Tulip Garden Update: January 19, 2001 Today's Report Includes: Garden Grand Total Gardeners' Reports Experimenting with Microclimates-Inside and Out Challenge Question #1 Try This: Celery Microclimate Experiment Garden Grand Total All gardens are planted at last, and the grand total is now 234! The gardens reported since our December update are listed below. Now when do you suppose the first tulips will emerge---and whose will they be...? Today's Data Thanks to everyone for reporting their news. You can read comments from all hardworking gardeners in the database. If you reported planting your garden since the last Update, and are NOT on this list, please report to Journey North. Simply press the "owl" button and a Field Data Form will appear. Gardeners' Reports A Celebration of Bulbs! Lots of Enota Elementary School students in Gainesville, Georgia, celebrated on planting day. "We will be planting our tulips on Tuesday, December 5, 2000. We planned a "bulb tasting" for this day with onion rings and garlic toast. (This must not be done with tulip bulbs, because the fungicides found on tulip bulbs and other bulbs for horticultural use can be very toxic.). Songs about onions and stories about different bulbs were shared. We made our halls smell delicious with the fragrance of cooking onion and garlic! We are excited about this tulip project and anticipate the appearance of the first green tip next spring!" Young Scientists Face Wild Animals in the Field Forth graders from PS 217 in Brooklyn, NY, discovered animals in their tulip garden plot! "Hi, We planted our tulips around the flagpole outside our school on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn NY. Thirty children dug down 7 inches with wooden rulers because the gardener had loosened up the soil for us. The children found many worms and screamed until they got used to seeing them. They had fun." Special Notebooks Record Integrated Learning The LEAP program at Sappington School, are getting some experience recording their observations in creative fashion. "We planted our Red Emperor tulip bulbs on Wednesday, November 15, 2000. The students really enjoyed this activity. The students keep a drawing notebook for recording observations, scientific illustrations, data, reflections, poetry, and much more. The lessons revolving around the tulips provided students with volumes of drawing opportunities, lots of data, and a chance to explore how they want to log data into their notebooks." Spring Brings Hope Anew in Texas After two years' drought in this Original Journey North Garden site, the 2001 spring brings fresh hope. They wrote to tell us, "The students are so excited that we will be planting our tulip bulbs today. It is 28 degrees in Kingwood today, so it is cool enough. Now we will watch to see them emerge, measure growth, hope for rain, and watch for tulips." Experimenting with Microclimates-Inside and Out The 1st Annual Microclimate Challenge Last fall we challenged classrooms to the 1st Annual Microclimate Challenge! Did you find some places in your school yard that didn't fit into the official guidelines of the tulip study? Some classes wrote to say they accepted the challenge and set up experiments to see if they can cause two tulip bulbs to bloom as many days apart as possible. Experimenting with Microclimates-Outside! It is not too late to investigate microclimates in your school yard. Draw a map of your school property that includes the outline of your school building, any groups of trees, any sidewalks or paved driving surfaces and a compass showing directions. Then try this challenge: Challenge Question #1: "Using your school map, can you predict which places might have warmer or cooler microclimates? Once you have predicted, go out in groups and record the temperatures in those microclimates then report back to us if your predictions were accurate and what you learned." (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Experimenting with Microclimates-Inside! Microclimates can make plants grow differently even on the same property, but why? We can look at one of the variables that might affect plant growth without going outside. Here is a simple experiment you can do INDOORS in your school or at home to help you understand how the temperature of a microclimate can affect plant growth. In this experiment we will observe how temperature can affect the rate of liquid uptake in the celery plant. Try This! Do you have some fresh celery and some food color handy? Look for microclimates in your school or home, and predict what will happen to a stick of celery placed in different microclimates. Then set up this simple experiment to test your predictions! Link to Celery Microclimate Experiment How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question 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 the question above. The Next Tulip Garden Update Will be Posted on February 9, 2001. Copyright 2001 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form