Lesson's Learned

Catchesthelight's Flickr
Currently in my Science Math and Education class we are working our way through the plant section. In this class we basically learn exactly what we learned throughout our elementary science classes but in more indepth way however; we are still required to the same experiments and hands on activities that we got to do "way back when". We recently grew two sets of bean seeds in a zip lock bag and were required to record what happened when we tried to grow one in the dark and one in the light. Lets just say that not all of these growth attempts turned out as planned and that some of them simply did not grow regardless the conditions. I also came across a Blog today of a teacher who was experimenting with her first grade classroom and plants and had each student choose where they wanted to try and grown their plant within the classroom. However, some of the students chose to put their plants in the closet where they naturally lacked the sunlight they needed to survive. The students had become very upset and actually cried when they found out that their plant died, and that it was all their fault. This just goes to show how things don't always go as planned and that you may have to deal with some things that you may not expect. I can't imagine how hard it would be to explain to a 6yr old the concept of death, especially when the reaction comes so unexpectedly. And how do you get them to understand the concept that plants need sunlight or they aren't going to survive without proving it in such a way.