Lesson Plan

Who Says Plants Can't Move?

A pine cone
Grade Level:
Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
Subject:
Science
Lesson Duration:
60 Minutes

Essential Question

How do plants distribute their seeds?

Objective

Students will be able to:
• Role play how plants spread their seeds and populate new areas.
• Think about plants as organisms that are adapted to their environment
and contribute to the well being of other plant, animals, and people.

Background

If doing the review on pollination, prepare powdered sugar and marshmallows in a paper bag ahead of time. Review pollination and how flowering plants produce seeds in order to reproduce. Gather seed examples for the different types of dispersal mechanisms and photos of plants that you can show as students do the role plays for seed dispersal.

Photos and information can be found on-line at Montana Plant Life. If students are able to use Apps, there is a Glacier Wildflower App available for download. The two plant books that were included in the original Work House kit are available from most school and public libraries: 1) Montana Native Plants and Early Peoples, by Jeff Hart, Montana Historical Society Press; and 2) Plants of Waterton-Glacier National Parks and the Northern Rockies, by Richard J. Shaw and Danny On, Missoula: Mountain Press, 1979, which describes and illustrates with colored photographs over 200 species of trees, shrubs, flower and plants.

Consider borrowing Glacier’s Plant Invaders education trunk as it has laminated, printed photos of native plants. The “Great Race for Survival” activity about plant competition includes how some non-native, invasive plants can out compete native species by having higher seed creation and dispersal techniques.

This lesson is one part of Work House: A Glacier National Park Science and Indian Education Program. It can be completed as a stand alone lesson or as part of the greater Work House course. 

The full Work House Program is available on Glacier National Park's website. 
Background information as well as the full lesson plan can be found as a PDF here.

Preparation

  • Balloons (green, brown, purple and red are preferable)
  • Frozen or fresh berries (huckleberries, blueberries or raspberries are most appropriate)
  • Grocery bags (preferably painted bright red, pink or white)
  • A yellow or black stocking cap
  • Powdered sugar
  • Marshmallows
  • Velcro strips
  • A collection of locally gathered seeds such as dandelion, maple, poppy, cockle burrs, pine cones, and mushroom spores
  • Optional: magnifying glasses to look at seeds

Procedure

  1. You may want to start out by doing the following role play to review pollination (needed for plants to produce seeds). Before the presentation begins, sprinkle powdered sugar in the bottom of a colored grocery bag so that it sticks to the sides after shaking. Place a marshmallow in the bag with the sugar. Place another marshmallow in a second colored grocery bag (no sugar).
  2. Discuss the relationships that flowering plants have with pollinating insects. Explain that this is one of the most sophisticated arrangements for pollination of flowers. Choose a student to represent a honey bee. Put the black or yellow stocking cap on the student’s head and say there is a treat in the first bag. Explain that bees use their proboscis to obtain nectar from flowers. Hold the bag (blossom) and have the bee get its treat. The bee must stick its head in the bag. In the process of gathering nectar (marshmallow) the bee will pick up a coating of pollen (powdered sugar) on its head (cap). Ask the group what the bee has on its head. Tell the bee that you have another treat in the other blossom. In the process of bobbing for more nectar (marshmallow) pollen (powered sugar) will be deposited in the other bag. Show the small amount of pollen at the bottom of the second blossom to the group. Discuss the importance of bees and other insects to the process of pollination and seed production. 
  3. Discuss the concept that plants are rooted in the ground and spend their entire lives in one spot, but have active mechanisms with which to spread their seeds into new territory. It is through these mechanisms that plants were able to invade the barren areas of Glacier National Park as the Ice Age glaciers receded. That process is still happening today. There is footage of Bitterroot’s ability to spread its seeds in the “Botany” section of the online video (7 minutes).
  4. Choose a student to be a burr bearing plant. Examples include large leaved avens, (Geum macrophyllum), stickseed (Hackelia micrantha), mountain sweet cicely (Osmorhiza chilensis) or the notorious non-native invasive plant with burrs- houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale L.) . Explain that a burr is a seed designed to stick to animals that pass by. Mention that burrs were an inspiration for the invention of Velcro. Show the students the Velcro and burrs you’ve brought to class. Choose another student to be a large mammal that lives in Glacier National Park. Give the plant an inflated balloon. Ask the student to rub the balloon against clothing to generate static electricity. The mammal comes walking down the trail, stops to scratch, and the plant places the balloon on the mammal’s back. The balloon stays “attached” until the mammal has traveled some distance. Eventually the seed drops by the wayside.
  5. Choose another student to be a huckleberry plant. Have the student hold some berries while standing by the trail. Another volunteer becomes a grizzly bear and eats the berries. The grizzly continues on down the trail and deposits seeds complete with fertilizer. A purple balloon is not as much fun as berries, but is more graphic in the deposit demonstration. Did you ever wonder why huckleberries seem to line so many of the trails in the park?
  6. Have another student be a mountain maple tree. Have the student inflate a green balloon, tie it, and use the wind to transport it as far away from its parent as possible. Can they think of other seeds they’ve seen that float on the wind?
  7. Have another student be an early blue violet (Viola adunca). Have the student inflate a dark balloon and hold it, waiting patiently until another student touches the balloon-and then let it go! The balloon will rocket out into the room and settle on the floor some distance away. Some plants (and fungi/ mushrooms) use pressure from inside or outside forces to propel their seeds or spores out away from the parent plant.Richardson’s geranium is noted to send its seeds 3 feet away. On a related note, spores from mushrooms also are forcibly ejected and because of their ability to be carried by wind have travelled from Northern Mexico to Canada. They have also been found thousands of feet up in the air! Students may be familiar with puffball mushrooms.
  8. Select students to be a pine tree and a stream. Explain that conifers (trees with cones) use several mechanisms for seed and pollen dispersal. Give the tree student a green balloon and have the stream student meander by. As the stream passes by the tree, the tree drops a cone into the open arms of the stream. The stream continues down its course and deposits the cone ashore some distance below. It is important that students understand that this is only one of several ways that conifers spread their seeds.

Possible Extensions

Assessment Materials

Ask the students to explore their neighborhoods in search of various seeds and have them demonstrate and explain the mechanism for dispersal. Interesting seed variations are available during all seasons of the year.

Additional Resources

Contact Information

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Tags: essential understanding 1 essential understanding 3 essential understanding 6 iefa work house seeds cones plants organism seed dispersal pollination pollinator spore nectar

Last updated: September 15, 2023