As part of their Unit of Inquiry, Ecosystems, students explored parts of plants, discussed what they have already learned about ecosystems, drew diagrams to show the life cycle of a plant and tried to identify trees from their leaves.

Thank you so much to Rishi’s dad, Hathi, for coming in as an expert and showing the students how to use a microscope. While working with Hathi, students learned about the different parts of a microscope, each part’s function, the structure of a leaf, as well as how he uses the concepts they have been learning about in his job. The collaboration between Hathi and the Grade 4 Classroom Teacher allowed students to develop a deeper understanding of the Unit of Inquiry through exploration, practice and application.

“I really liked that we got to look at the fruit and vegetables because we got observe what is inside the vegetables and fruits. We got to find out more about how they look on the inside and think about how each one had developed from a seed.” – Zara 

“I liked looking into the microscope because then we could see how the leaf was made and see all of the cells.” – Jano“I liked I went to the microscope and we looked at plants. We found a lot of interesting things. When we looked through the magnifying glass. It was so much different than what I could see under the microscope.” – Malek 

“I enjoyed trying to figure out what trees the different leaves belonged to because it was interesting to look at the different properties, like the stems, the color and the shape. Sometimes it was easy. Sometimes it was more difficult because there were a lot of different trees with the similar leaves. That’s because they grow in the same kind of weather and live in the same type of ecosystem.” Caera

  “My favorite part the microscopes because we got to see the parts, like what was in the leaves as it was instead just seeing the picture. I also learned how to use a microscope.” – João

photos: KAM, text: Grade 4