Serc: Identifying Plant Family Characteristics

Learn about dichotomous keys, plant identification, and how to care for the planet with a lesson that includes several hands-on and innovative activities. Kids go on a plant scavenger hunt and classify the plants that they find...

Children gain first-hand experience with Native American agriculture while investigating the life cycle of plants with this engaging experiment. Focusing on what the natives called the Three Sisters - corn, beans, and squash - young...

Compare different types of leaves in a science exploration. First, third graders identify common characteristics of various plants, such as daisies, fir needles, and cypress leaves. They then determine if the plants in each group are...

Gardeners are given an individual plant specimen from a bouquet of local rain garden plants. They group up by their plant type and then make observations together, name the plant, and introduce it to the rest of the class. You then share...

Reading the cues from nature can be as much an art as a science. The second installment in a six-part unit on climate teaches learners that environmental and biological events have significance. They first learn the difference between...

View vegetables a little differently. A hands-on instructional activity begins by examining different vegetables and identifying the part of the plant they come from. Learners then create exploding seed balls they take home to grow their...

Young biologists discuss the reasons behind the current use of the plant identification system. They get into groups and identify the characteristics of each species of plant which is described. The keys needed for groups to make...

Though it's designed to guide a field trip to the New York Botanical Garden, you could take resource like this one to a local park, wilderness area, school garden, or even a weedy empty lot. Middle schoolers identify plant parts and...

Students go outside to look for trees and gather leaves. Working cooperatively they will sort and try to classify the trees by the characteristics of their leaves.

Students construct a defined plot on school grounds and observed patterns in plant life. They count trees, shrubs, cacti and record on a data sheet. They compare data and generate a plant diversity overlook for their school.