SC.4.2.1.a: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and…

Flowers, Fruit and Seeds: How Plants Make More Plants Grades 3–5 · partly supports this outcome

What is a flower really for? Is a tomato a fruit? How can a seed travel without legs? Three hands-on lessons on pollination, fruits and seeds, and seed dispersal, from a flower you can take apart, through foods you can cut open, to seed models you can drop, blow and float. Nothing is tasted, and it works in any climate.

• What is a flower really for? 50–60 min

  Teams take a real flower apart, find the petals, the pollen-making stamens and the seed-making pistil, and use a cotton bud as a model bee to test why fuzzy carriers move pollen well. They explain what pollination is, what it is not, and why a flower looks the way it does.

• Is a tomato a fruit? 50–60 min

  Teams cut open thirteen foods to find where the seeds are, sort them with a scientist's rule instead of a cook's, and follow a flower into a fruit. They find that tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers are fruits, that a carrot is a root, and that a banana is a fruit with almost no seeds.

• How can a seed travel without legs? 60–75 min

  Teams build a model seed for wind, water or animals, carrying the same clay seed, and test every model with a fair drop, fan, float and wool test. They find that no design wins every test, and explain how real seeds are shaped for the way they travel.

How Your Body Works Grades 3–5

Why your heart races when you run, what happens to your lunch, how your arm bends and where germs hide. Students take their own pulse, build a model gut and a card elbow, and run a handwashing fair test with glitter 'germs'. Everyday materials, no winter, works in any country.

• Why does your heart beat faster when you run? 45–60 min

  Students find their pulse, count it at rest, after a minute of star jumps and every minute while it comes back down, then graph the recovery. They use the pattern to explain the heart as a pump that sends oxygen and food to working muscles.

• What happens to your lunch? 45–60 min

  Teams build a working model of the gut: teeth (a fork), a stomach (a bag with water and vinegar) and an intestine (a stocking squeezed over a tray), and follow a cracker through it. They check their own teeth in a mirror and put the parts of the digestive system in order, with a job for each.

• How does your arm bend? 45–60 min

  Teams build an elbow from card, a paper fastener and two strings, and find that it will only bend if one string pulls while the other goes slack. They feel their own biceps and triceps swap jobs while lifting a bag of rice, and explain why muscles always work in pairs.

Keep It Cool: Ice, Insulation and Staying Comfortable Grades 3–5

Why salt makes ice melt faster, which wrap keeps a drink coldest, how a seal and a fennec fox each keep their body temperature steady, and how to build a cool box that beats the heat. Four hands-on lessons that start from a freezer and work in any climate.

• How do animals stay warm in the sea and cool in the desert? 50–60 min

  Students put a hand into ice water inside a 'blubber glove' made of fat between two bags, then cool a thermometer with a wet cloth in front of a fan. They use both results to argue how fur, blubber, big ears and panting help animals keep a steady body temperature.

Your Senses: How Does Your Body Know? Grade 4

Map the most sensitive spots on your skin, find the blind spot in each eye, lose the flavour of a jelly bean by pinching your nose, and build an owl ear. Four lessons on how senses gather information and the brain makes sense of it.

• How do animals sense what we can't? 60 min

  Students read about whiskers, echolocation and owl ears, build a paper cone 'owl ear' and test whether it helps them find where a sound comes from. Then they define a problem and invent a sensor or tool inspired by an animal.

Winter Science: Ice, Snow and Staying Warm Grades 3–5

Why roads get salted, which mitten really works, how a seal stays warm in icy water, and why a mouse is cosier under the snow than on top of it. Four hands-on lessons on ice, heat and insulation.

• How do animals stay warm in winter? 50–60 min

  Students put a hand into ice water inside a 'blubber glove' made of shortening between two zip bags, measure the difference with thermometers, and compare a lone cup of warm water with a huddle. Then they argue how blubber, fur, feathers and huddling help animals survive the cold.

Printable practice for SC.4.2.1.a

• Flowers, Fruit and Seeds: How Plants Make More Plants workbook included with the unit

  3 English-support pages, 3 practice pages, 3 readings, 1 word wall, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• How Your Body Works workbook included with the unit

  4 English-support pages, 4 practice pages, 4 readings, 1 word wall, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Keep It Cool: Ice, Insulation and Staying Comfortable workbook included with the unit

  1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Your Senses: How Does Your Body Know? workbook included with the unit

  1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Winter Science: Ice, Snow and Staying Warm workbook included with the unit

  2 readings, 1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Groundhog Day Shadow Science free pack, written for Canada; the skill matches

  2 mini books, 1 reading, 1 cut-and-paste page, 1 assessment, with answer keys. Free sample.

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