It's all about bulbs

Are you a flower fanatic? Do you love the bright, vibrant colors of the first blooms of spring? Now is the perfect time to plant bulbs for your spring enjoyment...but did you know it's also a great time to study plant life cycles with students?

That's right! Instead of studying flowers and plant life cycles in the spring, consider moving that up to your fall curriculum instead. Why? When you study plant life cycles in the fall, and incorporate the chance for students to plant their own bulbs at your school, the bulbs will be up in plenty of time for the kids to enjoy them before they head home for the summer.

Planting bulbs also provides a great opportunity for students to make their own hypotheses about the bulbs and test those hypotheses in real life. Tulips and daffodils are both great choices. Here are some great questions for your students to answer:

• What date will the plants first emerge in the spring?
• When will you see the first bloom?
• What percentage of the bulbs will live through the winter and produce flowers in the spring?
• If using mixed color tulips, how many of each color blossom will there be?

On top of that, studying bulbs as part of your plant life cycle curriculum provides a great chance to talk about the plants on your plate....and all the different plant parts we eat every day. From the broccoli "flowers" to the carrot "roots"...and who can forget the bulbs we eat, like onions?

For more great ideas on how to incorporate science that's All About Bulbs into your curriculum, check out the book Growing Together published by Ohio State University Extension. The book is chock-full of lesson plans and activities for incorporating garden-based science into your classroom.