scrap gardens

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Home : 2004 : December : 11

scrap gardens
By Erin

I teach Science to K-5 and in my first grade class, we explored what a typical garden looks like. Then, we made a scrap garden from parts of foods you might normally throw away, such as lemon/lime/orange peels and seeds.
We also used popcorn kernels, which grow very well! To emphasize that plants don't necessarily need soil, I let one group set a sweet potato inside a cup of water (so that one-third is submerged). Within a few days, roots start to grow.
To see if plants can grow without air, you can also make individual terrariums. Get a 9-oz. plastic cup and put gravel in the bottom and then soil

with a seed (maybe bean). Add a small amount of water and then put a matching cup on top. Tape them together and watch it grow. It also demonstrates the water cycle at the same time!