Science and Technology K–6 · Kindergarten
Which part of the plant do we eat: making a class salad
Living World, using living things as food (NSW 2017); Science understanding, Biological sciences (ACARA v9)
The idea
Foods come from named parts of plants: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds.
Safety card
Hazards
- Food allergy; cuts from knives; food hygiene
Controls
- Allergy register checked before the lesson; plastic knives only; boards and hands washed; food eaten away from the science area
Note
Food handling: check the class allergy register, wash hands, use clean boards and disposable gloves; nothing prepared in a science area is eaten. Record the activity on Primary School RiskAssess (riskassess.com.au).
What you need
- Washed carrot (root), asparagus spear (stem), lettuce (leaf), celery (a leaf stalk, so it belongs with the leaf), broccoli (flower), tomato (fruit) and shelled peas (seed): one of each per group of four; the adult cuts the carrot into sticks and slices the asparagus thinly beforehand
- A whole potted plant with roots, stem, leaves and a flower, lifted out of its pot for reference
- Plastic knives, chopping boards, disposable gloves, a large bowl and serving tongs
- Six labels: root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed
How to do it
- Look at the whole plant. Point to the root, stem, leaf and flower.
- Match each food to the plant part it comes from and place it beside the label. Discuss any disagreement.
- Wash hands and put on gloves. At a table cleaned for food, away from the science table, cut the soft foods into pieces with the plastic knife on the board.
- Add each part to the bowl in order: roots first, then stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds.
- Eat the salad at the eating area, not at the science table, and say which part you liked.
What you should see
Carrot is a root and an asparagus spear is a stem, because it is the plant's young shoot. Lettuce is a leaf, and so is the crisp part of celery: that part is the leaf stalk, not the stem, and the true stem is the short base the stalks all grow from. Broccoli is a cluster of flower buds, tomato is a fruit that holds seeds, and peas are seeds. Cutting the tomato open shows the seeds inside, which is the check for fruit. The learner knows it worked when the six labels each have a food beside them, the celery sits with the leaf and not with the stem, and the tomato's seeds have been found.
What changes
This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.
Common misconceptions
Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.
- Tomato is a vegetable, so it cannot be a fruit (botanically it is a fruit because it holds seeds).
- Carrots grow on a bush.
- Celery is the plant's stem (the crisp part is the leaf stalk, which is part of a leaf).
Curriculum references
The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
- Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2017), NESA. Current syllabus; NESA's timeline is 2026 plan and prepare, 2027 start teaching the 2024 syllabus. Code read from the official syllabus document on 2026-09-22.STe-3LW-ST
- Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024), NESA. Implementation from 2027, so this code describes the future syllabus. Code read from the outcomes page on 2026-09-22.STE-SCI-01
- Australian Curriculum v9AC9SFU01
Sources
The pages the author read to write this activity.