What types of questions are your students asking about plants? After students have had time to explore plants in the discovery center, we can begin to dig in deeper to learning about plants.

Today we are going to set up a STEAM challenge inspired by plants! A STEAM Challenge is an open-ended challenge that requires students to solve a problem with materials you provide.  Challenges may be done collaboratively or independently.

How to Set Up a STEAM Challenge:

Step 1: Choose your favorite book (in this case about plants). There are many good ones out there but we decided to read, From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons.

This book covers facts about plants as it follows the life cycle of a plant from seed to vegetables we may eat.

Step 2: Decide on an open-ended problem for your students to solve.

Look to your book as your inspiration.

Think about what interests your children exhibited while at the discovery center.

What observations did you make about your students?

What types of questions were they asking?

Think about what materials you already have and how much time you will need to give your students.

Here are some challenge ideas we came up with:

• Can you build the different parts of a plant with play dough?
• Can you show the life cycle of a plant with play dough?
• How tall can you build a flower?
• What is the furthest distance you can make a seed travel?
• Cactus plants store water in their stems. Use the provided materials to build a plant that can hold water in its stem.

Choose an idea or plan your own challenge that resonates best with your students. Keep your students engaged in learning by tieing in what they are still curious about.

Keep reading to see the challenge we created!

Plant STEAM Challenge inspired by From Seed to Plant

Challenge: Can you build the different parts of a flower?

Step 1: Introduce and read the book, From Seed to Plant.

Discuss how the book relates to what the children learned at the plant discovery center.

Step 2: Identify the different parts of a flower in the book like the roots, stem, leaves, petals and do the same using a real plant example from your discovery center. Compare and contrast what you see in the book to the real plants.

Allow the students time to re-examine and explore the plants at the discovery center.

Step 3: Introduce the challenge your students, “can you build the different parts of a flower?”

We created a play dough mat and used play dough to solve the challenge.

You may download a copy by clicking here, print the playdough mat on cardstock and put inside a clear sheet protector or laminate (so it can be re-used).

You also could use other materials like pipe cleaners and foam colored sheets.

Step 4: Document your student creations by taking a digital picture of their work.

Share your challenge in the Facebook group!

Do you have a challenge idea or perhaps a photo share in the group!

BONUS: We also created an additional playdough mat to use as a creative-thinking prompt, “What is growing in your garden”?

This creative prompt also leads us into Day 3!