Apologia Botany

 I am teaching a Botany class for Victoria using the Apologia curriculum to 14 homeschoolers. It is a great curriculum and my third time teaching/learning it.  I have had fun and I think the kids have had fun too. One of the things that they build is a light hut for growing plants in, so of course we can't just let it sit there doing nothing. I have sent the kids home with little bulbs of Grape Hyacenth to grow. Victoria's is growing really well. They are growing herbs. I had instructed each of the kids to be careful that they don't accidently dump the dirt with the seeds. Good thing it was in a ziplock bag. Victoria brought hers home with a pile of dirt in the bag and the little peatmoss cups empty. I am sure hers wasn't the only one. Jared scooped the dirt in all three and called it a mystery. So now she has a mixture of herbs coming up in all three of the cups.

The other experiment we have been watching is you put bean seeds on wet paper towels in a plastic bag. You put one bag in the dark, one in the light hut, and one in the fridge. Amazingly, the one in the dark sprouted first and growing the quickest. Victoria had put it in the bottom drawer of Kaleb's desk. She wasn't expecting it to grow like it has. Check out the results below.

 It looks like a little octopus and hard to believe that it was growing in the plastic bag this way.

 Each day the kids check their seeds and measure the growth in centemeters, logging its growth on a chart. It has been the highlight of Victoria's day.

I don't do much when it is cold either so we guessed that it was quite alright that these poor seeds that got put in the fridge didn't grow. We were thinking that it would have been just as easy to put them in the backyard but then decided that it was actually warmer in the refridgerator. I guess being outside would have been more like sitting in the freezer.

Stay tuned for more plant growing experiments, or check out this curriculum here