I'm Still Wiggling and Weaving and Even Webbing

I've read my books and done the searching that I can think of to do. As I was rereading my own blog, I remembered the local county extension agent had told me to do a Google search with the state name + county extension office. I had forgotten about that, but had needed to find out which states grew cotton before I could do that research! I started on that path and discovered a webpage with all the state county extension webpages which made things easier: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/netlinks/ces.html. Surprisingly, there was very little information at any of the states' county extension webpages that was of value for me. Most was quite technical and useful for a cotton farmer. Alabama had a coloring page or two that I thought would be useful for the classroom.
I was judging my sources as I read, ready to trust whatever I found at the county extension sites, but found very little! Most of the websites I checked, I found believable because several of them were national organizations such as the National Cotton Council. One specific site called Cottons Journey had lots of information for helping children learn about how cotton grows. I didn't see a specific tie to a national organization, but addresses and phone numbers were given for contact and ordering information. One website, written by a cotton grower (grows it for spinning on a small scale), indicates that a cotton plant will last several years if not frostbitten. That little tidbit I'm wondering about. I have my own cotton plant to test it out.....and I have it indoors where it will not get frostbitten (which is what this woman says she does). Time will tell.
The books I read had copyrights of 1977, 1982 and 1994. I really wanted an up-to-date title with information about how to grow cotton. What has changed over the years? One book I read with a copyright of 2006 was not about how to grow cotton, but about the history of the cotton industry in America from colonial times to the present. It was this book that had me thinking about bigger issues about cotton growing for older children to pursue.

Some Pictures

Photo top left shows a closer view of the cotton boll about 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Photo top right shows the cotton bolls as of yesterday (and now at school in the south window). I'm wondering if eventually it's going to look like a big fluffly ball....the seeds are "buried" at the bottom of the cotton boll. The outer case is hard and would definitely hurt if picking cotton all day by hand!

This shows the cotton plant about 2 1/2 weeks ago. In the future, I would stake the plant--it seemed to fall over, but continued to grow.

I'm Wiggling and Weaving.....

I thought I had this all figured out. I was reading the books I had checked out at the libraries and my thoughts were going some different directions--becoming aware of other avenues this inquiry could take, particularly if I were thinking of older students. But then, I suddenly realized that my inquiry is not only about learning about how cotton grows and what it is used for, also I'm on a search for teaching resources to teach these things to children! Can I be on two searches? It feels like I'm evaluating sources from both aspects.
I also had this idea that maybe a search at the John Deere website would have some resources about cotton picking....and if I were really lucky they would have something for children there. Well, I checked and didn't find anything specific for children, but there is a video to watch a cotton picker at work!
My mind has really been moving to the "wrapping" phase of this project and I'm contemplating a webquest as a way to share the information. (I'm thinking this is a very normal way that students' minds would work--trying to get the end product figured out in order to kind of figure out the middle part. Am I the only one doing the "wrapping" phase while webbing, wiggling and weaving?)

I'm Searching....and Finding

I've been searching in a random sort of way. As I mentioned earlier, I had gone to the local public library and did a search using the term "cotton." Through that search I found the book, Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America by Deborah Hopkinson, Scholastic, 2006. I started reading this book and thought about some other avenues this research could take: the invention of the cotton gin and how that changed growing cotton, Eli Whitney--the inventor of the cotton gin, the Civil War and growing cotton, slavery and growing cotton. Since I'm thinking of this with first graders in mind, these new avenues don't quite fit what they can understand. But it was interesting to think about how this project could be done school-wide!
I also found another book about growing cotton there at the library, but haven't really looked at it yet.
I also searched at the school where I work and found two more books on cotton. By looking at www.BarnesandNoble.com I discovered a title that I thought would provide some helpful information, so requested that book through interlibrary loan.
I searched the catalog of a nearby public library and found another title that I thought might be helpful, but haven't gone to check it out yet.
This week I called the local county extension agent, thinking that he would have some access to other states' county extension resources. Instead of any special access, he said he could do a Google search for "growing cotton + Texas county extension office" (or any other cotton growing state). That was a dissapointment! When I learn what all the cotton growing states are, I can do that search myself! (If I were researching a crop grown locally, I believe he would have resources for me.)
I have done a Google search using the term "cotton" and found particularly two websites that I think will have some valuable resources. The website for the National Cotton Council of American is www.cotton.org. www.cottonsjourney.com is "The only cotton education site for classroom teachers providing curriculum, literature resources, links to cotton." I've explored that last site a bit and believe there are some valuable resources there.
At this point, I think I can find the answers to my questions, but I'm also leaping ahead in my thinking and trying to figure out the "wrapping" part and that has me in a quandry as much as anything else!

I'm Wondering Right Now

I've been thinking about my topic and trying to formulate my questions. As I was doing my reading about graphic organizers, I was trying to do one in my head and it just wasn't coming together. The things I was thinking about didn't seem to fit in a graphic organizer. Then I read about doing a KWL chart. I've know about those and done those with students, but hadn't thought about it for this project. A KWL chart made sense for this project at this point in time!


What I Know
Cotton grows in warm climates.
Cotton is picked and used to make many things.
Cotton grows in the southern United States.
The cotton plant produces cotton bolls.

What I Want to Know
What are the exact (how warm or cool?) growing conditions for cotton?
What are the “many things” cotton is used for?
Which are the cotton producing states?
What are the steps in harvesting cotton?
Are there different kinds of cotton plants?

(I couldn't get the KWL chart I created in Word to transfer! so I improvised. The "What I Learned" part is not listed, because I'm not at that point yet!)

How It All Started

I thought maybe I should explain how my curiousity about cotton started before I delve into this further. Last April I had received either an issue of "Birds and Blooms" magazine or "Country Woman" magazine in the mail. As I was browsing through it, I had these fleeting thoughts that lasted all of about 2 minutes: I wonder if I could grow cotton in the classroom so the children could see how we get cotton.....I guess I could write to this magazine and ask if anyone could answer that question (if it's possible to do that) and also if anyone had seeds to share with me....(I don't even know what I saw in the magazine that triggered those thoughts!)
On Memorial Day I was buying plants at a local greenhouse and I saw that they had listed on a price board "cotton plant $ .99" So I inquired about what that was. (I know it seems obvious, but how could it be so easy?!) I was told they had cotton plants for sale! I immediately said I wanted one. She told me then that they get cotton seeds in their cow feed and they planted them! (I knew that at one time, because my brother was feeding his cows feed that had cotton seed in it.) So I brought my cotton plant home, transplanted it in a pot and put it on the deck to see what would happen....

Here We Go...

I needed to go to the local public library today, so decided to begin my search for information! I did a subject search for "cotton." Only 2 non-fiction books were listed, both in the children's library. (There were several listed as fiction.) Of course, they were checked in--who else would be interested in this topic?! I checked them out and will need to begin some reading.
Earlier this summer I had done a Google search on "growing cotton" and looked at some of the results. I'll need to go back and check them out again--with new eyes!
Before I left the library, I perused the shelves with new books to the library (non-fiction, of course). There was a book about spaghetti sauces--that topic I didn't choose. I had a moment of thinking about how I'll probably be seeing all this information about the topic I didn't choose. At least I know some information is there when I get around to it!
I'll need to do some listing of specific questions I'd like to find answers to--some are floating around in my head, but at this point, nothing is in print.

I've Made My Decision

I have this theory that if I think long enough about things, I'll figure it out. That can sometimes result in lots of thinking! I suddenly remembered something I've been wondering about....what is the difference between spaghetti, pizza and marinara sauce? I started thinking about how I would work at finding the answer. I thought of a huge book about food in the reference section at the public library (learned about in the reference class). I thought about calling the county extension agent to see how she would explain it. I could check recipes to see what ingredients or processes are different. But how would this link to standards? Maybe it would connect in the high school group, but I'm listed in the younger age group. Dr. Lamb says anything can be connected to standards--this would be my opportunity to find out how to do that!
But then I came back to my cotton plant growing on my deck. I've showed this plant to various people in my life and as we chat about it, always come up with questions that I don't have the answers to! It's soon going to be too cold to keep it on the deck, so I'll take it to school and share it with my first graders. At this point, I don't have a plan for what we're going to do with it at school. Learning about cotton is something I'm going to need to be doing anyway in light of what I plan to do with it, and this way I would do a better job of having a plan. I also don't know a lot about how it grows (the conditions it needs) or how it is harvested and what happens next. It will be interesting to see what questions the kids ask.....oh, dear, what if they aren't interested? Hadn't thought about that before! (I did successfully interest them in observing the life cycle of a monarch butterfly by bringing in monarch caterpillars.) I think this project can be linked more easily to standards.
So...I've decided....I'm going to learn about how cotton grows. I made my decision based on a curiousity. Because of my plan to take it to school, I'll need to pursue further learning anyway, so why not make this my project? But, someday, I will find out the difference between spaghetti, pizza and marinara sauce!

What to do....

This project has me puzzled....puzzled over what topic to pick and puzzled about why, when I have an opportunity (and excuse!) to persue an interest, I can't think of anything! There are so many times that I've looked at lists of books or books on the shelf and thought there were many that looked intriguing...if I just had the time. Now when I need to take the time, I can't figure out what to delve into! I've even looked at past students' pursuits....
In my introduction, I mentioned a cotton plant that I had growing on my deck just because I was curious about this. Maybe I should pursue that topic in depth.
I thought about checking with my son's teacher about the IN history topic and seeing if something there would spark my interest.
I definitely have other interests: reading, sewing, knitting, gardening, piecing quilts, but can't figure out an avenue in one of those areas of interest to do some inquiry!
Yesterday as I was kicking this around the cerebral circumference (a borrowed, but descriptive, phrase), I thought about a science project that I always thought would be interesting to do. I finally did it a couple years ago with my first graders. This was a controlled project: we asked the question about how accurate is the weather forecast. We kept track of the predicted high temperature and actual high temperature for about 30 days (not exactly sure how long). We discovered that sometimes the prediction is higher and sometimes the prediction is lower! Science projects must put students in this same quandry of what topic to pick!