Spring is a time when many people plant flowers, and for biology students in Deana Cowger’s class, it means the opportunity to plant four different seeds: sunflower, petunia, zinnia, and corn as they learn about gravitropism.

“It started out, we had a class activity where we were looking at gravitropism which is how plants respond to gravity because the roots go down for gravity and they can sense that so students did a lab where they grew some corn seeds,” biology teacher Deana Cowger said. “They put them in a petri dish and then they got to see how the roots will go down for gravity and I told them that if they wanted to go ahead and plant their corn seeds, after it sprouted, they had soil and some pots and so several of them decided to go ahead and plant their corn and then I also just went and bought some zinnia seeds at this store and I had sunflower seeds so some of them just decided to grow their own plants.”

The project allows students to learn the responsibilities of taking care of a plant while learning more about biology.

“We’re growing plants, all kinds of flowers to learn about the plant anatomy and physiology, so basically the structures and how they work and we also learn about how plants reproduce,” freshman Indu Kancharla said. “Ms. Cowger gave us an opportunity to grow a flower with a partner, and so basically it helps us understand the responsibility of growing a plant and their structure such as the filament and the stigma, and stem and basically people come in about everyday or every other day to water the plants.”

It’s not the first time biology students have been given the chance to grow plants, but Cowger wants this year’s students to have the gardening experience.

“I’m just hoping that a lot of students haven’t ever grown anything,” Cowger said. “I’m just trying to give them the experience of putting their hands in soil and growing something and watching it grow and have to come in every couple of class periods or check it when they come and see if it’s growing and also to make sure they’re watering it. A lot of them get really excited. They come in and that’s the first thing they want to go back and see if their seed is sprouted or not or how far it has come along.”