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Grow a Narcissus for Grades K-2
Asking "Scientific" Questions; Making and Recording Observations For older students, use with Lesson Plan Materials: Narcissus bulb, clear plastic container, gravel and water; paper and crayons (or pencils); Bulb Parts Handout Pot your narcissus where students can observe or let them look at the already potted bulb. REMEMBER to warn students not to touch the bulb itself. For a closer look at a bulb, inside and out, see Sprout and Dissect Onions. Start a class discussion by asking questions. • What is this thing? • Is it alive? What makes you think so? • What is it doing? What do you think it's going to do? • Why is it in this pot with water and gravel? • What is it going to do with the water? • Why do you think it needs to go into the dark? "Scientific" questions are ones that students can answer by looking and experimenting. "What is our bulb going to do while it's in the dark?" is a good beginning question. Put your bulb in a dark closet or cupboard for a week. Bring it out and ask students to observe any changes that have occurred (roots should have appeared, visible on the sides and at the bottom of the plastic container). Students should— • Look at the bulb every day to observe changes. What is it doing? What is it going to do next? • Keep a record of their observations by drawing pictures and (for older students) writing descriptions of the bulb at different stages—Bulb Diary. 1. At the beginning 2. When it has grown roots (imagine what it would look like if you took it out of the pot—but DON'T TOUCH it) 3. When its first shoot appears 4. When its leaves appear 5. When buds appear 6. When its flowers open. • Collect their observations in one place. At the end of the project, draw a final picture of the beautiful, mature plant and put this on top of the pages of their record. Punch a little hole through all their pages and tie them together with a rubber band or a piece of string. Take them home and tell the story of the narcissus to their family. • IDENTIFY or NAME the narcissus's parts and learn to spell them:
• COUNT parts: how many roots? How many stems and leaves? How many flowers has the bulb grown? • MEASURE the narcissus once a week. How many inches has it grown since they last measured it? If its stems begin to bend, try propping them up with a plastic ruler. (Enrich this activity by using both a standard and a metric ruler.) • CALCULATE growth (ADD and SUBTRACT). How tall was the narcissus when you measured it last time? How tall is it now? How many inches has it grown? Did it grow more or less than it did last time? How much more or how much less? How much has it grown in the last two times? • PREDICT how tall the plant will grow. Were your right? How much were you off? Ask students frequently if the bulb is SURPRISING them? Is it doing what they expected? Do they have new questions? Can they PREDICT or GUESS what will happen in the next few days? Because paperwhite narcissus have a powerful and distinct scent, students will probably want to know WHY and HOW it smells so strongly. This is a good question for the encyclopedia, the Internet, your school librarian, or an expert gardener. (HINT: Floral scents attract and repel insects. They are produced by the evaporation of volatile oils—called "volatiles"—from the surfaces of petals.) Ask students to think of ways to find answers to all their questions. Ideas might include reading, observing plants outdoors or in a greenhouse, browsing on the Internet, or asking a librarian, a gardener, a nursery worker, or a scientist. Try looking up NARCISSUS, FLOWER, BULB in a children's encyclopedia. Do you find answers to some of your questions? Ask students to describe the difference between EXPERIMENT (testing to see if a guess is right) and RESEARCH (finding an answer that somebody else discovered through experimentation). |
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