Developed by Katherine Segal
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|Introduction|Task|Process|Resources|Evaluation|Conclusion

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Introduction

Dear Young Botanist,
    We are writing to you from the National Botanical Gardens. We need your help desperately!  Some of our new plants have begun to die. We just started working here and are afraid we will get in trouble if we do not fix the problem.  These plants were very healthy when they were given to us.  We planted them under the trees and now three weeks later they look bad.  Since we are new at our jobs we do not really know much about plants either. We are asking you to help us out.  We need you to write back telling us some information about plants and giving us some advice to help our dying plants.  Thank you!

Sincerely,
Desperate Garden Workers

Wow! You have a big job ahead of you.  You will be working with your group to collect background information about plants to understand how they survive.  Then you will need to figure out why the plants at the Botanical Gardens might be dying.  You will be gathering all this information in order to write a helpful letter to the garden workers.  Each member of your team will have a different job.  These jobs will be:

• Reader
• Recorder
• Computer Navigator
• Task Manager

First your group must gather background information about plants including:

• what they need to survive
• their different parts and the function of each part
• how all these work together to make a healthy plant

Second your group will need to decide why the plants at the Botanical Garden may be dying. Use the sheet titled "Bringing It All Together" to record your group's ideas.

Third you will be writing a reply to the workers at the Botanical Gardens informing them about plants and offering them some advice about their dying plants.

Click on the links below to help you gather information about plants.
 
 

What Plants Need to Grow  The Parts of a Plant More About Roots More About the Stem More About the Leaves How Plants Grow

 

• You will receive one grade based on your ability to work cooperatively with your teammates and the completion of all tasks.

• You will receive a second grade for your written response to the Botanical Garden Workers.  Click here to review the scoring rubric for Writing To Inform.

Now that you have discovered all this information about how plants function and how to take care of them it is time to plant your own plants!  We will be planting special plants called Wisconsin Fast Grow Plants.  These plants have this name because they grow faster than most plants.