Early Science  /  Plants  /  Hands-On  /  Activity

A Seed Without Water

 

Plants
Hands-On

Children investigate whether a seed will sprout and grow without water.

Student looking at bag of seeds. Two students looking at bag of seeds together.

What is in this bag in addition to our sprouting seeds?

Why do you think we put a wet paper towel in with the bean seed?

 

Materials


  • 2 sealable plastic sandwich bags
  • Moist paper towel
  • Dry paper towel
  • Presoaked bean seeds
  • Dry bean seeds
  • Chart paper
  • Marker

Preparation

  1. The day before this experiment, soak some of the bean seeds in cool water overnight.
  2. Put the moist paper towel and the presoaked beans in one plastic sandwich bag.
  3. Make a two-column chart on a sheet of paper. Label the columns “Will grow” and “Will not grow.” Post it where children can see it.
 

Directions: Lesson 1


Circle Time: Wrap-Up
  1. Display the bean seeds that have been “planted” in a plastic sandwich bag along with a moist paper towel. Possible discussion ideas:
    • What is in this bag? What else?
    • Why do you think we put a wet paper towel in with the bean seed?
    • Do you think that a seed needs water in order to grow? Why?
  2. Talk about what you are doing as you place a few dry bean seeds on a dry, folded paper towel and put them, with the dry paper towel, in a plastic sandwich bag. Explain that you are setting up an experiment to find out what will happen to seeds that do not get water. Possible discussion ideas:
    • What do you predict will happen to the dry bean seeds?
    • Reiterate the ideas children offer.
    • Does someone have a different prediction?
    • Why do you think that?
  3. Record children’s predictions on the chart paper. Let’s count how many people predict that the bean seeds will/will not grow. How many people predict that the seeds will grow? How many predict that the seeds will NOT grow? Record predictions on the chart. This week, we will watch our experiment and see what happens!
 

Directions: Lesson 2


Circle Time: Wrap-Up
  1. Display the dry beans inside their plastic bag with a dry paper towel. For contrast, also display the presoaked beans in the plastic bag with the moist paper towel. Ask children to recall the experiment and the question you had posed. (Do you think that a seed needs water in order to grow?) Possible discussion ideas:
    • What did we put inside these sandwich bags?
    • How are they different from each other?
    • Why did we put the dry bean seeds in the plastic bag? What did we want to find out?
  2. Review the predictions children made earlier on chart paper. Possible discussion ideas:
    • Have these dry/wet bean seeds sprouted? Have they changed?
    • Talk about how it takes time for plants to grow. Do you predict the seeds might start to sprout and grow a few days from now? Why?
    • Does someone have a different prediction, or the same prediction? Tell us about your ideas.
  3. Count together and record children’s updated predictions on the chart paper. Possible discussion ideas:
    • How many people predict that the seeds will grow?
    • How many people predict that the seeds will NOT grow?
    • We will check back on our experiment in a couple of days and see what has happened.
 

Directions: Lesson 3


Circle Time: Wrap-Up
  1. Display the sandwich bag with the dry beans and dry paper towel. For contrast, also display the presoaked beans in the plastic bag with the moist paper towel. Discuss the experiment.
    • Let’s look at our experiment. How are these two bags with beans different?
    • What happened to the wet seeds?
    • What happened to the dry seeds?
  2. Review the predictions children made earlier on chart paper. Possible discussion ideas:
    • Were most of us correct in our predictions?
    • What did you learn from this experiment? Why do you think the dry seeds did not grow?
    • Encourage children to expand on each other’s comments. Who would like to add to what (child’s name) just shared?

Length of Play

5 min.

Group Size
In the Schedule

 
Vocabulary

  • bean
  • compare
  • grow
  • predict
  • seeds
  • sprout (noun)
 
Learning Goals

Science
  • Observe and describe what plants need to live and grow.
  • Observe and describe how plants change over time.
  • Predict how plants change over time.
  • Construct explanations about how plants change over time.
Math
  • Count a set of objects with one-to-one correspondence.