Lesson summary
Students explore how the composition of soils affects the health of plants. They look at the needs of plants and identify what role soils play in providing these needs. They then attempt to grow seeds in various soil types to determine which type is best suited for these plants.
Learning intentions:
Students will...
- discover that soil is a vital ingredient for life on Earth
- understand that plants rely on healthy soils to survive.
Success criteria:
Students can...
- describe the things that plants need to survive and the role soil plays in keeping plants alive
- use scientific skills in conducting, observing and assessing tests on soil and plant growth.
Lesson guides and printables
Lesson details
Skills
This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:
- collaboration
- problem-solving
- curiosity
- communication
Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions:
Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content descriptions - English
Students learn to:
- compare the observable properties of soils, rocks and minerals and investigate why they are important Earth resources (AC9S3U02)
- pose questions to explore observed patterns and relationships and make predictions based on observations (AC9S3I01)
- use provided scaffolds to plan and conduct investigations to answer questions or test predictions, including identifying the elements of fair tests, and considering the safe use of materials and equipment (AC9S3I02)
General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking.
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability.
Relevant parts of Year 3 Science achievement standards:
Students describe the observable properties of soils, rocks and minerals and describe their importance as resources. Students pose questions to explore patterns and relationships and make predictions based on observations. They use scaffolds to plan safe investigations and fair tests.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Target 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.
Target 15.3: By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.
Resources Required
- Experiment: Which soil is best for healthy plants? (includes a list of resources required)
- workbooks for recording experiment observations.
Additional Info
Level of teacher scaffolding: High - lead students in class discussion and in a growing experiment.
Special thanks to:
This lesson has been developed with the support of the Macdoch Foundation.
Cool's curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
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