Pumpkinology

A Brief History

Runaway Pumpkinby Kevin Lewis

Publisher Orchard Booksan imprint of Scholastic Inc

ISBN: 0-439-43974-4Amazon ISBN: 0439474221

Jack-O-Lantern ?

Why not Jill-O-Lantern ?So how do we tell the difference between the male and the female?

Take a look and decide if the pumpkins are male or female

Is there a relationship between the circumference and the mass of the pumpkin?

What should we do to find out?

Data Collection

Let’s Do It !Place a dot on the Graphwhen you have made your measurements

Is there a relationship between the mass of the pumpkin and the number of seeds inside?

What should we do to find out?

Data Collection

Should we count all the seeds or only the fertilized seeds?

How do we know if they are fertilized ?

BUT FIRST...

Fruits have “carpels” or little rooms inside the fruit where the seeds develop.

Look at apple carpels

How many carpels in the pumpkin ?

Pumpkin Life Cycle

Will the seeds grow ?Are they monocot or dicot seeds ?Do the seeds need to be dried first ?Should we take off the seed covering ?What method gets them growing fastest ?

THE END

Can we prevent or at least slow down the “rot process”?

What methods could we use?

Just watch it rot !

What methods could we use?

?

Class Motto: To get a good idea we need to get a lot of ideas.

Other StuffSink or Float Activities

Once we were tossing things into a bucket of water to see if they floated or sunk. Bowling balls are all the same dimensions but some float and some sink. Pumpkins probably are similar to bowling balls. Try it.Try other fruits and vegetables.

More Data CollectionFind the total mass of the seeds as a percentage of the total mass of the pumpkin.

Roasting the seeds is fun and good for you.

Food

Anything from “Runaway Pumpkin”- pie, bread, soup, etc.

If all the seeds grew into a pumpkin plant and produced just one pumpkin like yours, how many plants would you have in two years?

PumpkinologyThank you for your

participation