Hands-on Science
Tracking Garden Progress with a Visual Punch!
How
can you make a big visual impact of your tulip garden's progress through
the season? Let's take a look at what teacher Mark Gullickson and his
students have done at Seven Oak Middle School in Lebanon, OR, and Central
Elementary School in Albany, OR.
In the
fall the students plant their bulbs according to a graphing system.
Using mason's string they have created a large X,Y axis in their wood-framed
garden plot. Students plot spring's progress using their own individual
tulips on a large scale drawing of the garden. |
|
|
The
chart below represents a view of the garden from above. The lines
represent the string used to divide the planting beds into sections. |
|
|
Gullickson's
students use stickers to show the progress of their own bulbs. Like
the symbols on the Journey North map, they add a square, triangle
or circle sticker to show their bulbs as they move into the spring
season. |
The
chart is displayed outside of his Science classroom door so students
can check the progress of each other's bulbs as they pass by. |
|