Key Stage 2 programme - Healthy plants, healthy people activity tour and workshop

In this session, primary school students learn about the requirements for successful plant growth and the role of plants in a healthy diet.

Bananas growing - students learn that fruits are parts of a plant and that a healthy diet is mostly made of plant-based foods.

Overview

Students take a closer look at the parts of a flowering plant and explore edible plants growing in the Gardens at Kew. They also sort food into parts of the plant we eat and have a plant tasting session. At the end of the session, students pot up an edible seed to take home as a lasting memento of their day at Kew Gardens.

Length: 90 minutes.
Group size: 15 students.
Minimum supervision required: 1 adult per 8 students.
Programme cost: £50 per group of 15 students.
Administration fee: £80.

NLearning outcomes

School visits at Kew Gardens support and enhance the curriculum offered in schools. We aim to give students opportunities that are difficult or impossible to create in the school environment.

As teachers ourselves, we design our sessions to match the learning outcomes in the National Curriculum. At the moment, the new government has withdrawn the changes planned for 2010/11 and will be producing new curriculum guidelines. Once they have done that, we will re-visit the learning outcomes for our sessions.

The learning outcomes shown apply to the curriculum as it is at this time. This session offers students the opportunity to learn to:

identify key parts of a plant (roots, stem, leaves, flower)
explain the functions of key parts of a plant (roots, stem, leaves, flower)
analyse a typical meal and identify plant-based foods (including fruits, vegetables and grains)
state several benefits to eating a healthy diet
identify foods from different edible parts of a plant (e.g., carrots are roots, apples are fruits and peas are seeds).