Look at the pictures in Exercise 1 and
guess the answers to the questions:
What materials are being used in this
experiment?
What do you think the purpose of the
experiment is?
What order do you think the pictures
should go in?
Listening on P79
Listen to the first part again and
answer the questions.
1. What is the purpose of the experiment?
To find out three important conditions
that seeds need in order to start
growing.
2. Are students going to do the
experiment in groups or individually?
In groups.
3. Where are the materials that the
students need to set up the experiment?
On the bench.
4. What materials do the students need
to set up the experiment?
Four dishes and four pieces of cloth,
a dish of seeds, some tap water, some
boiled water and some cooking oil.
Third listening
Listen to the first part again and
complete the table of conditions that each
dish of seeds was given.
Conditions
Dish A
Dish B
Dish C
Dish D
tap water, warm temperature, oxygentap water, cold temperature, oxygenno water, warm temperature, oxygenboiled water, oil, warm temperature, no oxygen
Fourth listening
Now listen to the second part of the
tape in which the class discusses the
results of the experiment. Complete
the table of results.
Did the seeds grow?
Reasons why or why not
Dish A
Dish B
Yes Because they had water, warmth and oxygen.
No Because it was toocold.
Did the seeds grow?
Reasons why or why not
Dish C
Dish D
No
No
Because they were watered with boiled water which has no oxygen. Also, they were covered with oil which prevented oxygen getting to the seeds.
Because they didn’t get any water.
Listen to the second part of the tape
again and discuss the question:
What was the conclusion of the
experiment?
Seeds need warmth, water and
oxygen to grow.
An experiment on plants
Part1: Listen to a teacher(TH) helping
her class set up an experiment.
TH: OK, everybody, this morning we’re
going to do an experiment to find
out three important conditions that
seeds need in order to start growing.
LISTENING TEXT
The materials are all on the bench.
Choose someone from your group to go
and get four dishes and four pieces of
cloth, a dish of seeds, some tap water,
some boiled water and some cooking oil.
Look at the instructions on the board.
Let’s read through them.
One: Put the pieces of cloth on the dishes
and spread the seeds on the cloth.
Label the dishes A to D.
Two: Take Dish A and wet the cloth with
tap water and place it in a well-
aired warm spot– so by the window
over there would be fine.
Three: Take Dish B, wet it with tap
water and put it in the fridge.
Four: Take Dish C and put it next to
Dish A. Do not water it.
Five: Take Dish D and water it with the
boiled water. Then drop a
small amount of oil onto the cloth
and put it next to Dish C.
Six: Leave them all for a few days. OK,
now you can go ahead and set up
the experiment.
Part 2: Listen to the class discussing the
results of the experiment.
Students include Andrew
(A), Rosemary (R) and
Sandy(S).
TH: Right, let’s talk about what’s
happened in our experiment. What
are the results? Andrew?
A: The seeds in Dish A have started
growing but none of the others have.
TH: Good. Why do you think the
seeds in Dish B didn’t grow?
Rosemary?
R: Because it was too cold?
TH: That’s right. And what about
Dish C?
R: The seeds didn’t get any water so
they couldn’t grow.
TH: Yes. Now, Dish D is interesting.
The seeds got both water and
warmth so why didn’t they
grow? Any ideas? Andrew?
A: Well, the seeds got boiled water.
TH: So, why’s that important?
Anyone? Well, boiled water has
no oxygen in it and seeds need
oxygen to grow. And What about
the oil? Sandy?
S: Wouldn’t the oil make sure that no
Oxygen could get to the seeds?
TH: Excellent. Well done. So, what’s
our conclusion about three
important conditions that a seed
needs in order to start
growing?
S: That seeds need warmth, water
and oxygen to grow.
Writing task
When writing an experiment report, yo
u can ask questions about:
● the position of the headings, what the
headings are, their order:
● how the items in the “materials” sect
ion are presented (as a list);
● what the “procedure” tells you (the
steps you carry out to set up the expe
riment);
● the grammatical structures used
for each section of the report.
Outline
Materials:
A B C D
Aim: To find out three important conditions that seeds need in order to start growing.
1. four dishes
2. four pieces of cloth
Procedure:
1.Put the pieces of cloth on the dishes. Spread the seeds on the cloth. Label the dishes A to D.2. Take Dish A and wet the cloth with tap water and place it in a well-aired warm spot—so by the window over there would be fine.
3. Take Dish B, wet it with tap water and put it in the fridge.
4. Take Dish C and put it next to Dish A.
Do not water it.
5. Take Dish D and water it with the
boiled water. Then drop a small amount
of oil onto the seeds and put it next to
Dish C.
6. Leave them all for a few days.
Results
Dish A:
Dish B:
Dish C:
Dish D:
Conclusion
Seeds need warmth, water and oxygen to grow.
The seeds grew.
The seeds didn’t grow.
The seeds didn’t grow.
The seeds didn’t grow.
Sample report:
I did the experiment to find out three
important conditions that seeds need in
order to start growing.
First, I put the four pieces of cloth on
each dish, spread the seeds on the cloth
and label the dishes A to D.
Then I placed Dish A in a well-aired
warm spot by the window, took Dish
B and wet it with tap water and put it
in the fridge, took Dish C and put it
next to Dish A without watering it.
Finally I watered Dish D with the
boiled water, dropped a small amount
of cooking oil onto the seeds and put it
next to Dish C. A few days later, I
found that only Dish A grew.
So I drew a conclusion that seeds
need warmth, water and oxygen to
grow.
Discussion:
Look at the pictures of a plant
experiment. The pictures are in the
correct order. Discuss with partners
about the processes the plants go
through. Report each picture one by
one:
Lay the bottle on its side in the pot and put some wet paper towel inside. Put one of the seeds in the centre of the bottle.
The seed have two long shoots, one heading towards the soil and the other growing up toward the light.
Sample:
I planted three beans in a pot, watered
them and left them in a warm light spot. I
n a week each seed had two small shoots.
I cut the ends of a plastic bottle and
wrapped it in dark paper. I laid the bottle
on its side on the top of the pot of soil and
place a wet piece of paper towel inside the
bottle.