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** INTRODUCTION  ** This topic explores the vital and extensive role that plants play in our lives. Students investigate how plant use has changed over time in their local community and explore the cultivated and non-cultivated plants in their region today. The concepts of a global supply chain, sustainable development and fair trade are introduced, as students consider the social, economic and environmental issues raised by global trade. Students investigate the laws that protect their local plant biodiversity. The final activity draws the concepts together as students design a real, or imaginary garden, choosing plants that will grow in their local conditions and that would be important for human survival, environmental and cultural significance.  Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, you will be in contact with plants, or things that have been made out of plants. It is easy to think of how you are using plants when you are eating a banana, but it is more difficult to notice the plants that are hidden in the things we use every day. Look at picture 1 to see some of the ways that we use plants in our every day lives. __//Without plants there would be no life on Earth.//__ Even the air that we breathe has been affected by plants. Green leaves take in a gas called carbon dioxide, and let out oxygen. Plants provide us, and other animals with food and shelter. Even meat eating animals rely on plants for food because the animals that they eat will have eaten smaller animals which fed on plants. This is called a food chain*, and plants are usually at the start of them.

 **GENERAL PROJECT OBJECTIVES:** - To arise awareness of the importance of plants in our lives. - To become aware of the local environmental features and how they affect our culture - To share and compare information with other students around Europe in order to identify common elements that make us feel Europeans. - To improve collaborative skills by working with students in other countries and share the same objectives. - To improve communicative competence also in a foreign language. - To improve the use of the Internet as a tool for communication and collaboration.  **OBJECTIVES CONNECTED TO TOPIC PAGES**   DEPEND ON PLANTS //__Aims:__// To explore how we depend on plants in our every day lives and to consider how plants affect the quality of our environment and lives. LOCAL PLANTS __//Aims://__ To learn about cultivated plants growing in the local area. To understand the environmental, social and economic significance of plants grown in the local region. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; COLOR: #628736; FONT-FAMILY: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #6eff00; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> PLANT FOLKLORE Aims: ?? To explore how use and cultural significance of plants have changed over time in the local area. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; COLOR: #628736; FONT-FAMILY: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #6eff00; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> PLANT PROTECTION Aims: ?? To consider human pressure and threats to biodiversity and explore laws that protect biodiversity (locally, nationally and globally). <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; COLOR: #628736; FONT-FAMILY: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #6eff00; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> PLANT DIVERSITY Aims: ?? To introduce the concept of plant biodiversity. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; COLOR: #628736; FONT-FAMILY: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #6eff00; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> PLANT CREATIVITY Aims: - To investigate plant shapes and learn to describe them - To develop creativity and problem solving skills through the design of a 'local garden'. <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; COLOR: #628736; FONT-FAMILY: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #6eff00; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> PLANT USES Aims - To explore unusual fields in which plants find application (as medicines, fuels, fibres, plastics, etc.)  <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; COLOR: #628736; FONT-FAMILY: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #6eff00; TEXT-ALIGN: left"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> PER TUTTI: Read the pages written by your friends and assess them by answering the following questions: What is the most interesting or unexpected piece of information that you have found in the Exchange Forms? How has your work on Plants in Our Lives changed your knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the importance of plants? <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; COLOR: #628736; FONT-FAMILY: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #6eff00; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> Explore and understand the following concepts: We all depend on plants in our every-day lives, whoever we are and wherever we live. Our use of plants links us to people and places all over the world. Understand the environmental, social and economic significance of plants grown in the local region. <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive">