Babel School in Taiwan

I promise, this is the last post about experimenting with radishes :-) By now, you probably got enough of it, but we are still ... learning and Jaś is still quite interested in observing his tiny plants grow. This week we finished all previously started experiments. Let's take a look at them: DAY 21 - SUNDAY GEOTROPISM After two days we were able to observe which part of the plant is positively (roots) geotropic and which negatively (hypocotyl). DAY 22 - MONDAY GROW, GROW, GROW - GRAPH After carefully observing the growth of four seedlings and making notes of how many millimeters they have grown each day, it was time to make a growth graph for each seedling. It turned out that our seedlings were growing much faster than the examples shown in book. LIVING SPACE This experiment was started on day 5. Now the plants have grown and are ready to be analysed, and just as predicted the seedling that were growing in overcrowded conditions are smaller and w...

Third week of our radish observation is almost over. We've already finished some of the experiments and we've started some new ones. Jaś is still interested in growing plants and observing them and that is the most important thing. DAY 14 - SUNDAY SUN SALAD We were supposed to do this activity on Friday, but somehow the radish did not want to sprout. Today the sprouts were big enough for Jaś to try them.  After cutting the sprout into three parts and trying each part separately, Jaś discovered that the most spicy part is the hypocotyl (the middle part), which later will become the radish that we normally eat. DAY 15 - MONDAY GROW, GROW, GROW We started this experiment last Friday . Now Jaś is supposed to observe the sprouts every day and note their height on a growth graph. For the radish to grow better, Jaś had to pull out the weaker sprout and leave the stronger one. Starting new experiment - TOXIC STRESS In this experim...

Second week of studying sprouting radishes has come to an end. We had to change the order of some experiments as our radishes were sprouting at different times than the book predicted :-) . DAY 11 - THURSDAY We've finished the assignment for Thursday a day early :-) DAY 12 - FRIDAY The seeds that we planted at the very beginning (on day 2) did not want to sprout. So on Saturday we planted them again, but ... only seeds in pot 2A sprouted, pot 2B shows no change, strange... Today's assignment was to draw how the radish plant looks like in 1:1 scale. Take a look at Jas' work: You have to have your eyes at the plant level to draw it correctly. Two more drawings will be made, one next week and another in two weeks. This way we will see how much the plant has changed. Starting new experiment - GROW, GROW, GROW More aluminum planters needed to be made today.  For the next week and a half we will be observing the growth of radishes in thes...

To read about the very beginnings of our 'radishes' please go to PART 1 and then PART 2 . DAY 8 - Monday The only thing we were supposed to do on that day was to go back to the notes from last week and draw a SPROUT GRAPH. Our graph turned out a bit different from the one expected by the authors of the book - our seeds have sprouted much faster and much better (thank you Taiwan for warm and humid weather!). DAY 9 - TUESDAY It's time to reuse the box that was used for observation of seeds and sprouts during last week. This time we have to make a hole in the middle of the bottom side and cut off the lid. Then we need to place a paper towel through the hole and set the whole box on top of a jar with water (in a way that the paper towel will be submerged in water). Paper towel pushed through a hole on the bottom of the box. The box with paper towel is placed on top of a jar with water. Inside the box we placed another piece of paper ...

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY The radishes in the box started to show leaves! You can also see the tap root. Drawing the 5th stage of sprout growth. Stages 4 and 5. The bar graph showing how many sprouts are at each stage.   Starting new experiment - FOUR ENVIRONMENTS We are observing how the seeds sprout in four different environments: dry - no water at all (seeds on the lid) very wet - seeds submerged in water (inside the water filled jar) wet with plenty of oxygen - seeds on a wet paper towel wet with little oxygen - seeds on a wet paper towel covered with plastic foil DAY 4 - THURSDAY Growing taller. Now most of the sprouts are in stage F (6) and almost the same number of sprouts are in stage D (4) and E (5). Starting new experiment - NIGHT AND DAY Let's observe how the seeds sprout in complete darkness and how under sunlight. One jar will be completelt dark and the other will have plenty ...