Treatment Draft: Suggestions Welcome!

Well, I have decided to go with the more dramatic format for my science video. Here is the first draft of the treatment. Please pass along any suggestions that you may have. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I'll have the production schedules and details like talent and locations worked out.


Title
“Herb Grazer: Plant Detective”

Summary
Herb Grazer, a private detective specializing in plant cases, comes to the rescue when his sister’s prize winning tomato plant is stolen. Several neighbours were seen leaving the area and many items were left behind. The police don’t have any leads and are considering closing the case. Using what he knows about plant characteristics and the habits of the suspects, Herb systematically eliminates all possible suspects except for one. The police use this new information to get a confession and the safe return of the tomato plant.

Story Overview
Herb is sitting at his desk, feet up reading the newspaper, crime headline visible (Garden Raids), police radio scanner audible in the background.

Calling all cars message to current crime scene.

Herb’s attention shifts to the radio. He listens intently. Shaking his head he comments out loud about the recent crime wave.

Time passes.

The phone rings. It’s Herb’s sister. Her prize winning tomato plant is missing. Witnesses have told the police that they saw some people from her neighbourhood walking away from her yard: Dr. Dicot, Monty Monocot, Count Coniferous and Leif Carrot. They all claim to be innocent. Several items were found in her garden, but the police don’t think they are useful and are going to close the file.

Herb visits the garden and finds:
An evergreen (spruce) branch, seeds (bean), a flower (dicot), and a leaf (oak). (This eventually point to Dr. Dicot as the culprit.)

Herb explains that evergreen trees can be identified by the characteristics of their needles. He explains the concepts of single vs clusters, flat vs round/square, and scaly vs. needle, giving examples of each. Herb then turns his attention to the evergreen branch found in his sister’s yard and systematically eliminates possibilities due to characteristics until the only logical possibility is spruce.

Herb comments that this does not incriminate Count Coniferous, because his yard is filled with pine trees and only pine trees.

Herb picks up the seeds and comments that a plant can be classified as a monocot or dicot by the characteristics of its seeds. He explains the terms monocot and dicot giving examples of each’s seeds. Herb points out that the seeds in his hand appear to be bean seeds. He carefully removes the seed coat to reveal two sections, and therefore a dicot.

Herb notes that Monty has an extensive seed collection made up exclusively of monocots, and that this information seems to point away from Monty being the culprit.

Herb lifts up the small tree branch and surveys its leaves. He mentions that the characteristics of a tree’s leaves can give clues about the type of tree. Herb mentions the categories of leaf shape, margin, arrangement and venation citing examples for each. He examines the leaves on the branch and describes it according to these categories. He uses a simple identification key to determine that it is an oak leaf.

Herb remarks that he was watching a “Where are they now..” show about Leif Carrot the other day and that in a bid to regain his past status, he cut down all trees on his property except for the Poplars (he thought it would make him more “poplar” with the public again!). Herb quickly contrasts the characteristics of a Poplar leaf with the Oak leaf to be certain and then states that this leaf does not seem to come from Leif Carrot’s yard.

Herb picks up the flower and points out the parts: stem, sepal, petals, pistil and stamen. He explains that the number of petals on a flower can help identify a plant as a monocot or dicot. He gives examples of each. Herb turns his attention back to the crime scene flower and carefully counts the petals. The number of petals indicate that it is a dicot.

Herb recounts reading a local newspaper interview with Dr. Dicot that mentioned he always wears a dicot flower when out in public. Maybe the police need to have another talk with the self-labeled evil Dr.

Herb calls the police and passes on his information. The police bring Dr. Dicot in for questioning again. They interrogate Dr. Dicot and get him to crack by talking about his mother (“what kind of mother must a person have in order to stoop so low as to steal a tomato plant?”…etc.) The police recover and return the tomato plant to Herb’s sister. Dr. Dicot is sentenced to 30 hours of community service and is now prohibited from living within 500 meters of a garden.

Herb puts his arm around his sister and turns to the camera and tells the viewer that the next time they look at petals, leaves and seeds: don’t just see them as parts of plant, but rather as clues to making a positive identification. Get good enough at it and maybe one day you can work with me;
HERB GRAAAAAAZZZZZER: PLANT DETECTIVE!

Purpose of Video
To provide visual examples of identification concepts taught in the classroom. These examples will be useful in the following ways:
Reinforce in-class and home experiences with the flowers, leaves and seeds of plants.
Provide a more cost effective and time efficient alternative to visiting many locations to view plants in person.
Help bridge distances between students in geographically isolated areas to plant species not in their immediate environment.
Allow students to review or enrich their learning anywhere and anytime that they wish to access the video.
Provide a mode of presentation which will assist aural and visual learners to incorporate new knowledge with their existing ideas about plants.

Learning Objectives
The viewer will be able to explain the branching structure of the seed vs non-seed plant system of classifying plants
The viewer will be able to discern flowering seed plants from non-flowering seed plants (conifers).
The viewer will be able to identify flowering plants as monocots or dicots based on seed characteristics.
The viewer will be able to identify flowering plants as monocots or dicots based on the number of flower petals.
The viewer will be able to identify coniferous species based on needle characteristics.
The viewer will be able to identify deciduous species based on leaf characteristics such as shape, margin, arrangement and blade division.


Format
DVD and Online Streamed Video

Audience
Elementary to middle school level students.

Main Characters
Herb Grazer: Plant Detective
Lily Grazer: Herb’s sister
Dr. Dicot: Self-Described Evil Scientist with signature dicot flower. Wants to destroy all monocots.
Monty Monocot: Collects monocot seeds.
Count Coniferous: Loves evergreens. Trying to get Poplars to become the new Christmas Tree.
Leif Carrot: former teen heart throb (wants to be Poplar again).

Running Time
22 minutes