Dr. X and I were outside enjoying the beautiful weather this afternoon. As we were walking along I looked down at the ground and spotted what looked like a four leaf clover. I looked closer. Sure enough... four leaves! I showed my find to Dr. X who immediately started searching the same patch of clovers.
"I found one!" he shouted.
So we kept looking and found another... And another... And another... We hit a four leaf gold mine!
Dr. X holding his bouquet of clovers
We found 7 all together.
"If we could plant these would they grow more four leaf clovers or would they only have three leaves?" Dr. X inquired.
Hmmmm. Sounds like a science experiment to me. I love it when we just stumble right into a learning opportunity. Regardless of how much money you spend on curriculum or time you put into planning, accidental lessons are always the most fun.
We cut each clover stem at about a 45 degree angle.
We dipped the tip of each stem into the water and then into the root hormone. Then we carefully placed each clover into the vase of water.
Nothing left to do but to wait and watch.
All we need is a variable. We're going to pick 7 three leaf clovers tomorrow and follow the same steps.
So here are our questions:
Will we even be able to get them to grow? I'm not exactly known for my green thumb.
Will the four leaf clovers produce more four leaf clovers, a mixture of four and three leaf clovers, or only three leaf clovers?
Will the three leaf clovers produce any four leaf clovers? If so, which will produce more four leaf clovers - the three leaf or the four leaf? Or will they produce the same amount?
Our hypotheses:
We are going to say that they will grow. I like to think positive.
We think that the four leaf clovers will produce a mixture of three and four leaf clovers.
We believe that the three leaf clovers will only produce more three leaf clovers.
We'll update you once we have some progress.
Here's The Hubs and Super E trying to get in on some of the luck.
Update: Okay. So I did some research and have learned that you can't root the clover plant from a clipping. :(
While that has put a bit of a kink in our experiment, we're not going to let that stop us. We are heading out today in search of more four leaf clovers. We plan to dig up the plant that contains the four leaf clover and replant it. We will also dig up and replant a second clover plant that does not have a four leaf clover. We will examine them both as they grow and see if either plant produces more four leaf clovers (assuming that they survive the replant).
We did learn something from our first experiment. We discovered that you can't root a clover plant from a clipping. That's the great thing about Science! Sometimes you can learn just as much (or more) from a failed experiment as you can a successful one.
If you would like to try rooting another type of plant from a clipping you would follow the same steps as above (if it's a plant that can be rooted, that is).
Stay tuned! We'll let you know how the replanting experiment works out.
Questions and comments are always welcome. You can also email me at adventuresofahomeschoolmama@gmail.com.
Thanks for stopping by! Please make sure to check back. I'm just getting started but I will be adding new stuff daily.
