We love digging in the garden and learning from our gardening experiences. There are so many interesting spring and summer science experiments that involve plants and flowers. Remember when we dyed carnations? We’ve shared so many cool STEM activities, summer STEM activities and winter STEM activities over the years. This science experiment combines our love of plants and flowers with our interest in science.
When you plant a seed in the soil you miss out on all the cool stuff that is happening in the dirt. Waiting to see the seedling pop out of the soil is only half of what is going on when a seed germinates and starts to grow.
Grow a Seed in a Jar – Science Activity for Kids
clear jar – we used a mason jar
clean paper towel
seeds – preferably a bean or pea seed (we used sugar snap peas)
water
Grow a Seed in a Jar worksheet
We wondered what would happen if we placed a seed in a mason jar and we could watch what is happening below the soil’s surface. This is such an awesome science activity for kids of all ages. It will spark many scientific questions.
- What do plants need to grow? Sunlight and water
- What direction will the plant grow?
- What will we see first – the roots or the plant’s stem?
- How long will it take for the plant to grow out of the jar?
These are just a few of the questions that came up at our house. Write down all of your questions on the printable Grow a Seed in a Jar worksheet. This worksheet has space for kids to keep a log and write down their observations.
Okay, let’s get started! To begin, dampen the paper towel and then put the paper towel in a clean, clear glass jar – we used a mason jar. You want the jar to be filled with paper towels, but not too tightly packed.
Place the seed in the jar. Place the seed at the side of the jar, so you can see the seed and watch it grow. Again, don’t place it in a spot that is too tightly packed. We placed our seeds about halfway down the jar.
Now, place the jar in a sunny spot. You don’t want it to be too sunny, or the jar will dry out too quickly. Indirect sunlight is best. And, now we wait…patiently. Be sure to add water to the jar as the paper towel start to dry out. Be gentle. If you dump the water in too quickly you will displace the seed…be gentle with the water.
It’s a great time to pull out the seed germination log and make note of the date you started the experiment. Then each day you can write down your observations and track your watering schedule.
What’s going to happen?
The root will pop out of the seed. It will start to grow downward and after a few days, you should see root hairs growing from the main root. The hairs are searching for the water source.
In a few days, you will start to see the green pea shoot starting to sprout from the seed. Watch it grow and search for the sunlight.
The clear jar gives you an awesome look at the entire process. Isn’t science amazing?!
Your plant will keep on growing (don’t forget to keep watering it) and eventually you will see leaves. Beans grow so quickly, our seeds grew to a full plant in about 10 days. We were able to move our plant into our backyard garden.
At the bottom of your worksheet, there is a spot for you to write your conclusions. What were the answers to the questions you first posed? Write anything interesting you may have observed in this section.
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Learn more about gardening and growing seed.
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