Today the Elms headed outside to find buds to dissect. It always amazes me to see their wonder when they explore outside, "Woah" "Look what I found!" "What's this?" "C'mere, c'mere!" echoed though our little woods. We took our finds back inside, sketched them, and then took them apart and sketched some more. Students reported finding "tons of tiny leaves" in their buds. Others found the bud scales that protect the bud throughout the winter. Many went on to do close up examinations of some of our epiphytes (air plants) and dandelion flowers that are already popping up.
Yesterday, we examined the bean sprouts that we grew and labeled their various parts. Students this age like to know the "real" names for things and we practiced getting words like "cotyledon" and "hypocotyl" to flow off our tongues. Their sketches were beautiful.
When we looked at the beansprouts today, we noticed
something interesting. Having been liberated from their dark closet growing place and placed on a sunny window sill, their first leaves had turned from a yellow white to a spring green. Chlorophyl! Today we talked about photosynthesis and even got a chance to look at the chemical formula. Students discovered for themselves why plants release oxygen -- "Wait! It uses the 6 carbons from CO2, 12 hydrogens and 6 oxygens from H2O...that leaves 6 O2s!! That's where our oxygen comes from!" (I'm not kidding, they figured it out.) As S.H. said, "Hey, nature math!"
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