Since our last report, we've been busily arranging to surprise you with this wonderful map. Meanwhile, students were busily reporting news from their gardens--and tulips bloomed in 11 new gardens after this map was made. Nice work tulip gardeners! We'll add them next time.
Remember:
Challenge Question # 100 "How is baking a cake like growing a plant?"
To repond to this question:
1. Send an e-mail message to: jn-challenge@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line write: Challenge Question # 100
3. In the Body of the message, anwer the question.
Thanks to all our gardeners for the news below! We've organized their messages into 2 groups as follows:
BLOOMS IN THE NEWS
>From NORTH CAROLINA:
April 1, 1996
Hooray! Our tulips are finally blooming. The blooms opened around 11:00
a.m. Eastern Time on April Fools Day. The previous month was the April
fool joke...as soon as the tulips sprouted, we had a bad frost that turned
the forsythia and Brafford Pear tree blossoms an ugly brown. It was cold
for two more weeks so everything stopped growing. Now we have dogwood,
azaleas, daffodils, AND tulips in bloom. Brenda Lange
Mrs. Fox, Beverly Hills Elementary School, Concord, NC
35.243 N, 80.344 W
mlange@ctc.net
>From COLORADO:
April 5, 1996
Only one of our gardens has bloomed, the other one still hasn't bloomed.
We planted 5 tulips in each garden.Stephanie Riso
Lisa Turner,Angevine Middle School,Lafayette,Colorado 40o N. Lat.,104.50 Long.
riso@bvsd.k12.co.us
>From COLORADO:
April 9, 1996
Our tulips started blooming on April 9, 1996 in Louisville, Colorado.
Louisville is about 20 miles northwest of Denver (39 degrees
north and 104 degrees east).
Linda Overholser,Librarian,Coal Creek Elementary School,Louisville, Colorado
loverhls@bvsd.k12.co.us
>From NORTH CAROLINA:
April 10, 1996
We've been watching the tulips as we go to the playground each day, and were afraid the cold weather before Easter might nip them. Fortunately, they survived. While we were out of school for Easter vacation, our tulips opened up! Right now the azaleas are
also in full bloom, so things really look pretty around here with all of the colorful flowers and shrubs in bloom.
Mrs. Widener's 2nd Grade Students
Gamewell Elementary
Lenoir, North Carolina (35.54N/81.35W)
JSGamewell@aol.com
>From NEBRASKA:
April 11, 1996
Our tulips bloomed on April 11, 1996. We planted 25 bulbs and 23 came
up. We planted them on the southern part of our school grounds away from
the school and not under any trees. We haven't had much rain or snow
since we planted them in October. We are very dry. We had some very big
temperature swings this spring. It would be 93 degrees Fahrenheit one
day and 28 degrees the next. After our tulips came up we did not cover
them and they did fine. We are now taking care of them so the leaves can
provide food for the bulbs for next year. We may plant other tulips in
the same place and start a school flower garden. We are at York Middle
School, York, Nebraska. We are Mrs. Kloewer's 7th grade math class. Our
latitude is 40.853 N and 97.536 W.
Gayle Kloewer gkloewer@esu6.esu6.k12.ne.us
>From WASHINGTON: April 15, 1996 Comments About the Sighting My tulips died on April 23,1996.But the ones I have at home are growing.How are yours doing? My teacher's bloomed on April 15, 1996. I think they died because they had bad dirt.Next time I will plant them in better dirt Mrs.Keizer, Fall City Elem, Fall City, Washington, 47.34.35N 121.53.15W joelle_keizer @ snoqualmie.wednet.edu
>From NEBRASKA: April 16, 1996 Our tulips in Lincoln, NE are blooming today! We planted ten tulip bulbs in late October. Our first bloom was observed on April 16. The blooming tulip is 7.5 inches tall and the bloom is 1.5 inches across. This has been a very rough weather year for tulips. There has not been the usual splash of Spring color here because many tulips froze. We believe the short and small tulips are due to the extreme changes in temperature we have had often this Spring ( over 90 one day followed by a 50 degree drop in temperature the next) and the drought we have experienced. We received some rain and snow two days before our bloom with temperatures below freezing. We did not cover or water our bulbs.Sixth grade science classes, Roy Bartels, Computer Specialist, Zeman Elementary School, Lincoln, Ne 40.49 N 96.43 W rbartels@lps.esu18.k12.ne.us
>From Maryland: April 16, 1996 Our tulips are blooming! We love seeing their bright red color but are puzzled by something and hope others can help us figure something out. We planted 60 bulbs last fall but only had 18 bloom! Two bulbs grew some short stunted brown-tipped leaves. Why did we get only one out of every three bulbs to bloom? (We should also mention that they were planted in a row and one half of the row has only 2 tulips up while the other end has the rest.) We hope you'll have some possible ideas for us and we plan to dig and investigate for ourselves. Ellen Goodall Miss McLain, Mrs. Malveaux and Miss Grinspoon, Stonegate ES Silver Spring, MD goodall@mimsy.cs.umd.edu
>From NEW JERSEY: April 18, 1996 Mrs. Christie's second graders finally spied their tulips blooming! After a long cold winter, the tulips planted around the base of the school flag pole have bloomed! The flowers are enjoying today's sunshine as much as the class.Roosevelt School, River Edge, NJ 40.56N 74.2W (Anthony Vouvalides) rre@intac.com
>From CONNECTICUT: April 19, 1996 After a very long winter our tulips have begun to bloom. The leaves came out underneath the snow and on April 19th our first tulip bloomed!! We are looking forward to the others following shortly. Hurrah! The winter is over and Spring has finally come!!Rachele Ryan. Mrs. Lee Ann Olsen,S. B. Butler School,Mystic,Connecticut lolsen@groton.k12.ct.us
>From VIRGINIA: APRIL 19,1996 Our tulips are finally blooming. We have about 46 tulips in bloom only four did not come up. Our weather has been beautiful in the 70's this past week, so we think spring is finally here in our area. The question we want to know is "What aobut the four that didn't sprout? Will they ever come up?" Why didn't they sprout?" We learned about tuylips having an underground part that stays alive all winter then blooms in the spring. We learned that tuilps were perennials and will come back each spring. What about our four that didn't bloom, will they ever bloom?? 5th grade students Higgins/Weiskopf, St. Timothy School, Chantilly,VA KWeiskopf@aol.com
*****************************************************************
TALK ABOUT TULIPS
>From NEW YORK: April 10, 1996 My name is Ethan Gawel I saw 100 tulip sprouts 4 inches tall on Wednesday April 10. Plus I saw daffodil sprouts 2 inches tall. Ethan Gawel in Mrs. Gardners class Macedon Elementary School macelem@transit.nyser.net
>From MINNESOTA: April 11, 1996 Hi from Pine Island, MN near Rochester MN. We have an area in our elementary building surrounded by classrooms and the cafeteria. In this Outdoor Classroom we have many perennials and bulbs planted. In the grass by the cafeteria our crocuses are blooming. in our Outdoor Classroom we have 61 crocuses blooming. Some are yellow, some are white and some are purple. The ones Mrs. Iverson planted are not blooming because ours are in the shade. The rest are in the sun. The crocus are blooming. The tulips aren't. We planted 3 circles of tulips. There were 3 tulips in 2 circles and 4 tulips in 1 circle. In the first circle 2 tulips came up. In the second circle 4 tulips came up. In the third circle 3 tulips came up. Out of 10 tulips planted, 9 came up. We have other tulips planted in another spot. They are not as high as ours because they have more shade. We still have some traces of snow in our Outdoor Classroom. Here's how our tulips measure. We charted our growth.
Tulips.............How many
cm
Group 1..............2
12 cm
12 cm
Group 2..............4
12 cm
13 cm
12 cm
11 cm
Group 3..............3
13 cm
13 cm
4 cm
We also saw some hyacinth and daffodils popping through.
(MS JANICE K THOMPSON) FMCZ07A@prodigy.com
>From ALASKA: April 15, 1996 Subject: Greetings from Alaska! Greetings! Hello, my name is Kim. I live in Anchorage, Alaska and go to Sand Lake Elementary. We also have been following those beautiful flowers. We have been watching the grounds around our houses and schools. About a week ago we found that there are tulips around some houses. The tulips are growing on the south-west sides of houses. They sprouted out of the snow and look very healthy. My two class mates and partners, Tyler and Trevor have seen tulips around their houses, too. We are waiting for the little buds to open and make a beautiful flower. Tulips are a very common flower up here. Every summer they can be seen around our city in full bloom. Well, gotta go! Sincerely, Kim MacDonald "W. Mike Sterling" sterling@corcomsv.corcom.com
>From ONTARIO:
April 19, 1996
Are tulips are growing very fast. This is how much they grew in one week.
Kaylyn louse frecker.
My big tulip grew from 14 cm to 20cm in one week.
My small tulip grew from 8 cm to 11cm in one week.
Anthony
My big tulip grew from 10cm to 20cm in one week
My small tulip grew from 8.5cm to 14cm in one week.
Alex
My big tulip grew from 8cm to 12cm in one week.
My small tulip grew from 4cm to 12cm in one week.
Rebecca
My big tulip grew from 7cm to 14 in one week.
My small tulip grew from 4cm to 7cm in one week.
Owenwood PS, Mississauga, Ont., Canada
Dave Chamberlain davecham@idirect.com
>From MINNESOTA: April 21, 1996 Hi Tulip Gardeners! Here we are in Minnesota, waiting for our tulips to grow! For three weeks we thought our ground thermometers were stuck (Marcus). The one in the northwest corner of our garden kept reading 19 degrees and the one in the southeast corner continually read 30 degrees (class).
We look at our garden at least once a day, sometimes more, and we can't see any signs of green (Stef). Other places in our neighborhood tulips ARE starting to come up (Steve). We're hoping to have those tulips up soon (Bobby). I think something's wrong with our bulbs (Kathryn)! On Friday (April 19), the thermometer in the southeast corner went up to 36 degrees (Ms. Frick). Yeah!!! MS. FRICK'S THIRD GRADE CLASS sharon frick sfrick@informns.k12.us
Challenge Question # 81
"Why might the tulips at Temple Square bloom earlier than those at Eastwood Elementary, where the elevation is 500 feet higher?"
Response to Challenge Question # 81:
>From ALASKA: Temple Square tulips are growing better than Eastwood Elementary because Temple Square planted their bulbs downtown instead of their school. Sincerely, Kim MaCDonald (Anchorage,s tulip studier) W. Mike Sterling sterling@corcomsv.corcom.com
The Next Tulip Update Will be Posted on May 10, 1996
 |
|
|---|
