Tulip Garden Update: April 19, 2002 Today's Report Includes: Straight from Winter to Summer Poetic Journal Entries Fells in Finland: Discussion of Challenge Question #12 A Wild Spring: Challenge Question #14 The Wild Wisdom of Native Plants Try This! Challenge Question #15 Snaking Towards the Light: Discussion of Challenge Question #13 Auxin's Not a Toxin Straight from Winter to Summer "We have gone straight from winter to summer! It got in to the 90s today (4/15). Spring may have missed us!" reported Julie Swanson from Perkins Elementary School in Burlington, IA. A heat wave surged across the middle section of the continent this week sending tulips and lots of other plants into bloom. Even in Haines, AK spring is in the air, "With a south wind, came warmer temperatures, a robin, our first emerging tulips and four swans heading north. Our tulips usually emerge in March, they are emerging two weeks later than our previous late date." Since our last update 12 gardens reported emerged this week and we have 51 more blooming! Temperatures across the continent, departure from normal: Courtesy of NOAA Tulips Emerged Tulips Blooming After March's colder than average temperatures all across North America, this big warm up is pushing tulips to emerge and bloom. Study your area of the country and see if you agree with the NOAA map. Here are just a few of the many sighting reports to get excited about. BLOOMING SURPRISE! Students in the classroom in Newington, NH wrote, "Yesterday we were sitting in class and someone yelled,"Look out the window!" Everyone jumped up and ran to the window. We saw three tulips that were about seven inches high blooming. They were in the back of the school next to the white picket fence. Investigating and Recording Sappington School, Leap Program in St. Louis, MO reported: "Our first tulip bloomed on Friday, April 5. Our 3rd grade students are here at the LEAP center on Wednesdays, so they missed this exciting event. When the students arrived here on Wed. Ap. 10th, they let out a "whoop" as they discovered 37 tulips in bloom, and another 13 almost ready to open! To go from 0 to 37 in seven days was just astounding to them. We spent an hour out in the garden drawing, recording data, and making reflections in our science journals. Student comments included, "did you know tulips average 6 stamens each?...hey, the widest leaf is over 8 in.... Look! This tulip has 2 stalks and 2 flower buds!" It was a gorgeous day with air temperatures in the low 70s with soil temps. in the mid 60s." Snow Leaving, Plants Emerging! Our Lady Of Mercy students in Bancroft, ON are watching the snow disappear. "The Journey North tulips have emerged from the kindergarten's garden area! There is still about 15cm of snow on the ground in the middle of the yard, but it is melting quickly. The sun is shining and it's a beautiful spring morning in the north woods! The students planted tulips and hyacinths along the front of the school up against the building as controls and these are ready to bloom! The wall provides protection from the wind (and it also faces south-west so it gets a lot more radiant heat). We will watch for our JN tulips to bloom!" Poetic Journal Entries Challenge Question #11 asked you this, "Can you turn your journal entries into poetry?" and we got a sampling proving that you could! Here are some of for you to enjoy. From Ferrisburgh Central School, Ferrisburgh, VT: "Tulips" "Five green sprouts Six inches tall Seems like spring Is coming after all!" -Steven and Caralie, Grade One, "Tulips" "Everyday when you go out Your mind is full of doubt If sweet little buds are above the ground You will be lucky if they can be found You search all day All day in May When the sweet little tulips come out." -Jennifer From Highland Village Elementary, Lewisville, TX: "Some tulips are red, some tulips are white, some bloomed over spring, some bloomed over night, some tulips are dark, some tulips are light, either way they're a beautiful sight." -Garrett, 5th Grade "Tulips fluttering in the breeze Makes me say, "Oh, geez These flowers are so cool. They look like ruby jewels. "Tulips fluttering in the wind Maybe you could lend Me a hand to plant more To add to these tulips galore." -Donovan, 5th Grade Poetry certainly has a delightful way of capturing spring! Thank you Steven, Caralie, Garrett, Jennifer and Donovan for sharing your poems. Fells in Finland: Discussion of Challenge Question #12 We asked you, "In Finland people enjoy traveling to 'the fells' to enjoy leisure activities like skiing, walking, and relaxing. What is the definition of 'the fells' in English and what is the origin of the word?" The students at Utsjoen saamelaislukio, practiced more English and wrote us to share their work Caribou/Reindeer courtesy Amy Gulick and explain the meaning of the word fell. One example written by Paula Autio follows: "A fell is smaller than a mountain but much bigger than a hill. Fells are very beautiful especially in summer. The top of a fell is treeless tundra but there are trees on fellsides. Reindeer live and wander on hills freely eating lichen. On winter people go skiing and drive snowmobiles there and in summertime you can go hiking and in fall you can pick Arktic cloudberries." Read what some other Utsjoen saamelaislukio students had to say: Finish Fells Have YOU ever used this word? Why not add it to your vocabulary and surprise someone with your new knowledge! A Wild Spring Springtime means new life. Finally it is warm and we can go outside to play and explore the world around us. Signs of springtime are everywhere. Plants emerge from once brown and dormant ground. Birds return singing songs and reminding us that the cycle of new life has come around again. And even the frogs are singing! Cub Run Elementary 3rd Graders from Cub Run, KY learned the names of some of the spring flowering plants and shared this in their tulip blooming report: "The tulips bloomed while we were on spring break! Also blooming now are violets, toothworts, dandelions, Jacob's ladders, spring beauties, bloodroot, narcissus, early phlox, and mustard." Take a walk on the wild side this year when your tulips are blooming and learn some new plants and their names then share them by answering this: Challenge Question #14: "What other flowers are blooming in the fields and woodlands around your home and school?" (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) The Wild Wisdom of Native Plants Wildflowers soon to bloom at Journey North headquarters Wildflowers blooming now at Journey North headquarters. How do you think they got their names? This week's warm spell may have tricked your tulips into thinking spring had arrived. But how did the native plants in your region respond? Native plants are those that have grown wild in a place for thousands and thousands of years. Because they've been around for so long, they are specially adapted to the unique climate of a region. Nature has taught hard lessons over the eons, and native plants have a wild wisdom that makes them very difficult to fool. In contrast, your tulips are a "garden variety." (The term "garden variety" is often used to describe something with an inherent weakness.) Your tulips' genetic make up was shaped by gentle human hands rather than by nature's hand. Young and inexperienced, tulips don't have the wisdom for survival that a native plant has. Try This! Learn about a native plant that grows in your region. How is its annual cycle timed with the seasons? How do you think it got its name? What adaptations does the plant have that help it survive? How does the native plant fit into the ecosystem? What lessons could a tulip learn from a wise, wild native plant? Use it's name as a clue and write a fable that ends with a moral, as Aesop's Fables do. (You might want to read several of Aesop's Fables to prepare for your own writing.) Then respond to: Challenge Question #15: "What lesson can a garden variety plant learn from a wild and wise native plant?" Please send us your favorite stories! We'd love to hear them. (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Snaking Towards the Light: Discussion of Challenge Question #13 "What is the relationship between the direction of plant growth and light?" This was the question we posed in our last update and we have a great story about a seedling experiment to share. Students from Kentucky share their story: "We planted seeds and put them in the windowsill of our classroom. Our teacher put her plant in a closet where she keeps teaching stuff. Her plant only got a little bit of light that came through the door where they didn't close too tight. Our plants grew tall and had very green leaves and stems. The leaves were at the bottom of the stem and they looked like regular plant would. We did have to turn them every day or so because the plants would grow toward the window. However, our teacher's plant did not grow this way. It did grow toward the light, but instead of a 2 or 3 inch stem like our plants, her stem was about 2 feet long, and grew curving around like it was trying to find the little bit of light that came through the closet door crack. Her plant was not green - it was a pale yellow, and the only leaves on it were 2 at the very top of the plant. We knew the yellow was because of photosynthesis and that the plant wouldn't be green without light. We didn't know that the plant's stem would grow so long and curvy (like a snake) because it was trying to find the light! We learned that a plant will grow toward even a little bit of light, and grow as long as necessary to find it!" -LaGrange Elementary School, LaGrange, KY These Forth Graders learned that plants will grow as long as necessary to find light! Auxin's Not a Toxin What makes plants lean toward the light? Even though plants are firmly rooted in the ground, they can still move as they respond to changes in their environment. Light is so important for plant growth that plants actually 'bend over backwards' to get their share! Think about it this way. The plant cells that are on the "shady" side of the plant actually grow longer than the cells on the "sunny" side. These longer cells grow this way because of a chemical in them called an 'auxin.' An auxin, is a plant growth hormone that helps regulate shoot growth. Under normal light conditions auxins are spread out in the plant. But when sunlight varies, auxin is broken down on the sunnier side of the stem. The higher concentration of auxin on the shady side causes the plant cells on that side to grow more so it bends toward the light. This bending toward light is called phototropism. Phototrophism is a response that causes house plants to lean towards the window and trees to branch over the road. Take a walk in the woods and look for fallen trees. Auxins cause fallen trees to turn at their tips and grow upright again. 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 #14 (or #15) 3. In the body of the message, answer ONE of the questions above. The Next Tulip Garden Update Will be Posted on April 26, 2002. Copyright 2002 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form