Ms. Skjerping’s middle school
students were faced with the question of what was happening
to the Blue Palo Verde pods in their neighborhood. After collecting
many pods on a walking field trip along the access road to the
Squaw Peak Freeway in central Phoenix, the students wanted to
find out where those holes had come from. Groups of three or
four students designed experiments to test possible explanations
for the holes.
The students’ hypotheses ranged from bugs to worms to
moisture to fungus to heat causing the holes in the pods. The
students got very creative in their reasoning! These basic experiments
became great starting points for future experiments and gave
the students the opportunity to become scientists in their own
neighborhood.
Submitted by Tina Skjerping, WT Machan Elementary
School
Click on the one of the experimental designs
below to see student work (in PDF format):
Our Pod Experiment
Blue Palo Verde
Palo Verde Trees!
Blue Palo Verde Tree
El Misterio de las Semillas
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