Journey North International Plant Study Spring 2005

Tulip Garden Update: April 1, 2005

Today's Report Includes:

This Week's Map and Data
Wait, Don’t Forget Germany!
Too Hot, Too Cold, or Just Right?
Students' Challenge YOU! Challenge Question #8
Teacher Tip: JN and Inquiry
The Days, They are A-changing
Oceans and Climate: Discussion of Challenge Question #7

This Week's Map and Data
Spring seems to have arrived earlier for gardeners in Langly, WA - a full 3 weeks ahead of last year. Meanwhile TN gardens are blooming right on time. What about your garden? Take a look at today's tulip garden map and compare it with a year ago.


Today's tulip garden map: 04/01/05	One year ago: 04/02/04

Tulips Emerged
Tulips Bloomed
Data in printer-friendly format:
Bloomed
Emerged

Wait, Don't Forget Germany!

View the German gardens on the MapServer

Tulips have emerged on the other side of the map! Have you taken the time to scroll over on the Journey North MapServer to see the tulip gardens in Germany?

Keep an eye on the gardens in Kaiserslautern (49.45, 7.78) and Neubruecke (49.63, 7.20).

Before looking at the map, which town is further west? How did you know?

Using information about their location and geography, when do you predict these gardens will bloom?

Too Hot, Too Cold, or Just Right?

Locate your garden. Did you have a "normal" winter?

Does it seem like spring is coming earlier or later than it did last year? Its easy to forget what our weather was like a year or two ago. There are many ways to find the answer to weather questions.
Creating a handy file for all your tulip garden data would help us remember from year to year. We can also use weather data to help us understand what average is for our location, then compare each years data to the average.
Compile your own weather data and compare it to this map created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Locate your garden on the map. Using the color key decide whether your temperatures were warmer, cooler or just the same as the average. How will this affect your tulip garden? Make a statement that includes your conclusion about the temperatures and your growing garden.

Students' Challenge YOU!
Students in Perry, OK have an interesting question for us. How would you answer their question about this years tulips verses last years plants:

"We have one tulip blooming today. Many others are on the verge of bursting open (looks like at any minute). As we were checking on our tulips yesterday, we noticed something interesting that we are discussing. The tulips we planted last year bloomed last week during spring break (do not know exact day). We are wondering why those tulips bloomed almost a week before the tulips we planted this year?" - Teresa Jones' Second Grade Class.

Challenge Question #8:
"Why do older, more established tulips emerge and bloom earlier than tulips planted the previous fall?"

(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)

Teacher Tip: JN and Inquiry

Inquiry Strategies Menu

Some activities in Journey North prescribe questions, procedures, and data for students to interpret; others challenge students to ask their own questions and design investigations to try to answer them. This reflects the continuum of classroom-based inquiry. Most Journey North classroom science explorations fall somewhere in between.

In an inquiry-oriented classroom, the teacher is a co-explorer and guide who cultivates curiosity and challenges students to think and act like scientists as they explore intriguing questions. It is a place where diverse ideas are valued and students feel safe taking risks to "think out loud" as they share, debate, and justify emerging ideas. Students have time and opportunities to explore, experiment, test and refine ideas as they collaboratively build understanding. But it takes time, practice, and sometimes, a shift in teaching strategies, to create a classroom where inquiry can flourish.
Find out more about inquiry strategies:

Creating a Climate for Inquiry in YOUR Classroom

The Days, They are A-changing

Credit Gayle Kloewer

How do you and the world around you change as your tulips begin to grow and flower? You might be surprised to learn that with each day that passes your world changes ever so slightly.

By using your eyes, your ears, and even your sense of touch you can observe and investigate spring as it advances through your hometown. Learn what the study of phenology is and follow along to make the most of your springtime observations this year.

Learning to Be Observers

Oceans and Climate: Discussion of Challenge Question #7
We asked you to think like a scientist to explain why tulips and hummingbirds seem to appear so early in the spring along the northern Pacific Northwest coast.

The first thing you should notice is that this area is exposed to the Pacific Ocean. Ocean water and currents affect climate. Because it takes far more energy to change the temperature of water than land or air, water warms up and cools off much more slowly than either. As a result, inland climates are subject to more extreme temperature ranges than coastal climates, which are insulated by nearby water. Coastal areas have less extreme temperature ranges from winter to summer.

Over half the heat that reaches the earth from the sun is absorbed by the ocean's surface layer, so surface currents move lots of heat. Currents that originate near the equator are warm; currents that flow from the poles are cold.

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 #8.
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 April 8, 2005.