Plants that are very obvious in habitats where they live, like mosses on the floor of a conifer forest, are more likely to have phenolic compounds to ward off herbivory than inconspicuous plants in a field where food choices abound. One could then have students develop a key to these plants. Someone suggested looking at the alga Closterium for Brownian movement. That's a common desmid and would probably show up in samples from a variety of aquatic habitats. I call adaptations.
Students circulate to each bench to examine the adaptations to various conditions.
We have a dispersal table with moss capsules that perform on demand, horsetail elaters, fern sporangia with annuli, and then various other plants with a variety of seed and fruit types and protective mechanisms for their propagules. Insectivorous plants and ericads are used for adaptations to low nutrients. One table has succulents and other types of dry habitat adaptations. We tie these adaptations in with increasing UV light and temperatures. I'm not sure what level of experiments etc.