Science on the Move
Traveling botany lesson is fun that just can't be 'beet'
By Susan Whitney , Deseret Morning News, Friday, Nov. 25, 2005
NEOLA, Duchesne County — "It's a turnip."
"No, it's a radish."
"I smelled it, and it smells like a garden."
The identification debate goes on here at Neola Elementary. The children are sure the lump on the desk in front of them is not an onion. Not a potato. What is that aroma? Does it smell like anything they've ever smelled before?
Finally, with generous hints from a visiting botanist, one of Mary Jane Page's fourth-graders comes up with the right answer: This is a beet.
But now, another challenge, as the visiting botanist, Michael Windham, asks the class, "What part of the plant is a beet?"
They've already cut it open and learned it has no seeds. So it is not a fruit. It doesn't really look like a leaf, either. Or a flower. Windham shows them a beet with its leaves still attached, and they quickly decide it is a root.