Brassica/Wisconsin Fast Plant Growth

 

3rd Grade Project

 

Date:  October 6th, 2005

Teacher Name:  Miss Korn

 

What we did:  First we had to get many supplies to plant, including soil, spoons, forceps, toothpicks, eyedropper, seeds, fertilizer pellets, wicks to absorb water, a quad for planting, and a label for our name. After we collected our supplies we put the wicks in the quad using forceps.  Then, we put soil into the quad and added the fertilizer.  Next, we put in the seeds, two in each quad and covered them with soil.  Afterwards, we dripped water onto the quad until water dripped from the wick, so we would know if the wick was working.  Finally, we put the plants under the light to grow!

 

Observations:   The fertilizer pellets are bigger than our seeds.  Our seeds were very small.  The wicks feel like tissues, so we think this helps absorb the water.  Soil absorbs water slowly so it took a while before it came through the wick.

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date:  October 11th, 2005

Teacher Name:  Mrs. Badolato

Written By:  Eliza C., Sophie W., Tyler J., and Sam D.

 

What we did:       First, we decided which plants to take out. It was hard because one plant would be too short and the other one would block sunlight from a different plant. Next, we had to pull the plants out. We had to be careful not to touch the other plant. 

Observations:   The first time I made an observation my plant was puny and we planted our plants only about two weeks ago and now the plants are gigantic. The time I made an observation my plants were bending but the next day they were bending straight up. A lot of my plants still have parts of the seed coat stuck on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date:  October 19th and 20th, 2005

Teacher Name:  Miss McFarland

Written by:  Costis, Sophie, Scotty, Charles, Bronte, and Sam

 

What we did:  We’re measuring, watering and making observations. We make observations because we need to see what has happened to them and to see their height. We water them so they grow. We drew scientific drawings.  We wrote how many days old our plant was. We also wrote the date, observations and the plants height. We measured are plants in cm.

 

Observations:  The plants are sprouting leaves, buds and flowers.    Some plants died of transplanting.  Plants have buds and some have flowers. They are tall and strong. Most plants are from 3-4 inches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date:  October 25th, 2005

Teacher Name:  Mrs. Noenickx

 

What we did:  Today we examined our yellow flowers and made bee-sticks.  A bee-stick will help us with the life cycle of our plants.  We will use them to help us pollinate our plants.

 

Observations:  Each bee has a thorax, abdomen and head.  It also has antennas and legs.  The bee is hairy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date:  October 25th, 2005

Teacher Name:  Mrs. Badolato

 

What we did:      

Dissected Flowers

 

Observations

We dissected the flowers to identify these 5 parts: the petals, anther, pestle, stamens, and the sepals. Then we looked at them though a magnifying glass. And then we drew a picture of the flower and labeled the parts. Above the picture we wrote the job of each flower part.

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

Date:  October 31th, 2005

Teacher Name:  Miss Korn

 

What we did: Today we pollinated our flower with worker bees.  We rubbed the hairy bee onto the anthers (the male part that holds the pollen) and then on the stigma (the female part) of another flower.  This way the bee carried the pollen to another flower to pollinate it so the flower could then go through the life cycle and produce need seeds.  

 

Observations: The pistol (female part) was longer than the stamen (male part).  We noticed that many of the seed leaves were dying and wilting and the true leaves were very large and spiky. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Date:  November 9th, 2005

Teacher Name:  Mrs. Noenickx

 

What we did:  We took our bee sticks and used them to pollinate by sticking them into each other’s flowers.  When they visited different flowers, the pollen got stuck on their hair.     

 

Observations:  We took pictures of a few bees using a microscope hooked up to our computer.  These pictures show how much pollen got onto the bees. The bees were covered in pollen!

                             Alec found a part of a beehive on the way to school that day, so we were able to look at that under the microscope, also.  You can see the hexagon shaped cells.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date:  November 19th, 2005

Teacher Name:  Mrs. Noenickx

 

What we did:  We harvested our seeds from our seed pods.  We took a look at the seeds, and they were pretty small.  We counted how many seeds we got as a whole class, and it was 164!  The plant’s dying was the last step in its life-cycle.  The seeds we harvested will bring the next generation of plants.   

 

Observations: You could see the seeds as lumps inside the pod before it was opened.  We split them open like a sweet pea or green bean, and found little reddish-brown seeds inside.