Learning with Pinecones

Learning with Pinecones

Today was drizzling. As I walk with preschoolers we listen to rain, step in puddles and admire raindrops cascading off a roof. We pass a couple of tall pine trees and check out the bundles of needles littered on the grass. Count the needles in each bundle: some have three, four, or five needles. The pines are Eastern White pines that have up to five needles in a bundle. We look for pinecones too. I have setup our class in a gazebo - where we continue to listen to the rain and can be sheltered.

Observation

A selection of pinecones to pass around, touch, lift and smell engages the young learners. The pinecones smell of resin, some are sticky, others prickly. The Coulter pinecone is huge, spiky and incredibly heavy and resiny. The sugar pinecone is light and long. The Jeffrey pinecone is also huge, and surprisingly strong yet light. For each pinecone we can see where the seeds grow and are protected - and have fallen out. Bring a pineapple and a dried sunflower flowerhead to highlight the similar fibonacci spiral patterns. I also bring in another different seedhead: one from a “bobbletree” - Liquidambar to compare and contrast with the pinecones patterns. This helps set the scene for an appreciation of patterns and diversity.

Coloring as prelude to journaling

I leave a medium-sized pinecone in the table of the table and give students the My Pinecone coloring sheet.

Observe the spirals on the drawing sheet.

With highlighters I encourage the students to highlight the spirals in one direction. Then we pick a different color highlighter and try to find and color the spirals going in the opposite direction.

The preschoolers enjoy writing their names on the sheets too. Coloring can be trendy therapy, it is also a first step to future journaling.

Decorating pinecones to take home

I have collected small pinecones from a Virginia pine tree (the State Virginia pine tree) - that fell in a storm a few winters ago. Each year I collect a few more from other trees in the neighborhood.

Students decorate a small pinecone using glitter glue. Taking time with the brush and glue is fun and enhances the sensory experience. The pinecones take a day to dry. Students can take home as a gift from the garden to enjoy as a seasonal sparkly winter decoration, and reflect on the patterns they’ve experienced in nature!

We go back to class stomping in the puddles and looking at the clouds!

Resources

Pinecone coloring sheet - download, print and color http://www.slideshare.net/MaryVanDyke/my-pinecone-coloring-sheet-greenstem

Seeing Math Patterns in Nature by Mary Van Dyke, 2014

Strawberries: Ripe for Inquiry

Do your "schoolgrown" strawberries taste good? Ours do!

Is that a fact or a hypothesis?  
Sounds like the time “is ripe” to do some inquiry and project-based science and art.

Strawberries are a wonderful and delicious teaching tool that cycles with the school year here in Virginia as you can observe them grow over the winter, flower, produce berries and harvest to eat in May and early June.

Strawberries - May 2015, Jamestown Elementary School

May is Strawberry Month. If you missed it, put it on the calendar for next year and plan ahead to grow some and use strawberries to teach a lesson or two as they grow...

A few stats from the industry- as growing Strawberries is a billion-dollar business...

Where to grow strawberries?

Grow some strawberries in the ground - with or without netting

Here's some grown in the shade at Arlington Traditional School

Here’s plants in a sunny spot at Jamestown Elementary School.

Here are some container grown in EarthBoxes - with red plastic mulch with the Homeschool Club of Arlington.

The red plastic mulch speeds up the ripening compared to black mulch or straw. Do an experiment comparing mulches and see if you agree? And check your results with research from Penn State.

Here’s some commercially field grown strawberries with black mulch and irrigation system at Mackintosh Fruit Farms.

Here’s scientists growing strawberries in glasshouses and testing different cultivars in a gutter "sock" hydroponics system at Lynchburg Grows.

Strawberry Towers
Photo from DC School Garden Bike Tour Cultivate the City via Facebook

Or grow strawberries and pineberries in tower gardens or garden towers - and grow a business as at JO Wilson, DC Public schools.

Talking of art and strawberries

Notice the patterns of the seeds on the outside and the beauty of the cross-section

Notice the color and pattern

Make a clay brooch. here’s mine from pre-Sculpy days!

Or choose a technique to make signs for the school strawberry patch. Here above is a 5-year old's painting with acrylic on board, that I then sealed with acrylic spray sealer. The students nailed their own boards to the stakes for our kitchen garden signs. The stakes untreated last about a year, the painting longer.

Here are a couple of signs I made for school and community gardens. I designed the artwork on powerpoint or google presentation and laser printed onto Xerox Never Tear polyester paper and put into metal signholders. The ink lasts a couple of years or so.

What’s not a strawberry? The false strawberry!

Got those prolific little strawberries that taste dry and dusty in your home or school yard? Those plants with the yellow flowers are “false strawberries”.

False strawberry Duchesnia indica, has yellow flowers

Wild strawberries, and strawberries cultivated for fruit have white flowers.

Wild strawberry, Fragaria virginiana has white flowers

Cultural context

Wild strawberries are native to Virginia. 

• Read the Cherokee Indian story about the First Strawberry.

Ideas for experiments

• Do a KWL diagram of what students already know before the project, want to learn, and have learned after your project.
• Does mulching with red mulch, black mulch or straw help increase yield?
• Test for shade and sun production?
• How do different soil conditions affect our harvest?
• Does a strawberry grow better in clay, silt or sandy soil?
• What other factors are affecting results?
• Do fertilizers (nutrients for the plant) affect production?
• Grow strawberries indoors and measure runners (see NSTA article)
• Extract Strawberry DNA (see resource links below)
• For elementary students read The Strawberry by Jennifer Coldrey and George Bernard

Field Trip

Take the students to a berry or fruit farm near you to see technology and agri-business in action.

• How is strawberry production affected by weather in your area? 
• Are the farmers growing strawberries indoors or out? 
• What’s the market? Who are they growing strawberries for? 
• How much do they sell the strawberries for?  How much does it cost to produce each strawberry?

I was talking to some scientists last year who were designing a strawberry de-hulling machine and wanted to pilot it. They showed me pictures of the machine and how it was designed to hull strawberries - and was much safer than tools currently often used by workers in the fields for example in Florida.  I put the scientist team in contact with some of our local food distributors to set up a real world piloting experiment for the machine.  I wonder if they are piloting it now?

How Food Grows has some resources, including a time-lapse video of strawberries growing. I am also waiting for the How Does It Grow folks to produce film on strawberry production, if they do I will post it.  In the meantime, here below are some additional "strawberry-themed" resources.

Strawberry Resources

LINK to how to make signs using QR Codes and Xerox Never Tear paper technique

• Strawberry Lifecycle Sign for schoolyard by Mary Van Dyke
• Strawberry sign by Mary Van Dyke linked to QR Codes of stories for younger audience

Green STEM Learning Blog links:

• Strawberry Fields Forever ...Plans, Planting, Protection
• Strawberry Fields Forever... Mulch, Observe, Journal
• Strawberry Fields Forever...Strawberry Science

Books
The First Strawberry retold by Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by Anna Vojtech
The Strawberry by Jennifer Coldrey and George Bernard

Films
How Strawberry Grows - timelapse

NGSS and VA SOL Standards Activities and Correlation Examples

Garden-based learning at Elementary School:

It’s just the Berries - NSTA Science and Children journal p 58.

http://digital.nsta.org/publication/?i=&p=&l=1&m=13899&ver=&pp=

NGSS 3rd Grade - Inheritance and Variation of Traits

http://www.nextgenscience.org/3ivt-inheritance-variation-traits-life-cycles-traits

VA SOL 3rd Grade Science - Plant Lifecycles

Middle Schoolers approx 7th Grade - Genetics

Extracting DNA from Strawberry

see http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/strawberry-dna

or more detailed http://www.seplessons.org/node/217

High Schoolers VA SOL Sample Lesson Life Sciences

Extracting DNA from Strawberry

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/2010/lesson_plans/life_sci/ecosystems/sess_LifeSci-12ae.pdf

Inspiration: The Love + Practice of STEAM

My teen daughter tells me this week that she wants to be a "neuroscientist who likes to practice music and play with clay". I listen and say, "YES!" aloud and in my heart. However, this week she had to choose between art and music at high school. Despite block scheduling and selecting options, I hope that she will continue to integrate her love of practicing the arts, sciences and languages.

On Valentine's Day I went to the Virginia Association of Science Teacher's conference on Inspiring a Love of Science with STEA*M (Science, Technology, Engineering, *the Arts and Mathematics). Keynote Speaker Margaret Hancock presented on "Thinking like Artists and Designers".  Her photos of the iconic Saarinen Womb chair and the Glasshouse by Mies Van der Rohe, reminded me of my architecture school days of thirty years ago! Then Margaret updated us to our digital ecologically-aware age with images from Patrick Dougherty's Stickwork and the architecture of Rural Studio.


Why S.T.E.A.M?
Observing and understanding nature is what Science is theoretically, but how and why? I never bought that "only observer" deal anyway. Did you? So the moment you acknowledge your active participation in systems: here comes integrating Engineering while gathering, hunting for and inventing the tools, the Technology, to help the observation, inquiry and the inevitable impetus to design and the iterative process. And whether you name it or not, you will add the Arts (and no doubt some aspects of religion or faith) to help with decision-making between various solutions and to acknowledge our basic need for symbolic references. Underlying patterns, economics and relations between all the variables there is a lot of Math, even if it is beyond your and my ability to solve for "x". So we have integrated STEAM in a nutshell. STEAM is more than just the sum of the parts:it shows emergence and synergy.

Talking of metaphors: I thought about calling this blog "Green STEAM Learning". But "Green STEAM" conjured up images of wilted lettuce and viridian clouds, so I went with the simpler "Green STEM Learning" to convey themes of integrated environmental education and sustainability.

STEAM at Home
Here is a simple example of "thinking like an artist and designer" and the synergy of STEAM in action at home.

My daughter and I spent some afternoons setting ourselves the task of making some jewelry together. We decided to go with a "cheap eats" theme and to collaborate. She decided to make Junk Food Jewelry while I made some Wearable Edible veggi brooches. And yes, we assessed plenty of social values and prejudices right there.

Junk Food Jewelry

We bought premixed polymer clay. And weighed the pros and cons and viability of alternatives such as homemade salt dough. Polymer clays are expensive, hence our decision to make small things. The color range can be enhanced by combining clays and adding pastel dust with a paintbrush. And you might experiment with some shaping tools in addition to fingers. Then you bake the objects in the oven for a few minutes to set.

Wearable Edibles

The engineering comes into play with questions such as:

• How to create objects that work on necklaces, brooches, bracelets?
• Do they balance well when you wear them?
• Do they move successfully with the body, or fall off?
• What kind of glue or fitting works best to fix a clay shape onto a metal armature?

It is a challenge to work within the budget, timeframe, technical capability and health and safety protocols that we have here at home -  or you might have in the classroom.

The creative and engineering processes are all about "having a go", experiments, analysis, feedback and iterative design. For example: the first peapod brooch toppled over on wearing. So I drew a cross-section and decided to hollow out the back and recess the brooch clip. This technique works well on the carrot and leek brooches too.

The peapods were easier to make if individual peas were baked first to harden, then clad with the pod layers and rebaked. The radish soft magenta color was achieved with pastel and water coloring - a more subtle shade than achieved by clay alone. We also used 3D modeling to good effect on the radish and chocolate chip cookies. The carrot and fronds were based on form of the pink cancer awareness ribbon brooch.

My daughter's Junk Food Jewelry and my Wearable Edibles selections both work on the symbolic artistic level, referencing well-known foods and vegetables at a miniature scale.

The result our collaborative, FUN, STEAM project-based learning.
We decided the plain chocolate chip pendant and earrings are a hit, and would sell like "hot cakes" with teens and other audiences.

Now two years on, my daughter still enjoys making and experimenting with polymer clay.  Her latest line is in "chibi" portraits as gifts to her classmates.

Emma's Chibi

Michelle's Chibi

She also takes classes at the community center to learn to throw pots, and she has chosen to study Ceramics at High School.

STEAM at Work
At this weekend's Love of Science and STEAM conference I went to other inspirational sessions. I heard George Mason Professor, Changwoo Ahn talk about his collaborative work:EcoScience + Art and current initiative: "The Rain Project - sustainable water management in an era of climate change" and his proposal for future efforts on food systems, soil and composting "The Dirt Project".

I enjoyed meeting Andrea Brothers from Micron Technology, and her multi-faceted presentation on life choices and career paths. She practices electron-microscopy to enhance yields of silicon memory products, plays violin and blends interests in art, science and technology. She played us her latest tunes, and shared her passion for innovation and design.

Andrea Brothers

STEAM at Play
I trained for many years as an architect. I also think like an architect unschooled. Here's one of my "early play dwellings", a Mouse House, or perhaps it is a model for a silicon chip?

On the Beach, Chios, April 1971

Here's to an integrated approach to education, creativity, experimenting and innovation, and to enabling holistic choices and designs. Whether or not you call it STEAM.


Thanks to Susan Bardenhagen for hosting VAST Region 8 PD Conferences, and being the VAST Region 8 Representative, and thank you to my daughter Maya, Andrea Brothers, Changwoo Ahn and Margaret Hancock for sharing their love and inspirations.

Infographics - Talking Pictures

A picture speaks a thousand words, and catches your attention and appreciation.

Wow your class with this fluttering butterflies infographic by Eleanor Lutz at Tabletop Whale.

http://tabletopwhale.com/2014/08/27/42-butterflies-of-north-america.html

Perhaps your students could also draw a couple of butterflies and animate them using simple gif-techniques?

Tabletop Whale publishes new infographics with science theme every two or three weeks. Check back frequently - or sign up to receive them.

Art and Science: Mural by Kyle Pierce at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum

Yesterday I was at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum for a free workshop to DNA barcode fish with 14 teens and scientist mentors.  I also visited Q?rius,  the Natural History Museum's beautiful 10,000 sq feet daylit "curiosity cabinet".  I enjoyed the new mural, and a chance to meet and talk with the artist, Kyle Pierce.

Here's more about the new mural on Kyle's blog: http://blog.kylepierceillustration.com/2013/12/12/mural-for-qrius-at-the-smithsonian/

Kyle and I talked about inspiration, science, walls, art, and mural techniques.
This mural for example is made by photographs printed on to vinyl, and works indoors.
Is there a technology to do this kind of work outdoors?
As quoted on the mural:

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."  Henry Thoreau 

That goes for whether you are here to barcode fish, or to create buildings and art!

See The Beauty of Math - Visualizing Math in the Everyday

Here's a video by artists Yann Pineill and Nicolas LeFaucheux visualizing the beauty of math in the everyday.

Click for article at Fast Company a blog for innovation by design,