Activity (Hands-On)Grades K - 2
Light Plants and Dark Plants, Wet Plants and Dry Ones
Students plant sunflower seeds in plastic cups, and once germinated, expose them to varying light or soil moisture conditions. They measure the seedlings' growth every few days using non-standard measurement (inch cubes). After a few weeks, they compare the growth of plants exposed to the different conditions and make comparative bar graphs that they analyze to draw conclusions about plant needs.
Students experiment with growing conditions.Copyright http://www.wsu.edu/~lohr/wcl/
Determining the optimal environments for growing crops and other plants used to produce products is a big part of agricultural engineering.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Identify water, light and nutrients as needs of plants.
- Measure heights of objects using inch-cubes.
- Display data in the form of pictorial bar graphs.
- State conclusions drawn from bar graphs.