{"id":1594,"date":"2018-01-02T11:35:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T16:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horizon-research.com\/ASSET\/?page_id=1594"},"modified":"2025-10-29T19:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:10:11","slug":"student-experience-4-what-do-plants-need-to-grow","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.horizon-research.com\/ASSET\/getting-started-interdependence\/driving-question-pathway-the-mystery-at-sunrise-farm-pond\/student-experience-4-what-do-plants-need-to-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Experience 4: What do plants need to grow?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"producers\"<\/a><\/p>\nPrint<\/a>\n

Purposes<\/em><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. To demonstrate for students that plants use resources around them to grow: light, water, air (particularly carbon dioxide), and nutrients<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. To help students relate what producers do in an aquatic system (e.g., a pond or jars from Student Experience 3) to what more familiar land-based producers<\/a> do.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Description<\/em><\/h3>\n

    Recall that students have monitored the growth of plants exposed to different sunlight and water conditions.\u00a0 [Click here to view the instructions for the initial set up of this experiment.<\/a>]\u00a0 A short video showing the growth of green bean plants exposed to the same conditions as used in this student experience is available here<\/a>.\u00a0 Students watch this video as a quick refresher of what they observed over the three weeks.\u00a0 The students then review and discuss their recorded observations of this experiment.\u00a0 In particular, they make comparisons across the different samples for different time points to draw conclusions about the effects of the abiotic factors (i.e., light and water) they tested.<\/p>\n

    Using a simulation is another option for exploring how changing light, water, and nutrient conditions affect plant growth.\u00a0 One possibility is the \u201cGrowing Plants\u201d Gizmo: (https:\/\/www.explorelearning.com\/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspDetail&ResourceID=615<\/a>).\u00a0 This simulation allows the user to vary light and water conditions and see the effects on plant height and mass.<\/p>\n

    Once the students recall the evidence showing plants need light and water, tell them that plants also need air (particularly carbon dioxide) to make food and grow.\u00a0 Then introduce the term \u201cproducer\u201d; that is, plants produce<\/em> their own food using these resources.\u00a0 Highlight that producers also make oxygen in the process of making their food.\u00a0 Students then view a video that reiterates the inputs producers use to make food and the products of the process (sugar and oxygen).\u00a0 Examples include:<\/p>\n