Plant Growing Investigation: Keeping a Keynote Journal

Students love investigating growing plants, no matter the age! This journal template will be used by my 6th graders in science to capture the learning for analysis. As we grow, our iPads will help us capture our learning and set us up for further inquiry.

How will I roll this out?

To begin with, students will be introduced to two methods of growing, hydroponics with our Gardyn vertical growing system and traditional soil planters. Describing the self watering system as well as the automatic lights, fertilizer, and AI capabilities of the Gardyn, students will compare to the process of traditional planting in pots.

Next, students will be given a plethora of plant seeds to choose. From soybeans to lettuce, marigolds, and spinach, students will select plants of interest to plant both hydroponically and in soil.

This is where the Keynote journal comes in!

Because each group will be designing their own investigation, the journal will walk them through both decision making and data collection.

This will be used for tracking and visually documenting the stages of planting either soil-based or hydroponic plants.

After setting up their plants and documenting the process on the Keynote slide, students will then use the next slide to make decisions about timing for maintenance and data collection.

This slide can be used to ensure consistent daily maintenance and data collection for plant care, tracking important environmental parameters and capturing growth through photographs.

From here, the data collection is a matter of student ownership, authentic observation, and long term data! Students will utilize the daily slides for capturing data. This slide can be duplicated as needed.

The final slide will be used for reflection and identifying next questions!

So, how can you use this template? How can you engage students in long term data collection from the natural world?

We NEED to engage our scientists in activities that connect to the real world. Seeing change over time...powerful. Managing their learning...key to fostering curiosity. Organizing data in a systematic way with images...necessary for growth.

Join me and share! How do you support student curiosity?

Attachments

Grow Investigation Journal.key

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