Second Day of Teaching at Columbia Heights

This past Thursday 4/17 was the second day that May and I taught the 7th graders at Columbia Heights Middle School. Because of their block schedule, we had two different classes than the first week.  We didn't realize until we got to the school that the classes would not be the same as the first week so we only brought planting supplies for the first class since that is the class we didn't make it to on time the first week. With the first class we planted microgreens of peas and sunflowers. Then, we did a short lesson on germination with the class and told them about how we wanted them to observe the microgreens over the next week. We also briefly told them about microgreens, how we eat them, and that they are very nutritious. Then, we did the plant families activity. I wrote the family names and the common name of the plant on the back of the card. We handed each student a card and had them get together with their family group. With the first class we didn't have a lot of time for this activity so once they were in the groups, we got back together as a large group. I asked where each family was and asked what plants they had. Then, we went over common characteristics of each family. With the second class, we observed the microgreens that were growing from the first week. I showed the students the difference between the appearance of the sunflowers vs the peas. The sunflowers were probably about 2" tall and looked and had unfolded cotyledons with true leaves starting to form, while the peas were shorter and were just one shoot. One thing that the students asked about was why the sunflower seed was still attached to the top of the shoot. I explained that the cotyledons emerged from inside the seed and that they obtained the energy necessary to germinate from inside the seed. I explained that now that they have formed roots, they will start to obtain nutrients from the soil. Then, we did a short lesson on germination including questions like what is germination, and what factors are necessary for germination (water, light, temperature, and oxygen). To end the class, we once again did the family activity. However during the second class, we were able to spend more time on this activity so once in groups we had the students discuss some of the common characteristics and walked around the room to help facilitate and be involved in discussion. After about 5 minutes we got into a larger group and asked where each family was, what plants were found in each family, and what some of the characteristics that the students could come up with were. The fabaceae family which is beans, peas, and peanuts noted that all of the fruit was pods. It was great seeing that the students noticed this just by looking at the pictures and knowing the plants. The students who had the Brassicaceae family said that they all really liked broccoli in fact it was one of the students favorite vegetable. This is something that surprised me because there are a lot of people that don't like broccoli. We also were able to draw some of the characteristics on the board such as umbel flowers and parallel veins. I also told the students some fun facts such as that peanuts flower and then they bury themselves and develop underground. There was one student who asked how this worked and I explained that it is all about the hormone signaling within the plant which causes this to happen. We are looking forward to our last day of teaching this coming Thursday during which we will be eating the microgreens. Due to the students having Friday off, we will be working with the students that we worked with this week.