Hi everyone, my name is Ms. Panchal and I'm really excited and glad you decided to join me on this science lesson.

So our lesson today is going to be all about changing environments and how plants could be in danger because of the changing environments.

Now this lesson is part of our bigger unit of learning on "Living things and the environment." We're going to go through lots of examples to help you understand this learning today.

Let's get started with the lesson because we've got lots to get through.

So the outcome of our lesson is I can understand that changes to environments can sometimes pose dangers to plants.

So we're going to use a few different keywords in our lesson today, so we've got environment, endangered, estimate, survey, and quadrats.

So what I'd like you to do is pause the video here and I'd like you to first of all read the definitions in your head on your own to yourself, and then I'd like you to work in partners to read out the keywords and definitions to each other.

Once you've done that, click play and we'll continue with the lesson.

Excellent reading, everybody; well done.

So our lesson today is split up into two parts.

We're first going to be learning about changing environments and then we're going to move on to the impact of changing environments.

So let's go on with the first part of the lesson.

So we've got Sofia and Lucas here and they're exploring the local environment around the grounds of their school.

I'd like you to explain to your partner what do we mean by environment.

So pause the video here and maybe you can talk with your talk partner or you can maybe write down some ideas on a whiteboard.

What do we mean by environment? Great ideas, everybody; well done.

Now there's lots of different examples of different environments, we're going to be looking at them today.

An environment is the surroundings of a living thing, including plants or animals and the conditions they live in.

Sam says, "I have observed different plants in our school garden.

I wonder why they grow here?" So you've got an example of rosemary in the school herb garden.

Do you know? So do you know why some of these plants grow there? Can you tell me? Brilliant, well done, everyone.

Environments must contain all the things required for plants to survive and grow.

What could a garden contain for the plants that live there? So pause the video here and I'd like you to write down some of your ideas to answer this question.

What could a garden contain for the plants that live there? Have a think.

Brilliant ideas, so Alex says, "The school garden contains nutrients, water, air, light, and shelter for the plants, like the rosemary, to use as they grow." Let's do a check of our learning.

True or false? Environments only provide places for plants to live.

Do we think that's true or false? Brilliant, the answer is false.

Now we need to think about why this statement is false, and can you change it so that it is true? Brilliant, so a plant environment must contain all the things required for living things to survive and grow.

This includes nutrients, water, light, and air, as well as a suitable temperature and room to grow.

Let's do another check of our learning.

Which of these environments contain what a plant needs to grow and survive? A, tarmac road; B, woodland; C, on the moon.

So which of these environments contain what a plant needs to grow and survive? What do you think? Super job, the answer is B, woodland.

So Sofia and Lucas are reading a library book about how environments can sometimes change.

Lucas says, "I learned that when environments change, plants and animals can become endangered, and that means that they are at risk of becoming extinct." Sofia says, "I wonder what changes are happening to their environments." Do you have any ideas? So pause the video here, have a little bit of thinking time on your own, and then I'd like you to share your ideas with your partner.

What types of changes do you think are happening to their environments? Maybe you can write your ideas down as well.

Off you go.

Great ideas, everybody; well done.

So the titan arum, also called the corpse flower, is a giant plant known for its big, stinky flower that smells like rotten meat.

It is an endangered plant as there are only around 1,000 left in the rainforests of Indonesia.

So it's an endangered plant as there's not many of them left.

Lucas says, "The titan arum only flowers every two to three years, making it less likely for more of these plants to grow.

Its environment is changing due to deforestation as farmers clear the land to grow other crops." So there's very few of these flowers around in Indonesia and unfortunately lots of deforestation is happening there, which means lots of trees are being cut down, so the farmers are using that land so they can grow other crops and maybe sell those crops to make more money or to feed their families.

But as a result of that, lots of flowers and plants are being destroyed to make a way for a space for the other crops to grow.

Attenborough's pitcher plant is a rare giant plant that traps and eats bugs and it only can be found high up in the mountains of the Philippines.

We've got a picture there, it's a really interesting-looking plant.

Lucas says, "Attenborough's pitcher plant is an endangered plant because its mountain environment is being damaged by mining companies.

With so few of these plants left in the wild, there aren't many seeds being produced to grow new ones." So again, this is another example of a plant that is very, very rare.

Let's move on.

So seagrass is a special underwater plant that helps keep the ocean environment healthy by giving food and shelter to sea animals like fish and turtles.

We can see seagrass here and we can see very easily how lots of different water animals can actually live inside them.

Lucas says, "Seagrass is an endangered plant because people are building too close to the coast, polluting the water and sometimes causing damage with boat anchors.

Also, the warming temperatures on Earth make it harder for seagrass to grow." So unfortunately, due to global warming and climate change, our Earth is getting warmer.

But that means that some plants, for example, like the seagrass, find it harder to grow.

So seagrass here is another example of an endangered plant.

Let's move on.

Lucas says, "The plants in the book we are reading grow in countries far away from where we live.

Are there any endangered plants in the UK?" What do you think? So pause the video and have a think with your talk partner.

Do you think there are any endangered plants in the UK or do you think endangered plants are only in faraway places? Great ideas, everybody; well done.

So Sofia says, "Yes, some types of plants are endangered in the UK." So it's not just plants that are in faraway places.

Actually, some here in the UK are also endangered.

"Also, plants such as horse chestnut trees are in danger.

They are not yet endangered, but their numbers are steadily decreasing." So the amount of them and the number of them are actually in decline, which means they're close to becoming endangered.

Let's do a check of our learning.

Which of these changes to environments can cause danger to the plants within them? A, building towns and cities; B, pollution; C, creating protected areas; or D, deforestation.

Which do we think is the correct answer, A, B, C, or D? Brilliant, we've got A, B, and D are the answers.

So A, building towns and cities; B, pollution; D, deforestation.

So these changes here are causing negative impacts to the plants around them.

Let's move on to the first task of this lesson.

So what I'd like you to do is choose one of these plants in danger, the titan arum, the corpse plant, Attenborough's pitcher plant, or seagrass, and I'd like you to use the fact files provided and other secondary sources to find out more about each plant.

Then I'd like you to explain to a partner how this environment could change and cause danger to the plants that depend on it.

So you can use the fact files provided, but actually there's lots of other places you can get information from.

You can look at websites, films, videos, books, to learn more about these different plants in danger.

Now pause the video here and have a go at this task.

I'm really looking forward to seeing your work.

Now pause the video, have a go, and we'll talk through an example answer really soon.

Off you go.

Brilliant work, everybody; well done.

I can see that you used the fact files but actually you've gone above and beyond and looked at some different secondary sources in order to find out more about the different plants, so superb job, everybody, well done.

So for example, you may have chosen the seagrass.

So, "Seagrass grows in ocean environments around the world.

It needs clean, shallow water and light to grow and a firm seabed to anchor its roots in.

People are building closer to the shore and blocking its light and polluting the water with sewage and rubbish.

Fishing boats can damage seagrass with their anchors, propellers, and nets." So did you choose seagrass or did you choose some of the other plants in danger? Are your ideas similar or different to this one? But well done for having a good go at this task, everybody, well done.

So we've come towards the end of our first part of our lesson, so we've spoken a little bit about changing environments and we're now going to be thinking about the impact of the changing environments.

So Lucas and Sofia are talking about plants in danger.

Lucas says, "How do we know that a plant is endangered?" Sofia says, "I wonder if a team of people count how many plants there are in different environments every year.

They use this information to calculate if the numbers are changing and whether the plants have become endangered." What do you think? How do we know that a plant is endangered? What are your ideas? Maybe you can write your ideas down and share them with the rest of the people in your group.

Do you have similar ideas or do you have different ones? What do you think? Brilliant ideas, everybody; well done.

So scientists who study plants are called botanists and they use different methods to count and study plants in their natural environments.

Why might it be difficult to find out how many flowering plants there are in an environment such as a wildflower meadow? So if we have a look at this picture on the screen here, we've got a meadow environment.

Why might it be difficult for people, botanists in particular, to count how many different flowering plants there are? Why do you think it'd be really difficult? Brilliant ideas, well done.

So one thing we can see is there's lots and lots of different plants here, so it can be very, very tricky to count how many there are.

And there's also so many different kinds, it can be very difficult.

Lucas says, "It can be very difficult to count plants because many of them can grow in one place.

Some environments, like forests and oceans, are really big and hard to reach." Sofia says, "Plants can look very similar, making them tricky to tell apart.

Plants can also have lots of leaves like grass, so it's hard to tell if there is one plant or lots of them." So there's a few different reasons as to why counting them would be actually a very tricky thing to do.

How do you think botanists estimate how many plants there are in an environment? Now let's think about this word, estimate, and you may have seen this word or heard of this word estimate in some of your other lessons at school.

So making an estimate is making an educated guess based on knowledge that you already have.

So how do we think that botanists estimate how many plants there are in an environment? What do you think they do? Have a think with your talk partner.

Great ideas, everybody; well done.

So botanists carry out surveys by going out into nature and counting the numbers of different kinds of plants.

They might also measure the plants and take notes or pictures to learn more about them.

They make a list of all the plants they can identify and this helps them to monitor them over long periods of time.

Now technology is very advanced now, so there's different cameras you can set up and you can set up time-lapse ones, which if you hold the camera there it will take constant video or pictures over a period of time and you might be able to see a plant grow or you might be able to see different living things moving around in the environment.

Lucas says, "We carried out a plant survey in our school gardening club.

We counted which plants grew in the school garden, playing field and forest.

We used this information to estimate how many different types of plants there were in total." Let's do a check of our learning.

True or false? It is easy to count the exact number of plants in an environment.

Do we think this is true or false? Brilliant, we know that this is false and we've just learned that actually it can be very, very difficult to count the exact number of plants in an environment.

But do we think why? Why is it really difficult to count the exact number of plants in an environment? Excellent, so we know that some plants can be very hard to spot in their environments as they can be very small or hidden by large plants.

They can also grow in hard-to-reach places like mountaintops and oceans.

Superb job, everybody; well done.

Let's move on.

So Sofia says, "Do botanists count every single plant in an environment? That would be a lot of plants to count." What do you think? How do botanists count the different plants in the environment? What do you think they do? They couldn't count every single one, as that would be lots and lots to count.

So how do you think they do it? Have a little bit of thinking time in your head on your own and then I'd like you to share your answers with the rest of the group.

How do you think they do it? Excellent ideas, everyone.

So botanists often sample the number of plants in different locations instead of counting them all to help get an accurate estimate of plant numbers.

To sample plants, botanists choose an area and place a quadrat on the ground, and a quadrat for sampling plants is exactly on the screen there.

A quadrat is a square frame which is used to mark out a small area for sampling.

Using a quadrat helps the botanist to estimate the number of plants growing in one area.

And we can see flowers in a quadrat here.

Sofia says, "Using quadrats in different locations helps botanists to make accurate estimates of plant numbers without having to count every individual plant in a huge area.

It's a bit like sampling one slice of a pizza to see what flavours are on it." Botanists can repeat their surveys at different times to check if changes to an environment have posed dangers to the plants that live there.

And we've got an image here of untreated sewage being released into the sea, and this change in environment might impact the living things that are living in the sea.

By sampling coastlines around the world, botanists have discovered that the amount of seagrass growing has reduced due to an increased level of fishing and pollution.

So we can make the link here between the fishing, the increased level of fishing and pollution has had a negative impact on the amount of seagrass growing.

Let's do a check of our learning.

How do botanists get an accurate estimate of plant numbers? A, count every plant in the whole environment.

B, carry out a survey in one place.

Or C, use a quadrat to help them to sample an area.

What do we think is the correct answer, A, B or C? Brilliant, the answer is B and C.

So they carry out a survey just in one place and they use a quadrat to help them to sample one specific area.

Let's move on to the next task of the lesson.

So I would like you to use the data from a local meadow to estimate the number of dandelion plants.

So we've got a key here to help us understand this diagram.

So the dandelion image there represents the dandelion and we've got the picture and image of a quadrat here to signify where the quadrats are.

So this is the meadow in 2024.

So look really closely at this diagram.

If you need to, ask an adult to print it for you so you can have it right in front of you.

So the first thing I'd like you to do is use the data from a local meadow to estimate the number of dandelion plants.

I'd then like you to count the total number of dandelions in the 10 quadrats.

And the second part is I'd like you to think about calculating the estimated number of dandelions in the meadow if the meadow is the size of 100 quadrats.

So we're using the knowledge from Part A to help us to answer Part B.

So I'd like you to pause the video here and have a go at this task.

As I said, if you need to, ask an adult to print the slide before for you so you can have it right in front of you to help you.

If you need to do any working out, make sure you do it really clearly and think carefully about your place value.

Pause the video here, have a go, and we'll talk through the answers really soon.

Excellent work, everyone; well done.

So counting the total number of dandelions in the quadrats was 9, so there were 9 dandelions in total.

And so the second part was the meadow is the size of 100 quadrats, calculate the estimated number of dandelions in the meadow.

So you could have done the calculation 9 multiplied by 10, which is equal to 90, or you could have done 9 divided by 10, which is 0.

9, and multiply that by 100 which gives you 90.

So both methods give you the same answer of 90.

Superb work, everybody; well done.

So let's move on to the next part of this task.

So the table shows the estimated number of dandelions for the last five years.

Has the number of dandelions changed over time? What is happening to the numbers of dandelions? Suggest reasons for this.

So what I'd like you to do is actually insert the number of dandelions, the estimated number in 2024, in that space on the table.

But then I'd like you to think about what's happening to the number of dandelions over time.

Why do we think this is happening? So pause the video here and have a go at this task.

We'll talk through the answers really soon.

Brilliant job, everybody; well done.

So we know that there were 90 estimated in 2024, and your explanation may have been something a little bit like this.

"The number of dandelions has decreased each year.

This might mean because their environment has changed.

This could be due to farmers spraying crops in a field nearby which has harmed the wildflowers or small animals that pollinate wildflowers to help create more of them." So we can see here how a changing environment has impacted the number of dandelions.

So we've come towards the end of our lesson, so let's do a summary of our learning.

So we've learned in today's lesson that plants depend on their environment to provide what they need to grow and survive.

And we've learned that changes to environments can cause danger to the plants within them.

And scientists use several methods to count and study the number of plants in an environment, including surveys and sampling.

A quadrat can be used in different locations to help get an accurate estimate of plant numbers.

So we've learned today about the changing environments and the link it has with the plants in danger and that actually even one small change in an environment can have an impact on the plants that are within that environment.

Now I'm so impressed with all of your work today, you've done such a fantastic job.

I hope you have a great rest of the day and I'm sure I will see you really soon in the next lesson, bye bye.