To introduce the concept of living and nonliving components of an ecosystem, students consider a terrarium. They examine and plant seeds and observe germination. They examine the nonliving components of the ecosystem that growing plants need for survival. They begin a log of terrarium plant growth, and learn that not all seeds germinate and survive. Students follow the life cycle of a bean plant from germination, observing root formation and measuring plant growth. Graphing plant growth and germination rate allows students to quantify their observations.

Student Resources

• 1.1 Vocabulary
• 1.2 Observing and Planting Seeds
• 1.3 Terrarium Log Part A
• 1.4 Bean Seed Observations
• 1.5 Graphing Bean Plant Growth
• 1.6 Calculating Germination Rate
• 1.7 Graphing Percent Germination
• 1.8 Section 1 Assessment

Learn by Reading

For additional content-area reading, check out the Houghton Mifflin Science eBook: Grade 4, Unit B, page 16.