Science Friday

On this brisk, foggy morning, we gathered together for Science Friday. Our study this session was about stems. The students divided up into three age groups and moved around to different "stations" as they reviewed what they had studied. Here, Merritt, Honor, Grace and Moriah are counting the rings to this ash tree the Bolliers cut down last fall. After all the groups rotated through, we came to the unanimous conclusion that this tree was 60-61 years old.

The youngers take their turn at counting the rings and marking the decades. (Olivia, Leah, Tiege, and Larissa). Not only did they count the rings, but they looked to see if they could identify where the zylem and phloem were.

The entire younger crew: Claire, Olivia, Tiege, Leah, Larissa, and AnaBefore going back inside, we looked around the yard for examples of phototropism. It's amazing all that you SEE when you really take time to study creation! Then, we warmed up inside and watched a couple short videos showing phototropism. Next, it was on to stem dissection. They dissected a tulip stem and two different kinds of cactus plants.
The third station was reviewing woody and herbaceous stems, looking at any similarities and/or differences.

Art finished up the day......making their sculptures out of Sculpy. ~Wee