it. And yet the average American can name over a hundred corporate logos and ten plants…Learning the names of plants and animals is a powerful act of support for them.”

      2. “I’ve noticed that once some folks attach a scientific label to a being, they stop exploring who it is.” - so don't stop exploring and learning - a name is just a starting point!

3. Introduce plant keys and how dichotomous keys work

   1. use whiteboard if needed to show this),

   2. or possibly demo with group on a plant that is NOT assigned to any students.

4. After keying out, look for ecosystem connections, again using INIWIRMO

   1. Now that you’ve observed the plants and figured out their names, look again, but this time look for connections with the ecosystem – how do you think the plants are connected to both abiotic and biotic parts of the ecosystem, and what is your evidence?

      1. For Example:

         1. look at roots for soil connections – look for mycelium in the soil, look for invertebrate activity, look for decomposing materials, is there moisture?

         2. Look for evidence of predation (herbivory) – any marks on leaves or bark that could be from other organisms eating the plant? (tiny dots or holes could be fungus or bacteria, larger holes or bite marks could be from other animals eating the leaves – also look at bark and wood (if any broken pieces are around – bark beetles live inside trunks and branches under the bark, and eat their way through the cambium)

         3. Look for evidence of parasitism (mistletoe, galls)

         4. Look for evidence of use as habitat – anything to indicate other organisms living on, in, or under any part of the plant? (spiderwebs, burrows, galls, eggs, nests, holes, etc)

         5. What human uses of these plants do you know of - how are they connected to US?

            1. Tie in with Native uses of plants and Nuumu names

5. Lead-in to Photosynthesis lesson afterwards – LAWS (ties into abiotic parts of ecosystem connected to plants), Thank a plant (CO2)

   1. Puzzlers:

      1. MATTER: How does THIS (hold up a tiny seed) turn into THIS (point to tree or shrub the seed came from) - discuss - use walk and talk, pair share, and other discussion routines [uses energy from sunlight to rearrange matter from air (CO2) and water (H2O) into sugars (C6H12O6)and starches (long chains of sugars, such as cellulose [(C6H10O5)*n] (where n is any number from several hundred to several thousand!) and lignin (C81H92O28)) and there are leftovers - lots of O2 molecules!]

      2. ENERGY: And at the other end, how is THIS (a log or large stick) like THIS (a battery)? [Energy is stored] How is the energy in the log released? [burning releases heat and light, so does decomposition, but much, much more slowly!] How else can the energy be released? [Animals could eat it, and use the energy to grow, and release it as heat - eg, bark beetles, beavers, or any animal that eats leaves, roots, stems, etc - like us!]

   2. Quotes:

      1. “…what is [a plant], after all, but light transformed by relationship” – RWK, Braiding Sweetgrass

      2. “Trees are the way we listen in on the conversation between cosmic energy and earthly matter.” – The Cryptonaturalist (Jarod K. Anderson)