As a high schoolBiological Sciences teacher, you can use this set of computer-based tools to teach phenology and phenological events like fruit production.
This lesson plan enables students to understand phenology and phenological events in plants. Environmental factors such as precipitation patterns, photoperiod, and temperature affect the timing of the first blooms and fruit setting for the formation of fruit. This lesson plan shows the relationship between climate and phenological events using the example of the timing of fruit production in wild strawberries. Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to integrate the teaching of a climate science topic with a core topic in the Biological Sciences.
Teacher-contributed lesson plan by Teacher-contributed lesson plan by Dr Neeti Mehla, Dr Amit Vashishtha and Dr Aditi Kothari Chhajer, Sri Venkateswara College (University of Delhi), India.
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Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
What is phenology?
What are phenophases?
How do various environmental factors affect the timing of fruit production in plants?
Do changes in the timing of fruit production affect the overall yield of fruit crops?
How do phenological variations affect the food chain in an ecosystem?
What is the impact of climate change on plant phenology?
About Lesson Plan
Grade Level
High school
Discipline
Biological Sciences
Topic(s) in Discipline
Plant Phenology, Phenophase
Phenological Variations
Timing of Fruit Production
Length of Fruit Production
Precipitation Patterns, Photoperiod
Climate Topic
Climate and the Biosphere
Location
North America, USA, New England
Language(s)
English
Access
Online, Offline
Approximate Time Required
50 min
Contents
Video and associated reading (~20 min)
A short video to introduce phenology and an associated reading to briefly describe the history of phenological studies, its significance in living ecosystems and how climate change affects plant phenology.
Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.
Use the associated reading, ‘About Phenology’, to discuss phenology in plants in detail, including topics such as what are phenophases and the influence of environmental factors like light, temperature, humidity, and length of day on plant phenology.
Use the reading to also describe some phenological studies that showed a link between climate and phenology. Stress on how phenological changes in different species could be indicative of climate induced environmental change.
Use this classroom activity, ‘The Timing of Fruit Production in Wild Strawberry Plants’, by Elissa Koskela and Dr Molly Schauffler, University of Maine, to explore a phenology dataset on the timing and length of wild strawberry production in northern New England, USA.
Using the data provided on page 1, have your students create graphs that compares strawberry production over 4 consecutive years.
Then, use the questions posed in the activity sheet to enable students to understand the differences observed in fruit production in different years.
Discuss the implications of such differences in the context of a changing environment due to climate change.
Use the tools and the concepts learned so far to discuss and determine answers to the following questions:
What is phenology?
What are phenophases?
How do various environmental factors affect the timing of fruit production in plants?
Do changes in the timing of fruit production affect the overall yield of fruit crops?
How do phenological variations affect the food chain in an ecosystem?
What is the impact of climate change on plant phenology?
The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:
define phenology and phenophase in plants
explain how environmental factors affect the change in timings of fruit production
discuss the effect of altered phenology on the productivity of fruit crops
discuss the impact of climate change on phenology
If you or your students would like to explore the topic further, these additional resources will be useful.
1
Reading
A reading, ‘Phenology as an Indicator of Environmental Variation and Climate Change Impacts’ by the National Phenology Network, USA, to understand the importance of phenological observations in climate change.
A research paper, ‘Impact of climate change on the timing of strawberry phenological processes in the Baltic States’, by Liga Bethere, Tija Sile, Juris Sennikovs and Uldis Bethers, University of Latvia, to understand the phenological changes in strawberry plants using Regional Climate Models.
“Phenology as an Indicator of Environmental Variation and Climate Change Impacts” by the National Phenology Network, USA;
“Impact of climate change on the timing of strawberry phenological processes in the Baltic States” by Liga Bethere, Tija Sile, Juris Sennikovs and Uldis Bethers, University of Latvia. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2016, 65, 1, 48–58; Estonian Academy Publishers.
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