Archive for March, 2009

Kindergarten class gets lots of mileage out of simple bulb activities

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

From Marcia Eames-Sheavly:
Ellen Martyn teaches kindergarten at the Marlboro School, in Marlboro VT. She has done some very inspiring and interesting work with flower bulbs, and has linked them to the curriculum in multiple ways.
Every fall, every student in kindergarten plants a bulb. They eagerly await “their” bulb popping up out of the [...]

Nectaroscordum sculpture

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

Nectaroscordum siculum ssp. bulgaricum is one of my favorite bulbs. It’s closely related to the Allium (onion) family, and is sometimes called the Sicilian honey lily. Here in Upstate New York, it flowers in mid-June, the flower spikes sometimes reaching close to 4 feet tall.

But to really appreciate the flowers, you need to [...]

Flower: Video game version of a poem

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

I’m not a gamer, by any stretch of the imagination. But I do know that this game is different. As the one of the developers in this video says:
“There’s no score. There’s no time limit. There’s no death.”
It’s hard to describe in words, but this short Wired video review [...]

More elementary plant science activities

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

If you’re looking for more plant science activities for elementary students, a good place to start is with this blog post at the National Science Teachers Association Scilinks blog, Plants and Their Partners.

More fun with scanning

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

Last week I combined two activities, Grow bulbs in winter and Create a digital photo collage to produce this image of petals that fell off some forced tulips:
Give it a try. It’s fun and easy.

Snowdrop sells for $215

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

While it’s a far cry from the ‘Tulip Mania’ of the early 17th century in the Netherlands, a tiny snowdrop bulb recently sold at auction in England for 150 pounds, or about $215 U.S. dollars.
Snowdrops are tiny, white-flowered bulbs that are among the first to flower in late winter or early spring, depending on location. [...]