An Elevation Experiment:
How Quickly Does Spring Climb Mountains?

Ah, the advancement of spring. Each week as we study the Journey North maps, we watch tulips emerging all over the continent. Can we learn to predict when spring will arrive at any given place? Are there some tools we can use to make the best predictions about when spring will arrive? Let's take a look at one famous naturalist's theory.

Edwin Way Teale (1899-1980) was a writer and naturalist. In one of his books, North with the Spring, Teale describes his 17,000 mile journey throughout the Eastern United States. From his observations comes this quote:

"The seasons, like great tides, ebb and flow across the continents. Spring advances up the United States at the average rate of about 15 miles a day. It ascends mountainsides at the rate of about a hundred feet a day. It sweeps ahead like a flood of water, racing down the long valleys, creeping up hillsides in a rising tide."

Wouldn't it be fun to test Teale's statement and predict the arrival of spring in the mountains? Thanks to a handful of Colorado schools, we can examine Teale's observation that spring "ascends mountainsides at the rate of about a hundred feet a day."

Activity: Calculate and Predict
In fall 2002, Red Emperor tulips were planted at 4 schools in Colorado, each in different towns and elevations. Our reference point will be Pueblo, CO, a town located on the plains just east of the Rocky Mountains.

Working in small groups, analyze the information in the table. Compare each location and organize a method for predicting spring's arrival in each location using Teale's theory.

• How many days apart would tulips emerge in each location?
• Will the town's location effect tulip emerge dates?

Student Worksheet

After brainstorming, share your information with the class. To look at another way of setting up the problem, print out a student worksheet and compare methods. (Click on icon for the ready-to-print worksheet.)

1. How would you describe the location of each town: is it located in the mountains? Is it on the North, South, East or West slope of the Rocky Mountains- or is it on flat land? Is is near a large body of water?
2. How would the geography effect the temperatures and the arrival of spring in each location?
3. Think about how each location would be effected by the geographic information you have gathered. Using this new information adjust the predictions you used above to make a new prediction for spring's arrival at each location.

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