The ocean is home to some of Earth's most important producers. Single-celled organisms in the ocean are responsible for more than half of Earth's productivity, as well as most of its oxygen. Phytoplankton are single-celled, plantlike organisms. That is, they have chloroplasts and perform photosynthesis, but are not true plants, which are typically…

It is relatively easy to incorporate plants into a curriculum and extend their use beyond the botany unit into other scientific arenas. There are numerous web-based resources for teachers, including the Human Flower Project (HFP) website, which offers numerous vignettes on all aspects of flowering plants. In addition to botany and invasive plant…

This is the story of how a typical middle school lab was transformed into an open-ended inquiry experience through a few small, but very powerful, changes. By allowing students to follow their own questions, the classroom filled with enthusiasm and students learned much more about photosynthesis, respiration, and the scientific processes. The…

This set of inquiry lessons is adaptable for middle school through high school life science or biology classrooms and will help meet the NSTA scientific inquiry position statement (2004) and the AAAS benchmarks (1993) and NRC standards (1996; 2000) related to health and food literacy. The standards require adolescents to examine their own diet and…

Where does cellular respiration take place? How does a plant make food and in turn use the food to produce its own energy? Do animals carry on this process also? To help students answer these and other questions, have them build a model leaf, plant cell, and animal cell. This hands-on project allows students to see and manipulate the reactants and…

It is possible to create an environment in which students are engaged in learning a topic like photosynthesis but are not doing a laboratory activity? Is there some way for students to get content and the history of a topic without a lecture? The activity described in this article is a result of the author asking these very questions. Several…

Describes evaluation activities after a seven-week unit on botany and natural communities in a fifth-grade class. The six tasks designed for multiple learning styles include writing a topical essay, drawing and labeling plant parts, clinical interviews, group discussion, concept mapping, and evaluating questions. (PR)

Offers suggestions for activities in which local weeds and wildflowers are used to study a variety of topics. These topics include classification, ecological succession, and mapping. Also lists the types of experiments students can perform with these plants. (JN)

Describes an assignment that allows students to explore the life of the Cherokee Indians during a tragic period in history when the U.S. Government removed the Cherokees from their ancestral homeland. Students demonstrate learning by creating skits that incorporate Cherokee history, culture, and herbal remedies. (ZWH)