Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 4AM, Day 4) – Budding Botanist
What a great day!
Today, the kids became botanists and made wonderful scientific observations about different types of plants and their adaptations. If you hear them using words like hypothesis and calling themselves professor, that is why! We investigated a cactus, mint (they loved the smell!), and aloe. They loved touching the aloe and mint and we talked about how they are used. The cactus had the kind of spines that are like hairs, so no worries, they couldn’t stick you if you caught it after it was thrown to you! They brainstormed and concluded that the cactus was squatty and thick skinned in order to hold the water inside! Excellent observation!
We then dissected Gladiolus (we made lots of glad jokes), and they loved exploring the parts of the flower, forming hypotheses about what they were dissecting, and then finding the parts from a real example! They had so much fun and the conversations were amazing! They were so fascinated by all the parts, how the stem was shaped inside, the leaves were wet, and even the buds were dissected and they were amazed at what they found! I am so GLAD they enjoyed it! LoL!
The last experiment today was to put flowers in water with food coloring. They formed hypotheses about what would happen. While they were doing that, small groups were looking through microscopes to observe a leaf, an anther with pollen on it, and a seed cross section. We will finish with the microscopes tomorrow. Not everyone had a chance today because they were so into the experiments!
Have a great night!
Dr. Mall
Leave a Response