Tulip Garden Update: February 8, 2002 Today's Report Includes: Peeking Through in 2002 Comparing Spring This Year to the Past Two Years Challenge Questions #1 and #2 Eager Scientists Are Tracking Spring in Their Tulip Gardens Dramatic Weather Happens in Springtime! Students Ask Great Question: Challenge Question #3 Try This! Spring Fever Teacher Tips: Organizing Your Classroom Tulip Study Peeking Through in 2002 The first tulips of 2002 have emerged! But before you look, guess where they are: In which states, provinces or countries do you think tulips might be growing? And the award for this year's first tulips to emerge goes to: Today's Data ...Now whose do you think will be the first tulips to bloom? Latest news that didn't make the map in time for the deadline: "Today we saw the tips of our tulips coming out. We are so excited as has been a cold winter and much snow." Ms. Nieto's 3rd grade Class at Bamberg Elementary School, Bamberg, Germany. Comparing Spring This Year to the Past Two Years Over and over from our schools across North America we are hearing that this spring seems warmer than usual. Is this really a phenomenon? Or, does the warming of the earth each year take us by surprise? We thought it would be fun to compare the springs in 2002, 2001 and 2000. Does the perceived warmer spring affect the tulips around the continent? Take a look: 2002 Map 2001 Map 2000 Map Print out the three maps and look at them together. What do you see? How do they compare? What is similar and what is different between them? Make lists of the states and provinces where gardens have emerged each year, then compare them by putting your information into a Venn diagram. What caused these differences or similarities? Make a list of the questions you are thinking when you compare them. Now answer these questions: Challenge Question #1 "What are some striking differences you see between the three years?" Challenge Question #2 "Why do you think the middle of the continent has no gardens emerging yet, when there are some emerging as far north as New York state? (To respond to these questions, please follow the instructions below.) Eager Scientists Are Tracking Spring in Their Tulip Gardens Here is a sampling of reports from students that are eager for action: Eastover Academy in Charlotte, NC: "Five of our 100 bulbs emerged today!! We are using a soil thermometer to chart the temperature of the soil each day. We are also charting the air temperature. We have created a micro-climate weather center in our room. This morning the air temperature and the soil temperature were the same, 46 degrees. We are checking the temperature each day at 12:30. We had predicted the first emerging to be on Feb.7. We were very close. Stiles Point Elementary Charleston, SC: "We have been monitoring the temperature in our garden. This week it has risen to 63 degrees! We were very excited (and surprised) to see that about 10 of our 100 tulips had emerged. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there is no frost in the next few weeks. We are also hoping that the groundhog does not see his shadow on Saturday!" Can you find the green in Kingwood, TX! Hidden Hollow Elementary School in Kingwood, TX got so excited about their tulips emerging that they sent us a picture! (Remember how difficult it is to grow tulips in Texas from last years Updates?) They wrote: "We went outside to check our tulips today in the cold weather. It was 43 degrees at 1 P.M. When we got there we saw that 2 of our tulips had emerged. We were very excited. We had thought that they would not emerge, because we had 2 days in the 80s this week. We will now keep our fingers crossed to see if they bloom." David Lipscomb Elementary School in Nashville, TN: "I was amazed to see my tulips had emerged in January! They were about 1" high. However, after a record-setting week of highs in the 70's, they are now about 4" high! A cold front moved in over the weekend and our temps are now in the 40's, with snow predicted tomorrow night." Dramatic Weather Happens in Springtime! Feb. 5 snowstorm in the south Many classrooms around the country have written to say that they were afraid their emerging tulips will be damaged by cold and snow that may 'drop in!' Changes in atmospheric pressure are often dramatic and swift in the springtime. Take a look at the snowstorm that hit the south central US this week! How does this kind of spring storm affect the spring plants that have started their growth? This leads us to Challenge Question #3... Students Ask Great Question: Challenge Question #3 Fifth Graders at the William E. DeLuca Elementary School in North Babylon, NY offered us a GREAT challenge question for our first Update of the 2002 season. Here is their comment: "We found 2 tulips peeking through the soil. It's been very warm here for January so things are growing that really shouldn't be at this time of year. One question the students had was 'What will happen to those tulips when the weather gets cold again?' We will observe." Challenge Question #3 "With tulips emerging during warm days and cold and freezing nights what will happen to the tulip plants?" (To respond to these questions, please follow the instructions below.) Try This! Spring Fever? Ice melts, leaves emerge and tulips bloom--the winter world comes alive as the earth warms. Scientists have discovered that you can actually measure the amount of heat it takes to make some spring events occur. This accumulated heat is measured in units called "Growing Degree Days". This activity will help students understand this concept. As they measure temperatures each day, they can analyze the role temperature plays in setting the pace of spring's arrival. Growing Degree Days- Measure and Calculate Tulips Here's an activity that will help students understand what it takes to get plants to grow. Here are directions for keeping a running total of the growing degree days necessary to get your tulips to bloom: Growing Degree Days For an additional challenge: How much heat does a bulb need to push thrust its first leaves up through the soil? Collect soil temperatures and calculate the GDD required to make your tulips emerge from the ground. A soil thermometer placed with the tip of the probe 7" deep would give you a picture of the temperatures the bulb experiences. Teacher Tips: Organizing Your Classroom Tulip Study Teachers' feedback gives us some of the best tips to pass on. Here are some valuable ideas from veteran Journey North teachers to help you organize your tulip study: A Tip From Texas Jo Leland, who for years managed the Official Journey North garden in Texas is getting smart after all these years: "We'll be tracking tulips on a specialized map that shows where all current gardens are located," says Leland. "This will simplify things for the younger kids and save time (our most precious commodity) for everyone. Here's what I did: 1) I printed a copy of the map that shows where all Journey North gardens are planted: Tulips Planted Map 2) I took it to the local copy shop and had it enlarged. 3) I trimmed off the edges so it would go into their laminator--and walked out with a specialized map for under $5.00. Too Many Tulips? No such thing! But if younger students are overwhelmed with tulip data, follow the suggestion of 1st grade teacher Patti Prieves: "As the first reports come in, we choose 5-10 places to record on our class map. We choose another 5-10 each time we receive a new report. Throughout the spring, we keep track of when tulips in these gardens emerge and when they bloom. The map becomes an important, ongoing fixture in the room or hallway." If you have a teacher tip to share, please let us know! Teacher Tips 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 (#2, or #3). 3. In the body of the message, answer ONE of the questions above. The Next Tulip Garden Update Will be Posted on February 22, 2002. Copyright 2002 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form