A Little Background on Plants

Go for a walk outside and count how many plants you see. Plants are all around us. You may even have plants inside your house. In the Plant Growth and Changes unit, you will discover many amazing things about plants and how they are important to our world.
Imagine a world without plants.  What would it look like?  How would your life be different if plants did not exist?  Plants are very important to humans.  You will discover ways that plants are important to their natural environments.
Plants have many parts, and each of those parts has a specific purpose.  You will discover the four main parts of the plants: the roots, the stem, the leaves, and the flower.  What can a stalk of celery tell you about the purpose of the stem of a plant?  In this unit, you will find out the purpose of each part of the plant by completing a few hands-on experiments.
What would happen if you put a plant in a dark cupboard with no sunlight?  What would happen if you did not water it?  Do you think the plant would grow, or would it die?  Plants need specific things to grow.  You will discover the essential requirements for growth and how plants spread their seeds to continue their life cycles.  Did you know that wind and water can carry seeds to another location to help begin a new plant life cycle?
Types of plants in the world vary depending on certain factors.  If you lived in a mostly cool and wet environment, do you think you would find cacti growing in the fields?  A plant's environment is made of many factors.  One of the most important is the weather—sunlight, temperature, and precipitation (rain, melted snow, and other moisture).  Soil and other plants and animals that live in the same area are also included in the environment of a plant.  All these factors form what is called a natural community.  In this unit, you will discover some of the plants in plant communities in Alberta.