MODULE 2

REPRODUCTION IN PLANTS AND ANIMALS

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National curriculum links:Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals

Learning intention:To describe the process of sexual reproduction in many fl owering plants, naming parts of the fl ower and explaining their importance within the process

Scientific enquiry type:Grouping and classifying

Working scientifically links:Reporting and presenting fi ndings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as displays and other presentations

Success criteria:• I can describe the life process of sexual

reproduction in fl owering plants, including pollination and fertilisation.

• I can explain the role of different parts of the fl ower in sexual reproduction.

• I can present the process of sexual reproduction in fl owering plants in a storyboard or other sequence.

LESSON SUMMARY:In this lesson children revise and build on work from Year 3, Module 1, How Does Your Garden Grow?, about the part that fl owers play in the life cycle of fl owering plants.

By the end of the lesson they will have a more detailed knowledge of the role of the fl ower, its parts and their function, and of the processes of pollination and fertilisation. They will have communicated their understanding of the process of sexual reproduction in fl owering plants in a storyboard or other form.

This lesson links to and should be taught before OCW, Lesson 1.

LESSON 1: HOW DO FLOWERING PLANTS REPRODUCE?

EXPLORE: Ask: What do we know already about how fl owering plants reproduce?

Play True/False/Not always with children using Resource sheet 1. Read the cards in turn, display them and write down children’s responses. This will provide a useful opportunity for you to assess children’s existing knowledge and understanding, along with any misconceptions they may have. This card sort is used here and again at the end of the lesson. Statements included at this point revise children’s learning about reproduction in fl owering plants from Year 3. Additional cards should be added for the Refl ect and Review part of the lesson, to help children recognise how their understanding has developed.

ENQUIRE:Children should learn that all fl owering plants do not produce ‘perfect fl owers’ complete with male and female organs, but that there are some fl owering plants with different sex fl owers on the same or separate plants.

Reinforce the importance of the fl ower. In this lesson the focus is on ‘perfect fl owers’, those that contain both male and female parts. In the next lesson children will look closely at fl owering plants that have separate male and female fl owers on the same or different plants.

Show children Parts of the fl ower (Animation 1). Check their understanding of the processes of pollination and fertilisation that are shown.

Ask: Where is pollen produced? How is it transferred onto the female part of the plant (the carpel)? What happens then?

Reinforce vocabulary and ensure that children have a clear understanding of terms such as ‘pollination’ and ‘fertilisation’.

Explain that they are going to use a real fl ower to communicate the story of reproduction in fl owering ‘perfect plants’. All children will need a fl ower, which they can draw/photograph as they disassemble it, focusing on each stage of the process in turn. As children dissect each part, ask them to consider these key questions each time: What is this part? What is its function?

Key vocabulary: reproduction, reproduce, fl ower, organ, carpel, stamen, anther, fi lament, pollen, seeds, seed head, berry, fruit, pollinator, pollination, fertilisation, sexual, asexual

Resources: Enough fl owers for at least one between two children. Ensure that the fl owers are large enough to have identifi able male and female organs, such as alstroemeria or daffodils (you can also use lilies, unless children dissected these in Year 3, Module 1, Lesson 8). Magnifi ers, digital microscopes, iPads, digital cameras

Health and safety: Many plants produce wind-borne pollen which can cause hay fever and trigger an asthma attack.

Key information: The carpel is the female part of the fl ower, where the seeds are made. The carpel has three parts: the stigma, the style and the ovary.

When the fl ower is pollinated, a pollen grain sticks to the stigma. It then travels down the style to the ovary. In the ovary, the pollen joins with the ovules, and the ovules become seeds. This is called fertilisation. After fertilisation, the ovary turns into the fruit.

The stamens are the male parts of the fl ower. Their job is to make pollen. Each stamen has two parts: an anther and a fi lament. The anther contains the pollen and the fi lament holds up the anther.

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LESSON 1: HOW DO FLOWERING PLANTS REPRODUCE?

Challenges are differentiated according to the level of support children are given, as they communicate the stages of the process of sexual reproduction in fl owering plants. In Challenges 1 and 2 children are provided with an appropriate storyboard grid to help them order the steps of the pollination and fertilisation processes, while in Challenge 3 children are encouraged to use a method of communication of their own choice but are prompted to ensure that suffi cient detail is included.

The challenges are presented on the Challenge slides to be displayed on the board, or printed out and placed in the centre of the table.

Challenge 1: Children dissect and draw the whole fl ower and its parts, describing the steps of the processes of pollination and fertilisation

Provide the children with an enlarged version of the Storyboard grid 1 (Resource sheet 2) with prompts to help them as they sequence the steps of the processes of pollination and fertilisation. The children should use drawings of their fl ower parts to illustrate their explanations of each step of both processes. Encourage them to watch the animation sequence again to refresh their memories and ensure that they are clear about the later stages of the process.

Challenge 2: Children dissect and draw or photograph the fl ower and the parts of the fl ower, describing the steps of the processes of pollination and fertilisation

Provide the children with an enlarged version of the Storyboard grid 2 (Resource sheet 3) with limited prompts indicating key steps of the sequence. They should use this to help them structure the process of pollination and fertilisation in fl owering plants with ‘perfect’ fl owers. The children should use a combination of photographs of their fl ower as it is disassembled and drawings to illustrate their description and explanation of each step of the process.

Challenge 3: Children choose the best way to communicate their understanding of the process of pollination and fertilisation.

The children have a fl ower each and may use ICT and other resources to communicate the sequence of events involved in pollination and fertilisation. Encourage them to be creative, perhaps using Photo Story or PowerPoint, and to include photographs or sound clips, as well as text. They will need to include the names of all parts of the fl ower and their function, detail of the male and female parts and the processes of pollination and fertilisation.

REFLECT AND REVIEW: Ask: How will we know that we have done a good job in communicating our understanding

of sexual reproduction in some fl owering plants? What should all our storyboards or presentations include?

Ensure that children mention the names of the parts of the fl ower and their function, the process of pollination, the process of fertilisation and the making of seeds.

Repeat the True/False/Not always game children played earlier in the lesson. Can children now place any statements that they were not sure about earlier and do they want to move any? What evidence do they have to justify these moves? Add these further statements, which will challenge their understanding further and stimulate curiosity about what they are going to learn about in the next lessons.

Only some fl owers can be pollinated: True – male fl owers produce pollen, but they cannot be pollinated

Plants reproduce by making seeds that grows into a new plant : Not always

All fl owers produce pollen: False – not female fl owers

All fl owers have male and female parts: False – some fl owers have only male or only female parts

Some plants can reproduce in ways other than making seeds: True – almost all produce seeds, but they can reproduce in other ways. Some do not produce seeds; for example, ferns and mosses produce spores. Many plants can also reproduce asexually, which does not involve seed production.

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING: Listen to children’s responses. Can they describe how fl owering plants reproduce sexually? Do they know key vocabulary, such as names of fl ower parts and processes involved in reproduction? Do they know what a ‘perfect fl ower’ is? Are they able to use the key vocabulary effectively to communicate their understanding? Can they explain the role of different parts of the fl ower in sexual reproduction? Can they evaluate how well they have communicated their understanding of sexual reproduction in fl owering plants?

Key information:Most fl owering plants have fl owers with both male and female parts – ‘perfect fl owers’ such as apple, tulip, daisy, dandelion and rose.

Some plants have separate male fl owers and female fl owers on the same plant, such as corn, courgette, marrow, squash and cucumber.

A smaller number of plants have male fl owers and female fl owers on separate plants, such as willow, maple and holly.

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