BACKGROUND:
Students observe plants each day,
whether they are in a natural setting or in a pot. This exercise will
helps children to identify and classify each plant that they see at
school. The majority of plants that most children see are the flowering
plants or angiosperms. The majority of angiosperms are dicots, The
dicots have flower parts in multiples of four or five while monocots
have flower parts in multiples of three. The dicots have leaves with a
network of veins while monocots have leaves with parallel veins. The
xylem and phloem in a dicot are arranged in a ring while they are
randomly arranged in a monocot. The monocot seed has one seed leaf while
the dicot has two seed leaves. For example a peanut is a dicot while
rice and corn are monocots. The roots of dicots show secondary growth
which the roots of the monocots do not.
PROCEDURE:
- Ask students to predict whether there are more
species of dicots or monocots at school. Write the responses on the
board.
- Have students go out into the school yard in the area
designated by you and collect one specimen of each plant species you
find. (If you don't want to destroy the plants you may want the students
to make plant rubbings or drawings.)
- Bring the specimens to the class, arrange and tape
the specimens artistically on a piece of paper, labeling whether the
specimen is a monocot or dicot. Go over the following information and
diagrams.
