Unit 9 — May: Floriculture and Plant Biodiversity
Description
Students explore flowers and plants in detail, learning to identify different flower types (complete, incomplete, perfect, imperfect). They design floral arrangements using flowers grown in the classroom or greenhouse, learning design principles and artistic composition. A landscape design competition requires students to plan school landscaping within a budget, selecting plants based on their characteristics (heat tolerance, shade tolerance, size, etc.). Students collect forest data on plant biodiversity using transect methods and identify plant species with field guides and apps like iNaturalist. A plant collection activity teaches identification skills; students press and label plants with scientific names, building a herbarium.
Essential Questions
- How do floral characteristics and design principles guide flower arrangement and landscape planning?
- How do we systematically measure and document plant biodiversity in natural systems?
- What information helps us identify and classify plants accurately?
Learning Objectives
- Classify flowers by type and identify reproductive structures.
- Apply design principles to create aesthetic and functional floral arrangements.
- Design landscapes using plants selected for specific characteristics and environments.
- Conduct transect surveys to measure plant biodiversity.
- Use multiple identification tools (field guides, digital apps) to identify plant species.
- Create a plant collection with accurate scientific documentation.
- Distinguish between floral, landscape, and houseplants.
Supplemental Resources
- Flower arrangement materials (floral foam, scissors, tape, containers)
- Markers and colored pencils for landscape design sketches
- Graph paper for transect diagrams and biodiversity data recording
- Field notebooks and clipboards for outdoor plant observations
Crosscutting Concepts
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth and Space Sciences
Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science
Life Sciences
Science and Engineering Practices
Students read informational texts about agriculture, food systems, natural resources, and animal science, and produce written work including research reports, blog posts, portfolio updates, and writing assignments. Students engage in collaborative discussions, present findings to peers, and cite evidence from multiple sources to support claims across all units.
Students apply mathematical reasoning across units including calculating food costs, feed amounts, percent loss, square footage for coop design, lumber quantities, soil nutrient amounts, population graphs for carrying capacity, and data collection and graphing in macroinvertebrate and plant biodiversity studies.
Students conduct hands-on investigations aligned to life science, earth science, and engineering design standards. Topics include plant cell structure, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, genetics and heredity, animal systems, water chemistry, ecosystems, food webs, population dynamics, natural resource management, DNA extraction, and aquaponics and hydroponics system design.
Career readiness, financial literacy, and 21st century skills are embedded in every unit. Students explore agricultural careers, practice agribusiness skills including budgeting and record keeping, develop personal and professional skills through FFA activities, and investigate how education and training affect earning potential in agriculture and related fields.
Formative Assessments
- Observations of students creating floral arrangements and making design choices
- Pair-and-share activities during landscape design planning and plant selection
- Journals documenting plant identification using field guides and apps
- Group discussions analyzing transect data and biodiversity findings
Summative Assessment
Floral arrangement projects, landscape design competition entries, plant collection with pressed specimens and scientific labels, and portfolio updates
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through a teacher-led verbal description of flower types and plant characteristics in place of written identification tasks, with visual aids such as labeled diagrams or photographs provided for reference. Alternative formats for design projects may include selecting pre-made plant cards to build a landscape plan or dictating design choices to a partner who records responses, with support from word banks or sentence frames related to plant traits and design principles.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from visual reference charts showing flower part labels and design principle examples to support classification and arrangement work. For the landscape design competition and plant collection, breaking multi-step tasks into numbered checkpoints with teacher check-ins helps maintain pacing and reduce overwhelm. Allow oral explanations or dictated labels in place of written scientific documentation where expressive writing is a barrier, and provide partially completed templates for transect data recording so students can focus on observation rather than format.
Section 504
Extended time should be applied to the landscape design planning process and plant collection labeling, both of which involve sustained focus and detail-oriented work. Preferential seating during outdoor transect activities or greenhouse work ensures the student is positioned for clear instruction and reduced distraction. Printed copies of field guide pages or app screenshots can reduce on-screen reading demands during plant identification tasks.
ELL / MLL
Introduce the specialized vocabulary of this unit — including terms for flower structures, design principles, and plant characteristics — with visual supports such as labeled diagrams and bilingual word walls before hands-on tasks begin. During transect surveys and plant identification activities, pair students with a supportive partner and allow use of translation tools or home-language field guides where available. Simple, step-by-step directions with visual examples of finished products, such as a completed herbarium entry, help students understand expectations without relying solely on English text.
At Risk (RTI)
Connect the unit's hands-on components — floral arranging, outdoor data collection, and plant pressing — to students' lived experiences with plants, gardens, or natural spaces to build engagement and prior knowledge. Offer entry points that reduce written output demands, such as using photo documentation alongside pressed specimens or verbal narration during plant identification, so that gaps in academic literacy do not prevent meaningful participation. Scaffold the landscape design task by providing a pre-selected plant menu with key characteristics already noted, allowing students to focus on decision-making and budgeting rather than independent research.
Gifted & Talented
Encourage students to extend their plant biodiversity work by analyzing transect data across multiple sites or over time, drawing conclusions about ecological patterns and human impact on local plant communities. In the landscape design competition, challenge students to incorporate principles of sustainable or native-plant landscaping, requiring them to research environmental benefits alongside aesthetic and budgetary considerations. Students may also develop a more rigorous herbarium by researching the ecological roles, invasive status, or ethnobotanical significance of each collected specimen, going beyond identification to scientific interpretation.