Kenan Fellows
Sustainability: Learning for a Lifetime – Soil
Do great gardeners really have green thumbs—or just really great soil? Environmental scholars discover what makes Earth's soil and soil quality so important through research and experimentation. Learners also develop an understanding of...
Curated OER
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Young gardners read and listen to books about seeds, plants, and the growing process. They plant seeds in plastic cups to observe the process of root-growing and plant formation. The whole class walks through a field to collect seeds...
Curated OER
All About Seeds!
How do fruits relate to flowers and seeds? Identify the seeds and their purpose with a coloring activity for kindergartners. Once they color the seeds of apples, bananas, and peas (among others), kids get hands-on experience with bean...
Nuffield Foundation
Investigating the Effects of Biochar on Soil Fertility
Breathe some new life into charcoal. Scholars use biochar to improve soil fertility. They test the effectiveness of this addition by conducting an experiment with soil having 0%, 2%, and 4% biochar.
Curated OER
Growing from Seed
High school or college horticulturists will appreciate this PowerPoint on seed-propagation. It walks them through the science behind seed production and germination as well as the requirements for growing plants from this stage....
Curated OER
Analyzing Soil Samples
Students grow grass or radish seeds in this experiment, which takes three to four weeks to complete. They become familiar with basic soil analysis techniques, as well as, explore the importance of analyzing soil samples.
Curated OER
What Plants Need in Order to Survive and Grow: Soil
Students conduct an experiment to evaluate whether plants need soil to survive and grow. They plant two seeds, one with soil and one without, make predictions, and record and analyze the seed germination results on a worksheet.
Curated OER
Apple: Seed to Tree
Students grow seeds of an apple and learn about Johnny Appleseed. For this apples lesson plan, students map Johnny Appleseed's travels, learn how he got his name, compare different Johnny Appleseed books, and grow apple seeds themselves.
Curated OER
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Students read The Garden by Arnold Lobel, plant seeds to discover what makes them grow, and record their observations in their journals.
Curated OER
Will It Grow?
Fifth graders conduct experiments involving plants. In this science lesson, 5th graders design an experiment involving plants. Students use the scientific method to design their experiments.
Curated OER
Growing Things - Structure of Plants
For this plant worksheet, students read about plants and growing things from a seed. They then answer the 14 questions on the worksheet. The answers are on the last page.
Curated OER
Seed Socks
Students explore how seeds travel. In this seed disbursement lesson, students head outside in their bare socks. Students walk around then before going inside they take the socks off and examine what their socks picked up. As a class the...
Curated OER
My Little Seed House
First graders read a story. In this seeds lesson plan, 1st graders read The Tiny Seed and make their own seed house. Students write down their observations and complete a worksheet.
Curated OER
Discovering Seeds
Young scholars compare seeds with seedlings. In this life science lesson, students make observations of seedlings and the seeds they grew from, paying special attention to the roots. Lesson includes extension activities.
Curated OER
Growing a Lawn
Students research plant growth. For this plant growth lesson, students explore the needs of plants. Students compare and contrast grass and broadleaf plants and grow a miniature lawn in a cup of soil. Resources are provided.
Curated OER
GROWING PLANTS UNIT
Students predict outcomes of scientific experiment,.conduct a scientific experiment with control groups, and plant seeds to observe, measure, and compare growth across groups. They gather, record, analyze, and share data with other...
Curated OER
Plants Alive! How Plants Grow and Move
Students explore how plants move in response to the environment. For this plant lesson, students engage in three different experiments to investigate how plants grow and move. Resources available in English and French.
Curated OER
Growing plants
Students explore plants and recognize that they are living things that require light and water to grow; students identify, name and match the parts of plants.
Mixing In Math
Mixing in Math: Growing Plants
Whether you have your class plant seeds or begin when sprouts are visible, math skills are used here to predict and track growth over time. Straw bar graphs show plant height on a given day while the graph as a whole shows changes over...
Curated OER
Growing Flowers
Students grow flowers from seeds. They plant quick-growing seeds in a flower pot and consider what a seed needs to grow. They observe and record the growth of the planted seeds in science journals.
Curated OER
Should Soil Be Sterile?
Students determine if the sterilization of topsoil is beneficial to seed germination and plant growth. They grow plants alongside control groups, make and record observations of plant growth and measure plant biomass.
Curated OER
Salt, Soil and Seeds
Students investigate seed growth by experimenting with different soils. In this ecology lesson plan, students plant seeds in paper cups and add differing amounts of salt to enhance the growth process. Students record which...
Illustrative Mathematics
Growing Bean Plants
Plant growth experiments offer rich, cross-curricular learning opportunities that can really excite and engage young learners. In this series, children work in pairs planting, measuring, and comparing the height of bean plants in order...
Curated OER
Oyster Gardens - No Soil Required!
Explore the practice of oyster gardening. Because oysters play a vital role in marine ecosystems and their populations have declined, biologists are transplanting oyster seed to repopulate reefs. After learning about this practice,...