Is it a Fruit or a Vegetable? This is Bananas!- Free Lesson

Did you know that a tomato is really a fruit, not a vegetable?  Well, there are more foods that you have probably miscategorized- this lesson is going to make you go bananas!

The students will determine the fruits from a basket of vegetables by identifying characteristics of each food.

1) Simple Diagram of a plant showing Root, Stem, Leaves, and Flower

2) Access to Chalkboard/Wipe board to make a list

3) Picture of a Wild Banana (for the end of the lesson).

4) You want to put together at least 3 groups of foods that contain 3-4 vegetables and 1 fruit from the fruit and vegetable ideas listed below. Substitutions can be made based on availability of vegetables, however it is recommended for this activity to stick with the fruits listed below as they as commonly misconstrued as vegetables. *(excluding the challenge fruit- the banana.)

Give a small group of students a group of the fruit and vegetables. Upon first glance, they all appear to be vegetables, however tell the students that one of these is a fruit.

Students should hypothesize which of these “vegetables” is really a fruit by examining each “vegetable”.

1. Questions students should be asking themselves are:

   1. Does this vegetable appear to be a root, stem, or leaf?

   2. Do I think this food has seeds inside of this?

   3. Based on prior knowledge, does this grow from a flower of a plant?

1. Students then will test their hypothesis by having an adult cut the “vegetables” in half to see if they were right. The fruit will have seeds visible inside, as the vegetables will not. Did they correctly guess the fruit?

2. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with another basket of vegetables. After these two rounds students should be making the correct assumption that all fruits have seeds inside of them.

3. Now for the challenge: Use the banana as the fruit in the group of vegetables. Most students will automatically assume that the banana is the fruit. They are right, but cut the banana in half, there are no seeds. Ask students, Can this still be true that all fruits have seeds? Explain to the students that the bananas we eat have been grown in special way to have very tiny seeds we cannot see, or they do not have seeds at all. However they are still a fruit because they came from the flower of a plant and wild bananas do have seeds. Show picture of a natural banana to prove the point.

Bananas that we grow to eat have very tiny seeds or no seeds at all.

A wild banana has lots of hard seeds!

Ask students if you were to hold up a fruit or vegetable would they be able to tell if were a fruit or a vegetable? What is the difference between a fruit and a vegetable? Point out that one way most of us determine the difference between fruits and vegetables is by taste. Fruits are generally sweeter and delicious where as vegetables are tasty too, but have a rich, flavor that isn’t so sweet. Fruits have seeds or a pit inside such as apples, oranges, cherries, and peaches. Guide students to reason the main identifier of a fruit is that is from a flowering plant and it has seeds inside, where as vegetables are from the root, stem, and leafy parts of plants. Brainstorm two lists of fruits and vegetables on the board. Explain to students that some foods that we think of as vegetables are actually fruits!

 Go back to the previous list that students brainstormed of fruits and vegetables. How accurate do they think their list is now? Wrap up experiment by explaining that no matter if it scientifically classified as a fruit or vegetable it is very healthy to eat them!