Lakeridge Students Dissect Flowers to Examine Structures Supporting Growth and Survival

Two students in Michelle Pettigrew's class at Lakeridge examine a flower they have dissected.

Mercer Island, WA, September 25, 2025 - Thursday afternoon students in Michelle Pettigrew’s split fourth and fifth grade class at Lakeridge dissected flowers.

“The Next Generation Science Standards include that students can construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction,” said Pettigrew.

Prior to dissecting flowers, Pettigrew led a class discussion with students to observe the characteristics of different flowers and what those characteristics meant. Students made these observations to a fellow classmate in a “turn and talk” where each student discussed with the other what they saw.

“I like that we got to be like hands on,”’ said Henry, a student in the class. “We were the ones actually doing it so we could do what we want with the flower and try like cool experiments and stuff. And what I learned is many parts of the flowers are called different things. Like the female part is called the pistol and the male part is called the stamen, and it was overall really good for learning.”

“Students are looking at the specific structures for reproduction and growth as they dissect and label parts of a flower,” continued Pettigrew.

Students dissected flowers in pairs of two and were able to examine several different types of flowers, including lilies, roses, and alstroemerias.

“I liked that we can learn all the different plants and what they use to protect themselves,” said River, a student in the class. “It was fun that we got to draw plants and label them.”

There was an excited buzz among the students as they examined and dissected their flowers. The students’ enthusiasm for the unit carried over to opportunity to be quoted in this story about what they learned. When Pettigrew asked the students who would like to speak about what they learned, every student raised their hand.

Henry and River were selected to talk about what they learned by Pettigrew’s “Wheel of Terry” randomizer on her promethean board. The name for the randomizer has been changed by students several times since the start of school and name changes will continue as the year progresses.