Room 13 gets Botanical!

This afternoon, we put science into practice by planning and conducting our own emprical, scientific experiment. This term, we have been learning more about the life of plants and how they grow. We learned that plants make seeds which are dispersed and when they have enough water, light, heat and minerals, they begin to germinate and grow into new plants. This afternoon we wanted to investigate this to see if it was true. So, we formed our own research groups and created a hypothesis (prediction) to record what we thought would happen if we took away one of the things that seeds are said to need, in order to grow. Most of us decided to make light the variable we would test. Using cress seeds (because they tend to grow quite quickly), we planted some seeds into two seperate cups, using damp kitchen roll/tissue to simulate the way soil soaks up water. To make it a fair test, each group put one cup on the window ledge (to give good access to light) and the other cup in the cupboard (to take away access to light).  We will measure the growth of each cup of seeds in a few days, to see how changing the conditions (light/no light) affects how the seeds grow.

Just about to put our cups of seeds
into the cupboard.

Each research group's cup of seeds in the no light (experimental) group, tucked away
from the light.

Each research group's cup of seeds in the light (control) group.