Journey North Tulip Garden and Climate Change Study

Hello from Seven Oak Middle School

Our school is located in Lebanon, Oregon - the heart of Oregon’s beautiful Willamette Valley!
This year, 6th grade students in Mr. Gullickson’s science classes planted a total of 85 Red Emperor tulips. Throughout the course of this year’s study we have tracked and recorded the daily above and below surface temperatures in our JN garden. At the end of each month we graphed our daily temperatures and used this information to make predictions about future weather patterns and temperatures in our school garden.

This year, two students in our class, Sierra and Gabrielle, wanted to figure out a way to raise student awareness about the importance of water conservation at our school and in our community. Using their experience with the LEGO NXT robotics system, they developed, built, and programmed a LEGO NXT remote sensing vehicle that operates in our school Journey North garden.

The current design of this robot integrates the new LEGO NXT robotics system, Vernier Software and Technology probes and data logging software, and either a Texas Instruments TI-84 graphing calculator or a laptop computer. After conducting a number of test trials, Sierra and Gabrielle have determined that their robot can definitely help students to monitor water moisture content and soil temperatures in our school garden. In the future, students will begin exploring the possibilities of studying the environment where our Journey North Garden exists by incorporating the LEGO NXT robotic system, Bluetooth technology, and the soon to be released Vernier LabQuest.
If you’re interested in how we are using LEGO robotics as part of our JN project please write. We are more than happy to share with others information about this really cool way to make learning possible!
We hope all your tulips have awaked with spring’s arrival to your school!

Happy gardening,
The Students from Seven Oak Middle School