Teaching ideas

Unit 1 Plants
Possible lessons
Topic Number of Outline of Resources in Resources in Resources
40-minute lesson content Coursebook Workbook on Teacher’s
periods Resource
1.1 Photosynthesis 2–4 Review of Questions 1–2 Exercise 1.1, Worksheet 1.1,
photosynthesis; Activity 1.1, Variegated Do leaves need
the word Testing a leaf leaves light to make
equation; how for starch starch?
to test a leaf for
starch
1.2 Mineral salts 2–4 (the The need for Questions 1–3 Exercise 1.2, Worksheet 1.2A,
for plants activity runs nitrate and Activity 1.2, Fertilisers Different kinds
over a number magnesium by Investigating of fertiliser
of weeks) plants; fertilisers the effect of Worksheet 1.2B,
fertilisers on Activity 1.2 –
plant growth Assessment for
learning
1.3 Plants and 2–4 Water use in Questions 1–3 Exercise Worksheet
water plants; water Activity 1.3, 1.3, How 1.3, Water
loss from plants Water loss from temperature movement
plants affects water through plants
loss
1.4 Flowers 2–3 Flowers as Questions 1–2 Exercise 1.4, Worksheet 1.4,
organs of sexual Activity 1.4, Comparing two Observing and
reproduction; Investigating flowers recording flower
flower structure flower structure structure
1.5 Pollination 2–4 Gametes in Questions 1–6 Worksheet 1.5,
flowers; transfer Activity 1.5, Which colour
of pollen by Looking at flowers do
insects, birds pollen grains bees visit most
and wind often?
1.6 Fertilisation 2–3 Fertilisation in Questions 1–3 Exercise 1.6, Worksheet 1.6,
a flower; seed Activity 1.6, Flowers and Comparing
development Investigating reproduction sexual
seed structure reproduction
in humans and
flowering plants
1.7 Fruits 2–4 Importance of Questions 1–2 Exercise 1.7, Worksheet 1.7A,
seed dispersal; Activity 1.7A, Crossword Activity 1.7B –
adaptations of Adaptations of Assessment for
fruits for seed fruits; Activity learning
dispersal 1.7B, What Worksheet 1.7B,
affects the time Fruit dispersal
taken for a fruit by toucans
to fall to the (extension)
ground?
End of unit Questions
questions 1.1–1.5

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 Teaching ideas: Unit 1

Topic 1.1 Photosynthesis

This topic brings together many ideas that students have met before about photosynthesis, word equations, energy
transfer, molecules, solubility, using iodine solution to test for starch, and the structure of cells. Although it begins with
familiar content about photosynthesis (which was covered in Stage 8), it quickly moves on to new material, involving
testing leaves for starch.

Ideas for the lesson

• You could begin with a quick quiz, testing what students should already know about photosynthesis.
Alternatively (or as well), show the class a growing plant and ask them questions about how it gets its food. Use
their answers to build up a diagram on the board showing that leaves take in carbon dioxide and water, and use
these substances to make glucose and oxygen with energy from sunlight that is absorbed by chlorophyll.
• Now build up this information into a word equation. (Students will have learnt about word equations in Stage 8.)
• Discuss ideas about energy transfer (which was covered in Physics in Stage 8). Explain how photosynthesis
involves the transfer of energy from sunlight into glucose molecules. You could continue the discussion by
thinking about energy transfer along food chains, and how photosynthesis is the process that first transfers
energy into the chain.
• Show students some powdered glucose and powdered starch in labelled bottles. Explain that both are
carbohydrates, and that starch molecules are made of thousands of glucose molecules joined together in
long chains. (You may need to remind students what a ‘molecule’ is.) Try dissolving each of them in water, to
illustrate that glucose is soluble and starch is not. Discuss the use of starch as a storage material in plants.
• Allow students to carry out Activity 1.1, Testing a leaf for starch. Students will already know how to use iodine
solution to test for starch. Before they carry out the activity, show them that simply adding iodine solution to a
leaf does not show up any starch – the iodine solution cannot get through the cell membranes and inside the
cells, which is where the starch is.

Take care not to allow any flames near the ethanol.

SAFETY!

• If time allows, they could also do the practical activity on Worksheet 1.1, Do leaves need light to make starch?
Common misunderstandings and misconceptions
• Some textbooks state that the reason for boiling the leaf when testing for starch is to stop chemical reactions
taking place in it. This is not correct; there is no need to stop chemical reactions from happening.
• Students who try to learn the photosynthesis equation without understanding it often get it wrong. They
generally include the correct substances, but arranged randomly and wrongly on the two sides of the equation.
• Note that ‘light’ and ‘chlorophyll’ are neither reactants nor products, so should not be written as such in the
equation. They can, if desired, be written above or below the arrow.
Homework ideas
• Workbook exercise 1.1, Variegated leaves

Topic 1.2 Mineral salts for plants

This topic considers the importance of mineral salts for plants. Only two are specifically mentioned – nitrate and
magnesium. It is recommended that you use the term ‘nitrate’ throughout, rather than ‘nitrogen’. Although ‘nitrogen’
is frequently used to mean a plant nutrient, it is confusing to students, who think of nitrogen as a gas in the air.
Nitrogen gas is not useable by plants.
There are opportunities to practise data handling. There is also an opportunity to plan and set up a long-term
investigation into the effects of fertilisers on plant growth.

Ideas for the lesson

• If you have been able to plan for this lesson well in advance, you could show students two pot plants – one
that has been given fertiliser and one that has been grown in poor soil, without fertiliser. Ask students to
describe the differences between them.
• Planning and setting up Activity 1.2 will be quite time-consuming, but is well worthwhile. There are many
different types of duckweed, and one type or another should be obtainable in most countries. Use the internet

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 Teaching ideas: Unit 1

to find out what kinds grow in your country, and where you might look for it. If duckweed is not available, the
little water fern Azolla could be used instead. The experiment will need to run over several weeks.
• Workbook exercise 1.2, Fertilisers, could be discussed as a class exercise.
• Worksheet 1.2A, Different kinds of fertiliser, involves a rather different way of controlling variables in an
experiment. This is quite a complex worksheet, and it would be good to discuss it with students in class before
asking them to write answers to the questions. Alternatively, it could be done as a group activity, with each
group discussing their answers together.
Common misunderstandings and misconceptions
• As mentioned above, students may be confused by the use of the term ‘nitrogen’ as shorthand for
nitrogen-containing compounds, such as nitrate. It is best to be rigorous in the use of ‘nitrate’ rather than
‘nitrogen’ in this context.
Homework ideas
• Workbook exercise 1.2, Fertilisers
• Worksheet 1.2A, Different kinds of fertiliser
• (When Activity 1.2 has been completed) Worksheet 1.2B, Activity 1.2 – Assessment for learning

Topic 1.3 Plants and water

In this topic, students learn about the various ways in which plants use water. The term ‘transpiration’ has not been
used; there is no need for students to learn this term at this stage.

Ideas for the lesson

• Show students a well-watered plant, and one that has not been watered for several days and is wilting. Ask them
to describe the differences between them. Water the wilting plant and leave it at the front of the classroom; it
should recover visibly during the lesson.
• Use this to begin a discussion about why plants need water. Construct a list that includes support, transport,
cooling and photosynthesis.
• Students can set up Activity 1.3, Water loss from plants. They will need to wait for about a week before
collecting their results.
• Workbook exercise 1.3, How temperature affects water loss, could be done as a class exercise, either by asking
questions around the class, or allowing students to work on it in groups, before feeding back their answers to the
rest of the class.
• Worksheet 1.3, Water movement through plants, asks students to pull together ideas about plants that they have
learnt about in Stage 7 and Stage 8, as well as in the last two or three lessons.
Common misunderstandings and misconceptions
• Students may think that most of the water that a plant takes up is used in photosynthesis. This is not correct;
the vast majority of the water is lost as water vapour through the stomata.
• Students may think that water is lost from the leaves as a liquid, rather than as a gas.
Homework ideas
• Workbook exercise 1.3, How temperature affects water loss
• Worksheet 1.3, Water movement through plants

Topic 1.4 Flowers

Ideas for the lesson
• Students may already know the names of the parts of a flower. Use questioning to find out what they know and
to determine the best starting point for this topic.
• Ask students why flowers are often brightly coloured. Use discussion to introduce the idea of pollination, and
why plants need to rely on other agents to help them to get their male gametes to their female gametes.
• Activity 1.4, Investigating flower structure, could be done early on in this topic. It encourages students to look
closely at a flower, and will help them to learn the names of each of the parts.
• Worksheet 1.4, Observing and recording flower structure, requires students to make a diagram of a flower.
It is a good exercise for practising careful observation and the recording of observations in the form of a

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 Teaching ideas: Unit 1

labelled diagram. Many students find this difficult and will need support and guidance. It is important that they
recognise that making a scientific diagram is not the same as making a drawing for other purposes; they should
not, for example, use shading.
Common misunderstandings and misconceptions
• There is often confusion between a ‘plant’ and a ‘flower’. Ensure that students understand that a flower is an
organ, which is part of a plant.
• They may think that pollen grains are the male gametes. This is not correct – the pollen grains contain the male
gametes.
Homework ideas
• Workbook exercise 1.4, Comparing two flowers. You could provide students with flowers, or ask them to find
some for themselves. Take care, however, that they do not pick wild flowers that are endangered or protected.

Topic 1.5 Pollination

This topic looks at the way in which pollen is carried from an anther to a stigma. Three different agents, insects, birds
and wind, are mentioned. However, students are not yet asked to consider differences in the structures of flowers that
use these different methods of pollination.
Some students may be allergic to pollen and suffer from ‘hay fever’. The most common allergies are caused by grass
pollen, but other types of pollen can also cause runny noses and sore eyes in some people. You will need to bear this
in mind when deciding whether or not to carry out Activity 1.5.

Ideas for the lesson

• Use discussion and questioning to ensure that all students know where the male and female gametes are in a
flower, and think about the problems of getting these together.
• Activity 1.5, Looking at pollen grains, may be the first time that students have used a microscope for some time.
They may need to be reminded how to handle and focus it. You could choose flowers with large, colourful
pollen grains. Insect-pollinated flowers are the best sources, not only because their pollen grains are larger than
wind-pollinated flowers, but also because they are less likely to cause hay fever symptoms.
• If possible, take students outside to watch insects and birds visiting flowers. Students may be able to see how
insects search for nectar in the flowers, and how the shape of the flower forces the animal to push past the
anthers as it reaches for its reward.
• These observations could be used to stimulate students to think of questions that could be investigated about
pollination. Worksheet 1.5, Which colour flowers do bees visit most often?, suggests one such question, and
asks students to plan an experiment. If time and circumstances allow, students could actually carry out the
experiment that they design.
• Students may ask whether a flower can pollinate itself. The answer is often ‘yes’, but this varies between species.
Students do not need to know about self-pollination and cross-pollination at this stage.
Common misunderstandings and misconceptions
• It is very common for students to be confused between pollination and seed dispersal.
• Some students may think that insects are being deliberately helpful in carrying pollen from one flower to
another.
Homework ideas
• Worksheet 1.5, Which colour flowers do bees visit most often?
• Coursebook questions 1–6

Topic 1.6 Fertilisation

Fertilisation in flowering plants is a complex process and it is important to keep the description very simple at this
stage. There is no need for any mention of any of the nuclei other than a single male nucleus and a single female
nucleus. No details of how a seed develops from an ovule are required.

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 Teaching ideas: Unit 1

Ideas for the lesson

• Use discussion to remind students about what fertilisation is, using the terms ‘gamete’ and ‘zygote’. They should
remember this from their work in Stage 8 on human reproduction.
• Explain, using diagrams, how the male gamete travels from the stigma to the female gamete down a tube, which
grows out of the pollen grain.
• Discuss in outline the formation of an embryo from the zygote, and a seed from the ovule. If possible, show
students flowers and young fruits at various stages, and indicate how the ovules in the flower become seeds.
It is best to do this using plants that produce large seeds, such as peas or beans.
• Activity 1.6, Investigating seed structure, asks students to look carefully at a seed. You could also ask them to
make drawings at one or more stages in this activity, building on the skills learnt in Worksheet 1.4.
Common misunderstandings and misconceptions
• Students often think that the entire pollen grain travels down the tube to the ovule. This arises from the
misconception that pollen grains ‘are’ the male gametes.
Homework ideas
• Worksheet 1.6, Comparing sexual reproduction in humans and flowering plants, asks students to bring together
what they have just learnt about sexual reproduction in flowering plants, and what they learnt in Stage 8 about
sexual reproduction in humans. Some may find this difficult (linking two different areas of work often causes
problems for less able students), so you may like to go through this with them first. Although the content of this
worksheet goes a little beyond the requirements of the curriculum framework, it is good for students to begin to
develop this skill.
• Workbook exercise 1.6, Flowers and reproduction, is a cloze exercise where students practise using many of the
terms that have been used in this unit.

Topic 1.7 Fruits

Ideas for the lesson
• If you were able to show students how ovules develop into seeds (for example using peas or beans) in the last
topic, you could use the same material to show them how an ovary develops into a ‘pod’ containing the seeds.
Introduce the idea that this pod is a ‘fruit’. This will be a new use of the term for most students, and will help
them to appreciate that the everyday use of the word ‘fruit’ differs from its use in biology.
• Discuss the need for seeds to be spread away from their parent plant. The Coursebook concentrates on the
avoidance of competition, but you could also mention the possibility of colonising new areas.
• Students could look at a variety of fruits and consider how their structure might help the seeds inside them to
be dispersed. Activity 1.7A, Adaptations of fruits, asks them to look at two fruits in detail and make diagrams
of them. If possible, they should choose two very different fruits, using two different dispersal methods – being
carried on the wind, being carried away by animals to eat, or sticking to an animal’s fur.
• Activity 1.7B, What affects the time taken for a fruit to fall to the ground?, is a planning exercise. Students are
asked to think of a question, and then design an experiment to try to find the answer. In Stage 7, students may
have done an experiment that involved dropping different objects and timing their fall (Stage 7 Activity 9.6)
and another that involved trying to make an object fall as slowly as possible (Stage 7 Activity 9.5). If they
can remember these, they could build on them when thinking about this experiment. Worksheet 1.7A is an
Assessment for learning sheet, in which students assess their experiment against particular criteria.
• Worksheet 1.7B, Fruit dispersal by toucans (extension), describes a real investigation carried out in a zoo and
in the wild. It is quite a difficult task, largely because it involves a lot of reading. You may decide to use this
only with more able students. Alternatively, it could be done as a class exercise, through oral questioning and
discussion.
Common misunderstandings and misconceptions
• It is very common for students to confuse pollination with fruit dispersal.
Homework ideas
• The planning part of Activity 1.7B, What affects the time taken for a fruit to fall to the ground?
• Worksheet 1.7B, Fruit dispersal by toucans
• Workbook exercise 1.7, Crossword

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