Hello, my name is Mrs. Mehrin and I'm really excited to be learning all about plants without roots with you.

Let's begin.

Welcome to today's lesson from the unit What Plants Do and What They Need.

Your learning outcome is I can observe and describe what happens to a plant that has had its roots removed.

Now I know that learning can sometimes be a little bit challenging, but that's okay because it just means that we are going to work really hard together and we're going to learn lots of fabulous new things.

Let's begin.

So here are your keywords for today's lesson.

Now I am going to be referring to all of these words throughout today's lesson.

However, if you find it helpful to have these written down, that's absolutely fine.

You can pause the video here and do that.

Off you go.

Fabulous.

Well done.

So our lesson today is split into three parts.

Let's begin with the first one, roots act as an anchor.

Now each part of a plant has a function and the function of leaves is to make food for the plant.

The functions of a stem are to support the plant and to transport water and nutrients up through the plant.

Now do you know what the function of roots are? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So roots have important functions.

So one of the functions of roots is that they anchor the plant in soil and provide it with the support it needs.

Now Laura says, "I wonder what would happen if a plant had no roots to anchor it in the soil." So to keep it firmly in the ground.

Jun says, "I think it would fall over in windy conditions because it would have nothing to keep it in place." And Lucas says, "I think it would be fine because the stem and leaves would help it to balance." What do you think? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous.

Well done.

So Laura makes a plan to model what happens to a plant with its roots removed in windy conditions.

She finds two plants of the same type and a similar size, and she removes all of the roots from one plant, then places it back in the soil at the same depth.

And she will represent wind by blowing cool air on both plants with a hairdryer to observe.

So to look closely and see what happens.

And Laura says, "I think the plant without roots will be blown over because it isn't anchored in the soil." And Andeep says, "I think they will both stay upright because stems provide support for the plant and they both still have a stem." Now what do you think will happen to each plant? So have a look at the diagram and think, have a think.

What do you think is gonna happen when Laura turns that hairdryer on and blows the the air onto both of the plants? Do you think they're both going to be fine? Do you think one's going to fall over? What do you think is going to happen? So I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So before I tell you what's gonna happen, let's do a quick check-in of your learning, what is a function of the roots on a plant? Is it A, to anchor the plant in the soil, B, to make food for the plant, or C, to transport nutrients and water around the plant? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

The answer is A, it's to anchor the plant in the soil.

So I'm going to let you do some predicting now and I'm gonna ask you to set up Laura's investigation and carry out and see what actually happens.

So the first thing you're gonna do before you go on to setting up and carrying out Laura's investigation, is you are going to make a prediction.

So you are going to predict what's going to happen to a plant with roots and a plant with its roots removed if they were blown by a cool hairdryer or a fan, which represents the wind.

So what do you think is going to happen and why? So I think, tell me what you think, and then because, and give me an explanation as to why you think that.

Now once you've made your prediction, you are going to have a go at Laura's investigation.

So remember she got two plans that were the same, cut off the roots on one of them, left the roots on one of them, and then she planted them both at the same depth in the soil.

Then she's going to take her hair dryer and use that to represent wind and see what happens to these plants.

So you're going to need to pause the video here and go off and have a go at doing this.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So let's have a look at Laura's prediction.

And is yours similar or different to what Laura predicted? So Laura says, "I think the plant without roots will blow over and fall down because it won't have anything to anchor," So keeping it keep it in the soil.

"but I think the plant with its roots still on will stay upright." Now, when she did the investigation, she said, "I observed that the plant with roots blew around but stayed upright and in the soil.

The plant without roots blew over straight away.

And I think this was because the plant with roots was anchored in the soil, but the plant without roots didn't have anything to keep it in place." Now, did you notice the same thing or was your investigation, was it, did you find something different? So now we are onto the second part of our learning today, which is observing plants without roots over time.

So Laura has been talking about her investigation with her friends and Laura says, "I don't think plants can survive without roots because they can't stay anchored in soil." And Alex says, "What about plants that aren't in windy places like houseplants that wouldn't get blown over? So could they survive without roots?" What do you think? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So the roots of a plant have another important function.

Do you know what it is? I'll give you five seconds to have a think.

Off you go.

Wonderful.

So as well as anchoring the plant, roots also absorb, so they take in water and nutrients from the soil.

So Laura says, "Water and nutrients from the soil provide the plant with what it needs to grow and stay healthy." Now Laura says, "I will keep my plant without roots inside for a longer period of time to find out what happens when it doesn't absorb water and nutrients from the soil." Izzy says, "I think the plant would die because it needs water and nutrients to survive." And John says, "I think the plant would be fine, it would just absorb water and nutrients through the stem instead." What do you think? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So Laura plans another investigation to find out more about the function of roots.

And this time she's going to make observations over time.

So she says, "I will observe my plant growing without roots for a few weeks to find out what happens when a plant cannot absorb water and nutrients from the soil." So Laura returns her plant with no roots to the soil.

She's going to keep it indoors and observe what happens over time.

So here you can see that this plant has no roots and she's keeping it indoors so it's not windy.

So it's not going to fall over and it's going to stay upright.

But she's going to see whether or not what she's going to see, where, what happens to her plant and whether or not it can absorb that water and nutrients without the roots.

Now Alex says, "How will you know if it grows any differently to a plant that still has roots?" What do you think? What could Laura do to check whether or not it does grow any differently to a plant that still has roots? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So Laura's other plant of the same type will continue to grow in its pot with all of the roots on.

So she's going to make sure that it's a fair test.

She's going to give both plants the same amount of light and water and keep them in the same type of soil.

And Laura will keep both plants inside so they do not get blown by the wind.

So she's keeping it really fair.

So the only thing that's different is one has its roots removed and the other one doesn't.

Now let's do a quick check-in of your learning.

It says, "We can find out more about the function of roots by removing the roots from a plant and, something, it over time." What is that missing word? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

The word is observing.

Now here is your second task for today.

It says, "Make a prediction about what will happen over time to the plant that has had its roots removed." So what do you think is going to happen? So I think it will, and then give me an explanation.

So why? So I think it will because.

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

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So let's have a look.

Laura says, "I think it will go really floppy because it won't be able to get any water." Alex says, "I think it might die because it won't be able to get any nutrients or water." And was your prediction similar to theirs? Now your second task is to set up Laura's investigation and observe changes to each plan every five days for the next 15 days.

So just over two weeks.

I want you to record your observation with writing drawings or photographs.

And you can use the table, which is on the next slide, I'm going to show that to you in a second, to record your results or you may have different ideas for how to record.

So you don't need to use the table on the next slide, however you can if you'd like to.

So here is that table.

So we can see we've got start of the investigation, what happened after five days, after 10 days, and after 15 days to the plant with no roots and the plant with roots.

So what I'd like you to do now is to pause the video.

You're going to have to come back to this lesson after the 15 days are over so that you can carry this out and you come back with your results.

Okay.

So I will see you later.

So Laura, here's Laura's first photograph that she took and she says, "Here is my first photograph.

I wonder what the plants will look like next time I make an observation." So now we are on to the final part of our learning today, which is concluding an investigation into roots.

Now, Laura says, "I took photographs of my plants every five days so you, so that you can see the results.

Here are my plants at the start." So we've got plant with roots removed and the plant with roots on.

Now here are her plants after five days, can you observe? So look really closely, can you observe any differences between these two plants? I'll give you five seconds.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So now have a look at her plants after 10 days, and this change might be more obvious than the first one.

So what can you observe about the growth of these two plants? Again, I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

This is Laura's plant after 15 days.

So we can really see a clear difference here.

But what can you observe about the growth of these two plants? I'll give you five seconds.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So we will go back to Laura's plants in a second, but let's do a quick check-in of your learning.

So true or false.

Plants grow better when their roots are removed.

Is that true or false? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fabulous, well done.

The answer is false.

Now let's see if you can justify your answer.

Is it because A, plants use their roots to make food so they can't grow well without them.

Or B, plants use their roots to absorb nutrients and water from the soil so they can't grow well without them.

Again, I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

The answer is B, plants use their roots to absorb nutrients and water from the soil so they can't grow well without them.

Now what I want you to do is to use the observations that you've made of your plants to describe what happened to the growth of the plant that had its roots removed compared to the plant with roots, and try to explain why you think that this might have happened.

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

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So let's talk about Laura's plants.

So after 15 days, the plants with roots had grown much larger than the plants without root, without the roots on Laura's plant.

The leaves around the bottom of the plant with no roots had curled up.

They'd gone yellow, they'd died, and all of the leaves on the plant with the roots stayed green.

And the new leaves had started to grow on the plant with roots and no new leaves grew on the plant without roots.

We also noticed as well on Laura's pictures that the plant without roots had actually started to fall over because it wasn't anchored into that soil.

Now I want you to, I want you to explain why you think that this happened.

So plants use their roots to absorb the water and nutrients they need to survive and grow.

So if those roots are removed, it can't absorb the water or the nutrients it needs to grow and stay healthy, which is why we saw that the leaves had started to curl, they'd gone brown and yellow and the plant was just not growing as well as the plant that had its roots intact.

So now we are onto the summary of our learning.

Roots provide support for the plant by anchoring it in soil and holding it upright.

Roots also absorb water and nutrients from soil to provide the plant with what it needs to grow and stay healthy.

And to investigate why plants have roots, we can observe a plant with its roots removed over time and compare it to a plant that still has roots.

You have worked so incredibly hard and I know that you've been using your fantastic observation skills and you've been really patient with observing what happens to a plant over 15 days.

Well done.

I'm really proud of you.