The Five Best Remembered Plant Facts

Abstract

Autumn school weeks were speeding away as lesson plans called for a change of topic. During October we had been considering plant life. In our chemistry laboratory where biology classes were held pending the erection of a longawaited new building with its enticing facilities for science projects and procedures, we had looked at many specimens gathered from garden and field. About once every week or ten days, in order to show what we had talked over and read about in the chapters on the flowering plants as described in MOON AND MANN 's and CURTIS, CALDWELL, AND SHERMAN'S texts, I carried much actual material to class. It included leaves, stems to illustrate branching, bud types, root systems, flowers and their infloreseences, attractive fruits and vegetables such as a well-supplied, garden-conscious neighborhood, including my own productions at Victory Valley Farm, would afford. array was distributed on the chemistry locker unit tops with just enough space provided for the students in my large sections of forty and over to stand side by side and examine them. For the first time, I found, not a few learned facts they had scarcely realized before. How little, as well as how much, certain members knew of practical gardening was revealed by incidental remarks and comments. One girl had planted green snap beans in quart berry baskets early in the spring for summer transplanting. Whether she had her reward in a crop earlier than her neighbors I did not find. Everyone was victory gardening that year with illuminating experiences. Textbooks figures and descriptions were compared with actualities, and records were encouraged by means of blackboard questions and outlines. pupils enjoyed these exercises, made enquiries about the work as it went along, and showed excellent interest in spite of crowded quarters and other limitations. At the close of the study, about November tenth, I wished to find out something concerning what the classes had remembered and what, if anything, had made the greatest impression. My proposal was intentionally planned as a surprise so that there might be nO more than the usual review and preparation. two classes, College Preparatory and General, followed each other for the sixth and seventh or final periods of the day. Little concern was shown when I assured them that this was in the natute of an exploration test not to be graded severely for marks of standing. They wrote willingly and interestedly on the topic The Five Facts which I Remember Best about Plant Life. There was little opportunity to see more than the flowering plants and their organs although some demonstrations with the compound microscope were arranged for observation. Text material on the spore-formers was not as plentiful as for the -seed-bearers. Some time had been spent on economic values and certain plant functions had been presented with but a minimum of experimentation.