Performance Task Title: First Grade Science Experiment with Plants
Submitted by: Sherah Carr

Date: 10/8/2007

            Performance Task - GRASPS

Goal – You will find out if plants really do need air, water, light and nutrients. You will find out if anything happens to plants when they don’t have air, water, light or nutrients.

Role – You will be a scientist. You will watch and observe your plants each day. You will observe and write down what you see happening each day on your group experiment chart.

Audience – You will be reporting your scientific results to Mr. Green Thumb, a plant expert, who will be visiting our class after our experiments are finished.

Situation – Mr. Green Thumb, a famous plant expert, is confused. He is not sure if it is really true that plants will die without air, water, light or nutrients. He needs some scientists to do experiments to prove what really happens when plants don’t have these basic things. Your job is to be scientists and do experiments to help Mr. Green Thumb by working in five groups.

Group #1 will give plants all four needs.

Group #2 will give plants every need except air.

Group #3 will give plants every need except water.

Group #4 will give plants every need except light.

Group #5 will give plants every need except water.

Product/Performance – You will write draw and write down what you saw each day. You will keep a chart that shows what happened to your plants over time. You will share your group experiment chart and explain what happened to the class and our plant expert, Mr. Green Thumb. You will work with your group as a team by taking turns and sharing ideas and jobs. (See the sample record chart at this web site: http://www.abcteach.com/Plants/data.htm)

Standard/Criteria for Success – see science experiment rubric

Science Experiment Rubric
	Excellent	Good	Needs Work
Predicting Thinking about many things that might happen in experiment	Group had lots of ideas about what might happen. They had many predictions.	Group had some ideas of what might happen.	Group still needed to figure out what might happen.
Observing Watching plants carefully each day	Group very carefully watched their plants each day.	Group watched their plants once in a while.	Group didn’t carefully watch their plants every day.
Recording Writing down correct information about what you saw each day	Group carefully wrote down correct information about what happened to their plants each day.	Group sometimes wrote down correct information about what happened to their plants each day.	Group still needs to work on carefully writing down correct information about what happened to their plants each day.
Drawing Drawing your plant each day to show any changes in the way it looks.	Group carefully drew the changes that they saw in the plant each day.	Group sometimes drew the changes in the plant.	Group still needs to work on carefully drawing plant changes each day.
Thinking (Conclusions) Telling what happened over time Writing it down	Group thought very hard about what happened to their plants over time and wrote it down.	Group did some thinking about what happened to their plants over time and wrote it down.	Group still needs to work on thinking about what happened to their plants over time.
Sharing Experiment chart Conclusions – what happened Telling Others	Group shared their experiment chart and conclusions very clearly to others.	Group shared their experiment chart and conclusions to others.	Group still needed to work on making their chart or conclusions clear to others.
Working together Sharing ideas Taking turns Working as a team	Group worked very well together. They shared ideas, took turns and worked as a team.	Some of the time the group worked very well together. Some of the time, they shared ideas, took turns and worked as a team.	Group had some problems working well together.

Resources:

Unit from Seed to Plant - http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Agriculture/AGR0010.html

Rubric - Adapted from http://www.stclair.k12.il.us/services/scilit/sciexpa.htm