A Gourd By Any Other Name Part II

I believe we left the story just when the students discovered the gourds growing in the gan...

One of the plants had several overgrown cucumbers attached to the vine.  They had not been harvested in time to eat them, but I had intentionally left them growing for this lesson.  Once the fruit passes it's peak time for eating, it then focuses energy on seed production.  And the seeds are what we investigated next.

I asked the students what they would see if I cut the cucumber open.  " I think seeds are inside" was one answer.  One boy said " there is water and slime".  I then showed a slice of the cucumber so that they could confirm their guesses.

Next, pairs worked together to disect a slice. 

  The instruction was to separate the seeds.

I asked what the inside felt like.  Descriptions included "it's squishy", "slimy", and "gooey".

One boy said "it feels like rainwater".

Another exclaimed, "I feel like I'm dipping my hand in a cold puddle".

 These two boys worked very diligently on disecting the slice.  Most children simply dug out the center in order to separate the seeds.  But, this team actually quartered the slice and carefully removed the seeds. A mastery of fine motor skills was required to hold the cucumber in place, then move the knife in a slicing motion.

We placed several of the cucumber seeds on a tray and investigated them.  I asked for a description of the seeds.  I explained that we would create a list of characteristics that would describe what the seeds look like.

Most everyone began with describing the color as white.  When I asked what shape they were, the children said "oval".

I asked them to take a close look at the ends of the seeds.  Are they smooth and rounded, or are they pointy on the end?



After close observation, they determined that there was a pointy end.

 It was also agreed that the seeds were flat not "puffed up".  Next I placed a series of seeds on the tray next to the cucumber seeds.  The children used the list of characteristics to compare the new seeds with those that were disected.

Observations included "they are round and not oval", " they don't match", "the other seeds are puffed up and round".

One set of seeds matched all the characteristics except for the color.

The research showed that three out of four characteritics matched.








The students discovered that the seeds were from a different type of gourd plant.  They grew from a loofah gourd plant.

At the conclusion, the children understood that gourd seeds share similar characteristics, just like leaves from a gourd plant.

The Pre-K class concluded with a journaling activity.  They documented the gourd, the oval shaped seed, and the spikey stem and leaf.