🪴 Budding Botanists  

Mrs. Buck's second graders recently enjoyed an exciting hands-on learning adventure during their Living Things-Diversity of Life STEM Lab.

Over the past few months in STEM class, students focused on understanding how diverse habitats meet the needs of organisms. They began by exploring the interdependence of living things within our local habitat. Then students were posed with the question: 

Do plants need water and sunlight to grow?

Using the scientific method over the course of several weeks, the class observed how plants respond under various conditions. Some received sunlight and water, while some only got sunlight. Other plants got no sunlight but were given water. And the last group of plants received no sunlight or water.

Students learned a lot from this hands-on experiment and now know that plants must receive BOTH to thrive!  

Armed with this new knowledge, students began to research local winter plants and what they need to survive in the same habitat - or in this case, in the same flowerpot. They used all of this information to design a planter garden of their choice, suitable for indoors, outdoors in the sun, or outdoors in the shade. 

On Thursday, January 24, the STEM class was invited to visit Lowe's Home and Garden Center, where a local plant expert helped students evaluate different plants to choose the best flowers for their garden. 

We were so excited about this generous invitation from our friends at Lowe's. Our budding botanists enjoyed a very informative hands-on opportunity to explore, demonstrate, and broaden their new knowledge of plants!

-- HHCA STEM Mentor, Mrs. Susan Buck

View more photos of this STEM adventure here!