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Tulip Garden Update: September 10, 2004

Today's Report Includes:

Follow the Wave of Spring
First gardens for 2005!
It's Time to Dig In! This fall, plant a Journey North Tulip Garden so you can proclaim the official arrival of spring in your community.
By sharing observations over the Internet, students across North America will follow the wave of spring as it moves northward and measure its pace from distant places.

Two Stand Alone
The first 2 gardens of 2004 have been planted! Early birds fromSchenectady, NY, and Gallatin, MO got a jump start on the season. How is your garden planning going?
NEW! Downloadable Just-for-Kids Booklet
bookletHowto_02

Hundreds of kids across North America are doing a fun experiment. They are trying to figure out when spring reaches their part of the world.
Start the year by making and reading this Tulip Garden just-for-kids nonfiction introduction booklet.

Assembling the printable "PDF" tulip booklets is easy to do. Try making them with your students as an exercise in listening and following directions. Use this quick, easy project for introducing the study, building reading skills and supporting standards.

When Does Spring Reach Your Hometown?
Teacher Tip: Teachers New to the Garden Project
The Tulip Garden Project allows children to explore plant growth and seasonal change by working with a flower that has come to symbolize spring. Visit this project overview that includes pictures and video clips to learn more.
IntroTulip01
Students explore seasonal change by watching plant growth in their own gardens--and in gardens across the hemisphere.
tulip_bulb06

Getting to Know You
Your tulip bulbs have arrived and you're about to bury them underground.
But before you take your last look, maybe there are some important things you should know about them:
  • Are all the bulbs in the class alike?
  • How might their differences affect their growth rates?
  • What do bulbs look like inside?
  • Where will next spring's leaves and flowers come from?

Your bulbs are the tools you're trusting to gauge spring's arrival. So get to know them before planting.

Bookmark the Tulip Lesson Resource Page to keep handy a list of Journey North Lessons.

More Teacher Tips:
1. Organizing the Garden Project
Each year that Journey North is presented we welcome many first-time teachers and classrooms. In an effort to make managing our projects easier for all participants and especially new ones, we have asked some of our “seasoned” teachers for tips. Here’s a tip to help you get organized:

Find more helpful tips here:

2. Tulip Project Portfolio
A new Journey North season brings lots of excitement. Students gather information, design experiments, study maps and spend time researching topics of special interest. All of these activities promote rich learning experiences. The challenge is how to organize this vast amount information for project assessment.

Portfolios can offer great organization tools for keeping track of your Tulip Project. Starting with recording Challenge Question #1, students can keep records of each step of the project. By dedicating a notebook to notes, experiments, maps, pictures and journal questions, records can all be kept safe and permanent for each participant.

What If…? Time to Experiment
What if you planted your tulips upside down? Or 10 inches underground instead of 7, as the planting instructions specify? Would it really matter if you planted them in a warm, sunny courtyard? What would happen if you didn't plant your garden exactly according to the instructions?

Try This!

  1. Plant your "Journey North" garden EXACTLY as instructed in the Planting Instructions.
  2. Gather all the questions students ask while selecting your garden site this fall. As a class, discuss which of these questions you could test in an Experimental Garden. For example, does it matter if the tulips are planted in the shade? On the north side of a building? In a sunny courtyard?
  3. Then, plant Experimental Gardens to test questions you'd like to investigate.
  4. Important: Next spring, ONLY report to Journey North about your "OFFICIAL JOURNEY NORTH GARDEN." (You can tell us what you learned from your "EXPERIMENTAL GARDEN" in the "Comments" section of your report.) Remember, the planting instructions are the scientific protocol for the International Journey North experiment, so follow them carefully!
Classroom Experiments Wanted
 Do you ever wonder what is going on under ground in the garden? What actually goes on under there is kind of mysterious. How can you find out more about the underground environment?  
Data recorders come in all sizes and shapes
iScienceProject

Scientific investigations typically begin with observations of something intriguing or baffling, which in turn, inspire questions. From the time you plant your Journey North garden until the tulips emerge in the spring many things happen under the ground. What kinds of things would you learn if you could “see” what the temperature is underground?

Challenge Question #1:
"What temperature related experiment can you design for understanding how your tulips grow?"

(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)

This year try some new technology to answer some your research questions. Read about how data recorder technology can expand your classroom understanding of underground temperature phenomena.

How to Report to Journey North

Don't forget to report when you have PLANTED your Journey North Garden

As soon as you plant YOUR garden, be sure to let us know! In next month's update, we expect to have many garden locations to report to you.

Simply press the "Owl" button to report from your site.Wait 5 minutes then refresh the map page to see your site pop up on the map. (From the same button, you can also "Go to the Sightings Database" and read comments from all gardeners.)
  

Teacher Tip: Gardens Year After Year
Many teachers choose to participate in the Tulip Garden Study year after year. The project becomes part of their curriculum and provides an ongoing record of the coming of spring in their area. How do you find room for garden plantings year after year? This question is often asked and we have a few suggestions:
  • Make the garden larger over a 4-year period. The tulips are initially vigorous but will decline after about 4-5 years in the garden. Each year increase the garden site by adding an 8-inch strip for the current years' bulbs. By year #4, dig out the first year's bulbs and replace them with the current year’s bulbs.
  • Dig out the previous year's bulbs and use them for experiments. After investigating their own new bulbs, have students dig up the old bulbs. Predict what they'll look like, then inspect them, weigh them, measure them, and compare them with new bulbs. How are old bulbs different from new ones? Have students predict how each old bulb might grow the next spring, based on its unique characteristics. Brainstorm ways the old bulbs could be used.
  • Visit “Old Bulbs, New Tricks”
National Math and Science Standards and Journey North

Standards
Math Science
We've prepared a rubric to summarize how some of the International Tulip Study's fall lessons support the standards. Though summarized only for the U.S. national standards, the language should be easily adaptable for many state/province standards.

How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question

IMPORTANT: Answer only ONE question in each e-mail message.

1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-tulip@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #1.
3. In the body of the message, answer ONE of the questions above.

The Next Tulip Garden Update Will be Posted on October 8, 2004.

Copyright 2004 Journey North. All Rights Reserved.
Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to jn-help@learner.org

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