Beth's Adventures in Mbarara Uganda

So, my 4th graders and I are trying to grow sweet potatoes by putting them in jars of water. I know that I taught middle school science for several years back in America, but Biology--and more specifically BOTANY (that's the science of plants and stuff, right?)--is just not my thing.

Anyhow, last week (Wed. maybe? That just shows you how great I am at keeping records for this science experiment!), we put some sweet potatoes (which had been in a black cavera for 2 days in the classroom) in jars of water to see if they would grow new plants. Well, only one of the potatoes actually fit in the jar...and it even stuck out quite a bit. So we decided to cut them in pieces to experiment and see which part of the plant was actually responsible for the growth of a new plant.



It was suggested to even see if a new potato could grow out of the peel of the potato or from the actual inside part of the potato. So we tried it all! I think we put 6 jars on the window sill, one with a whole potato; two with chunks of a potato; 1 with just the "eye" of the potato; one with the inside only; and one with the peel only. In the picture to the left, Curt is trying to get me to put only the white (yes white!) part of the sweet potato in the jar...as a new experiment to see if anything would grow from it!

Below, Herin and Curt are filling the jars with water. Notice that one of the jars Curt is holding already looks cloudy and dirty...not a good sign. Be sure to check out my next post to see what Curt and Herin wrote today in their journals about the potatoes and see some new pictures!