Genius Plants
A Classrooms Unleashed Program
for Second Grade Students
How do plants and pollinators support each other? This unit explores the relationship between flowers and pollinators. Students will engage in hands-on games and activities during a classroom visit and field trip to a local nature study area.
All our lessons are backward designed from Next Generation Science Standards for second grade. In addition to the Sierra Nevada Journeys-led lessons, classroom teachers will be provided with three easy-to-use extension lessons to reinforce concepts and vocabulary. Pre- and post-assessments are also included.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
classroom lesson: Pollinator Pals
Students become botanists and explore the life cycle of flowering plants. They learn about pollination by singing a song and playing a game. They will then expand on their knowledge by exploring specific plant-pollinator relationships.
outdoors at a local nature area: BOTANISTS IN THE FIELD
Students explore a local nature area, focusing on the plants, their structures, and the relationships they have with animals. Your botanists will learn to make scientific observations, write notes and draw diagrams in their nature journal, identify plants, and play games to learn about seed dispersal.
FIELD TRIP LOCATIONS
Camp Pollock, Sacramento, CA
Crystal Peak Park, Reno, NV
River Fork Ranch Preserve, Minden, NV (for Caron and Douglas Counties)
TEACHER INFORMATION
NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS
PE: K-2-ETS1-1: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
PE: K-2-ETS1-2: Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
PE: 1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
DCI: LS1.D: Information Processing
California partnership with:
