Super STAAR

Supporting Lessons

Meet a Plant: Canadian Museum of Nature (PDF) - Students participate in a guided observation process that helps them focus on plant structures and increases their appreciation and knowledge of plants, plant adaptations and plant diversity.

Meet a Plant
Canadian Museum of Nature, nature.ca/en/home

Patterns and Adaptations in Plants and Animals: University of Texas Dana Center (PDF) - Students research patterns and adaptations among native plants and animals in different regions of Texas and identify adaptations of various plants and animals that increase their survival rates.

Patterns and Adaptations in Plants and Animals
University of Texas Dana Center, www.utdanacenter.org

Elaboration Lessons and Extensions

Plant Adaptation to the Desert: Southwest Center for Education and the Natural Environment (website) – Students learn about photosynthesis, and discover that plants’ adaptations to their native environments (desert vs. tropical, for example), result in leaves of many shapes and designs. Investigate the benefits of these specific adaptations and begin to understand the great structural variety among plants.

Plant Adaptation to the Desert
Southwest Center for Education and the Natural Environment, scene.asu.edu

Change or Adaptation? National Teacher Training Institute (website) - Students use video and Internet resources to observe and learn about the role of adaptation in the life cycle of plants, animals and humans, with particular emphasis on plant and bird species in extreme environments.

Change or Adaptation?
National Teacher Training Institute, www.thirteen.org/edonline/ntti

Plant Adaptations: National Park Service (PDF) - Field trip guide that can be used in the classroom to learn about a variety of plant adaptations. The background section provides useful information for teachers.

Plant Adaptations
National Park Service, www.nps.gov

Assessment Ideas

Assign a different type of habitat to each student or group of students. Examples of habitats include desert, forest, pond, etc. Have each student or group invent and draw a plant that might be adapted to the assigned habitat. For example, desert plants would have fleshy stems or leaves to store water, or plants in a pond would have leaves with air spaces to enable them to float on the surface.

Literature Connections

Would You Survive? Animal and Plant Adaptation. Townsend, John (ISBN-13: 978-1410919694)

Plant Survival. Capon, Brian (ISBN-13: 978-0881922875)

Plant Adaptations. Lundgren, Julie (ISBN-13: 978-1617419379)

The Science Behind Animal and Plant Survival. Brasch, Nicolas (ISBN-13: 978-1420268959)

How Plants Survive. Kudlinski, Kathleen (ISBN-13: 978-1582737089)

Additional Resources

Plant Adaptation Up Close: Botanical Garden of Smith College (website) - Great exhibit panels featuring PDFs that explain adaptations different types of plants (parasitic, aquatic, desert, etc.) and amazing electron microscope photos.

Plant Adaptation Up Close
Botanical Garden of Smith College, www.smith.edu/garden

Cactus Survival: Cactus Museum (website) - Information about the characteristics (e.g., stem, spines, etc.) that help cacti survive in a harsh arid climate.

Cactus Survival
Cactus Museum, www.cactusmuseum.com