Session 1 · VOICE: Investigate
Jelly results, variation and seed journeys
- 10 minCheck the jelly cups. Which set? Which stayed runny? Record with photos.
- 15 minVariation: measure 30 bean seeds or 30 leaves from one kind of plant. Make a tally chart of lengths. What shape does the pattern make?
- 20 minSeed journey challenge: test paper spinners, fluffy seeds and fruits with a fan, and drop kōwhai seeds in salt water. Measure how far or how long each travels.
- 5 minLook at the 'same seeds, different lives' trays and record their heights.
Session 2 · VOICE: Create Conclusions
Making sense of traits and body systems
- 15 minMendel's cross with beads: model pure green and pure yellow pea parents, then their offspring, then the next generation. Compare with Mendel's 3 to 1 result and with your own pea counts.
- 15 minExplain the jelly test with claim, evidence and reasoning. Why did canned or boiled fruit behave differently?
- 15 minDraw one big flow chart: food into the gut, sugar into blood; air into lungs, oxygen into blood; both reach a cell, where respiration releases energy and carbon dioxide goes back out through the lungs.
- 5 minWhich of the cress differences were inherited and which were caused by the environment?
Getting started
Use the bead-cross frame with boxes for each generation, and the flow chart with arrows already drawn.
Stretch
Use a Punnett square to predict the offspring of a yellow-seeded pea that carries a hidden green factor crossed with a green pea. Test it with beads.
Checkpoint
Every student has written at least two conclusions backed by their own data: one about the body and one about traits or seeds.
Activities for this week
- Pea traits and Mendel's beads: Why can a trait disappear in one generation and come back in the next?
- Seed journey challenge: How do seeds travel away from the parent plant?
Useful this week
- The human digestive system ↗ Each organ and its job, to check your digestion model against.
- Fruit enzyme uses ↗ Why kiwifruit and pineapple stop jelly setting, and how enzymes are used in food.
- Seed dispersal ↗ Wind, water, animals and explosions: how seeds travel, including native ones.
- Mendel's experiments ↗ What Mendel did with his peas and what his counts showed.