New
New
Year 3

What plants need: plan

I can ask relevant questions about what plants need and plan a comparative test to answer them.

New
New
Year 3

What plants need: plan

I can ask relevant questions about what plants need and plan a comparative test to answer them.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Plants are living things and need the right conditions to grow and stay healthy.
  2. Plants need air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow.
  3. Scientists can investigate what plants need by observing plant growth when requirements are removed.
  4. A comparative test investigation can be carried out to investigate plant growth.
  5. In a comparative test investigation, variables must be controlled so only one thing is changed and another is measured.

Keywords

  • Plants - A plant is a living thing that often has roots, a stem and leaves.

  • Conditions - Living things need certain conditions to grow and be healthy.

  • Requirements - The requirements of something are the things it needs.

  • Comparative test - In a comparative test, the thing that is being changed has labels, such as the types of materials.

  • Variables - The things that can be changed, measured or kept the same in a comparative or fair test.

Common misconception

Pupils may not consider plants to be living things because they do not move from place to place or have ‘babies’ in the way that many animals do.

Explain that plants are living things; we know this because they can move, grow and reproduce like other living things can.

In the lesson we see a teacher planting seeds. It is suggested that you also plant seeds in this way so pupils will have access to plants to use in their investigations later on. They could be a part of the planting process, suggesting how to ensure all of the requirements for growth are met.
Teacher tip

Equipment

See additional materials.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match the part of the plant to its name.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer:A,flower

flower

Correct Answer:B,leaf

leaf

Correct Answer:C,stem

stem

Correct Answer:D,root

root

Q2.
Which of these are living things?
Correct answer: plants
toys
Correct answer: animals
rocks
Q3.
Which of these living things is not a plant?
tree
grass
raspberry
Correct answer: stick insect
Q4.
Which of these can all living things do?
Correct answer: move
walk
talk
swim
Correct answer: grow
Q5.
What does it mean to investigate something?
To write some information about it.
Correct answer: To find out more about it.
To give it a name.
To tell someone what you know about it.
Q6.
What does it mean to observe something?
Correct answer: To use our senses to notice things about it.
To find out its name.
To read information about it.

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of these statements is correct?
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: Plants are living things that need the right conditions to stay healthy.
Plants are living things that can survive in any conditions.
Plants are not living things so can be kept in any conditions.
Q2.
Which of these is not a requirement for plant growth?
An image in a quiz
air
light
water
Correct answer: a plant pot
space to grow
Q3.
Scientists can investigate what plants need by plant growth when requirements are removed.
arranging
discussing
Correct answer: observing
counting
Q4.
We can carry out a test investigation to find out about requirements for plant growth.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: comparative
Q5.
Sam is carrying out a comparative test to investigate the question: "How does having no water affect how a plant grows?" Which variable will she change in her investigation?
An image in a quiz
the type of soil she uses
the amount of light her plant gets
the size of the pot she uses
Correct answer: the amount of water the plant gets
Q6.
Why do we only change one variable in a comparative test investigation and keep the others the same?
So that there is enough equipment to go round the class.
Correct answer: So that we know our results have been caused by the variable we changed.
So that our investigation doesn’t take too much time.

Additional material

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