As a culminating plant project, second graders had a week-long residency with Compas artist Sarah Nassif. They started out by going to the outdoor classroom in the school's backyard and gathering natural items. They then created a print block. The final product was a printed nature motif textile.
Second graders put all their knowledge about Minnesota habitats and plants to work and designed their own plants. They choose among plant parts that are common in the state including types of roots, stems, leaves, and flowers.
In their work on designing plants, second graders are learning more about habitats. They found out how to run an experiment using just one variable. Each class chose a different habitat variable to change in growing their lettuce.
Today, the second grade "design a plant" project kicked off with students learning about how scientists from the University of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum develop new varieties of apples.