Garden Science – The Great Sunflower Project – Free Sunflower Seeds

Here’s a great opportunity for all of us (homeschooler, or not!) to help out a good cause and learn some great stuff!

The Great Sunflower Project is an attempt to find out how honey bees’ numbers in urban environments are being affected by climate change, urbanization of natural habitat, and colony collapse disorder.

Natural pollinators play a VERY important role in our food cycle, and the ecosystem beyond just the plants that we eat. The estimated financial value of natural pollinators is figured to be between 4 and 6 BILLION dollars a year, in the US alone! But numbers of pollinators in urban areas are not complete enough, and there is an easy, and enjoyable way that you can add to this database.

When you join the Great Sunflower Project, they will send you a free package of Lemon Queen sunflower seeds (to plant, not eat, silly!). You plant your seeds, tell the Project a bit about your garden, and add your garden to their map.

After your sunflowers have bloomed, all you have to do is sit outside in the beautiful weather and time how long it takes for 5 bees to visit your sunflower. You record this information, and enter your data online or mail in a printable chart. How easy is that?

You don’t need to know much about bees, need to know very little about gardening, and don’t need to spend any money! If you want to participate, register quickly, everyone who registers and requests seeds by MARCH 10TH will receive seeds from the first batch. Or, you can purchase your own Lemon Queen sunflower seeds.

I think this has some really great homeschooling possibilities. The earth science implications are endless.

• Start your seeds inside, and chart how long it takes them to germinate. Place the seeds inside a folded, wet paper towel, then place that in a plastic bag. Check daily, and chart how they look each day and your predictions for tomorrow.
• Learn that sunflower “seeds” are more accurately “achenes.” Define the word, list other achenes, what makes it different from a “seed?”
• How do plants get the most out of the sun? Why do sunflowers seem to turn their faces to the sun? Define “Phototropism“ and explain it. Define “Heliotropism,” witness it, and find out when sunflowers stop being heliotropic.
• Learn to identify, and label the different parts of a plant, starting from a seedling, ending at maturity.
• Learn about the Fibonacci sequence! (A personal favorite, I distinctly remember being MESMERIZED by this topic as a child, seeing these numbers all over nature is truly inspiring and never ceases to be amazing to me.)
• Learn to identify different types of bees, and their roles in nature. The Project has a whole page to help you with this!
• Draw a honey bee, and label all of its parts with their proper names.
• Learn about the life cycle of not only a single honey bee, but the entire hive. The role of each bee is really very interesting! We’ve read The Life and Times of the Honeybee from our local library, and enjoyed it.

I haven’t even touched on the sunflower and bee art and craft projects you could do. The only limit here is your imagination!

Hurry and register, and let me know if you are going to participate! And post any other curriculum ideas you think of that are sunflower and bee related!

Tags: science, secular homeschool, secular homeschooling, secular homeschooling curriculum ideas