- Joined
- Dec 29, 2015
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 17
- Location
- San Pedro Sula
- Hardiness Zone
- 11b
- Country
Just wanted to share a fun story with everyone.
A couple months ago, I gave a homework assignment to my third graders in which they had to do a science experiment to learn more about the needs of plants. They were supposed to start with 2 mostly identical plants and then deprive one of either air, sunlight, or water and then see what happened over the course of a week.
One of my students, JJ, decided to plant seeds for his experiment, and did so in the cut-off bottoms of 2-liter pop bottles. He also used dirt from outside, so he ended up with a whole little garden in his container. Although his experiment didn't work that well since seeds don't really need light to grow (he had placed one of his plants out of sunlight), but it was a good opportunity to talk about seeds at any rate.
He offered me one of the plants, and of course I accepted it. I asked what it was, and he told me, but either he was saying it completely wrong or I just didn't understand him (English being his second language), so I went home having NO idea what he had given me.
I faithfully watered it and it thrived along with the weeds, but I just let them all grow and didn't worry about it. The main plant began to whither after a while but I kept watering the weeds anyway as I debated whether or not I should just set them free...
Then he brought in a packet of radish seeds to school asking if we could plant them in the garden. I agreed and then he added that they were what he had used for his science project.
Light bulb moment!
So, when I was having dinner that night, I decided to go ahead and pull the radish and see what it might look like. It was tiny (about the size of the top section of my pinkie finger), having only been grown in a few inches of dirt shared with a handful of weeds, but I washed it off and decided to just go for it, expecting to not be very impressed... It was crisp and a bit sweet and by far exceeded my expectations!
Needless to say, we will definitely be planting the rest of the seed packet in the school garden.
A couple months ago, I gave a homework assignment to my third graders in which they had to do a science experiment to learn more about the needs of plants. They were supposed to start with 2 mostly identical plants and then deprive one of either air, sunlight, or water and then see what happened over the course of a week.
One of my students, JJ, decided to plant seeds for his experiment, and did so in the cut-off bottoms of 2-liter pop bottles. He also used dirt from outside, so he ended up with a whole little garden in his container. Although his experiment didn't work that well since seeds don't really need light to grow (he had placed one of his plants out of sunlight), but it was a good opportunity to talk about seeds at any rate.
He offered me one of the plants, and of course I accepted it. I asked what it was, and he told me, but either he was saying it completely wrong or I just didn't understand him (English being his second language), so I went home having NO idea what he had given me.
I faithfully watered it and it thrived along with the weeds, but I just let them all grow and didn't worry about it. The main plant began to whither after a while but I kept watering the weeds anyway as I debated whether or not I should just set them free...
Then he brought in a packet of radish seeds to school asking if we could plant them in the garden. I agreed and then he added that they were what he had used for his science project.
Light bulb moment!
So, when I was having dinner that night, I decided to go ahead and pull the radish and see what it might look like. It was tiny (about the size of the top section of my pinkie finger), having only been grown in a few inches of dirt shared with a handful of weeds, but I washed it off and decided to just go for it, expecting to not be very impressed... It was crisp and a bit sweet and by far exceeded my expectations!
Needless to say, we will definitely be planting the rest of the seed packet in the school garden.
