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Two Harvests on the Kitchen Growing Shelf

Compare pea shoots and oyster mushrooms using harvest data, then model matter moving among plants, people, decomposers, and the environment.

Grade 5ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to5-LS2-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
14 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 5
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students model matter moving among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
Students use harvest observations and data to evaluate matter pathways.
Students distinguish matter entering living things from sunlight supplying energy.

How to use

Read the kitchen report and graph together. Students then evaluate and build labeled matter models. Use the supplied records; no growing or food handling is required.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

5-LS2-1

Model how matter moves among plants, animals, decomposers and the environment.

Preview

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Name Date

Two Harvests on the Kitchen Growing Shelf

Compare two food-growing boxes and model where their matter goes.

Compare the Two Growing Boxes

Read the report and graph. Use their evidence to answer the questions.

Food from a Kitchen Shelf

At a teaching kitchen, cook Ren keeps two food-growing boxes on a shelf. One contains pea plants grown for their tender shoots. The other is a purchased oyster mushroom kit. Students compare photographs and records without opening either box. Adults care for the boxes, handle the kit according to its directions, and prepare the harvested food.

The pea box began with seeds in soil. The mushroom box began with fungal threads growing through damp hardwood sawdust. Sawdust is tiny pieces of dead wood from trees. Both boxes received water and had access to air and light. The boxes did not begin with equal amounts or kinds of material. This was a comparison of two growing systems, not a controlled test of which living thing grows faster.

Over several weeks, the pea shoots became larger. No dead wood or other food material was added to their soil. In the mushroom box, fungal threads spread through the sawdust and mushrooms appeared. Some wood became softer and less recognizable. The kitchen's science notes explain that plants make food using matter from air and water, with energy from sunlight. Roots also take in water and small amounts of soil nutrients. Fungi are not plants. Decomposer fungi use matter in dead material as food. As they grow, some of that matter becomes part of their bodies. They also release matter into their surroundings, including the air.

Ren collected two harvests from each box. Before cooking, Ren weighed the fresh edible parts. These measurements included water in the shoots and mushrooms. They did not measure the whole box, leftover growing material, or nearby air. Diners ate the prepared harvests. Humans are animals: they use food matter for growth and body functions. Some food matter later leaves their bodies in waste or in gases released into the air.

After the growing demonstration, adults placed the remaining pea stems and used mushroom material in a managed outdoor compost bed. Fungi and bacteria there used dead material as food. Matter released into the surroundings could later reach other plants through air, water, or soil. Students will connect these places and living things in a model. Each arrow must point from a source to a receiver and name the matter that moves.