10 - Plants Teacher Guide - Plant Quest

Adventure Overview: Plant Quest
Location: Singapore Botanic Gardens
Topic: Plants and Their Life Processes

Plant Quest takes students on an interactive journey through the world-famous Singapore Botanic Gardens as they uncover the stages of plant growth, essential structures, and environmental needs. This immersive online educational adventure is designed to introduce and reinforce core plant biology concepts in an exciting, story-driven format. Along the way, students unlock vocabulary-based challenges, uncover clues from the Curator, and build a deeper understanding of how plants grow and survive.

This standards-based lesson includes everything you need for a one-hour classroom experience:

• An interactive online escape-room style adventure focused on plant structures and processes

• Downloadable vocabulary trading cards aligned with key concepts for each student to reference

• A short instructional video that directly supports the content within the adventure

• A ready-to-use lesson plan with clear objectives and pacing

• Teaching dialogue to guide classroom discussion and introduce new terms

• A complete answer key and question list for easy classroom support

Use the video to deliver core instruction, then guide your students through the online Plant Quest adventure to assess understanding in a fun and meaningful way. All supplemental materials are designed to be engaging, educational, and easy to implement with no prep needed.

Student Link:

https://excavatingadventures.com/blogs/adventures/10-plant-quest

Lesson Plan: Plant Quest – Exploring the Life of Plants
Grade Level: Upper Elementary
Topic: Plants and Their Life Processes
Setting: Singapore Botanic Gardens (Virtual Adventure)
Total Lesson Time: 1 hour or less

Objective:
Students will explore the key parts, processes, and needs of plants through a standards-based interactive adventure. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Identify the parts of a plant and their functions

• Understand the basic process of photosynthesis and plant growth

• Recognize the environmental factors and nutrients plants need to survive

Materials Needed:

• Video: Instructional video introducing plant structure and processes (teacher shows to entire class)

• Online Adventure: Plant Quest interactive escape-room style digital experience

• Trading Cards: Downloadable and printable Plant Vocabulary Cards (1 set per student or group)

• Device with internet access (individual or shared)

Three Core Subtopics Covered:

1. Plant Structures and Functions

   • Leaf: captures sunlight

   • Stem: transports water and nutrients

   • Roots: absorb nutrients and anchor the plant

2. Plant Growth Processes

   • Photosynthesis: how plants make their food

   • Germination: seed sprouting

   • Dormancy: plant rest during tough conditions

3. Environmental Needs and Nutrients

   • Sunlight, water, soil, air

   • Nutrients like nitrogen and potassium

   • The role of the environment in supporting plant life

Vocabulary Words Introduced (One per Card):

• Plants

• Photosynthesis

• Environment

• Dormancy

• Leaf

• Stem

• Nutrient

• Germination

• Seedling

Lesson Sequence:

1. Introduction (5 minutes)

   • Begin with a brief class discussion: “What do plants need to grow?”

   • Introduce the adventure by telling students they’ll be going on a virtual mission through the Singapore Botanic Gardens to uncover clues and learn about plants.

2. Instructional Video (10 minutes)

   • Play the instructional video that introduces plant structures, photosynthesis, and what plants need to survive.

3. Guided Trading Card Review (10 minutes)

   • Distribute the Plant Vocabulary Cards.

   • Briefly go over each card, reading aloud the vocabulary word and facts together as a class.

   • Tell students they’ll use these cards as clues during the online adventure.

4. Online Adventure (30 minutes)

   • Students complete Plant Quest, navigating through scenes, reading clues, answering questions, and collecting letters to solve the final code word: SEEDLING.

   • Allow students to use their vocabulary cards as reference throughout the adventure.

5. Wrap-Up Discussion (5 minutes)

   • Recap what students learned during the mission.

   • Ask questions like, “What was the most important thing a plant needs to grow?” or “Why do you think seed dormancy is important?”

Assessment:

• Student responses during the online adventure

• Informal observations during discussion and card review

• Optional use of trading cards for review games or follow-up activities

Additional Resources Included:

• Online Adventure: Plant Quest – Singapore Botanic Gardens

• Instructional Video: “Understanding How Plants Grow”

• Downloadable Plant Vocabulary Trading Cards (9 total)

• Lesson Plan (this document)

• Teaching Dialogue Prompts

• Answer Key and Question List for Quick Teacher Reference

Teacher Reference Guide

Plants are living organisms that create their own food through a process called photosynthesis. To survive and grow, plants need sunlight, water, air, and nutrients from the soil. These nutrients include essential elements like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, which support healthy development. The main parts of a plant include the roots, stem, leaves, and seed. Roots anchor the plant in the ground and absorb water and nutrients. The stem supports the plant and transports water and nutrients between the roots and leaves. Leaves are especially important because they capture sunlight and carry out photosynthesis, which uses sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make food and release oxygen.

Plants live in environments that provide what they need to grow. A plant’s environment includes air, soil, water, sunlight, and even other living organisms nearby. Some plants can go through a period of dormancy, which is a resting phase where they conserve energy and pause growth, usually during cold or dry seasons. When conditions are just right—enough warmth, water, and oxygen—a seed begins to grow through a process called germination. During germination, the seed sprouts, sending a root downward and a shoot upward. The young plant that emerges is called a seedling, which will continue to grow into a mature plant if it has the right conditions.

Throughout this lesson, students will explore these core concepts of plant life by reviewing nine key vocabulary words. These words—plants, photosynthesis, environment, dormancy, leaf, stem, nutrient, germination, and seedling—will help students understand the life cycle of plants and how they interact with the world around them. Students will use their vocabulary trading cards to support their learning and solve challenges during the online adventure. This foundational knowledge will prepare them to identify plant structures, describe their functions, and explain how plants grow and survive.

Teacher Answer Sheet

1. What type of organism makes its own food using sunlight?
   Answer: Plants

2. What process do plants use to turn sunlight into food?
   Answer: Photosynthesis

3. What is the surrounding area where a plant lives?
   Answer: Environment

4. What do we call a plant’s resting period during tough conditions?
   Answer: Dormancy

5. Which part of the plant captures sunlight?
   Answer: Leaf

6. What moves water and nutrients from roots to leaves?
   Answer: Stem

7. What helps plants grow and comes from the soil?
   Answer: Nutrient

8. What do we call it when a seed begins to grow?
   Answer: Germination

9. What do we call a young plant that has just sprouted?
   Answer: Seedling