New life – plants need water to grow

Teachers’ notes

You will need: packets of mung bean seeds; plastic food trays; sawdust; soil; blotting paper; sand; cloth; paper towels.

Objective: to help the children fi nd out more about the type of conditions needed for seeds to grow successfully.

• You will need to set up the trays before the lesson – each tray lined with a different item (sawdust, soil, blotting paper, sand, cloth and paper towels). Help the children to appreciate the importance of fair testing by discussing why the only variable in the experiment should be what the seeds are growing on.
• Try similar fair tests with other seeds such as grass, lettuce, carrot and radish, and compare the results.

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