Year 7 Science · Unit 1 · Lesson 4
Foundation Worksheet
Learning Goals
Fill the gap
Choose the correct word from the word bank. Each word is used once. Two words are not needed: cross them out.
Plants are sorted into four main groups using two questions. The first question is whether the plant has tissue, the tubes that carry water and food inside it. The second question is whether it reproduces by , which are tiny one-celled units, or by , which each hold an embryo plant and its food. Mosses are plants: they have no water tubes, so they stay small and live in damp places. Ferns have water tubes but still reproduce by spores. Gymnosperms make their seeds inside and never have flowers. Angiosperms are the plants, and their seeds grow inside a fruit.
1. Give one Australian example of each of the four plant groups: moss, fern, gymnosperm and angiosperm.
Match each term to its meaning
Write the letter of the correct meaning next to each term. Each letter is used once.
| Term | Letter | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Vascular tissue | A. A tough package that holds an embryo plant and its food store | |
| Spore | B. A flowering plant with one seed leaf, parallel leaf veins and fibrous roots | |
| Seed | C. A flowering plant with two seed leaves, net-like leaf veins and a taproot | |
| Cotyledon | D. Tubes that carry water and food inside a plant | |
| Monocot | E. A “seed leaf”, the first leaf inside a seed | |
| Dicot | F. A tiny one-celled unit a plant uses to reproduce; it is not a seed |
2. You turn over a fern leaf and see rows of small brown dots underneath. What do the dots make, and what does that tell you about how a fern reproduces?
Read the data
Scenario: four mystery plants
On a bushwalk, a ranger shows a class four plants. The class writes down what they see in Table 1. Use the features to decide which plant group each one belongs to.
| Plant | Height | Water tubes in stem? | How it reproduces | Plant group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | 20 m | Yes | Seeds inside woody cones; no flowers | |
| Q | 3 cm | No | Spores from tiny capsules on stalks | |
| R | 2 m | Yes | Seeds inside fruit, after yellow flowers | |
| S | 4 m | Yes | Spores from brown dots under the leaves |
Source: made-up observations for this worksheet.
3. Write the plant group for P, Q, R and S in the last column of Table 1.
4. Plants Q and S both reproduce by spores, but S is more than 100 times taller. Use Table 1 to explain what lets S grow so much taller.
5. A moss grows only on the shady side of a creek rock. A pine tree grows on a dry, sunny hillside. Explain why a moss must live in a damp place but a pine tree does not.
Fill the gap
vascular; spores; seeds; non-vascular; cones; flowering. Not used: roots, leaves.
Question 1
Any correct example for each group, for example moss: the green mat on a damp rock or log; fern: tree fern or bracken; gymnosperm: Wollemi pine or a Macrozamia cycad; angiosperm: gum tree, wattle or grass. 2 marks for all four, 1 mark for two or three. [2 marks]
Match each term to its meaning
Vascular tissue → D; Spore → F; Seed → A; Cotyledon → E; Monocot → B; Dicot → C.
Question 2
The dots make spores (1), so a fern reproduces by spores, not seeds (1). [2 marks]
Read the data
3. P gymnosperm (seeds in cones, no flowers); Q moss (no water tubes, spores); R angiosperm (flowers, seeds in fruit); S fern (water tubes, spores). 1 mark each. [4 marks]
4. S has water tubes (vascular tissue) and Q does not (1); the tubes carry water up from the ground, so S can grow tall, while every cell of Q must stay close to water, so it stays a few centimetres tall (1). [2 marks]
Question 5
Marking guide: 1 moss has no vascular tissue, so it cannot pipe water up; 1 so every cell must be close to water it soaks up from damp surroundings, keeping it small; 1 moss spores need a film of water to grow; 1 the pine has vascular tissue that carries water from its roots; 1 the pine makes seeds with a tough coat and a food store, which can wait in dry ground and do not need a damp place to germinate. [5 marks]
Model answer: A moss has no vascular tissue, so it cannot carry water up from the ground. Every cell has to stay close to water it soaks up from its surroundings, which is why it stays small and lives in damp shade. Its spores also need a film of water before they can grow. A pine has vascular tissue, so its roots can supply water to the whole tree. It reproduces by seeds, which have a tough coat and a food store and can wait in dry ground until there is enough water, so the pine does not need a damp place.
Common error: saying ferns have no vascular tissue because they reproduce by spores; ferns have water tubes, and only mosses lack them.