LESSON 1: Tour a Power Plant (Science)
LESSON 2: Plants With Personality (Language Arts, Music, Dance, Art)
LESSON 3: You Can Count on Corn (Math)
LESSON 4: Listen to A-Maizing Stories (Social Studies)

*All Lesson plans are adaptable for ALL ages!

CLAIRE PLAYS BASKETBALL

The basketball hoop was brand new and Claire was practicing her shooting. She could jump, turn and sink it every time. She could move from a dribble to the basket in a single motion. She could hit a freethrow three out of four times.

Her sixth grade class was coming to her farm the next day, and she needed to be ready. It was her chance to play the boys on her home turf. They didn't have a prayer. She just hoped there would be time for a game.

Her mom wanted to teach her classmates about corn. She was planning to take them into the field and talk about soil, insects and stuff like that.

Claire wondered if she should ask some of the kids to bring their own basketballs.

She practiced her vertical jump. "Not bad," she thought. She'd had her mom measure her the night before. She'd been recording her height on a wall in the kitchen for 10 years. Once she'd grown an inch in three months. She was five feet five inches now, and she was only 12. That was already taller than her mom.

By the end of the year she hoped she'd be even taller. She didn't want to be as tall as some of the girls who played basketball on TV. She'd hit her head on doors and have a hard time finding clothes she liked. But she did want to play professionally. She was fast. She could jump high. She had a good eye and an accurate arm.

She wasn't very interested in agriculture. Her mom loved it though, so when her class studied Minnesota agriculture, Claire arranged a tour to her farm. She thought her friends would like the computer part of her mom's business. And the microscope part.

But when it was time to walk to the cornfield, Claire was going to nudge them towards the basketball hoop.

The next day Claire woke up feeling strong, limber and eager to beat the boys. She knew that hoop, and she was ready.

The school bus pulled into the yard, and 30 sixth graders jumped out. They looked at a worm under a microscope. They found their houses in satellite photos on the computer. They drank pop sweetened by corn syrup. Then they went out to the field.

This was her chance. She made sure they all saw the basketball hoop as they walked by. Excitement pumped in her blood.

They walked to a row of corn. The plants were four inches tall.

They used tape measures to count how many corn plants were in 1/1000 of an acre. They figured there were 1,200,000 plants in the field where they stood.

They each had a small trowel to dig up one plant. They saw the seed, the root, the new leaves.

"Okay, it's time to play basketball," said Claire. The kids started to run after her. "Wait," said her mom. "I want each of you to learn at least three things about corn before you go."

Claire didn't want to be there. Instead, she could imagine her feet running across the court. She could feel the bounce in her arch, the soft pads cushioning her jump, her toes stretching as she reached for the sky.

"Let's look at the roots. The first one that comes out of the seed only feeds the plant for a few days. Then the nodal roots take over. They find water and food. They go deeper and deeper. By the end of the summer, every plant can have 378 miles of roots in the soil.

Claire wanted to stretch her arms, and reach for the basket.

"The corn plant has 16-18 leaves when it's mature. Those leaves unfurl from the center of the plant." Claire's mom showed them a small green spear rolled deep inside the very center of the stem. "This is called the growing point. All the rest of the leaves start here. Why do you think it's so protected in the middle of the plant?"

Claire caught a pass and pulled it tight into her chest, guarding it until she could twist away into a run.

"If the weather turns cold early in the season, it's warmer deep inside the plant. If there's a hail storm, the outside leaves will be shredded, but the growing point will be safer."

Claire could feel her heart beating faster. Her ribs were moving up and down as she breathed deeply into her lungs.

"As the weather warms up, the leaves unroll, and reach for the sun. The leaves angle upwards so plants can be side by side, very close to each other, and the sun can still reach their surface. They absorb sunlight and help the plant manufacture sugars."

Claire's stomach began to growl. She was impatient.

"Does anyone know that a corn plant can grow over six feet six inches tall?"

Claire stared at her mom. Six feet six inches. That's Michael Jordan's height. What was her mom talking about?

"The corn is only four inches tall today. By the middle of July, 70 days from now, it could be seven feet tall. Corn can grow more than an inch a day."

Claire looked at the little plants around her. There were more than a million plants, and in a couple of months they'd be as tall as Michael Jordan. In 70 days she might be one inch taller, if she was lucky.

She couldn't believe her ears.

"When the plant stops growing taller, it starts putting all its energy into production of an ear. The ear gets food from the leaves and the roots. It grows kernels. There is always an even number of rows of kernels around the ear, usually 14-16. The ears average 40-50 kernels long."

Claire kept score. A million plants, and each one with more than 560 kernels. She had held those ripe ears of corn. Some had bright orange kernels, some were more yellow. She loved to play a game shelling one kernel off at a time. One. Two. Three. Four.

Time was going fast. She looked at her mom. She looked at the field. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. She could imagine these small plants growing before her eyes. Taller. Taller. Taller. Reaching the top of the hoop.