Saturday, August 29, 2009

Horticulture


I kind of slowed down on the posting because I started school last week. I'm taking my first horticulture class. I really like my teacher, Dr. Lohr. (She's also the counselor who helps me plan out my class schedule.) It's fun to learn about the plants, but it's also a lot of new stuff to learn in a short time. We have a class website that I use a lot to work on learning the plants with their names and what they look like. If you're into plants you can check it out too!

http://classes.hortla.wsu.edu/hort231

This week we are learning the first plant list: Annuals.


The lab last week was kind of fun too. We all had to introduce ourselves in front of the class using the microphone. I think it's funny that some of my teachers use a microphone in class. The biology teacher has one of those little ones stuck on the collar of his shirt. There are about 300-400 kids in that class though, so it probably would be hard to hear without the mic.


Anyway, one of the goals my teacher has for this horticulture class is to teach us how to speak in public. It's kind of nice that I've already had practice with that through church things. Most of the kids in class had never spoken into a mic before.


The other thing we did in lab was study a few plant samples (in our group of 3 or 4 people) and discuss the differences and similarities. I thought it was fun, but I also kind of had to laugh. I could imagine a lot of people saying, "Well, they all have green leaves, and they're different cause they're not the same plant. Big Woop." It takes a special kind of patience to spend 30 minutes inspecting two plant branches and find something in the tiny details like, "This plant has slightly longer petioles than the other plant."


The other thing about this class that is cool is that if I do really well on the first two major exams I can skip the final. We have three major exams in class and she will drop the lowest one. That would be a big load off my shoulders to not worry about the final in this class...then I could spend all my time on studying chemistry--which I'm sure I'll need a lot of time for that.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like flowers. They don't rip each other apart and eat each other. They just say Hi everybody, look at ME! Other plants, however, are not so nice. Like the ivy we have that slowly strangles the tree to death over months.

Granma Faye said...

Pretty pictures, Holly. Colorful! Glad you're enjoying learning all this stuff. It's good to know. Also, that's nice about the test policy. That relieves some stress. What I always hated were comprehensive exams--a TON of stuff to remember for the entire quarter (or semester.) Yay! I'm sure you'll do just fine. ♥

Summer said...

those are so pretty! That is neat you are learning all about that. I know practically nothing about plants. I even mistook an overgrown weed for a fern back in 8th grade! ahahhahhahh

Kaela said...

I am so excited you are studying all of this stuff. Is this what you are majoring and planning on graduating in? Because you are amazing with this kind of stuff! I am like Summer and practically know nothing about plants, but your love for them inspires me to learn more:)