Sword Plant
A terrarium is a great way to teach some lessons about the importance of nature, its interconnectedness, and our role as stewards in helping with the care. With something as simple as a small terrarium you can raise awareness of a child of the earth and the interconnectedness of everything.
There are three easy lessons can be taught with a terrarium as small as a plastic container and some bean plants. They are the administration, the life cycle of plants, and the importance interaction in ecosystems. I will cover all three of these lessons in this article.
Land Management
It can be as simple as a few bean plants in a plastic cup, but is a living thing that children care. And stressing this point can have a dramatic impact. Children respond very well to the responsibility of caring for a living. Plants can even be elevated to the status of pets. But one very important thing that can stress is that the small terrarium is a small sample of the largest in the world we live in, and this great world is full of plants, animals, and systems eco-it is also necessary that we be responsible. From the smallest of seeds can expand the consciousness of the administration tries to cover everyone.
The life cycle of plants
Some of this depends on the selection of plants, but the most common plants used in a terrarium follow a fairly normal life cycle that can be observed and understood by children.
Here is a summary of the life cycle of a plant:
- The seed is planted in fertile soil where it germinates nutrient use has been contained in itself. This system consists of an embryo or small plant lists to germinate surrounded by the cotyledon or seed cover that stores the first food from the seed. This configuration of seed and food gives the seed its start
- When the seed germinates it grows a root into the earth and a shooting in the air. These things acquire water and nutrients from the soil and sunlight from the air. These sources of nutrients become the plants supply of food, as we have exhausted the cotyledon
- The plant grows in maturity and growing shoots that become flowers
- The flowers are pollinated and produce new seeds
- The seeds are distributed by a variety of creative ways and the cycle begins again
Interaction Systems
In the eco-systems in the real world can become extremely complex systems of interactions in which many types of plants, animals and insects contribute in their own way. While it is likely that you can not build a complex system in a small terrarium you can display and discuss the importance of how plants interact to create a whole unit.
The best example is the participation of, and competition for water resources, sunlight and nutrients. This is particularly evident when using different types of plants. Some plants send extensive root systems in an attempt to monopolize nutrients in the soil while other plants will shoot tall and have large leaf systems that can potentially block sunlight from reaching the lower floors. Some plants grow very fast in a race to get all the resources before other plants have the chance to take root. These factors are only a small part of the interaction that occurs in up to smaller ecosystems, but they are a good way to start the thinking process of how systems of plants and animals interact in complex ways.
A terrarium is a very simple yet profound thing that can enrich the life of a child in ways that are very important. You can teach a child to care for living things and to be more aware of the complexity of the natural world that we live
For more interesting terrarium projects and ideas visit the authors website at: Terrarium Man
29 Gallon Fish Tank Update# 1
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