Questions about tulips

Ms Ramsay gave us a pot of tulips just before she left our class. Now that they have faded, we decided to inquire about what was inside the pot. The students we active in the inquiry process - wondering, exploring, planning, and observing. With this post, they are engaging in the last step in the process: sharing ideas. 

I'm so pleased to notice a real richness to their questions; it highlights how much they have grown as learners since September. I've included some of the questions they asked at the end of the post, and also some quotations under the photos.

~This post is brought to you by Aidan, Liam, Sara, Owen, Rachel, Caitlyn, Cameron Ha. and Keegan. They picked the pictures and helped Miss Russell type the words.~

The tulips got are dried and wrinkly. The petals turned purple instead of pink. We were wondering what was under the tulips. Why didn't the stems come out?

 Guesses were:  roots, a big seed, water was sucking on to it, the soil.
We lifted it up and saw grass sticking out of the bottom holes. It looked like hair.

 Look! It was grass and soil. But then we saw something else inside. So we decided to open it up.

It's called roots.

Oh my gosh! Look what's inside!

 We found roots, big seeds called bulbs and dirt.

Those are the biggest seeds ever! The stem is coming right out.

 They were using gloves to pick up dirt and seeds.

 We were grabbing the seeds with the tweezers. When we were grabbing it, we squeezed it hard and squirted in my face! I squeezed harder and harder and it exploded into little pieces! I think that the water goes into the soil, then into the white things and it makes it goes up to the flowers. The sun shines on it and dries it so we have to water it again. That's why it is wet and slimy.

I squeezed it and it squirted! Right on my face! Ahhh!

 It looks like an onion.

 The flower is growing out of it. The roots come out the bottom.

 When we opened one up it looks like eggs inside. And it has brown skin.

What's inside this? Oh, it's the baby seeds. Now we know!

 In the dirt we found: diamond crystals, a fly, grass, skin and leaves.

 I'm trying to see what was in the bulb.

 It was cool inside the bulb.

 I smelled it. It smelled good!

Smell it! It smells like mint a bit. I smelled a flower at a store once. It smelled like that. It reminds me of it.

Check out all these questions that were flying:

Why do you think the tulip petals are soft?
Why is this part of the petal white?
Why is this slimy?
What does it smell like?
Why does it look like an onion?
What's all that grassy stuff? (roots)
What is holding the stem in the dirt?
Why does the skin feel like paper?

It's not always getting the answer that's important - sometimes just asking the right questions is where the learning happens.