Download KS3 Flowers, Spring Plant Reproduction - Lesson Plan

Spring and Summer – Flowers everywhere!
KS3 RHS Wisley lesson plan 2016
National Curriculum: Reproduction in plants, flower structure, wind and insect pollination, fertilisation
Learning Objectives
Students should learn
 Most flowers have both
male and female
structures
 Flowers are for sexual
reproduction to produce
seeds
 Flower structure including
petals, nectaries, stamens
(anther, filament) and
carpel (stigma, style,
ovary, ovule, egg cell)
 Pollen contains the male
nucleus
 Egg cell contains the
female nucleus
 Pollen needs to be carried
to stigma. This is
pollination
 Pollen can be carried by
wind and insects
 Pollen carried by wind is
smaller and may have
‘wings’ and is produced in
large quantities – grasses
and many trees
 Pollen carried by insects
is larger, produced in
Structure
Introduction
Welcome and Health& Safety talk (See Risk Assessments).Pollen allergies
Establish that plants have flowers to make seeds.
What does a gardener do if he/she wants to grow lettuces? Demo packets of seeds.
Where do the seeds come from? – bought or collected from plants. How do plants make
seeds? Flowers are needed to make seeds. (photograph of lettuce flowers/tomato)
How do you grow an oak tree? Oak trees must have flowers. (photo of oak flowers)
Role of insects and wind in transferring pollen
Why do some flowers have brightly coloured petals? - to attract bees. What do the bees
get from the flowers? – nectar (not honey!!) and some pollen. What do the flowers get in
return? – pollen carried from one flower to the next so that they can make seeds.
Oak trees do not have big flowers .How does the pollen get carried from one oak flower
to the next? – wind
Demo oak / hazel flowers ( may need to have pictures)
Why is pollen so important?
Introduce the idea that pollen carries the male nucleus to fertilise the female nucleus to
make an embryo (baby) plant in a seed.
Plenary



Why are flowers so
important to plants?
How are plant flowers
adapted for insect and
wind pollination?
If a scientist was looking
at pollen from ancient
mud samples under a
microscope, how would
they know if the plants
living at that time were
pollinated by insects or
wind?
Activities
Collect some flowers from the garden (with permission from the curatorial staff). Note the
location where found. Use key to identify how pollinated.
Return Clore Learning Centre
Use mini digital microscopes to examine and dissect flower and stick on paper strip –
sepal, petals, stamens, carpel.
Using the scientists’ microscope and good laptop at the front examine some examples of
pollen. What does it tell us about how the plant is pollinated? Reinforce the differences
between wind and insect pollinated pollen.
RHS Education and Learning, RHS Garden Wisley, Woking, Surrey, GU23 6QB
[email protected] 01483 212432
Charity No: 222879/SCO38262

smaller quantities and has Example of pollen tube growing – permission to use YouTube example
a spiky surface to help it
Demo flower to show pollen tube and reinforce idea that the male nucleus i and female
‘grip’ onto insects.
nucleus need to fuse before an embryo plant within a seed can form
To make a seed the male
nucleus and female
nucleus need to fuse.
This is fertilisation
Key Vocabulary:
Flower parts: petal, nectary, stamen (anther and filament), carpel (stigma,
style, ovary, ovule, egg cell)
Pollen, pollination, insect and wind pollination, pollen tube
Fertilisation, male nucleus, female nucleus, embryo plant
Seed, embryo plant, food store, seed coat, seed dispersal.
Resources:
Lap top and projector
Scientist microscope
Slides, cover slips,
dropping pipette
Mini digital microscopes
Strips with double sided
tape
Demo:
Packets of seeds e.g.
lettuce/tomato
wind pollinated flower
e.g. hazel/grass
Primula
Flower model
Clip board, pencil, paper
White tray/tub for
flowers collected
Key wind/insect
pollinated flower
Links to IT:
RHS Education and Learning, RHS Garden Wisley, Woking, Surrey, GU23 6QB
[email protected] 01483 212432
Charity No: 222879/SCO38262
Assessment Questions





Diagram of seed showing
embryo plant food store
and seed coat. Can you
name the parts and say
what their function is?
What is pollination? Why
is pollination needed?
To make an embryo plant
fertilisation has to take
place. Describe
fertilisation
How are flowers adapted
for insect and wind
pollination?
How does the pollen in
insect and wind pollinated
flowers differ and why?
Differentiation: By outcome and questioning
All Students can name petal, stigma, ovary, anther, pollen. Define
pollination and fertilisation. Know the different structures of a seed – seed
coat, food store, embryo plant. List some differences between insect
pollinated and wind pollinated flowers and some differences between pollen
carried by insects and pollen carried by wind.
Most students can name and identify petal, carpel stigma and ovary;
stamen and anther. Define and explain pollination. Describe how wind and
insect pollinated flowers differ and explain why. Describe the differences
between pollen from insect and wind pollinated flowers and give some
reasons why they differ. Describe how fertilisation occurs in plants. Know that
the zygote forms the embryo plant and the fertilised ovary forms the fruit or
pod.
Some students can name and identify carpel (stigma, style and ovary);
stamen (anther, filament). Define and explain self pollination and cross
pollination. Explain how insect and wind pollinated flowers are adapted to
their method of pollination. Describe in detail how the pollen from insect and
wind pollinated flowers differ and explain why. Define and describe
fertilisation in plants. Explain what happens to each part of the flower after
fertilisation. Describe the structure of a seed. Have an awareness of that the
offspring from sexual reproduction show variation. Explain why tomato plants
grown from a packet of seeds may not be exactly the same.
RHS Education and Learning, RHS Garden Wisley, Woking, Surrey, GU23 6QB
[email protected] 01483 212432
Charity No: 222879/SCO38262