Notes of Lessons: Biology, Class III

[We have thought that it might be of use to our readers (in their own families) to publish from month to month during the current year, Notes of Lessons prepared by students of the House of Education for the pupils of the Practising School. We should like to say, however, that such a Lesson is never given as a tour de force, but is always an illustration or an expansion of some part of the children’s regular studies (in the Parents’ Review School), some passage in one or other of their school books.—Ed.]

Subject: Botany • Class III • Time: 20 minutes

By E. H. Smeeton
The Parents’ Review, 1906, p. 491

Objects

I. To give some ideas on Pollination.

II. To encourage habits of observation on a fitting subject for the present season of the year.

III. To show how Nature adopts different methods to secure cross pollination.

Lesson

Step I.—Draw from the girls: (1) The main purpose of a flower. (2) The meaning of fertilization. (3) The essential parts of a flower.

Step II.—Question them as to the different methods employed by Nature to secure pollination (self and cross).

Step III.—Give the girls certain flowers, and let them say how they are pollinated. Specimens to be examined; Dog’s Mercury, Cuckoo Pint, Oak, Primroses and Orchids.

Step IV.—Question the girls as to the different agents Nature uses to effect cross pollination, namely: wind, water, insects. Let the girls give examples of each andshow how the special flower is adapted by Nature for that kind of pollination.

Step V.—Girls read from Glimpses into Plant Life, chapter VII. to page 182.