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  • Using Dandelions in the Lab

Using Dandelions in the Lab

Practicals Teaching topics Description Growing and sourcing

 

Popping up in every school carpark and playing field, the adaptations that make dandelions ubiquitous also make them a valuable resource for the science lab.

 

Practicals

  • Tropisms - Use the stalks (scapes) to demonstrate gravitropism. Resource: Investigating gravitropism with dandelions
  • Ecology - Measure its distribution using transect and quadrats. Resource: Measuring abundance and random sampling. 
  • Ecology - Resource: Questions about Quadrats.

 

 

Teaching Topics

  • Plant Responses
  • Gravitropism
  • Measuring distribution
  • Sampling
  • Abundance

 

Image resources

  • Dandelion - detail of the fruiting head
  • Dandelion - fruiting head 
  • Tap root of a dandelion

 

Description

Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, also known as the ‘clock plant’ due to the arrangement of coma hairs at the top of each seed - an adaptation for wind-dispersal

Dandelion has a complex, yellow flower and is widely distributed. It belongs to one of the largest families of flowering plants – Asteraceae.

 

Growing and sourcing

Obtaining: Common in school grounds and playing fields. No cost, but you will need to advise school ground staff not to cut when the flower heads are produced. Check no weed-killers are being applied. A useful resource for the distribution activity is the FSC foldout guide Playing Field Plants

Note: Warning: sap can irritate skin.

 

Images

Image by J Carmichael via Wikimedia Commons

Image by Che via Wikimedia Commons

 

Tags: 11 -14 (KS3), 14 -16 (KS4), Post 16, Ecology and evolution, Plant cells and tissues, Plant responses and hormones

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