This week I went up to Challenger Elementary to check out our pumpkins.  I found some interesting changes.  First, the irrigation seemed to be working pretty well.  The strawberries looked great.  There was even a couple of ripe berries, which my son, Riley, immediately grabbed and gobbled up.  Not fair.  When I tested the irrigation there were 4 fountains of water spraying up from the strawberries.  The sprinkler heads had blown off from all of the water pressure.  I was able to find them and screw them on a little tighter.  Hopefully, that will fix the problem.  Next, I noticed quite a few weeds popping up.  Luckily I brought Ella and Riley.  We all pitched in and began working on clearing the weeds to give the pumpkins more room to grow.  Pretty soon everything was cleared.  The last thing we did was an examination of the pumpkins in our two gardens.  Ella took some photos for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the plants seemed to be discolored.  The leaves were changing color.  They were turning yellow.  I don’t think this is a normal growth pattern.  I guess it’s time to start thinking like a scientist.  What do you think it means?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found a few plants were eaten a little and a lot.  The plant above was pretty devastated.  It looked like it had been munched on by something.  Before school ended the class was worried about a local bunny eating them, but I think that’s very unlikely.  If a rabbit was eating them they’d be gone.  A rabbit would completely destroy a young plant.  This is something different.  What kind of pest could be feasting on the pumpkins?

Most of our pumpkins did look pretty healthy, but I did continue to notice a difference between the 2 gardens and the variety of pumpkins.  Here’s the data we ended with in June.  It demonstrated a big difference in germination rates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look closely at the run charts you can see that Garden 1 seeds germinated much quicker than Garden 2.  Why was that?  Well students hypothesize that it was due to the amount of sunlight.  Garden 1 received much more during the day than Garden 2.  We don’t know for sure if this is the main factor effecting growth, but it’s a pretty reasonable prediction.  Below you can see a visible difference in the size of the plants in Garden 1 versus Garden 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, I noticed that the Snowball pumpkin plants seemed larger than the Kandy Korn.  Why is this?  You can see this in the Garden 1 picture.  The Snowball pumpkins are in the 2nd and 4th rows.  Also, you’ll notice it in the Garden 2 photo.  The Snowball plants are in rows 1 and 3 (counting from right to left).  They’re more developed.

Stay tuned for more garden news.  Send a comment if you think you have ideas or feedback worth sharing.

Kids have been actively working on the garden at Challenger Elementary.  We know a few things about plants, and pumpkins in particular.  They are organisms and have some specific needs.  I asked kids,

“What are the things that pumpkins need to live and grow, or germinate?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s what they said.

soil

sunlight

water

pollination

One factor we can control is water.  As a result, students decided to begin working on answering the following question:

“How will the plants get water?”

Some students thought we could water them with gardening canisters that hold water.  Others thought we should use a hose and spray the water on the garden.  A few students said that we could use a sprinkler.  All of these methods could work just fine.  However, I suggested we could use drip irrigation because we wouldn’t be here to monitor is over the summer.  Drip irrigation could be setup with a timer so that the water would come on automatically.  In the end, we began planning for irrigation and kids picked the design that seemed to fit our needs best.

Once kids finished their designs, they determined the materials list they needed and came up with a total cost.  This took some time.  Many students in our class were unsure how many inches were in a foot.  This was important because we had to know how much tubing to order.  It was measured by the foot.

Meanwhile, we planted the pumpkins to get our crop started.  Hopefully the irrigation plan will come together soon.

We have finally picked a winner for the Legacy Crop. 5th graders have chosen to plant Kandy Korn and Snowball pumpkins. We used a “Hot Dot” method to choose our crops. It was too close to call. We’ve decided to throw in a larger variety as well for fun. These will be placed away from the classroom beds.

Currently, kids are planning out irrigation for our garden beds. This has given the kids great opportunities to learn logical reasoning, computation with decimals and measurement.

Next steps, planting those pumpkins.

Recently, I came across a nice video that showcases a young man that is working hard to become an artist.  More specifically, he wants to create and document with videos.  He’s a bit unsure about how to do this, or where his journey will take him.  He comes up with an idea about how he might use skills he’s already mastered and incorporate them with the artistic skills he’s trying to learn.  Watch the video…

What skills did he have mastered? How have they helped him to achieve more?

I showed this video because I think it’s important to work on things that we’re truly passionate about. This adds value to what we do. It keeps us motivated. By focusing on the things we love and are good at, we can learn even more. I’ll bet for Kevin, it even makes going to work that much better. Think of something you’re not finding value with. How can you make it more meaningful?