From Seed to Seed:
Plant Science for K-8 Educators

Activity 45: You Ate What???

Grades: K-4

Associated Lesson Topics:

• Plants as food
• Plant anatomy
  

National Standards:

• SCIENCE:: Standard C

Planting the Seed...

How many foods have you eaten today that you think may have come from a plant? What were those foods? What parts of the plant do you think these foods came from? What characteristics should we look at to determine what part of the plant a fruit or vegetable comes from? Will the shape of the food give us clues? What about the size?

Teacher Information:

Have different types of fruits and vegetables available for students to look at and touch as they try to determine what part of the plant these edible objects come from. This activity fits well with a discussion about the difference between fruits and vegetables. Remember that a fruit is derived from the ovary of a plant and vegetables are derived from other parts of the plant. It may be useful to display a diagram of a plant and have students label the parts of a plant.

Necessary Materials:

• Variety of fruits and vegetables.
• Matching game sheet.

• Provide students with a number of fruits and vegetables and a "matching game sheet" (similar to the one provided below).
• Students match the food products with the plant parts from which they come.

What plant part are you eating when you eat the following?

Harvesting the Crop...

Students can cut open the displayed fruits and vegetables to see if they find evidence of seeds. This activity works well with corn, peanut, tomato, strawberry, melon, cucumber, and orange. Discuss why these types of seeds are buried beneath layers of flesh. How do you think these seeds might move around? Have students compare the number of seeds in each. Why might some plants produce so many and others so few seeds? Students can then treat the seeds (see Activity 4: Not Till It's Right) and plant them in the schoolyard garden or classroom.

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