Year 3: Plants (requirements for growth)
Links to Learning
Science Links
- To explore the requirements of plants for life and growth and how this can vary from plant to plant.
SDG Links
- To understand the importance of plant species to all living creatures and to identify ways that they can be protected.
Credit: BBC One - Green planet
Clip 1 - Plant Nutrition
Just like an animal, a plant also needs food to grow. However, unlike an animal (who may hunt or gather) a plant must make its own food. It does so through a clever process that involves turning sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into sugar (glucose).
Although it isn’t native to the UK, the Venus fly-trap plant is a popular house plant. It is an unusual plant because it gets additional food (nutrition) from trapping and eating insects. In this fascinating clip, we are shown exactly how a Venus fly-trap captures unfortunate invertebrates.
Discuss the meaning of each word highlighted in bold.
Prediction
Before you watch the clip, can you make a prediction about the strategy that you think a Venus fly-trap plant has to avoid snapping shut on things with no nutritional value such as a raindrop?
Observation
As you are watching the clip, make a mental note of where the Venus fly-trap plants are being kept? Why might this be a good place for them to grow?
Enquiring Mind Questions
1) Why is the plant called a Venus fly-trap?
2) Does a Venus fly-trap spit out insects that it doesn’t like the taste of?
Do you have your own enquiring mind questions that relate to the clip?