IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Last week, we came up with many questions about plants and how they grow. This week, we decided to investigate two of those questions with an experiment.

Question #1- Can plants grow in sand?

Question #2- Can plants grow without soil?

 In our new grow lab, we have three pots with lima beans inside them. We talked about how our first pot is our control group, the regular lima bean in classic potting soil. The second has a seed in sand. The third has a lima bean in a paper towel. We will monitor the growth each day to see what grows, and which grows the strongest/tallest/fastest. We also read a book with Mr. Henderson about the importance of light on plants and Photosynthesis. We learned that leaves are like little kitchens that make food for the plant. Photosynthesis (the cooking of the food) is done by using light. Our grow lab has an artificial light that will be on while we are at school. It will also turn on for a short while during the evening, to give our plants lots of adequate light.

We have also begun talking about weather and the effects it may have on our garden. We wrote a letter to Mrs. Bucher’s class on Monday asking for them to teach us a little bit about weather. Yesterday, several friends came over to our class and brought a new tool to show us- an anemometer. This tool measures wind speed, it also had a thermometer and rain gauge on it.  To learn more about it and how it worked, we took it outside- wow did it move! The wind was so fast the anemometer top spun around and around. We also paid attention to how quickly the temperature dropped from inside to outside. We will continue to observe the weather and talked about its changes in November. We even created a weather graph to start tracking the weather in November!

Tags: capable, garden, project, scientific method

Messi plants some of our seed starters.

Lucas dissects his dandelion.

Every morning, we have a share time during our morning meeting. The Friday before our break, during our meeting, Tajanaye brought in what looked like a white dandelion seeds attached to a stem. She shared that she believed the plant to be a flower. The class began a lively discussion about whether or not the plant was a weed or a flower. Many felt strongly supporting one opinion or the other. As a class, we decided we would explore the concept the next day. Friends were invited to find dandelions outside and bring them in for dissection.

I think I saw something in there. Lucas

What?  Mrs. Argus

Something white. Look inside! Lucas

I don’t see it! Oh! I think there’s a stem right here. Aidan

So if it has a stem, is it a weed? Mrs. Argus

No! Sascha, come open the flower! Or the weed! I don’t know which one! I’ve never had this experience! Lucas

Its milk! Look at the white thing! Its milk. Aidan

(Lucas and Carriea come over with a book.)

They’re weeds! They’re weeds! It says their weeds!

I remember when we read the thank you plants book and it had cornfields in it. It’s a connection. And this says sometimes sunflowers are weeds when they come up in a corn field. Carriea

(Lucas points to a picture.) It’s the dandelion with all of its stuff in it.  Lucas

What’s the stuff in it? Mrs. Argus

I think it might have been the milk being pulled. Lucas

What’s this? David

It’s the nutrients being pulled. Being pulled from the flowers. Lucas

This looks like an umbrella. David

Want to see a cut open one? Lucas Cool huh?

I got this! These are things that turn into weeds! (points to the seeds on the dandelion) Michael

How does it turn into a weed? Mrs. Argus

All it needs is a rainbow to turn into a weed! I just figured out the mystery. These do turn into the weeds! Michael

Ruth shows friends the inner workings of a dandelion. She is trying to show how the dandelion sucks up other plants' nutrients.

Tags: collaboration, curious, problem solving, scientific method

This is going to be hard for me to resist and hard for me to forget.  Lucas

This quote brings so much warmth to my heart. These words were spoken by Lucas during our worm dissection with the wonderful Mrs. Grotjan and Miss Robison. Lucas’ words embody the essence of Reggio inspired, project based learning and what our goal here is at the Lab School- facilitate a love of learning. Today, our studio teachers gathered small groups of friends to engage in a detailed worm investigation that included a dissection. It proved to be a fascinating and captivating experience for all involved! Tomorrow, more friends will participate in the activity. I can’t wait to see what about the investigation interests them and what observations will come. More documentation on this incredible experience is coming.

The worm is captivating!

Messi and Cameron work as scientists.

Hutton investigates.

Journey and her worm.

Tags: capable, curious, garden, project, scientific method

Exploring our new sensory table material.

“Mrs. Argus- a flower!” Hutton

Cameron and Kaitlyn do drawings of their grass heads.

The grass heads are getting some sun.

What a fabulous day. We have a new material to explore in our sensory table- dirt! We are also becoming familiar with some gardening tools while we play with this. Our friends were also enjoying doing observational drawings of the many plants and new growth around the room. Hutton even pointed out a blossom on a plant that has been in our room quite a while! Perhaps we will look into why this blossom just sprouted recently. We have also created grass people. These people look like heads that have been stuffed with pine shavings and grass seed. We dipped them in water and placed them upright on a sunny table in our room. We are hoping the grass will grow and look like hair! Each day, it will be the kids’ responsibility to document what has happened to their “head” and draw a picture showing any changes, just as a scientist would.

Tags: curious, garden, project, scientific method

Monica and Da'Sean try out a tunnel launcher.

Lucas and Christian create a bridge on the marble launcher.

Friday was an exciting day for us. As soon as the kids came in, they were begging to play with the blocks as a morning choice activity and continue working on their marble launcher. They began experimenting with different positioning of blocks and mini ramps to try to get the marbles to go faster down the chute. We had a class conversation about why many marbles didn’t quite make it down the whole chute. Zek suggested maybe we needed more force, like how cars and trucks had engines, we needed something like that for our marbles. Ruth suggested that maybe the cracks between each block on the chute were slowing down the marbles. Lucas suggested we had created too many obstacles in the chute and they were slowing the marbles. Later on in the day, during studio and explore, we tried putting some of these suggestions into place. First, we eliminated some of the obstables. Then, the kids found a new tunnel launcher for the beginning of the chute, which they positioned at a more severe angle to create more force. Last, Ruth led a group of friends to try taping down the cracks between the blocks to create a smoother chute. We found that our three improvements increased the speed and a friend even brough up that we should be timing our marbles. Perhaps we will do this next week!

We have also been enjoying our daily yoga sessions with Mrs. Williams so much. The kids have already learned so much and I am noticing, it helps create a calm atmosphere for math workshop.

Hutton's cobra pose.

Journey trying downward dog.

Tags: collaboration, experiment, problem solving, scientific method, yoga