Sunday, May 20, 2012

Flooding the Nile - Week 3

Flooding the Nile for the third time tied nicely into our scince seed theme for the week. It was especially nice to be able to examine how seeds we had planted previously were growing. At the end of week 2 you can see the water has receded pretty significantly, we've moved the pyramids because we learned they sit on the west side of the Nile (this picture makes them look like the east but the mountains are in southern {upper} and the Nile Delta is in northern {lower} Egypt), and our crops still didn't grow very well...
 Here we are discussing the issue(s) of our crop failure...
 Then we had a revelation!!! Actually, this was pretty goofy especially on my part. Egyptian farmers didn't mind the floods because they brought rich silt to their fields. It was okay that the river flooded the fields because it occurred at the same time every year and farmers waited until AFTER the flood to plant their crops. Yes, it took us 3 tries to realize we needed to flood the Nile first and then plant our seeds so they didn't wash away. What a lesson in using thinking skills and not just doing what is habit! I guess because I'm so used to planting and then watering I didn't even stop to think about what we were doing. Glad we had this (not so brilliant) aha moment!
 After a bit of discussion regarding planting the seeds after the flood, we decided it would actually make even more sense to wait until the water had an opportunity to recede for a day or two before planting. I'm telling you there was super Lueker brainpower at work this week! lol :) Here the girls are planting their grass seed (again).
 Our finished product - if our crops don't grow well this week, I give up! :)

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