Growing grains: unit overview

Purpose and focus

The purpose of this unit is for students to learn how the process of scientific investigation can be applied to find evidence about how grains grow and to identify conditions that might influence growth of grains. Students will learn about grains and legumes, why grains are an important part of the human diet and the variety of grain products available.

Notes
Students will be asked to draw on their own experiences and use their own lunch boxes and family cupboards as a basis for their research to find out the variety of grains and grain-based products. In many classrooms opportunities to explore the grain products of different cultures can be used as a rich resource.

Students will investigate scientifically the conditions that a grain requires for growth and will draw on their understanding about plants and animals having specific needs for growth.

It is important to help students understand that growth and change apply across all living things, although there are some important differences.

It may be necessary to make explicit the connections between the needs of plants for healthy growth and generalising to the similar needs of people, e.g. all living things need food for growth. The unit will also raise student awareness of the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating and the components of a balanced diet, including the role of grains and legumes.

Aspects of this unit assume that students have been taught the skills necessary to:

• work in small groups
• jointly construct, de-construct and write information reports, explanation and procedure text types
• research information, with teacher assistance and independently.