At Cogitania’s Saturday Botany workshop fourth graders explored bulbs and bulb-like structures that are the plant food storage organs during dormancy. We learned about the structure and function of tunicates, corms, rhizomes, and tubers and observed physical specimens of these bulbs and pictures of their flowers; crocus, daffodils, tulips, iris, dahlias, calla lilies, onions, and potatoes.

For the hands-on activity we cut the bulbs vertically and horizontally in half and viewed the internal parts of the bulbs using hand lens and microscopes. The students then drew and labeled these cross-sections in their journals.

Next week we will visit the Tower Hill Botanic Gardens to tour the gardens and begin our study of plant identification in the field and plant classification.

Instructor: Nathan Emerson