| Practicals | Teaching topics | Description | Growing and sourcing | Curriculum links |
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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
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.
Curriculum Links
GCSE
- AQA GCSE Science B 3.3.21 (9) gravitropism
- Edexcel GCSE Science B1 2.16 tropic responses investigation
- AQA GCSE Biology B2.4.1 distribution of daisy and dandelion
- OCR GCSE Biology B3.5 Module B2 (d) Survey of habitat-why are weeds successful?
- OCR GCSE Science A Module B3 Fieldwork
CfE
- Scottish Highers Biology Unit 3 sustainability and interdependence fieldwork
A-level
- OCR AS/A2 Biology HSW 7a,7b,7c habitat sampling
- AQA AS/A2 Biology 3.4 unit 4 3.4. 1 fieldwork
- Edexcel AS/A2 Biology 3.1. 11. fieldwork
Images
