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Tulip Garden Update: May 19, 2000
Today's Report Includes:
- Gardens in the News
- Snapshot of Spring's Journey North
- Official Tulip Garden Sites
- Tulip Garden Highlights
- Patience Award Should Go to These Gardeners
- Assessment Suggestions for KWL Tulip Predictions
- Try This! Create an Artistic Record Book of Tulip Garden Bloom Sequence
- Old Bulbs, New Tricks
- A Big Thanks To All the Gardeners!
- Year End Evaluation
Gardens in the News
Since the last update on May 5, another 6 Journey North tulip
gardens have bloomed. We're getting to the end of the project and for most of us that means the end of another
spring season. Hooray for warm, sun-filled days! Take a look at this week's map and notice how spring is ascending
north across our globe.
Snapshot of Spring's Journey North
We bid farewell to Spring, 2000 with this series of maps which show the greening of spring across North America--thanks to you!
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Gardens Planted |
February 11 |
February 25 |
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March 10 |
March 24 |
April 7 |
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April 21 |
May 5 |
May 19 |
Official Tulip Garden Sites
Here are the results reported for the bloom dates on our Official Garden sites:
| Official Site | (Lat, Long) | Gardeners | Date Tulips Bloomed |
| Anchorage, Alaska | (61.21 N, -149.86 W) | Sand Lake Elementary | not yet bloomed |
| Boston, Massachusetts | (42.36 N, -71.05 W) | Joyce Middle School | April 5 |
| Hood River, Oregon | (45.57 N, -121.65 W) | Westside Elementary | April 1 |
| Houston, Texas | (29.75 N, -95.36 W) | Hidden Hollow Elementary | No blooms, drought |
| Bad Kreuznach, Germany | (49.40 N, 7.700 E) | Bad Kreuznach Elementary | March 21 |
| Mississauga, Ontario | (43.50 N, -79.59W) | Marvin Heights Public | not reported |
| Franklin, Tennessee | (36.16 N, -86.77 W) | Oak View Elementary | March 26 |
| Newport-on-Tay, Scotland | (56.40 N, -3.00 W) | Wormit Primary | April 5 |
| Palo Alto, California | (37.44 N, -122.14 W) | Barron Park Elementary | March 9 |
| Pequot Lakes, Minnesota | (46.67 N, -94.24W) | Pequot Lakes School | March 27 |
| Salt Lake City, Utah | (40.77 N -111.92 W) | Eastwood Elementary | Plants mistakenly mowed* |
| Utsjoki, Finland | (69.90 N, 26.00 E) | Utsjoen saamelaislukio | not yet bloomed |
| Washington, D.C. | (38.93 N, -77.05 W) | Thoreau Middle School | March 19 |
Tulip Garden Highlights
A late bloom, but good news for our northern neighbors. Ms. McKenzie's Fourth grade class in Calgary, Alberta, report that spring came late this year.
"The reason our tulips bloomed so late this year is probably due to a few late snowfalls. We have had a very mild winter but late snowfalls and some rain. The prairie grasslands are very dry and farmers need the moisture for their crops and to prevent prairie grass fires. Our tulips look strong and healthy."
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"The almost world famous 1st Madoc Cub pack wish to report that their Journey North tulips are blooming in the garden at the Madoc Manor! We are very proud of our little garden and we think that the seniors enjoy looking at the beautiful flowers. We noticed the flowers blooming this morning when we were on our way to plant our Scout Trees For Canada. Akela and the 1st Madoc Cubs"
Patience Award Should Go to These Gardeners
There are a couple of classrooms STILL waiting for that lovely flush of red tulip blooms. Here is what they wrote to tell us:
Mike Sterling's class, from Anchorage, Alaska, wrote:
"Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner it has been a little hectic around here our last day of school is next week. No, they didn't bloom YET! But the good news is that the moose didn't get them YET either! The tallest one is 8 inches.
Our weather has been FANTASTIC! It has been getting to the mid to upper 50's during the day and the mid 30's at night. Nice Alaskan sunshine.(almost 18 hours of it!)
Anyhow, it has been a very dry spring. I was thinking about watering the tulips but didn't think that would be allowed due to preserving the scientific integrity of the project."
From Wendy Anderson's class in Palmer, Alaska (campmol@alaska.net):
"Dear Journey North,
The tulips have not emerged and I think they are dead; I will be digging up the beds to see what happened. The students kept looking but no leaves and no blooms. Better luck next year!
Wendy"
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"Dear Journey North,
Believe, the tulips aren't blooming, they haven't emerged yet!
Annikki"
Assessment Suggestions for KWL Tulip Predictions
As long-term projects come to an end there is a need to tie up loose ends, and a need to summarize them in some way, or in other words, to make sense of what was learned during the project. Early in the year when the tulips were planted we suggested that students predict the arrival of spring at the 13 Official Garden sites around the world. Using KWL strategies to help organize this process, students could practice making predictions based on research and data collection. The information collected in notebooks and on bulletin boards could be used for making summaries and reports could be written. Here is an idea for an integrated assessment piece you might like to incorporate into your students' portfolios.
Try This! Create an Artistic Record Book of Tulip Garden Bloom Sequence
Using your research on the Tulip Garden Sites you can create a class book (or individual books)showing the time/geographic sequence of bloom across all the Official Garden sites. This project could combine artwork (showing maps and other drawings created for each Official Garden Site) with information that students have gathered in their search for clues to predict bloom times. Sites could be arranged in their books in sequence from the earliest to the latest bloom dates.
Here is one way to make a Sequence Book:
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Make an accordion book
- Create enough folds to contain a page for each of the 13 garden sites
- Use maps and atlases as reference for creating maps of each site
- Use the Journey North map of the Official Garden Sites for reference
- For each page/site, add notes that were clues for your predictions
- List the actual bloom dates and your predictions on each page/site
- Make a title page, a cover, and then CELEBRATE with a publishing party!
Old Bulbs, New Tricks
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Growing Experiments
Students can dig up the bulbs next fall. Inspect them, weigh them, measure them, compare them with new bulbs, and then replant them. How are old bulbs different from new ones? Have students predict how each old bulb will grow the next spring, based on its unique characteristics.
Re-use Old Bulbs for These Lessons
Only a Few Will Do!
Keep in mind, you only need a few NEW bulbs each year. If your budget doesn't allow for new bulbs for
all students, just purchase a half dozen or so. Designate the new bulbs as your "official" Journey North
tulips, and ONLY report to Journey North when the new bulbs emerge and bloom.
A Big Thanks To All the Gardeners!
Following the path of the blooming tulip on a map of the world is a great way to measure spring's journey north. Thank you so much for all of your work in planting, recording and reporting your tulip gardens' progress. Take a minute to thank your classmates and teachers for helping us plot the bloom of the tulip. Without you we couldn't follow the path of spring in this delightful way!
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Journey North |
This FINAL Tulip Garden Update for 2000 reminds us that the flush of spring has once again made its way northward and has brought with it a new season to enjoy. We hope you have learned some new things about geography, weather, predicting, data collection, and, of course, gardening! Come back next year to become part of our map of garden sites for all to share. Have a great sumer!
Copyright 2000 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form
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