Botany 101

When we started learning about plants, we knew:

• Plants are alive.
• They start as seeds.
• They take a long time to grow.
• They do not move.
• They are sometimes poisonous.
• They smell good.
• People like to give them to other people.
• They are green.

So we questioned, hypothesized, observed, and read a lot about plants. Here we are at work:

Closely observing different plant parts:

 Experimenting with capillary action:

Performing the celery and carnations in colored water experiments:

Dissecting a flower to see what's inside:

Learning about how composting works from a Navigator parent/gardener:

Observing photosynthesis in action:

Can you see the tiny air bubbles forming on the leaf?

Wondering if all flowers have pistils and stamens, and counting the different numbers of stamens in different flowers. (We also did a math adventure on Fibonacci sequence this week - one of the questions we looked at -- were the numbers of stamens all Fibonacci numbers?)

Labelling sketches and flower models:

After several weeks, here's what we learned:

·         We treasure plants because:

o   Plants give us clothes, food and homes

o   Plants give us oxygen

o   Plants give us medicine

o   Plants give us a beautiful landscape

·         Without plants we would not have the tree of life – they are the producers!

·         They photosynthesize – they make their own food

·         Plants grow and they take in CO2 through their stomata

·         They take in water and nutrients through their roots

·         They absorb the rays/heat/light/energy from the sun and they make glucose with it, which is food for the plant

·         There are two types of roots – tap roots and fibrous roots. The tap root is big and long and goes deep into the soil. Fibrous roots are shallow and they have lots if root hairs. The kind of root a plant has depends on the kind of soil and the way the plant is adapted to its environment

·         Plants “breathe” in CO2 and they “breathe” out air (oxygen) through the stomata. We saw this when we put leaves under water and they made small bubbles

·         Plants follow the sun when they are growing 

·         The “tree of life,” the Western Red Cedar, gave the Pacific Northwest Native Americans everything they needed to live – they used it for clothes, diapers, tools, homes, food, canoes, fishing poles, etc.

·         Trees are useful because they give us air, houses, floors, furniture, fences, etc.

·         Trees grow and age and can live to be very old if they are not cut down

·         Plants are made up of plant cells. They have chlorophyll and cell walls

·         We eat plants and wear them almost daily

·         Plants move/spread by seeds. Seeds can travel by wind, air, water, animals, birds, gravity, getting eaten, fire

·         Xylem and phloem are the tubes inside the plant stem that transport nutrients and water throughout the plant

·         Monocot  means the xylem and phloem are scattered throughout the stem. In dicots, the tubes are in a ring around the outside of the stem. Celery is a dicot.

Time well spent, I think!