Seeds from Space

We're very excited about a new experiment we're doing. Mrs. M. contacted NASA and they sent her some seeds that have been in space! So we are learning the scientific method while we see if going to space makes a difference for Cinnamon Basil seeds.
In 2007 about 10 million seeds were taken up in the space shuttle Endeavor. When they came back, NASA packaged them up and said classrooms could have them for experiments. We got 2 packets. When they sent the space seeds they also sent some earth seeds. They are the same kind of seeds, Cinnamon Basil, but they stayed on the Earth. We figured out that we got earth seeds so we could compare them to the space seeds to see if there is any difference. Mrs. M. told us that this is called a "control" since we know they should grow like they normally do.

So the first step of the scientific method is stating the question. Our question is "Does being in space change how cinnamon basil seeds grow?" The second step in the scientific method is forming a hypothesis. We learned that hypothesis means a very smart guess. We like this because it's supposed to be a guess and if we get it wrong, it's not a big deal because it was a guess to begin with. The purpose is to make us think and have an idea about what experiment to do to find out the answer to our question. We all made our own hypotheses. Some of us think there won't be any difference. Some of us do, like maybe the plants from the space seeds will grow taller or shorter or have different sized leaves.

The third step in the scientific method is perform the experiment. We wrote out what we planned to do. We planted the earth seeds in one planter and the space seeds in another planter and placed them both by the window for sunlight. We plan to take moisture readings every day we're in school and water if the soil measures a 1 or 2. On Fridays we will record our observations in our plant journals. We'll do this until Spring Break, so about 2 months.

When we planted the seeds we noticed right away that the seeds that had been in space were all dark while the ones that had stayed on earth had some dark and some light. Also the space seeds seemed to feel thicker than the ones that stayed on earth. We planted both in there own planters and made little signs for each so we'd not forget which was which. We can hardly wait to see what happens!

Finally!

With our snow day, our cold day, a testing day, and vacation, it's been 6 weeks! Fortunately Mrs. M. was able to give our little jar plants a drink every once in awhile. Today we were able to check on them again. Many of us still have plants, but some are looking a little pale. Some of us actually had lots and lots of new little plants because he planted a whole bunch of new seeds the last time we met. Anyway, we did our measurements and observations and recorded them in our journals. It was fun to flip through all the pages and see the changes. We are taking our plants home today though. Hopefully they'll survive a little cold on the way. Today is a little warmer so they should be okay. We should put them in a warm space near a window when we get home to help them perk back up. Next week we are going to plant some "space seeds"! Mrs. M. got them from Nasa. They were taken up into space on a space shuttle mission. We're going to do an experiment with them and see if they do anything differently than seeds that haven't been in space. Cool, huh?

Plant Detectives

Because the weather has been so cold . . . brrrrrr . . . we've been doing some learning on the computers about plants. We used a really cool site: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/index.html
to learn about the different parts of plants and what they need to grow. After we finished researching a "case file" we solved some plant mysteries. It was fun. We worked in partners, too, which made it a little easier.
We also did some more plant observations. The seeds that we planted at the beginning of the year keep showing us new stuff. Sometimes they grow really well. Sometimes they shrivel and die. Sometimes nothing happens. Today, 3 more of us reseeded our plant jars. We put in LOTS of seeds to make sure SOMETHING grew. Next week we will take our plants home. Since we'll be gone for 2 weeks, it would be a good idea to have them in a warm home instead of a chilly school. Hopefully it won't be too cold on the way home. These flower sprouts don't like chilly weather.

SHOOTS!

Were we surprised when we saw how many different plants were shooting up in our flower jars! Those of us who re-seeded have lots and lots of little sprouts. We think they will need some more room soon. So we'll be transplanting them into larger containers. We continue to journal our observations. Some of us are measuring how long the leaves are growing. We all measure how much water our soil is holding. Someone also noticed today that all the plants seem to be leaning in one direction. We realized this was because we had left our jars sitting next to the window for 2 weeks. All the plants were growing toward the light! Fascinating!
For the rest of our time today, we worked in cross grade partners to study plants on the internet. Once we have reviewed our first case, we will attempt to solve a mystery.

The Cut and Mulch Salon

Okay, it was pretty darn cold today, but the sun was out so Mrs. M. said we had to get out and do some winterizing. The first thing we did was cut back the tall grasses outside the 3rd grade windows. We would grab a handful with two hands and Mrs. M would use loppers to cut the stalks off close to the ground. Then we had to fold the long grass a couple of time to put it in a large bag. We filled up 4 bags with the grasses. There is still one more grass plant that needs to be trimmed, but we had to get to the front reading garden before our class time was over.


In the front reading garden we cut back all the mums and mulched them. If we cover up the stems, they should stay nice and toasty during the winter and be ready to bloom again next fall. We all took turns using the smaller clippers to cut the mums back. We had shoveled a trashcan full of mulch and used it all up to cover the trimmed mums.
We had a few minutes to go check on our jar flowers. We were so excited. Many of us who replanted last week have up to 6 plant stems! It's wonderful to see something growing after such a long time of nothing. One of us realized we had drowned the seeds, because when we tipped the glass jar, water seeped out of the dirt. She'll probably have to replant next time, with a few others who still don't have anything growing.

Rainy Day :(

Today we wanted to go outside and winterize our gardens. But Mother Nature thought it would be funny to play a joke on us. It rained. :( So, instead we worked in our plant journals. We took a look at our jar flowers. Those of us who didn't have any plants got to plant new seeds. We had to loosen the soil and take some out. Turns out we had those pretty packed. We found some seeds had tried to grow and there were baby roots, but they were too deep in the soil. Next we took dead plants out of their pots to study the roots. We were surprised how long some of the roots were. Once we took off all the soil, we found 2 worm friends and a roly poly bug. We invited them to live in some of our living plants. Last we used all of our soil, mixed it with a bulb fertilizer, and put it in an aquarium. We planted about 10 bulbs, most of which were tulips. We think the other were daffodils. We will see. Hopefully something will grow.

Mini Paws

Did we mention that we also had 11 mini paws? These are for all our school staff who are not classroom teachers. So last Friday, we wrote all the instructional assistants', specialists' and staff's names on the little paws. We put them in a wagon and went around the school looking for everyone. When we found someone who wasn't busy, we told them what we were doing, found their paw, inked up their thumb, and cleaned them up after they printed. We called ourselves "full-service" because we brought the paint, paper towels, wet wipes and the garbage! We all had a job and it was fun. We didn't find everyone, though, so Mrs. M had to send a e-mail to invite all the rest. They've been coming in all week. The mini paws look great, too!