Xylem and Phloem (GCSE)

This is a fully-resourced lesson that looks at the functional and structural differences between the transport tissues in a plant, the xylem and phloem. The lesson includes an engaging lesson presentation (41 slides), which includes numerous student-led tasks, progress checks and quick competitions and two question worksheets, one of which is a differentiated version to enable those students who are finding this topic difficult to still be able to access the learning.

The lesson begins with the introduction of the two tissues as well as a brief introduction to the substances which they each carry. The next part of the lesson focuses on the xylem cells and the resulting xylem vessel, and key terms such as lignin are brought into the lesson so that students can understand how these cells are waterproofed, which causes them to decay and form hollow tubes. Having met a lot of information, students are challenged to act like an examiner to form a table based question to compare the xylem against the phloem where they have to come up with features which could be compared against. This table will form the backbone of the lesson and students will use it later in the lesson when they have to write summary passages about each of the tissues. Moving forwards, a quick competition is used to enable the students to meet the names of the cells that form the phloem tissue, the sieve tube elements and the companion cells. Students will see how they are involved in the functioning of the phloem and questions are posed which relate to other topics such as the involvement of mitochondria wherever active transport occurs. Progress checks like this are found at regular intervals throughout the lesson so that students can constantly assess their understanding.

This lesson has been designed for GCSE students. If you are looking to teach about these tissues but to a higher standard, you could use my uploaded alternative called Xylem and Phloem (A-level)