Journey North International Plant Study Spring 2003

Tulip Garden Update: February 21, 2003

Today's Report Includes:

Wet, Cold Blanket of Snow Stalls Out Tulips
Our First Blooming Tulip This Season!
An Elevation Experiment: How Quickly Does Spring Climb Mountains?
Challenge Questions #4 and #5
Last Week’s Cold: Is it Significant?
Three Years, Three Maps: How Do They Compare?
Challenge Question #6
Planning, Teaching and a Snack in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
Capitol Hill Day School Plant Louisiana Purchase Garden
Discussion of Challenge Questions #2 and #3

Wet, Cold Blanket of Snow Stalls Out Tulips
Temperatures sank in the continent’s mid section with a weather system that closed schools and airports and brought lots of snow this past week.

How did this affect our tulip gardens? What do you think? Take a look at the newly emerging (and blooming!) gardens this week.

Our First Blooming Tulip This Season!

Do you see that red dot smack in the middle of Texas? That's our first blooming tulip reported this season! We heard from Mrs. Abbey Davis or Tye, Texas (32.45, -99.87), saying on February 17th:

"My first tulip bloomed today."

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? One famous naturalist, Edwin Way Teale has a theory. He wrote:

"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."

Our Participating Colorado Schools

Crested Butte Community School	Aspen Elementary School	Fraser Valley Elementary School	Southpark Elementary School, Pueblo

Find out more about these neat schools and their locations.

Activity:
Participate in this unique experiment. Read on and find instructions for recording the tulip data on a handy worksheet:

An Elevation Experiment: How Quickly Does Spring Climb Mountains?

Then put on your thinking caps and answer these challenging questions!

Challenge Questions #4:
“How close were you to predicting the actual date tulips emerged in these towns using Teale's observation? Why?”

Challenge Question #5:
“As a scientist, what information would you need to set up a better elevation test to measure spring's ascension up the mountain slope? What would your experiment look like?”

(To respond to these questions, please follow the instructions below.)

Last Week’s Cold: Is it Significant?

Click on map to enlarge. Courtesy NOAA Climate Prediction Center

The weather outside has shown some fierce forces this past week. How much colder is this than normal? Or is it normal to have this kind of weather system arrive mid-February? Take a look at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s map to answer some of these questions.

How did the temperatures in your hometown compare to average for this week?

Three Years, Three Maps: How Do They Compare?
Each year as spring advances across North America students (and teachers) wonder how this year compares with other years. Just for fun, here are three year’s worth of maps showing tulip garden data between February 21 - 23.


February 23, 2001	February 22, 2002	February 21, 2003

Now answer this:

Challenge Question #6:
“Which year has the fewest gardens emerged, the greatest number? What do the patterns on the maps teach you about spring’s advancement in North America?”

(To respond to these questions, please follow the instructions below.)

Planning, Teaching and a Snack in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

Red circle marks Glace Bay

Have you ever looked at the Journey North "Tulips Planted" map and noticed the lone garden at the tip of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia? We were curious about this garden and recently made contact with the teacher, Sandra LeBlanc.
Tenth graders equipped with homemade puppet shows, Power Point presentations, posters and board games set out to teach the 4th grade students at the Glace Bay Elementary School about the Journey North project. The games and presentations were to teach the students about the tulip project and to prepare them for theplanting they would do on their school grounds later that month.

A 10th and 4th Grade planning session.

Sandra LeBlanc has some BIG ideas about how students can teach students. Find out more about this unique teaching and learning project using the Red Emperor tulips as a center-point.

For more about this neat exchange and lots of pictures, visit:

Glace Bay Tulip Project

Capitol Hill Day School Plant Louisiana Purchase Garden
Third Graders at Capitol Hill Day School in Washington DC finally planted RedEmperor Tulips.Theirs isn't just a normal square garden bed. Here is what they shared:

"The day we planted was ~56 dgrees F. Hopefully we will get blooms in the spring. Our bed is planted in the shape of the Louisana Purchase and our tulips go up the Missouri River and then west across the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean!"

Connie Brown,Third Grade Teacher


Photos Courtesy of Capitol Hill Day School

Discussion of Challenge Questions #2 and #3
When we asked you to count how long it took tulips to emerge from the day they were planted in various places, students did a good job on their math. It took the least number of days in Louisiana where the bulbs were given a cold treatment in the refrigerator! Many of you mentioned that it was the climate that made the difference. Right. However, Ms. Cerullo's period 1 class, Joyce Middle School, Woburn, MA tackled the question of WHY head on. Here is what they shared:

“We don't think that counting the number of days between planting and emerging has any relevance. We think the most important factor is temperature, especially the ground temperature at the depth of the bulbs. Snow cover is also a factor and can help by insulating the ground and adding moisture. We have had more snow than normal this year and our temperatures have been far below normal. We predict a fairly late emerging this year.”

Great job Joyce Middle School!

How to Respond to Today's Challenge Questions:

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 # 4 (or #5, or #6)
3. In the body of EACH message, give your answer to ONE of the questions above.

The Next Tulip Garden Update Will Be Posted on February 28, 2003.