Fig Tree Reproduction and Life Cycle
Fig Tree Reproduction and Life Cycle
Objectives
In this lesson, students learn about the characteristics of fig trees. Students will:
- describe the characteristics of the environments where fig trees grow.
- explain how specific structures in the fig tree help it to reproduce.
- compare sexual reproduction in fig trees with asexual propagation by humans.
- order the life cycle of the fig tree.
Essential Questions
Vocabulary
- Cultivate: To make land suitable for growing crops.
- Keystone Species: Species that has a major impact on its ecosystem and is needed to maintain ecosystem balance.
- Sexual Reproduction: Process by which two cells from different parents come together to produce a new organism.
- Asexual Reproduction: Process by which a single parent reproduces by itself.
- Pollen: Tiny dust-like particles that carry male sex cells in some plants.
- Pollination: Transfer of pollen from male plant reproductive structures to female plant reproductive structures.
- Ovary: The structure in plants that contains female sex cells and will develop into fruit after pollination.
- Syconium: Hollow, fleshy, flower-bearing structures on fig trees that are lined on the inside with hundreds of tiny, pollen-bearing male flowers and seed-bearing female flowers.
Duration
45–60 minutes/1–2 class periods
Prerequisite Skills
Prerequisite Skills haven't been entered into the lesson plan.
Materials
- World Map of Fig Tree Cultivation (S-7-3-1_World Map of Fig Tree Cultivation.doc); copy onto an overhead transparency
- computers with Internet access (optional)
- Double-Entry Notes–Student Version (S-7-3-1_Double-Entry Notes-Student Version.doc), one copy per student
- Double-Entry Notes–Teacher Version (S-7-3-1_Double-Entry Notes-Teacher Version.doc)
- Fig Tree Reproduction and Life Stages Worksheet–Student Version (S-7-3-1_Fig Tree Reproduction and Life Stages-Student Version.doc), one copy per student
- Fig Tree Reproduction and Life Stages Worksheet–Teacher Version (S-7-3-1_Fig Tree Reproduction and Life Stages-Teacher Version.doc)
Related Unit and Lesson Plans
Related Materials & Resources
The possible inclusion of commercial websites below is not an implied endorsement of their products, which are not free, and are not required for this lesson plan.
- Giving Food and Shelter (Sycamore Figs) video
www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/the-queen-of-trees/video-giving-food-and-shelter/1358/
- The Tropical Rain Forest
www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/troprain.htm
- Sex Determination and Life Cycle of Ficus carica
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pljun99b.htm
- How to Propagate a Fig Tree
Formative Assessment
Suggested Instructional Supports
Instructional Procedures
Related Instructional Videos
Note: Video playback may not work on all devices.
Instructional videos haven't been assigned to the lesson plan.
DRAFT 05/11/2011