Life’s Better with Beans
In our last Science unit of the year, we’ve been learning about plants and soil. We’ve examined a soil sample up close and divided the various treasures we found into different sections including roots, twigs/branches, leaves, rocks, bugs.
We’ve learned about the parts of plants such as the stem and leaves along with the process of photosynthesis. Plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create oxygen and energy in the form of glucose.
But most excitingly we grew our own plants from seeds!
We began with 2 different types of bean seeds: pinto and kidney beans. We put 4-5 beans in a plastic bag with some cotton balls and kept them in the window. We kept them moist but not too moist using a spray bottle.
We observed both beans did well germinating, however, the pinto beans seemed to flourish and sprout faster than the kidney. We’ve already taken home our beans now.
What did you choose to do with them?
-
- From this
-
- to this!
We also decided to plant some herbs including basil, parsley, and dill. They all grew quite well in soil. Finally, we planted tomato plants. Half the class planted tomato seeds that had been to outer space (at the International Space Station) and the other half had not. Thank you to Tomatosphere for providing the seeds! We did not notice much of a difference between the plants in the early stages, but perhaps if we had observed them over a longer period of time, there could be some differences. Hmmmm.
We are now researching our own plant and will present the information in a Google slideshow. We can’t wait to learn all about each other’s plants. Mrs. S also has a plant she’ll present about as well!
Some of the plants we are researching include:
- Mint
- Pitcher Plant
- Redwood tree
- Mangrove
- Lily of the Valley
- Monkey Orchid
- Sunflower
Who has the Lily of the Valley? Always a magical fragrance. One of my mum’s favourites.
I love the idea of getting the seeds from Tomatosphere. It is never too early to get into science.
What i noticed was the sentence, “We did not notice much of a difference between the plants in the early stages, but perhaps if we had observed them over a longer period of time, there could be some differences,”
It is the same thing when we are comparing the effects of new medicines to existing ones. Most studies last for 12 weeks maximum. We are always mindful that more could be observed if studies lasted longer.
Very good.
Yes, Lily of the Valley is one of my favourites, too. It was in our garden growing up and reminds me of my parents. Thus, I have lots in my garden now too. It’s too bad it doesn’t last longer. The fragrance is so beautiful.