step into my classroom: plant studies part 1

My life science class has begun to explore the wide world of plants. Aside from genetics, this is the biggest unit of the school year. As a simple demonstration of how veins function in a plant, we placed celery stalks into cups of brightly colored water. Within 24 hours, the celery leaves had changed from drab green to brilliant blue, red, and even purple!

In discussing the classification and identification of leaves, we ventured outside on a dry day and searched for leaves of varying veination, arrangement, and blade type. First I asked them to find specific types of leaves, then I sent them out to find the coolest-looking leaf. We had show and tell with our leaves, which the students had to explain using the proper vocabulary. It's always nice to spend even a few minutes outside while the weather is still warm!

Searching high and low for leaves

we love leaves!

leaf show and tell

more leafy show and tell

This week we had a chance to visit the high school biology lab since grades 9-12 were away on class field trips. The students snipped off tiny pieces of their stained celery leaves and prepared a simple wet mount to examine their cell up close with a microscope. It's one thing to show the kids a diagram of a microscope and make them memorize and label the parts, and to watch a video in which other kids use a microscope, but it's so incredible to watch them put into practice what they've learned. This was their first time on the microscopes, and they did a great job - the only thing I had to help with was getting into focus on the highest power. After drawing their celery leaf at various powers, they had time to choose from a box of prepared slides that I have. They looked at everything from pine tree cells to cerebellum tissue to a fly's leg! Science class was definitely the talk of the town that day!!

budding botanists

celery slides

Luke & Stephanie are on to something

Daniel and Jeffrey put things into focus

Sophie and Viktor work as a team

We are barely halfway through our plants unit. In a few days we will go on a two-hour nature hike where the students will gather assorted leaves, seeds, and specimens while making observations at the various stations located along the trail. It's fun for me because I get to see the kids apply firsthand what we've been learning, and it's fun for them because they get out of school for two periods plus lunchtime. Score!! Be sure to check back in a week or so for pics from the hike.