Kindergarten through Grade 2
Needs of Living Things
Air, water, food, space. A short list, and every living thing is on it.
Students watch two very different living things survive on the same short list. Sprouting seeds in one bag, algae in another. Neither one is fed. Both grow. What they are using is light, water and the air sealed in with them, and a five year old can watch it happen on a windowsill over a week.
How the lab meets it
What students do that satisfies the standard
NGSS K-LS1-1
Standard: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals need to survive.
What the kit does: Three sealed bags give a kindergarten class three different living things to watch at once. Seeds build a shoot. Algae deepens in colour. Brine shrimp hatch and start swimming. Nothing is added across the week, so whatever they are living on was already in the bag. Students record what they see on Days 1, 4 and 7, and the pattern across all three is the observation the standard asks for.
Texas 1.12.A
Standard: Classify living and nonliving things based on whether they have basic needs and produce young.
What the kit does: The bags cover both halves of that standard in one setup. Basic needs show up as light, water and air, and students can take any one away and watch what follows. Producing young shows up on its own, because the brine shrimp hatch from cysts during the week and the algae divides into more algae. A first grader sorts the bag contents from the plastic bag itself and has a real reason for the answer.
Florida SC.1.L.17.1
Standard: All plants and animals, including humans, need air, water, food and space to survive.
What the kit does: The bag is a sealed supply of exactly those things, sized so a student can hold it. Seeds and algae make their own food from light. Brine shrimp cannot, so they eat the algae, which is how food enters the story as something separate from air and water. Florida carries this through SC.2.L.17.1 and SC.2.L.17.2 on habitat as well, and the same bag reaches both.
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Our Lesson Plans
Each lesson is one Word file. Teacher pages and answer keys first, then the student pages behind the orange PRINT FROM HERE divider.
What Eats Light? Grades K to 2
What it covers: Who is living in the bag and what each one is living on across the seven days, with nothing added after it is sealed.
How it is built: One Word file. Teacher notes and answer keys up front, then the student pages behind the orange PRINT FROM HERE divider.
Do Plants Need Light? Grades K to 5
What it covers: Take light away from one bag, keep everything else identical, and find out whether it is really a need or just something nice to have.
How it is built: One Word file. Teacher notes and answer keys up front, then the student pages behind the orange PRINT FROM HERE divider.
Administrator Guide
One guide for the whole elementary program rather than one per lesson. This is the copy to hand a principal or a curriculum director.