Plan
- What do plants need in order to grow?
- How can you help a plant grow faster?
- Have you ever helped out in the garden?
- Why are greenhouses used to grow plants?
- How can you build a greenhouse with the materials you have?
- Soak the beans overnight the day before this adventure.
- How will you track how much each plant has grown?
Do
Build four different spaces for beans to grow:
- Water in a cup
- Water and soil in a cup
- Water in a greenhouse
- Water and soil in a greenhouse
Take your bean cups home and see how they grow during the week. How do you think you can record the growth of the beans?
Build your greenhouse by planting your bean in a clear plastic cup and taping another plastic cup upside down on top of it. Place in direct sunlight, and open occasionally to water.
Review
- What do you know now that you did not know before?
- What did you see during the week?
- What did the plants look like every day?
- How were beans in the cups different? Why do you think this was?
- What elements of STEM were in this activity? Science? Technology? Engineering? Mathematics?
- What did you like about this activity? What did you not like about it? How would you do this activity differently?
Materials
- 6 clear, plastic cups for each person
- Soil
- Paper towels
- Water
- 4 paper rulers for each person
- Masking tape
Keep it Simple
- Try growing chia seeds on a tissue, you can add it into an egg shell and watch your pet grow some hair.
Take it Further
- Can you scale this up and make a larger greenhouse for a plant?
