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• Kindergarten
• 1st Grade
• 5th Grade

Teachers often look at outdoor education, environmental education, or biodiversity education as subjects that need to be taught while our students are out in the woods or on field trips. While these wilderness experiences are valuable teaching tools, we often overlook opportunities to teach environmental education that are literally in our own backyards. Even inner city schools have areas on their campuses that can be used for environmental education.

We must ask ourselves, "What can the land on our campus teach our students?" Even a weed growing through a crack in a sidewalk can teach valuable lessons. Adaptation, biodiversity, symbiosis, and survival in a seemingly hostile environment are just a few things that can be learned from this simple ecosystem. Most people look at this weed as an annoyance that should be pulled up or, better yet, poisoned. The teacher's job is to challenge students to ask this lowly weed questions. Where did you come from? Why are you growing here? Where do you get your food? Where do you get your water? How do you survive here when other plants could not? How can I make you a partner instead of a pest?

While these questions may seem simple, the answers are not. Sometimes, when we are lucky, the questions spark creativity in our students and a magic moment occurs. Their minds become open to all possibilities and instead of why, our students ask why not?

Opportunities for teaching environmental education abound on any school campus. We only need to open our eyes and look at our land, ask it questions, and teach our students to listen to the answers. Nature is constantly talking to us, if only we would take the time to listen.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Students will be able to define a weed from a scientific viewpoint.
2. Students will be able to identify parts of a weed and how weeds spread from one area to another.
3. Students will scientifically observe and record information on the impact of the environment, ecosystem, weather, and other living things on a weed in its ecosystem.
4. Students will demonstrate an understanding of how the attributes developed by weeds helped them adapt to an urban environment.
5. Students will demonstrate an understanding of a weed: how it came to be where it was; how it survives; instances of symbiosis; and biodiversity within its ecosystem.
6. Students will demonstrate an understanding of when weed control is appropriate, the types of weed controls, and their impact on the environment.

ACTIVITIES:

1. Students, as a group, will read and discuss "The Company of Weeds" by Kem Luther, an article appearing in the July/August 1996 issue of Saturday Night Magazine. http://www.sheridanc.on.ca/~kem/weeds/weeds.htm
   (Applicable Subjects: Science or Language Arts)
2. Students will review parts of a plant through pictures as well as review how plants spread and reproduce.
   (Applicable Subject: Science)
3. Students will choose and observe a weed in a crack daily for two weeks, recording height, weather conditions, and observing its ecosystem including any plants or animals within its system in a journal.
   (Applicable Subject: Science)
4. After two weeks students will remove their weed and two different types of weeds from other areas of the campus, making notes on where each was found and what their ecosystem looked like. In small groups, they will examine the weeds and list traits or attributes of each, trying to determine if there is a correlation between any attributes and their ecosystems.
   (Applicable Subject: Science)
5. Students will write a one page biography written in first person for their weed. Criteria should include relating how it got where it is, why it survived, what its daily life is like, and instances of symbiosis and biodiversity in its ecosystem.
   (Applicable Subjects: Science, Creative Writing)
6. Students will study supplied written information about weed control methods. On campus a small area of weeds will be divided in half and half treated with a chemical and half treated with a non-chemical method.
   (Applicable Subject: Science)

"FOLLOW-UPS":

1. Students will poll 5 students and 5 adults as to how they define "weed" and share their most interesting response with the class orally.
   (Applicable Subjects: Language Arts or Social Studies)
2. A variety of plants will be utilized in small groups, identifying and labeling the required parts.
   (Applicable Subject: Science)
3. Students will choose one insect they have seen in their weed's ecosystem and research how that insect might affect the plant in either a positive or negative way.
   (Applicable Subject: Science)
4. Students will look at a video of desert plants and compare and contrast some of their attributes with the attributes they found in their weeds.
   (Applicable Subjects: Science and Geography)
5. Students may individually or in pairs create a "superweed" with all the attributes they wish to imagine it might take to survive in an even more hostile environment. They will make a 3-dimensional replica and write a short description of the attributes they gave it and why.
   (Applicable Subjects: Science, Art, Language Arts)
6. Students will form small groups and write and present an original short play or a television ad in which they portray either the impact of chemical weed control on the environment or an alternative non-chemical method of weed control. Their ad or play must reflect both pros and cons.
   (Applicable Subjects: Language Arts or Drama)

ASSESSMENT:

1. Utilizing the scientific definition from their reading, students will take a trip around campus and successfully identify at least five weeds they find growing on campus. This will be done orally as a whole group.
2. Students will correctly identify roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds on a picture of a plant and list four methods by which plants spread.
3. Students will turn in a ten-day journal in which they have met the criteria required for their daily observations.
4. Students will present small group reports on their findings, tying attributes to ecosystems in a manner reflecting an understanding of the impact of those attributes on the plant's survival.
5. The biographical first person story will reflect an understanding of their journal findings and observations of weed attributes and which meets the criteria listed in the activity for completeness.
6. The play or ad will reflect an understanding of facts about the method they have chosen as well as the pros and cons of its use.

Additional information and activities for working with weeds can be found on the following web sites:
http://weedcenter.org/education/lessons/arethereweedshere3-56-8.html
http://weedcenter.org/education/lessons/build-a-weed6-89-12.html
http://weedcenter.org

Additional information and activities on Urban Ecosystems can be found on the following web sites:
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=4&DocID=276
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=4&DocID=277
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=4&DocID=278
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=5&DocID=279
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=11&DocID=280

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