A couple of my bucket list items are to walk among the tulips blooming in Amsterdam, to picnic under cherry blossoms in Japan, and to see the brilliantly colored bougainvillea and jacaranda blooms all over Madeira, Portugal. What do all these things have in common? Flowers!
Unfortunately, it‘s not easy to just pick up and go see flowers in their own habitat around the world. Instead, why not plant a flower or two on your own? March 12 is National Plant a Flower Day, which gives you the perfect excuse to get out your spade, topsoil, and thinking cap.
There is so much information to know about plants and their flowers that it would be impossible to capture all of it in one article! So, for Plant a Flower Day this year, I recommend starting your celebration in one of two ways:
There’s almost an infinite number of places to begin researching flowers and plants. Out of the 400,000+ types of flowers from all over the world, you and your students could start with one specific flower to research together, or each learner could pick their favorite. You could also learn about flower biology in general, such as:
Knowing your plant’s needs comes in handy when you’re trying to nurture a new plant, especially if you and your learners decide to dig in and plant some yourselves! You could research what flowers need to stay healthy and thriving:
What about the history of plants? Are there flowers that have gone extinct? How do flowers teach us about other parts of life? (Thanks, Gregor Mendel and your pea plants, for teaching about genetics!) And then there’s the future of plants – how does vertical farming work? Why are greenhouses and farms important? What kinds of careers work with flowers? The questions only begin there!
Besides, flowers are just plain pretty to boot. You can incorporate creativity into your lesson, such as asking your students to design their own flower and find out if one like it actually exists or inviting someone to give a floral arrangement demonstration.
Also, the STEM Pioneer Pack – one of its five activities is Pioneering Plants –enables learners to grow seeds in a clear pot that can be stuck to or hung from a window, making the plant’s full journey visible.
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