What is a weed? & where do we find them?

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will be able to explain what a weed is.
• Students will be able to explain that weeds are introduced plants
• Students can name the different areas where weeds are found and can give reasons why weeds may live there.

Resources Required:

1. Weedy Quiz - Complete the Weedy Quiz, before beginning this lesson!
2. Weed samples and native plants from local area.

Activities:

1. Go outside as a class and check out your school environment. Find plants that you think are weeds (use your samples if the local area has few environmental weeds). Why might they be weeds? Discuss.
   
   Compare the weeds with the native plants. How can we tell the difference? Why are weeds introduced plants? Brainstorm the meaning of the word 'weed' (you could do this as a class or in small groups). What do the students understand about the word weed? Where have they heard it being used before? What does the dictionary say? Discuss the term 'Pest Plant' and how it is another word for weed.
   
   Record the students' ideas and start to build up a Pool of Knowledge. Share and display the class Pool of Knowledge.
   
2. As a group, review the students recorded answers and add any additional ideas to your Pool of Knowledge.

Extra Activities:

1. Design a fun cover page for your topic book, PowerPoint presentation or booklet. Include your definition of what a weed is and draw the places where you would most likely find them.
   
2. Explore the ideas about why weeds may grow in particular places (this idea could be followed up on the Weed Walk where children are in the environment and can see the actual weedy places).
   
3. Woody Weed is the Weedbusters mascot. He educates children about the impacts of weeds. Using KidPix or Paint, or other art mediums, create your own version of Woody Weed. Explore the animation tools in KidPix and share your creation with the class.

Reflection:

Can you explain to a friend what a weed is?

Could weeds be living in your area?

Teachers' Notes:

A simple definition of a weed is a plant growing in an area where it is not wanted and has a harmful impact. Or - a weed is a plant whose abundance outweighs its usefulness. In this course the following definition is also important:- An invasive weed threatens the survival of native species and ecosystems.

Weeds have been introduced to New Zealand and have become so abundant that they have negative impacts on our activities like farming or recreation, our native environment or our health.

Weeds can come in any shape and size and can be any type of plant for example, tree, shrub, annual, vine or water plant.

Weedy plants have some or all of these characteristics:

• Produce lots of seed
• Seeds are spread by birds or wind
• Grow from fragments of root, stem or leaf
• Form dense masses
• Grow fast
• Are hard to control

Weeds can invade anywhere that plants can grow, including the following areas-native bush, beaches, farmland, gardens, roadsides, streams, lakes and waterways.

Weeds tend to become established in areas of human activity where our activities have disturbed the natural vegetation. Really bad weeds can invade pristine habitats and out compete the native plants, changing the nature of the ecosystem, e.g. wilding pines in tussock grassland areas.

Weeds spread in one or more of the following ways - people dumping garden rubbish, gardeners planting them in their backyard, dispersal of seeds, dispersal of plant fragments, creeping growth habit expanding the size of an infestation.

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