Project Green Reach

Bulbs (Fall Only)

The fast-growing paperwhite narcissus is the perfect subject for scientific observation and data collection. Students can see these bulbs bloom within six weeks of being planted. Find out with your class why bulbs grow so fast!

Flowers, Fruits & Seeds (Spring Only)

We all love plants for their beautiful flowers, but what do flowers do for the plant? How do fruits form and why do they hide seeds inside? Students will explore, dissect, and plant fast-growing bean seeds in order to observe a complete life cycle in the classroom.

Kitchen Botany

Do people eat plants? When you eat a carrot, what part of the plant are you eating? Students will observe, plant, and cultivate their own carrots as they answer these questions and learn about the different plant parts and their functions.

Desert Environments

The desert environment is both harsh and fascinating. Students will discover some amazing adaptations plants have that allow them to survive the arid conditions and extreme temperatures of this environment. In class, students will dissect and pot up a desert succulent.

Tropical Rainforests

The tropical rainforest is home to an incredible diversity of plants. We will examine tropical plants up close to discover their particular niches within the rainforest environment. In class, students will each plant their own terrarium with a tropical plant they propagate themselves. Themes of biodiversity, adaptation, and plant-animal interdependence are introduced.

Desert Environment (grades K–8) and Tropical Rainforest (grades K–8)

Kindergarten

LS1.C Organization for Matter & Energy Flow in Organisms

• All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water & light to live and grow.

ESS2.D Weather and Climate

• Weather is the combination of sunlight, wind, snow or rain, and temperature in a particular region at a particular time. People measure these conditions to describe and record the weather and to notice patterns over time.

ESS3.A Natural Resources

• Living things need water, air, and resources from the land, and they live in places that have the things they need.

Grade 1

LS1.A Structure & Function

• All organisms have external parts. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.

LS1.B Growth & Development of Organisms

• Adult plants & animals can have young.

LS1.D Information Processing

• Animals have body parts that capture and convey different kinds of information needed for growth and survival. Animals respond to these inputs with behaviors that help them survive. Plants also respond to some external inputs.

LS3.A Inheritance of Traits

• Young animals are very much, but not exactly, like their parents. Plants also are very much, but not exactly, like their parents.

LS3.B Variation of Traits

• Individuals of the same kind of plant or animal are recognizable as similar but can also vary in many ways.

Grade 2

LS2.A Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

• Plants depend on water, light, and air to grow.
• Animals depend on plants or other animals for food.

LS4.D Biodiversity & Humans

• There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water.

ESS2.B Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions

• Maps show where things are located. One can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area.

Grade 3

LS4.B Natural Selection

• Sometimes the differences in characteristics between individuals of the same species provide advantages in surviving, finding males, and reproducing.

LS3.A Inheritance of Traits

• Many characteristics of organisms are inherited from their parents.
• Other characteristics result from individuals’ interactions with the environment, which can range from diet to learning.
• Some characteristics result from the interactions of both inheritance and the effect of the environment.

LS3.B Variation of Traits

• Different organisms vary in how they look and function because they have different inherited information.
• The environment also affects the traits that an organism develops.

LS3.C Adaptation

• For any particular environment, some kinds of organisms survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

ESS2.D Weather and Climate

• Climate describes a range of an area’s typical weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over years.

Grade 4

LS1.A Structure and Function

• Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.

Grade 5

LS1.C Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• Plants acquire their material for growth chiefly from air and water.

LS2.A Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

• Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life.

PS3.D Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

• The energy released from food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).

Grades 6–8

LS1.B Growth & Development of Organisms

• Genetic factors as well as local conditions affect the growth of the adult plant.

LS2.A Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

• Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life.
• In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth & reproduction.
• Growth of organisms & population increases are limited by access to resources.

LS4.B Natural Selection

• Natural selection leads to the predominance of certain traits in a population, and the suppression of others.
• Adaptation by natural selection acting over generations is one important process by which species change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions. Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the next environment become more common; those that do not become less common. Thus, the distribution of traits in a population changes.

Kitchen Botany (grades K–8)

Kindergarten

LS1.C Organization for Matter & Energy Flow in Organisms

• All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water & light to live and grow.

Grade 1

LS1.A Structure & Function

• All organisms have external parts. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.

Grade 2

LS2.A Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

• Plants depend on water, light, and air to grow.
• Animals depend on plants or other animals for food.

Grade 3

LS3.A Inheritance of Traits

• Many characteristics of organisms are inherited from their parents.

Grade 4

LS1.A Structure and Function

• Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.

Grade 5

LS1.C Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• Plants acquire their material for growth chiefly from air and water.

PS3.D Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

• The energy released from food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).

Grades 6–8

LS1.B Growth & Development of Organisms

• Organisms reproduce, either sexually, or asexually, and transfer their genetic information to their offspring.
• Genetic factors as well as local conditions affect the growth of the adult plant.

LS1.C Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• Plants, algae (including phytoplankton), and many microorganisms use the energy from light to make sugars (food) from carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water through the process of photosynthesis, which also releases oxygen. These sugars can be used immediately or stored for growth for later use.

LS1.D Information Processing

• Plants respond to stimuli such as gravity (geotropism) and light (phototropism).

Bulbs (grades K–8) & Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds (grades K–8)

Kindergarten

LS1.C Organization for Matter & Energy Flow in Organisms

• All animals need food in order to live & grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water & light to live and grow.

ESS3.A Natural Resources

• Living things need water, air, & resources from the land, and they live in places that have the things they need.

Grade 1

LS1.A Structure & Function

• All organisms have external parts. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.

LS1.B Growth & Development of Organisms

• Adult plants and animals can have young.

LS3.A Inheritance of Traits

• Young animals are very much, but not exactly, like their parents. Plants also are very much, but not exactly, like their parents.

LS3.B Variation of Traits

• Individuals of the same kind of plant or animal are recognizable as similar but can also very in many ways.

Grade 2

LS2.A Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

• Plants depend on water, light, and air to grow.
• Plants depend on animals for pollination or to move their seeds around.

LS4.D Biodiversity & Humans

• There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water.

Grade 3

LS1.B Growth & Development of Organisms

• Reproduction is essential to the continued existence of every kind of organism. Plants and animals have unique and diverse life cycles.

LS3.A Inheritance of Traits

• Many characteristics of organisms are inherited from their parents.

LS3.B Variation of Traits

• Different organisms vary in how they look and function because they have different inherited information.

LS4.B Natural Selection

• Sometimes the differences in characteristics between individuals of the same species provide advantages in surviving, finding males, and reproducing.

Grade 4

LS1.A Structure and Function

• Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.

Grade 5

LS1.C Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• Plants acquire their material for growth chiefly from air and water.

PS3.D Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

• The energy released from food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).

Grades 6–8

LS1.B Growth & Development of Organisms

• Organisms reproduce, either sexually or asexually, and transfer their genetic information to their offspring.
• Genetic factors as well as local conditions affect the growth of the adult plant.

LS1.C Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• Plants, algae (including phytoplankton), and many microorganisms use the energy from light to make sugars (food) from carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water through the process of photosynthesis, which also releases oxygen. These sugars can be used immediately or stored for growth for later use.

LS1.D Information Processing

• Plants respond to stimuli such as gravity (geotropism) and light (phototropism).

Garden Lab (grades 4–5)

Grade 4

LS1.A Structure and Function

• Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.

Grade 5

LS1.C Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• Plants acquire their material for growth chiefly from air and water.

PS3.D Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

• The energy released from food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).