5 (Organisms Maintain a Dynamic Equilibrium That Sustains Life)

LESSON IX:

REPRODUCTION IN THE PLANTKINGDOM

To Address NYS Standard:

5 (Organisms maintain a dynamic equilibrium that sustains life)

Behavioural Objective:

The students will be able to understand how plants reproduce without being able to move, speak, or use overt communication. They will be able to understand how the basic principles of reproduction are the same throughout all the kingdoms of life.

Explanation of Lesson Plan:

This lesson will allow students to have the basic knowledge that they need to create their presentations on the varied types of plant reproduction. Alternation of generations and reproductive strategies will be discussed.

Hook: (3 minutes)

“You might think that plant sex is boring. You might think that organisms which cannot possible move around could not possibly have very interesting sex lives. Well, this is just not true, ladies and gents. It is a dirty lie. Indeed, reproduction in kingdom Planta is varied and rich, perhaps even more so than that of the animal kingdom. Let’s find out how.”

Test of Prior Learning: (5 minutes)

1. What do you need for reproduction?

2. How do plants accomplish this task?

New Learning: (30 minutes)

1. Plants, just like anything else that is alive, must create the next generation.

2. There are plants that make flowers, called angiosperms. In these plants, the seed grows within an enclosed chamber below the flower.

3. Some plants do not produce flowers. These are called gymnosperms. In these plants, the seed develops in an open area. “gymnosperm” means naked seeds.

4. Plants need to do a lot to reproduce, because they can’t move to find a mate. As such, their mating is rather tenuous. It depends on many other factors:

Will the pollen reach the other plant?

Are there other plants in the area?

Will enough pollen be produced?

5. We will restrict our discussion here to only the seed plants. There are other plants, such as ferns, which reproduce using spores. Really, these aren’t very exciting.

6. Seed plants do something called the alternation of generations.

7. This means that some time is spent as a haploid organism, and some times is spent as a diploid organism.

8. The gymnosperms are simplest. They consist of conifers, cycads, ginkgo, and gnetophytes.

Conifers are evergreen tress. They produce cones, not flowers.

Ginkgos are not rare, but there is only one extant species: Ginko biloba.

Cycads are plants that resemble palms, but are not.

Gnetophytes vary, and may be vines, or small shrubs.

9. The angiosperms are more diverse.

10. There are monocots and dicots. This refers to the number of leaves the seed first has.

11.

Test of New Learning: (5 minutes)

1. What are the main products of the Krebs cycle?

2. Why do we need to regenerate oxaloacetate?

Assignment: