Mother Nature Knows Best Times to Sleep, Eat, Etc

This article shows teachers ways to use an organism’s biological clock to design an inquiry experiment. The Shamrock plant was highlighted to model the experimental process. Students tried... See More

This article shows teachers ways to use an organism’s biological clock to design an inquiry experiment. The Shamrock plant was highlighted to model the experimental process. Students tried to reset the opening and closing of the leaves of the Shamrock plant by introducing an artificial source of light. The teacher included the rubric she used to evaluate her students’ work. There is also an extensive list of potential extended biological-clock investigations to help students determine what to experiment with. If one wishes to replicate the Shamrock experiment, the activity worksheet is included. This was a 4-day lesson completed with upper elementary school students.