It’s fascinating for kids to learn about germination and how a tinny little seed grows into a big plant. In four lines of the below poetry, you get a glimpse of how a seed grows;

“I’m a little seed in the dark,

dark ground Out comes the sun,

yellow and round Down comes the cool rain,

soft and slow Up! the seed begins to grow!”

Once children have danced and sung to the tunes and have been verbally introduced to the topic; it’s time to get hands-on and show them the process of germination.

Germination Experiment

Materials Required:

• Plastic Ziplock Bag
• Spray bottle with water
• Tissue paper
• Tape
• Unsprouted Bean Seeds (Example: Kidney bean, chickpea, Lima beans)

Method:

• Dampen the tissue paper by spraying water all over it. Now fold the tissue paper into half and place it in the Ziplock bag.
• Pick any one side, and drop 3-4 the beans on that side of the bag. Zip the bag and seal it with a tape for extra caution.
• Place the bag in sunlight at your window sill, such that the child can observe every little change through the sprouting process.
• Wait for 24 hours and let for your kids discover the shoot growing by splitting the seed cover. The seed pops open and the bean begins to sprout.
• After 4 days to a week’s time, the shoot is fully grown, that is, the bean is sprouted fully.
• Wait for some more time and notice that leaves start forming at the tip of the cotyledon.
• Its time to move the experiment outdoors in the garden or sow them in a flower pot, to continue tracking the growth stages

Planting the sprout:

• Take sufficient amount of soil and ‘till the soil’, which means, turning the soil, stirring and digging it, until the soil is property aerated.
• Dig a little hole in the middle of a heap of soil using your finger and gently place one sported bean in the dug hole. Keep some distance between the planted bean sprouts in your gardens.
• Fill the hole carefully using your hands by sliding some soil over the hole.
• Water the planting regularly with a watering can. Remember just the right amount of water is required to moisten the soil. Over watering will simply do more harm, than any good to the plant.
• After a few days, you should be able to see the shoot appear, as it protrudes from the soil and grows upwards.
• A few leaves grow into many others and after a period of 2-3 weeks, we can even see the bean pod hanging from the stem. Wait for it to fully grow, before you pluck the pods and collect the beans.
• And there you have it, another plant which bears daintily little beans!

Reiterate the following points once the experiment has concluded;

• A bean seed grows into a bean plant. The pods will have 3-4 bean seeds which can be replanted.
• There are different varieties of beans and each have their own characteristics. Some beans are black, some are red, while others are even yellow.
• The seed first grows a root which goes downwards into the soil, and then the shoot emerges and grows above the soil.
• The roots hold the plant into the soil firmly as they begin to branch from the central root which grew first. Roots mainly absorb water and nutrients from the soil and keep the plant healthy.
• The shoot grows upwards in the direction of sunlight.

Carolina specially designs & supplies kits for students, that offers lessons across different grades covering important science concepts. Schools that follow the k-12 curriculum and IB culture benefit manifold from the kit and most institutes in GCC Countries in the Middle East avail the lab kits for students to practice hands-on lessons. For the purpose of germination experiment make use of the Carolina® Seed Starter Mix and Seed Starter Kit, to delve deeper on this topic. The unit includes the following – a teacher’s guide, access to online digital resources, supplies, and materials sufficient for the entire class.

To learn more about other such interesting kits by Carolina for those in the UAE, including Dubai, head to our website https://knowledge-hub.com/carolina-biological/

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