Tulip Test Gardens
Update: April 27, 2007 

Today's Report Includes:

Maps and Highlights:
  • This Week's Map >>
  • Data >>
  • Slideshow (Week-by-week animation) >>
Questions about this week's map (handout) >>

Highlights:
Spring is sweeping across the northern prairies now with great welcome. "Tulips are emerging...yip peeeeee!" wrote Janice Smith in Cochrane, Alberta. Also we have more reports of tulips emerging in the northeast, "Some of our garden is still covered with snow, but the clear areas have brave tulips emerging." writes a gardener from Corner Brooke, Newfoundland. It's clear that the line of blooming gardens is slowly creeping northward on this week's map.
Journal Questions: Blooming Patterns

The map has revealed some interesting patterns since our first garden emerged in southern CA. Now it's the end of April, and each week we've learned more about the progression of spring.

  • Describe some of the patterns we have seen this spring.
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  • What reasons can you think of to explain why the gardens circled have not yet bloomed?

Write your own ideas, then take a deeper look >>

Explore Phenology: Our Tulips Bloomed Today!
Slideshow >>

Longer days and warmer temperatures are two events we know that mean spring is coming. A blooming tulip symbolizes the arrival of spring. What other clues remind us that spring has sprung?

Cook Elementary, Midland, MI
"The Cook School tulips bloomed on a Saturday," writes Teri Bickmore. "The following couple of days weren't going to work to do a classroom photo project, so my 5th grade daughter and I took the pictures. Some are from our schoolyard. Others were taken in neighborhoods very close to the school."

Phenology Inspiration!
Come see what natural events were happening on Saturday, April 21 in Midland, MI >>

Take a Look!

How much do you see when you really look at something?
"Lots!" answered by fourth graders in Council, ID.
Teacher Judy Huter took the Georgia O'Keeffe challenge with her students to create large flower pictures of their tulips in bloom.
The artists took their work all the way to the school board!
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View more of their bright and colorful artwork >>

 
Resources: This Week's Tulip Garden Resources
  • Useful Chart: How Does Your Garden Grow >>
  • Seasons and Cycles: Place and Time in Spring >>
  • Weather Connections: Observing Weather and Collecting Data >>
  • Tulip Garden Journals (click-and-print) >>
More Journey North Lessons and Teaching Ideas!

The Next Tulip Garden Update Will Be Posted on May 4, 2006.


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